As a potential coach of 8 to 10 2nd graders, what should you do in a practice to help each player the most? As a high school coach, I have been asked this question and decided to put a potential practice plan together as a blueprint for those youth coaches. The first thing that I tell all coaches from youth basketball all the way up to high school is create a schedule where new drills or skills are being used every 5 to 10 minutes. As you will see is I have broken down this practice plan into 5 minute segments. This keeps practice moving and keeps the kids engage at all times. There is not a chance for the kids to get bored because something new is always happening. The second thing I tell coaches is to never forget basketball is a game and is meant to be fun for everybody. Try and make practice fun for all the kids. In saying that, some things like conditioning is not fun but necessary. However, the overall practice should be created to make the game of basketball enjoyable to these 7 and 8 year old children. The idea is to pass on a love of the game to these kids so they continue to learn and play the game. So, here is a potential practice plan for 2nd grade basketball.
*Note-These plans and drills can be used for younger and older players. The links will take you a breakdown of each drill or game. Also the master drill list and drill menu have different drills for each age and each fundamental.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
5-10 Minutes-Right Hand Dribble Through Cones
10-15 Minutes-Left Hand Dribble Through Cones
15-20 Minutes-Partner Passing While Sliding/Running
20-25 Minutes-Partner Passing-Bounce, Chest, Overhead, Wraparound
25-30 Minutes-Crossover Dribble
30-35 Minutes-Layups
35-40 Minutes-Jumpstops and Jumpshots off Dribble-5-8 feet
40-45 Minutes-One on One Closeouts with Box Outs
45-50 Minutes-One on One Closeouts with Box Outs
50-55 Minutes-Game Situation-Up 1 with 1 minute left. Down 1 with 1 minute left. Etc.
55-60 Minutes-Basketball Game-Knockout. Dribble Tag–Shooting Relay Race
Now let me breakdown what I am looking to do for each segment. I will group some of these segments together. Again the main focus at this age should be having fun and skill development. It should not be about winning and losing games. And if you are a coach focused on just winning and losing then the more skilled your players are the the more likely you are to win games.
0-5 Minutes Dynamic Warmups
This should be getting the players warmed up and loose and ready to run and practice. This could be static stretching or dynamic stretching. This could be high knees and butt kicks, etc. Anything that will get the players ready to practice. So, some light jogs to heavy jogs to sprints will also get the players ready to practice.
5-15 Minutes-Dribbling Through Cones
This is a double block. 1st 5 minutes could be for right hand. 2nd 5 minutes for left hand. Dribbling is the biggest fundamental necessary for players to be good in basketball. At least 5 of the 12 separate segments of this practice will have a dribbling component. And a couple of the others could as well. I put a big emphasis on dribbling. Every player needs to be able to dribble the basketball. I like to start every practice with some dribbling drill even at the high school level. This is how important I view dribbling to be. For this set some cones down and have the players go through the cones dribbling with their right and left hand.
15-25 Minutes-Partner Passing With Movement
The next fundamental is passing. The four basic passes is chest, bounce, overhead and wraparound. I would spend the next 10 minutes on passing. Working on just these 4 passes will be more then enough to fill this time. And it may be picking 2 of the 4 basic passes each practice to focus on. Have the players start 8-10 feet apart from each other and slide down the court while throwing each pass back and forth to each other. The biggest difficulty is getting the players to go slow and not want to race. The pace should be slow and methodical to emphasis and focus on the passing.
25-30 Minutes-Crossover Dribble
Again I would go back to dribbling and this time using a change of direction dribble. This can be stationary or moving. You can use the same cone setup as before but now have the players crossover dribble at each cone.
30-40 Minutes-Layups, Jumpstops, and Jumpshots
These 10 minutes would be to work on shooting. Dribbling will also be used during these segments but are not the main focus. I would start with layups and then slowly start to work on jumpstops and finally have the players learn how to shoot off the dribble with jumpshots. I would keep the jumpshots to within about 5-8 feet. Any farther out the shooting form would probably breakdown due to lack of strength. This segment would focus on shooting the ball around the basket.
40-50 Minutes-1 on 1 closeouts with box outs
These 10 minutes would focus on defense. The emphasis is on the defense with this drill. Have one player on offense and one player on defense. Have the defensive player closeout to the offensive player. At first, once the closeout has taken place, let the offensive player shoot the ball and the defensive player turn and box out. Keep players switching lines to take turns playing offense and defense. After the players go through a couple of rounds then let the offensive dribble a little bit trying to create a shot and the defender guard them. Finally have a shot and box out to end the drill.
50-55 Minutes-Game Situation
Basketball IQ is lacking in most players. I would start trying to teach the players basketball game skills at this level. The players may not completely understand but at least the foundations are getting put in place for the IQ to grow. These situations can be as simple as up 1 with 1 minute left. Then have the players play out the game. Basically keeping changing the amount up or down and how much time is left. Explain what needs to take place in this situation and then let the players play the situation out. These practice situations can be the difference between winning or losing close games later in their basketball life.
55-60 Minutes-Game
I would also end the practice at this age with a fun game. Let the kids have a shooting relay race where they have to make a layup or jumpshot before going to the back of the line again. Do something fun so the players are walking out of the gym at the end of practice with a smile on their face. This keeps the game fun and keeps them wanting to come back for more.
Conclusion
At this age I would not want to go anymore then an hour. Anything over an hour and the ability to keep the kids attention would be hard. Also keep the focus on the fundamentals and skill development. While this is a simple practice plan. Different drills and activities can be added in place of some that I have put. Keep changing drills enough to keep the attention of the kids each practice. I would still advise you as a coach to have a section in each practice going over the fundamentals of dribbling, shooting, passing and defense. In this hour practice each fundamental takes up 10 minutes of the practice. Team activities and plays are secondary at this level and age. Player development should be the focus. Have fun and enjoy your practice.