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Practice Design

Structuring sessions that maximise engagement, transfer and decision-making.

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Practice design starts with a basketball problem: what do these players need to learn to do? A team struggling to keep an advantage needs different conditions from a team struggling to create one.

Choose the players, space, opposition and scoring that make that problem appear. Then watch how the activity unfolds. The coach’s work is in those observations and adjustments, as much as in the original plan.

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Player development

Warm-Up: Deception & Tag – How to Build Agility and Perception Through Play

Use deception, tag games and live opponents to build basketball agility, perception and decision-making in your warm-up.

5 min read

Practice design

Wrestling and Physicality Games in Basketball Warm-Ups

Are you building basketball players who shy away from contact, or robust athletes who thrive in the physical trenches of the game?

5 min read

Practice design

Four Basketball Warm-Up Games for Your Next Practice

Stop wasting the first 15 minutes of your practice on dead layup lines and stretching.

4 min read

Practice design

Rate Limiters: Designing Warm-Ups Around Player Needs

Are your warm-ups truly preparing your players for the chaotic, unpredictable nature of a live basketball game, or are they just programming them to be really good at stretching and running in straight lines?

5 min read

Practice design

Integrating Tactical, Physical, and Mental Development in Practice

Traditional sports organizations tend to operate in isolated departments. The athletic performance staff, the basketball coaches, and the medical or mental skills experts rarely speak the same language or share the same theoretical framework.

4 min read

Practice design

Time on Task: Creating More Learning Opportunities in Practice

Have you ever paused a stopwatch during your basketball practice to measure exactly how many minutes your players spend actively playing the game? If you run a traditional practice, the final number might be a tough pill to swallow.

4 min read

Practice design

Basketball Practice Design: How to Avoid the "Clean Practice" Trap

We’ve all been there—the perfect drill, high energy, and everyone in the right spot. Then the game starts, and it all falls apart. You fell for the "Clean Practice" trap.

3 min read

Practice design

Designing Better Player Interactions in Basketball Practice

High-Quality Interactions: The Secret to Advantage Creation Whether you’re coaching youth ball or professional athletes, the goal is the same: find a way to score.

3 min read

Practice design

How to Plan Your Youth Basketball Practices

In this blog, we touch on all the considerations coaches should take into account when creating a practice plan. It is important to write and save each practice plan.

4 min read

Practice design

How to Add Practice Variability to Build Smarter, More Adaptable Players

In the quest to develop well-rounded basketball players, embracing variability in practice is CRUCIAL. But why should coaches move away from rigid, highly-structured drills and incorporate more dynamic, unpredictable scenarios into their practice sessions?

2 min read

Practice design

Game Design Principles for Better Basketball Practices

How do the principles of video game design compare to that of game design on the basketball court? In this blog, we will look at the 5 basic principles of game design.

3 min read

Practice design

The Coach’s Role in Practice

Coaching goes far beyond just calling plays and giving instructions. Much like players who have specific roles on a team, coaches too have distinct responsibilities during practice.

4 min read

Practice design

The Best Warm-Ups for Basketball Practices

As a coach, we can all agree that warm-ups are an essential and important part of practice. A good warm-up can reduce the likelihood of injuries, preparing players both physically and mentally for the practice.

3 min read

Practice design

Reconsidering Effective Learning in the Basketball Practice Environment

"Learning is characterised by a search for functional performance solutions, where the learner is challenged beyond mere repetition and imitation of a putative classic action" - Nonlinear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition by Chow et al.

4 min read

Practice design

Are Line and Box Drills Effective in Basketball Practice?

Every year ‘Line and Box Drills’ do the rounds on Basketball X. These are viewed as fundamental drills which should supposedly be a staple of every youth basketball practice.

5 min read