Practice Plans

Basketball season is upon us! Friday kicks off the 2010-11 season for college basketball teams all over the country. If you coach high school ball, I am sorry to get you worked up and excited but your time is right around the corner. I challenge you to think about how you organize your practices. There are so many great ways to accomplish outstanding practices. Here are just a few ideas that you may want to implement into your practices.

Listening to Fran Fraschilla this summer at Coaching U, he talked about practice being sacred. The questions in preparing practices you need to ask yourself are, "What do you stand for? Do your players know?" You should prepare practice like your mentors (he used Bill Parcells and Hubie Brown) were coming to watch. Fran also recommended making a list of Clips in order to organize what you want to accomplish. Each Clip is a portion of time, for example clip 1 could be from the first day of practice until your first scrimmage and clip 2 is from the first scrimmage to your first game. Under each clip, you list the things you wish to have completed offensively, defensively, and special situations. It is a fantastic organization tool and measuring stick for where you are and where you wanted to be.

Rick Pitino organizes his practices into eight 15 minute segments. 1 = Warm-up, 2 = Fast Break, 3 = 1/2 Court Defense, 4 = 1/2 Court Offense, 5 & 6 = Press Defense, 7 = Scrimmage, and 8 = Specials and Zone work. In order to provide organization and variety to practices, he lists numerous drills (similar to Fran's clips) that can be utilized in each segment.

When I worked for Ray Giacoletti, he planned practices to be 1/2 defense, with a break, and the other 1/2 offense. The following day, we would flip the order, going offense first and defense second. The break was not only a rest opportunity for the players, but a mental transition. They knew that it was time to shift gears in terms of emphasis. After the break, Ray liked to use shooting competitions to get the competitive juices flowing again.

Tom Oswald had what I consider to be the best practice plan sheets of anyone. He would type them up every day which made them legible and easily read. On the back side he listed the date, the practice #, the emphasis of the day (for example: defensive stance), the thought of the day (usually a motivation quote or a mental focusing point), a list of what players were in what color that day, a list of our MASH unit (guys with injuries), and notes about upcoming events (practices, study hall, community service, etc.). This was also posted in the locker room every day for the players. The front side was an extremely meticulous and detailed practice plan with a column for how much time each segment was and a column with a detailed description of the drill or activity.

One idea I would add to Tom's practice plan would be some blank court diagrams. How many times in practice do you have an idea and want to scribble it down for later? I know I do frequently and this is a great way to make it easier... and in my case much more readable.

Would love to hear more ideas in regards to practice plans. Please comment and discuss!

Postseason Evaluations

I recently received an email from Coach Mike Petrino at Central Catholic High School in Portland, Oregon asking about postseason evaluations. I am thankful that Coach Petrino asked because this has allowed me an opportunity to explore as well. I, like Coach Petrino, am always looking for ways to improve.

I think the most common thing we do as coaches at the end of the season is meet individually with our players. While I definitely can agree that meeting is important, it is even more critical that we use this time constructively towards improving our programs. It is a time to find the holes to plug to keep the ship afloat.

I have mentioned Tom Oswald previously in posts. I worked for Tom at Texas Lutheran and consider him one of my biggest mentors. Tom was a very organized and analytic coach. His postseason evaluations were not just with players, but with his coaching staff as well. He would ask questions that would lead the player (or coach, in my case) to discover, on their own, the areas that Tom felt that particular individual needed to work on. It was also an open forum for the player to evaluate the coaching staff as well.

In my case, I had never been in a situation like that as a coach. Tom knew what he wanted out of me, but wanted me to verbalize it myself. I never felt pressured into answering a certain way, but I always ended up saying the things Tom wanted me to improve upon. He also shared with me the responses that the players had when he asked them about me. It was a great learning opportunity for me to grow as a coach!

I also had the tremendous opportunity to work for Kevin Eastman, who is also a big mentor, during his time at Washington State. When he would meet with players after the season he wanted to make sure that the players were on the same page and headed in the same direction as the staff. He also wanted to see what the players thoughts were about the program in general and how they felt about each other. The following are things that he would ask of every player:

- What are the 3 most important things we stress on 1) Offense, 2) Defense, 3) Academics, 4) the type of players we want.
- Rank each player from best to worst in the areas of hardest worker, best leader, etc.
- What is good about the program? What is bad? What needs improvement?
- If we had an unlimited budget, what would you love to see in our program? Nothing is off limits.

If you want to quantify production, I don't think there is a better tool than Danny Miles' efficiency rating. In a recent phone conversation with Coach Miles, I asked him if he used the efficiency rating scores in his postseason evaluations. The answer was a resounding, "YES!" He said that often players would come to him after the season wanting to improve their rating in order to gain more minutes the following year. At that time, Coach Miles would break down the formula and show the player his deficiencies. In that same conversation, the player was shown how he can improve his overall rating within his game and playing to his individual strengths.

I think Coach Eastman's comment was probably the most important part of postseason evaluations: "The biggest thing I can tell you is that the coach has to be honest with the players but in a way that it is received and acted upon properly."

I would love to hear how other coaches evaluate their respective teams. If you have other thoughts and ideas on postseason evaluations, please comment.

Defending the Low Post

WORK EARLY & BEAT TO SPOTS!
- Sprint in transition. If you can beat your opponent down the floor, you've already put yourself in good position.
- Anticipate. Think one step ahead of the play.
- Chuck cutters. No free cuts through the paint. Meet at the midline in a stance with a forearm to the chest.

3/4 DENY - Ball above the FT line
- In the line. Deny elbow, shoulder, and hip should be in the passing lane line.
- No direct passes to the post. Must force a tough lob.
- Strong arm bar (See picture to the left). Too often players want to wrap around and grab the offensive player at his hips.
- Create separation. Contact benefits the offensive player. Do not allow the offense to get into the torso, ribs, hip, and thigh. Much harder to seal offensively.

FULL FRONT - Ball below the FT line
- Knock down elbows. Attack the offensive player's elbow with a quick, swift downward sweep with defender's elbow.
- Step through with the back foot. Get shoulder lower than the offensive player. Shoot hip through.
- Gain ground. Stay low in stance and keep feet driving. Very similar to a running back on a dive play.
- Dominate the lead foot. If the lead foot is high, step over the high foot and walk higher toward the FT line. If the lead foot is low, step over the low foot and walk toward the baseline.
- Hand up with elbows at 90 degree angle. Can make a play on the lob pass. Won't hold this way. Use the triceps as antennas to feel the offensive player trying to get around. Should not ever have to turn head until the offense gives up the strong side block going away from the play.

BALL REVERSAL
- Throw hips forward
- Roll off shoulders. Use the offensive player's momentum against him. More than likely, the offense is going to be pushing to gain position. If the defense rolls, the offense will continue past the block taking him out of position.
- Keep rolling. If the offense tries to seal on ball reversal and the defense does not get all the way around on the first roll, continue to roll off. It is very difficult to seal and catch a continuously moving player.

ON THE CATCH
- Give a 1/2 step. Again, contact benefits the offense. Must create separation. Quick hop straight back.
- Stance and arm bar. Do not give up ground. On the 1/2 step, the arm bar must maintain the offense's distance from the basket.
- Arch up. On the shot or after the offense picks up his dribble. Stay in stance. Gain back the 1/2 step. Lead and make contact with chest. Arms straight up behind ears.


I've had the pleasure of working for two fantastic post play teachers, Ray Giacoletti at Eastern Washington and now an assistant at Gonzaga and Tom Oswald at Texas Lutheran. This is a combination of both men's philosophies on how to defend the low post. I am hoping that in the near future I can post video of exactly how this looks. If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact me.