Youth player development can be an avenue for coaches to share their love of the game. But if a team is going to be successful, it takes more than just love. Coaches are tasked with improving players both individually and within the context of the team. So youth player development often takes center stage with young teams.
To maximize their time with their players, coaches need to manage their time well. And one of the most important tools to optimize shared time is a detailed practice plan. Coaches that just roll the balls out often find their practices lack the focus and intensity necessary to improve the team.
Youth Player Development: Practice Planning
Different coaches have different approaches to practice planning. Some youth coaches zero in on specific basketball skill that need development, while others take a more free-flowing view. Some coaches scribble notes on a sheet of paper and tuck that folded plan into their waist band, whole others meticulously craft a minute-by-minute split using an app.
Whatever the preferred approach, it remains integral that coaches have a plan in place to maximize practice time.
A valuable practice plan lays out the exact avenues of attack a coach wants to explore. Especially early when youth basketball development is at its peak for the season, plotting out points of emphasis can be particularly useful.
What exactly do you want to accomplish during this practice session? Often writing those specific goals aid in achieving them.
From there, coaches can sketch out the best outline for the day. Teaching drills and execution is key in youth player development, but haphazard approaches can often sabotage valuable practice time.
A detailed youth basketball practice plan might help a coach that wants to get to a number of skills and sets focus on key developmental aspects.
What daily drills will you include? How much teaching happens before a drill? What does the debrief look like? These are all important questions coaches should ask themselves prior to the start of any given practice.
The internet holds a seemingly unlimited supply of resources for basketball players and coaches. But in an effort to gain mastery of the sport, players and coaches might need to turn to unlikely sources of information.
Basketball Mastery
LEVEL 1: COGNITIVE MASTERY
I see this all the time in my math classroom. A student will see or hear something and they will think that they mastered it. But in reality, understanding is only the first step toward mastery. You have seen it with your players. ” I got this coach” but when they try it in a game or practice it does not work. It takes repetition and working on those skills to really understand your body movements. “Repetition is the mother of skill”
LEVEL 2 OF MASTERY: EMOTIONAL MASTERY
“Emotional mastery is where you start linking consequences and doing. You act on what you know instead of just know it. When you add emotion like pain or pleasure to repetition, the link becomes stronger and the action more automatic”. For example if your player does a action ( IN my world its a turnover )….They are going to get a negative reaction from my entire coaching staff. Pretty soon, they know not to turn the ball over.
Now, apply this concept to your team. Maybe you kept the wrong player, but you ignored what your instincts tried to tell you. What happened ? I bet you had enough pain from that experience that you think more carefully the next time you pick a team?. “But even if you’ve been burned once, does that mean you never get burned again? No. People repeat the same mistakes over and over because they haven’t yet associated enough pain with the problem, which holds them back from reaching the last level of mastery: physical mastery.”
LEVEL 3 MASTERY: PHYSICAL MASTERY
“With enough repetition, enough emotion, we can get to physical mastery Physical mastery, you don’t have to think about it, you just do it. It’s automatic. No extra effort required. This is the level of true mastery”.
We have all been there on the court when we just play the game and everything comes easily…You do not have to think about setting the screen and rolling to the basket is has become second nature. It is our goal as coaches to get this level. Where we have coached enough, felt the ups and downs, and just know what to do for our teams.
A valuable practice plan lays out the exact avenues of attack a coach wants to explore. Especially early when youth basketball development is at its peak for the season, plotting out points of emphasis can be particularly useful.
