7th Grade basketball is the first real time that winning and losing start to matter. Now I am not saying winning and losing are the only things that matter. I believe everything before varsity should be focused on 3 things. First developing each player so they are improving and getting ready for the next level of basketball. For most 7th graders that will mean 8th grade basketball. However, for some 7th graders that may mean freshman basketball even though they will be in 8th grade the following year. You as a coach should be trying to get them to improve their skill level. Secondly each player should be getting some playing time. This may be hard for some players but every player in jr high and junior varsity should get some time playing the games. It will depend on the opponent how much each player plays. For instance if you are playing the best team on your schedule on it’s a close game then play just the top 5,6,7 or 8 players on the team. The bottom half of the roster probably will not get to play that game. However if the game is a blowout then get the bottom half of the roster in the game as much as possible. Lastly winning. I want the players to play and develop as much as possible. But play everybody you can play as much as possible but if the game is tied going into the 4th then play the top group and try and win. The 1st half is when you as a junior high coach should be trying and rotating as many players in the game as possible. Then late game, the best players should be on the floor. Having this in mind, here is/was a typical practice plan when I was a junior high 7th grade coach.
*Note-These plans and drills can be used for younger and older players.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
5-10 Minutes-Dribbling Drills-Width Dribbling
10-15 Minutes-Transition Shooting
15-20 Minutes-Full court 1 on 1 turn drill
20-25 Minutes-Half court 2 on 2; 3 on 3; 4 on 4
25-30 Minutes-Defending with a Focus. Help Side Rotation
30-35 Minutes-Wing Start 3 on 3 Rotation Drill
35-40 Minutes-4 on 4 Rotation
40-45 Minutes-4 on 4 Rotation
45-50 Minutes-4 cuts with shots
50-55 Minutes-1 and 2 dribble pullups
55-60 Minutes-change of direction pullups
60-65 Minutes-Drive and Kick
65-70 Minutes-Pick and Roll Offense
70-75 Minutes-Free Throws
75-80 Minutes-Quick Hitter-1-4 High Series Play 1 Install
80-85 Minutes- Quick Hitter-1-4 High Series Play 2 Install
85-90 Minutes- Quick Hitter-1-4 High Series Play 3 Install
90-95 Minutes-Quick Hitter 1-4 High Series 5v5
95-100 Minutes- Quick Hitter 1-4 High Series 5v5
100-105 Minutes-6 minute quarter scrimmage
105-110 Minutes-Game Situation. 2 minutes left and up 2
110-115 Minutes-Game Situation. 1 minute left and up 2
115-120 Minutes-5 man weave
I am going to breakdown each segment a little more and outlined what I would be looking to accomplish as a 7th grade coach. While each segment is focused on one skill in particular, most of the drills and segments allow for multiple skills to be used in the drill. So even though the focus may be on defensive closeouts, you can let the offense play out the possession so your team is working on offense at the same time you are focused on defense.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
This first segment is to get the players moving and loosened up for the rest of practice. Full Court Layups or some type of full court dribbling would be best. That would get all the players running up and down with a ball in their hands to start practice.
5-10 Dribbling Drills-Width Dribble
Start everybody with a ball on the sideline. They will dribble across the floor. The players can do in-out dribbles. Then crossovers. Then behind the back. Then between the legs. Then a mixture of all dribbles. It stays in a smaller area so the players are changing the types of dribble constantly.
10-15 Minutes- Transition Shooting
Transition shooting is a weave drill with 3 players running down the court. As the 3 players get to the opposite 3 point line, 1 takes a pass in for a layup and the other 2 players veer off to catch a pass from the baseline for a shot. After the passes, 3 new players on the baseline take off in a weave and do the same thing on the other end of the court. This continues for the allotted time in this practice segment. This is a shooting drill but passing and conditioning are also worked on during this segment.
15-20 Minutes- Full Court 1 on 1 Turn Drill
This is 1 on 1 offense vs. defense full court drill. The defense is trying to stop the offensive player and make them change directions with the dribble as many times as possible. After each trip the two players switch offense and defense and go through it again. To making it more competitive, reduce the amount of width the offensive player has to use. This makes the defender learn how to use the sidelines as well.
20-25 Minutes-Half Court 2v2; 3v3; 4v4
After going full court, I will then go half court but add in more players. Now the team will be working on 2v2 or 3v3 or 4v4. I still do not go 5v5 until the very end of practice. I want as many players going through every drill as much as possible. 5v5 takes a lot more time than 3v3 or 2v2.
25-30 Minutes- 2v2 with Help Side Rotation
Now I move straight into my defensive focus for the day. In this practice plan, it is defensive help side rotation. I start with 2 on 2. It starts on the wing with the offensive player having the ball and a defender and then the opposite (backside) offense and defense on the block. The ball defender gets beat and the block defender has to rotate from the backside to stop the dribble drive. Once stopped the ball handler back dribbles out and the players play 2v2 for 1 shot. We go through as many reps as possible in the 5 minutes.
30-35 Minutes- 3v3 Rotation
Now I add offense and defense to the opposite wing. The wing dribble still happens, the block defender rotates across but now backside wing defender rotates down to take away the dump pass to the block. Defensively we want to force outside shots and not inside shots. So we have added a 3rd defender but also this adds to the rotation as well. All 3 defenders should be moving together in the rotation. Again once the rotation happens then a possession is played out.
