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.

HP Practice

We did not get off to an auspicious start with our HP practice today. At 9:00 we had half a team. Now granted at 9:02 4 players came in, but not the promptness I would have liked. I did start on time though so all those players were marked as late. Gavin came in just as I was finishing my practice introduction. Jack A? A complete no show.

We started off with doing our defensive continuous motion. They sort of dogged it in the middle but finished strong. They went just a tad over 6 minutes before I switched them into the relay race. Following this we practice our shell drill. I’m running a fairly conventional man to man scheme with HP whereas with GL, I am running more of a scheme. We’ll see how each works. Basically the HP team showed that they don’t have the basketball IQ that GL has and I don’t think it’s just because they are a year younger.

Next we did Animal Rebounding for the first time with the group. They were mostly getting a sense of the drill. What was interesting was that in both groups the first person to get 4 points, Jacob with the post players and Jack B with the guards, finished in 4th place. Ben and Danny won. Considering Danny was on the board of going between the guards and forwards I’m glad he won.

Following Animal Rebounding we did Triangle Passing where the 3 offensive players form a triangle and the defenders try and stop them from completing passes. Henry was the star of this drill, stealing the ball 3 out of the 4 times he was on defense. We then went back into the shell drill.

Finally we concluded with 3 on 2, 2 on 3. There was not as much figuring out as there was with the 5th graders but it was still a good drill. For instance, for the first time I saw why Josh made the team (he’s a pretty good shot). It was interesting seeing who played tough defense and who didn’t. In the didn’t category was Adam. I told him as much after practice. I had tentatively considered him a starter, but if he doesn’t play defense that won’t happen. Also dropping in my eyes was Jacob. He played hard the whole time, but his skills were weaker than many. In the good category, besides Henry, were the twins. Both played hard on defense and on offense.

Unfortunately I somehow forgot practice ended at 10:30 rather than 11 and so I had to end abruptly. Overall I’m pleased with how practices have been going. We simply don’t have enough of them. I can already tell that this once a week business is going to really hurt us between now and January when I get the team twice a week. So far the team seems to be enjoying themselves, and I think there’s learning going on, so those parts are good. Hopefully we’ll be able to compete when the season starts. We have two more practices before our first game to get there.

HP Clinic 2

Had another HP clinic today. Attendance was pretty poor overall. Clinics, by their very nature, are focused on fundamentals, which I think is great. However, fundamentals also happen to be the thing I need to work on the most before I coach it. I don’t know what is going to be taught at any given clinic which limits my ability to really do my best. Fortunately I was able to coach rebounding today at my station which is good because I know how to rebound.

With attendance being so poor I didn’t get to see a lot of my team. However, I can tell you that Ben and Jon, my twins, are going to be kids I really like. I also know that Henry, who is the shortest or second shortest kid on the team, doesn’t deserve to be there. Henry has an older sibling, however, who plays well and I think they put him on the team because of that. Another coach also indicated that she had attitude problems from him. Nothing better than the untalented kid with attitude.

Overall though it was a nice clinic, but I’ll be excited when in two weeks I get to start practicing with my team rather than having someone else dictate what I’m doing.