Developing A Winning Basketball Practice Approach

Joe Boylan
Joe Boylan
Published in
3 min readJan 3, 2021

The practice is a setting in which the coaches have control over the victory of their teams. A coach like Joe Boylan plays a great role in developing fundamentals and prepares then players during practices for matches. According to him, you should start making a philosophy on what constitutes an effective practice to develop a practice plan.

Here is the practice planning template for you to emphasize basics, build conditioning, and prepare for the opponents.

Practice Philosophy for Win-Win Situation

The practice must be fast-paced — You should try to avoid spending too much time on running sprints. Conditioning is built through continuous movement and immediate transitions. Also, don’t stop practice for water breaks. Of course, you are encouraged to drink plenty of water. Hence, water bottles should be kept in the bleachers and players can take their drink at the end of a line.

Practice should at a time to be disorganized — Surely you fight for the support of having pretty practices. While a good organization might make you believe great as a basketball coach, they never transfer the game circumstances. Mistakes are learning opportunities, so you struggle to dare your players to make mistakes while practicing.

Habits can be erected through violation and rewards — You should always try to develop specific habits. You can do this by using violations and rewards. For instance, if you are focusing on attacking the rim off the dribble, a team member can take an unnecessary dribble that festers the offense, its violation, and the other team achieves possession. As a reward, the offense might get a point every time the ball is driven into the paint.

Enlightening Aspects of Practice

There are a lot of things that you can do to build a definite culture through practice. Let’s take a deep dive:

Being not in a game means you are coaching it — This norm makes sure communication is there throughout the practice. Actually, hold players should be liable for the standard of continuous communication. Moreover, such players can encourage teammates.

HEART (Hustle, Energy, Attitude, Response, and Toughness) Jersey — A player gets a special HEART jersey on the basis of his previous practice. The basketball coach meets with the staff after practice to figure out which player has shown all these traits. That player gets the jersey to wear instead of his regular dress.

HEART Board — HEART board is also used in the practice. During practice, you may ask team members to gauge where you are in each concept. For instance, if the practice is lacking energy, you may ask a player how he/she would evaluate their energy. This will help players to take possession of their own energy levels.

Champion’s corner — If an individual fails to execute any one of the habits, he/she might be sent to the Champion’s corner along with the coach. It’s not a punishment but an approach to strengthening fundamentals.

Basket leaders — A player might be kept in charge of a group’s energy during practice time. If you are using many baskets during shooting drills, each basket could have one player assigned to ensure that all teammates are hustling and have communication. This is an effectual technique to construct leadership and get players out of their comfort zone.

Wrapping Up

Joe Boylan has given these practice strategies to make you a pro player. Following these techniques will help you win the match. Joe has coached in New Orleans and has also served as an assistant coach as well as associate head coach with different organizations and players.

Originally Posted: https://joeboylancoach.wordpress.com/2021/01/03/developing-winning-basketball-practice-approach/

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Joe Boylan
Joe Boylan

Joe Boylan served as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies, as well as the Associate Head Coach of their then-G League affiliate, the Iowa Energy.