Thunder - basic practice guide

NCBC Thunder - basic practice outline

this is a general guide to offer coaches a basic outline, it is meant as only that and will be adjusted by your team as best suited to individual player and team development

Practice outline

Expectations - best way to start the season is set/discuss some expectations with a parent meeting and then player talk

arrive ready - on time, dressed, with all your gear (always indoor shoes, athletic clothing, filled water bottle, reversible practice jersey)
respect - coaches, parents, anyone not playing on the team, but supporting the players, we are all giving time to help keep them in the gym - your team should be engaged and ready to run

Warmup - always, always get your players moving, stretched out, increasing their blood flow; we want them all to learn good habits on how to prepare their bodies before pushing hard in sports

this is also a good opportunity to build a “team warm up” that they learn to lead themselves through as a team with every start

H2O - quick water, keep them hydrated with short 1 minute water breaks
Drill(s) - an introduction/refresher on something new/needed; base this on your teams level, prior game play, and individual/team growth/dynamic

short explanations, do NOT talk through every little part… get them moving and keep them moving. They tend to stay more engaged if we are coaching through the drill, so less starting and stopping

Scrimmage - move into a short game setting to see the drill in action; try to talk through the action for corrections, limit the start/stops

always expectations, so you may still have start/stops
either during or after the scrimmage have a short discussion to note what was being properly executed, where it was missed, adjustments that could be made, etc

Foul shots - shoot when tired; this is what it will be like in a game and when it counts the most

good to keep track of misses/makes - your call, but typically we like to also use this to load in some more speed exercises

misses equal “X” number of sidelines, push ups, etc - possibly load this further by timing it

Drill - progressive drills; build off of your first drill; refresher on the earlier points and then load in your NEW (next layer) elements

Scrimmage - another short game; quick start/stops for discussion - reminders while they are in motion of what has been taught, get them thinking on the move
Huddle up - use the last +5 minutes of practice to recap what you have learned

Warmup examples, options, ideas

Stretching

circle up (sitting to standing stretches - lead in middle of circle counts out odd, team counts back even)

on back, knee to chest
sitting, one leg bent - reach for toes
sitting, one leg bent - lean back
sitting, feet together - hold feet, rest elbows on knees, push down on knees
arm across chest, hold up with other arm
arm bent behind head, other hand resting on elbow
standing, lift one leg and pull foot to butt (quads) - arm out for balance
standing, lift one leg and pull knee to chest with straight back - arm out for balance
standing, cross legs, reach does for toes

Dynamic stretching

line up across base or sideline, have one player call out each stretch

skip - opposite knee/arm (good posture; toe, knee, hip, head up, drive knees to chest)
high kicks (walking, swing and bring leg high to get range of motion)
butt kicks (feel it in your quad)
walking lunge with twist (arms up, straight back and twist)
up and outs; open/close the gates (knee drives up and turn outs 90)
air squat (chest forward, squat down, leap up)
arm circles (full rotations - front one way, back the other)
close outs (jog a few paces to stutter step, retreat a few paces and repeat)
single leg side hopes - front/back (switch feet at half)
karaoke (chest faces baseline, criss cross feet)
2 light laps (always face chest same direction; forward jog up side line, D shuffle at baselines, back peddle down opposite sideline)

Ball handling

10 ball slaps
finger tips
round the world
round one leg
figure eights
one/twos - round one leg, bring legs together - go around both, legs apart go around one leg
low dribble
pound dribble
around one leg dribble
figure eight dribble
in and out dribble
push pull dribble
crossovers
through the legs
behind the back
pound to kill dribble