The best youth basketball coaches have figured it out. Their players will run through a brick wall for them. Players’ parents will tell their family and friends how much their children have improved, and success comes on the court with high levels of play and well-earned victories.
What have the best coaches figured out that other volunteer coaches seem slow to grasp?
1.) Think Through Your Mindset for the Year
Before the first practice and even before tryouts, a youth basketball coach should sit down and try to establish goals for the season.
The best coaches don’t focus on wins and losses but look at basketball holistically. They know that the sport of basketball can teach and reinforce life lessons like believing in yourself, the courage to take risks has rewards, working hard at practice leads to better game performance, the value of teamwork, treating wins and losses with equal grace, and other aspects of sportsmanship. Great coaches call out these life lesson-learning opportunities for their teams.
Another common goal for good coaches is to prepare players for the next level. While spending excessive practice time on inbounds plays may have a good return on investment for games this season, a future coach isn’t likely to employ your same plays in future years. Time would be better spent teaching the details of a proper pick-and-roll, which players’ future coaches will likely use.
Think through how combative you want to be with referees as one of the key influencers for the players on your team. Do you want to be that coach who argues every call that doesn’t go their way? Or would it be better to focus on things within your control?
2.) Plan Your Practice Schedule
The best coaches emphasize what they teach and the order in which they teach it. A strong defense will keep you in virtually every game. As such, the first practices should focus on team defense. A player isn’t just guarding his or her player but is also defending against easy baskets. Team defense should be a point of emphasis in the first couple of practices and reinforced as a secondary item in several practices.
After team defense, consider emphasizing individual defense and rebounding in subsequent practices.
For many important game elements, introduce the concept at one practice, make it the focus of the next practice, and reinforce it at subsequent practices.
See Basketball Practice Plans.
3.) Spend More Coaching Time on Practices Than Games
It’s common for first-year coaches to spend too much time on game prep and not enough time on practice prep. Practices are where players learn basketball concepts. Think of games as opportunities for players to show what they’ve learned. If they have to miss one or the other, it would be better to miss a game than a practice.
4.) Keep Players Engaged
Players’ attention spans can be short, and seasons can be long. You’ll frequently be spending time coaching some of the same things over and over again. To keep it interesting for players and make them excited to come to practices, it’s important for coaches to be creative. Make a game out of some common practice items. Don’t spend too much time on one activity. For many activities, you’ll want to spend 5 – 10 minutes and move on to something else.
5.) Assess Your Players’ Energy Level at Practices
As players come in for practices, get a read about the team’s energy level. If you’ve just played a weekend tournament and have a practice scheduled on Monday evening, it’s probably not a good idea to try covering something too taxing.
Place your most important activities and drills at the front end of practice so players will be most alert and have the most energy.
If you’ve had a full schedule of practices and games recently, you might want to step off the gas and pick some of the players’ favorite activities to help players rediscover their love of the game.
6.) Leverage the Resources Available
If your gym has six baskets, use all of them for shooting drills. Young players need lots of touches to improve their games.
Consider two-on-two and three-on-three drills to give players who don’t always see much of the ball in five-on-five activities an opportunity to practice and learn.
Many coaches new to the game try to imitate their high school coach’s favorite conditioning drill — the killer or 30-second drill. If your team needs some conditioning or to burn off some excess energy, you can run the drill, but make sure each player is dribbling down and back, down and back. This ensures players are working on their dribbling while working on their conditioning.
7.) Limit Scrimmaging During Practice Time
Much has been written about European players taking over the NBA. Players like Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic have complete skill sets not often found in U.S.-born players. Many basketball experts attribute this to the focus on practice time versus games. In AAU basketball, players, parents, and coaches seem to like competitive games versus more practice time. During the off-season, U.S. high school players practice twice a week and play six games, whereas in Europe, players practice six times a week and play games once.
In youth basketball, it’s common to find coaches who are always seeking to scrimmage. Experienced coaches know they must protect their practice time and devote it to practicing skills versus just playing five-on-five. Sometimes, scrimmaging another team makes sense, but this should be the exception, not a common approach.
8.) Easy on the Whistle
Most good coaches know you don’t need to use a whistle much in practice. Call your players together and speak softly. Whistles work well for scrimmages and some drills, but other than that, you’ll be fine without it. As a coach, you’re working on building trust and relationships with your players. A whistle doesn’t help you in those regards.
9.) Shout Praise; Whisper Criticism
If you catch a player doing something right, ensure the player and his teammates know it. Recognizing top performance encourages others to aspire to doing things the right way. If you need to instruct or criticize a player’s approach, pull that player aside inconspicuously and demonstrate the correct approach. Have the player practice it correctly. Consider a sandwich compliment. Praise first, instruct on the correction, and then praise again. This type of approach works for kids (and adults).
10.) Make Players Excited to Come Back
As a coach, you want players to come to every practice excited about playing and to sign up again for basketball next year.
Good coaches try to end each practice on a high note. What basketball activity do all the players seem to like? Concluding with that activity is a good way to send players home talking about basketball.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the winning habits of youth basketball coaches.
By Mike O’Halloran
Founder and Editor, Sports Feel Good Stories
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