Organize Yourself: Limited practice time is the bane of all coaches at all levels. This is especially true with youth teams. As a result, you must make the most of your time with your team, which necessitates organization. Prior to practice, set up a time to plan out a practice regimen. Make a thorough itinerary of your schedule. If you haven’t achieved your goals, feel free to stray a little, but stay to the general outline.
Arrive early – the period before practice is ideal for interacting with your players. Begin your practice with something enjoyable that will start your heart racing. Most importantly, before you begin, make sure you have a clear understanding of what you’re doing. Plan plan plan. That is, a single player or a squad will play offensive first, then defense, and finally rest. However, keep them moving and minimize the “rest” phase. Keep in mind that you only have so much practice time. Don’t rush, but make the most of your time.
Recruit an assistant coach or volunteer to be one: If you have or are an assistant coach, divide the coaching tasks throughout practice so that the two coaches are not viewing the same thing. One coach should be in command of the offensive, while the other should be in charge of the defense. Change up the voices so that the players are hearing from a variety of people. If you have an adequate practice area, you may have one instructor concentrate on one group on scoring while the other focuses on ball-handling and passing, and then switch groups.
At least one issue should be completed within the control of the assistant coach throughout the games. For the first 35 minutes of the game in college, I had my assistant oversee player substitutions. It provided him power and allowed me to concentrate on the rest of the game. If you’re an assistant coach, don’t watch the game while it’s going on. It’s your responsibility to keep an eye on whether players are boxing out or hitting the offensive board, figure out who’s weary, and see who’s racing back on defense – or not.
Read more: TIPS ON HOW TO BE A POSITIVE YOUTH BASKETBALL COACH
Spacing: I switched to teaching super-daughter Roxanne as she played young soccer after I quit coaching Pablo after he graduated from high school. She went on to be a very excellent high school basketball player. I was the assistant coach despite not knowing anything about soccer. For two reasons, I learned that I was fairly excellent at it.
First and foremost, I am capable of running a practice. I had coached approximately a billion practice exercises during my eight years as a college basketball coach. As a consequence, I was able to complete objective one above, which involved creating and managing a practice.
Second, the necessity of space is identical in basketball and soccer. When all of the players converge on the ball, kids’ sports devolve into a big amoeba moving around the court (or field). When you watch a strong basketball team play at any level, you’ll notice that there are at least two, if not three, guys on the weak side of the court. As a result, the defense is forced to move away from the ball, allowing the offense to switch sides of the floor with the ball.
