General Youth Basketball Practice Plan for Any Coach

Planning practice is one of the most undervalued, but important aspects of coaching. The plan keeps a coach organized and on-task during practice, but, more importantly, the planning aspect forces the coach to think and critically examine his team, its weaknesses and the best way to appropriate time. One-and-a-half hours seems like a lot of time until one sits with a piece of paper and tries to decide how to squeeze warm-ups, scrimmaging, teaching, drills and basic skills into the allotted practice time.

The following is an example of a practice plan for an 8th grade basketball team in the middle of its season. Practices change daily and needs of teams vary, but it is a generic example illustrating different uses of time, approaches and emphasis.

00:00-00:10 Dynamic Warm-up
Do each exercise to the opposite baseline/return to the starting point.
¼ speed jog/backpedal
skip/backward skip
heel-toe walk/knee hug
½ speed/back pedal
pelican walk/walking quad stretch
walking lunge/walking lunge
¾ speed/backpedal
stationary full squat x 6
carioca/carioca
crossover step/crossover step
shuffle/shuffle
sprint/backpedal

00:10-00:30 Stations
Each station lasts forty-five seconds. Sprint between stations.
1. Speed Ladder (one-foot in, Icky Shuffle, backwards icky shuffle)
2. Mikan Drill
3. Push-ups
4. Tennis Ball Drop w/assistant coach
5. X-Lay-ups
6. Bridge
7. T-Drill
8. Jump Rope
9. Block 2 Block Shots (1 rebounder and 1 shooter)
10. Spoke Drill
11. Stationary 2-ball dribbling

Everyone shoots 2 Free Throws, records scores and gets water. If team shoots under 70%, run a suicide.

00:30-00:40 Fab Five Finishes
Use different open court moves (crossover, fake crossover, hesitation, through-the-legs, crossover-crossover, etc.) to attack the basket and finish using different shots at the basket (lay-up, crossover lay-up, reverse lay-up, power lay-up, floater, etc.). Work five minutes on each side of the floor.

00:40-00:50 Partner Shooting Progression
Send three players to each basket with two balls. Do different shooting drills as competition between baskets. For drills involving all three players, first group to ten makes wins; for drills involving an individual shooter, first shooter to five makes wins. Shoot game shots from game spots at game speed.

00:50-00:60 Transition Drill
Line a team of four on the baseline and another team of four on the free throw line extended, across from a player on the baseline. The four on the baseline are the offensive team and the four on top are the defense. Toss the ball to an offensive player and his corresponding defensive player must sprint to the baseline. Meanwhile, the four offensive players and other three defenders sprint in a four vs. three transition situation.

1:00-1:10 3v3 Half Court Games
Play games to 3 baskets; winner stays. Determine a winner's basket and play "King of the Hill" format. Emphasize off the ball movement: players must score directly off a basket cut or by using a screen.

1:10-1:15 Free Throws

1:15-1:25 3v3 Full Court Cut Throat
Team stays on the floor until scored against. One team waiting under each basket; new team enters on offense. Defense picks up full court. First team to seven baskets wins.

1:25-1:30 Review, announcements, group cheer.

This is a simple plan to actively involve players and train different skills in the half and full court. The following days practice may contain more 5v5 play based on the 3v3 emphasis of this practice. Be creative, but do not overwhelm players with number of drills or too much instruction. Kids need to play to understand. This plan trains numerous athletic, technical and tactical skills, preparing players for an up coming game, but also for future development.