Material for practice plans

Some thoughts to help with the planning of practices. The list below contains some drills or concepts to include in every practice:

• in order to get lots of shots in a simple shooting drill, go with two balls and three shooters (or 3 balls with four shooters depending upon space availability), feet always moving, rotation is space to a shot, catch and shoot, follow shot and rebound to another "shot ready" teammate, space to a new spot and quickly "prepare to shoot"
  
• in any drill, always reinforce that shot quality is greatly determined by the quality of the pass - need to emphasize quality passing in all drills
• include at least three defensive rebounding drills per day (emphasis on catching the ball above the head or above the net), with progression to box outs into fullcourt transition to simulate game conditions for the new offence and defence (want to promote handling the challenge of the quick switch between offence and defence)
  
• in any drill that results in a winning team, they should validate their win with a made free throw (depending upon philosophy or emphasis, coach can pick, losing team can pick, or winning team can select the shooter) - if free throw is missed, then the winners and losers will be conditioned together (no advantage for the win)
  
• in defensive drills, consider that most ball-handlers are likely to only take max of three dribbles in game conditions so defensive movements should mirror that scenario in practice (three slides to one side before help arrives, ball picked up, passed, or shot) - good idea to start along the imaginary centre line of the court and work to one side or the other (2 or 3 steps left or right)