HP Practice

So these Saturday practices? Seriously bad for my sleep schedule. 9 o’clock rolls around and we’ve got 5 people there on time. I decide we’ll play a game of golf. By the time I give the explanation of golf the 10 who are coming today are there (Jack B was unexpectedly absent). We play a game of golf and it is wildly successful. I just don’t understand what it is about the game that makes it so popular. The concept is that you don’t want points. Each time on a missed shot that your ball hits the floor your team gets a point. A team can lose a point by making three consecutive shots. What is it that makes this a popular drill at this age? I dunno but since it encourages good habits (following your shots & figuring out the angle the ball will come off, while still trying to make them) we’ll play it now and then.

After this we did a shooting continuous motion. I made the mistake of only setting up the court to use 5 baskets and this meant that kids got bunched once in a while under the basket. The shooting percentage after 10 minutes was definitely down, but not horribly so. That’s a good sign. I also forgot to have them shoot any free throws at this practice. Granted that was one of the places on the circuit but I really need to do a better job of having the teams shoot free throws more consistently.

Following this we went into our shell drill. I kept it the same as last week, player could dribble, but others could not move. They did a really good job when there were 4 players out there. So I decided we’d add a twist and put in the 5th player in the post (who was given limited options for movement). The defense didn’t do nearly as good of a job against this setup, which is strange since there was someone in the lane to clog it up. Prior to starting this drill I announced that I would be picking the 4th best defenders to start and then either someone to be the ball handler, or if one of those four was a good ball handler, the 5th best defender. Based on this criteria I think we’re looking at a starting five of Jon, Ben, Henry, and Danny. Danny would be a great point guard except his decision making has been suspect, considerably lessening his value there. However, I’m not really sold on any of the players ability to play point. If that’s true we’re in trouble since a good point guard is irreplaceable at this age level.

We then went into Animal Rebounding. This is where Danny’s defensive skills really shined. After finishing first in the guard group last week, I put him in the post players group this week and he finished second. No one else of particular note in this drill. Many of these players were clearly uncomfortable with the physical nature of this drill, but that’s kind of the idea.

Following a water break we played a game of golf, best 2 out of 3, though the same team won each time. Our next drill was a fast break drill, where players line up on the free throw line extended, I call out a player’s name, that player has to run back and touch the free throw line, while simultaneously passing the ball to a player who starts a fast break. The good news is that we handled this drill very well on offense. The bad news is that we handled this drill very poorly on defense.

We ended practice with the 3 on 3 full court switch drill. It was fine, though not great. After this we ran our suicides. The negative here was that Jon was SLOW running his. I think he might have been just holding back, as he actually failed to meet the time limit for one of them, and sprinted to make them on the last one, though he was going slowly so I think he really was just spent. Something for me to keep an eye on.

Overall, I think the team has potential. I don’t know how good our defense will be when we get in a game situation.