35-45 Minutes- 4v4 Rotation
Finally a 4th offensive and defensive players are added. I put these two at the top of the key. The start of the drill stays the same as does the rotations. The dribble comes toward the basket. The low block defender rotates across, the wing defender drops to the block and now the top of the key defender drops into what I call the “I got two” spot. The “I got two” defender is closing out onto whichever outside player the pass goes to. I make the dribbler pass the ball out to either the top of the key or the wing. On the pass the top of the key man closes out to the ball and the wing defender who dropped to the block replaces the top of the key defender to whichever player is left open.
For instance if the ball is passed to the top of the key, the original top of the key defender closes out on his initial man and the wing defender recovers back to his man. Nothing has changed.
However if the pass goes to the backside wing, then the top of the key defender closes out to the ball and the wing defender will replace up the lane to the top of the key offensive player. Essentially the top of the key and wing defenders have switched who they are guarding. This rotation is hard to do but if done right then the offense will struggle to get an open shot.
So we as a team have worked on rotations for the past 20 minutes but it started with just 2 players and has now been built up to 4. This is how to help develop skills with players. Start simple and small and keep growing and expanding it until you get to 5 on 5.
45-50 Minutes-4 cuts off non-ball screen
Now we move into our shooting heavy portion of the practice. It starts with getting shots off of the 4 different cuts from a non-ball screen. Follow the link to read more in depth on each of these cuts.
50-55 Minutes-1 and 2 dribble pullups
Next is working on 1 and 2 dribble pullups starting at both wings and the top of the key.
55-60 Minutes-change of direction pullups
Then I go 1 or 2 dribbles and then a change of direction before pulling up to a shot.
60-65 Minutes-Drive and Kick
Then I add in a dribble drive and a kick out backside for a shot. So the ball starts on one wing and the player drives into the lane and then passes out to the back side that has another line of players for a shot.
65-70 Minutes-Pick and Roll Offense on Air
After a block of segments on shooting, we start to work on offense. This is changeable to whatever focus you want your offense to improve on for the day. I am starting with the pick and roll and pick and pop. I would station up the players and have them work on the pick and roll and any variations we will run off of a ball screen.
70-75 Minutes-Free Throws
5 Minutes of Free Throws. I try to always have a bit of practice time dedicated to shooting free throws. In a one possession game, free throws are usually the difference between winning and losing.
75-90 Minutes-Quick Hitter-1-4 High Series Play 1 Install
Offensive Install is now going to take play. Depending on how much install you as a coach are putting in this block of time will change. For this practice I am going to install the 3 play 1-4 high quick hitter series I write about on a different page. Follow the link to go see that series. I would spend 5 minutes on each play and run each play multiple times on air. We will run the plays as many times as I can in the 15 minutes.
90-100 Minutes-Quick Hitter 1-4 High Series 5v5
Now I would break my team into 2 teams. That will be the two teams for the rest of the practice. Every day in practice, I will switch what players are on what teams to try and figure out who plays well together. What combinations seem to work and what combinations do not. I will experiment with maybe a small lineup. I might put together a big lineup and try them during a practice. Along with working on the plays and playing, I am trying to gather information on the different types of lineups, I might be able to use together. I might try and find my scoring lineup. I might try and find my defensive lineup. I might try and figure out what 5 players run a box press the best. Or what 5 players are the best at running a stall offense. All of these lineup changes can be beneficial when we come across situations during a game. Now I have some information on what players work well and what players are like oil and water.
With the two teams we will run the 3 different plays over and over again with an offense and defense. I will keep score and the only way to play offense is to get a defensive stop. The offense is the only team that can score by making a basket. Now I am taking my 15 minute install and instantly having the players run it on a defense. It may take 2 or 3 practices before the play starts to be executed well.
100-105 Minutes-6 minute quarter scrimmage
Late in a practice, I always like to simulate and play a full quarter of basketball. I will have the assistant coaches run each team with subs and everything. We play a full quarter as if it’s the 4th quarter. I can open or restrict the play as much as I want. I can force teams to play a certain defense or let them pick and choose what they want to play. Offensively they can run whatever offense we have or I can say both teams have to run this every time. This is a great conditioning drill late in practice while also requiring the players to be mentally engage and strong. Mental mistakes lose more games than anything else I have found as a coach. When my players are the most tired is when I want to push the mental game to the maximum. I do not want to lose a close game because we made mental mistakes. The players at this point in practice should be tired. And the first thing to slack during moments of exhaustion is the mental aspect of the game. Players will make bad decisions when tired. I want to push their mental toughness in practice so we are prepared as a team to be mentally tougher than the other team in games.
105-110 Minutes-Game Situation. 2 minutes left and up 2
Same thing as before but now we run a 2 minute game and one of the teams are up 2. This type of drill requires the players to think about what the situation is and what they should be doing to win the game. One team is up 2 so their strategy is going to be different then the team that is down 2. This is also the point where I can stop practice and explain what we should be doing in certain situations. I am constantly doing these game situations during practice all season long. That way when a situation actually comes up in a game then we have been through it already. The players should know what we are going to do and what we need to do to win the game. Plus having been through it in practice and succeeding in winning the situation will help to bring confidence about what we doing as a team in a game. We will try to get 2 or 3 of these in.
110-115 Minutes-Game Situation. 1 minute left and up 2
Now we shorter the game from 2 minutes down to 1. This time loss does change some things for both teams. Again we can stop and talk about what the players are thinking and about what I want to actually happen. I can also answer the question WHY? Why are we fouling here? Why are we running this play? Why are we pressing or not pressing? All of these questions bring a better understanding to the players and should provide better confidence and better execution during games.
115-120 Minutes-5 man weave
Finally I almost always end practice with the 5 man weave. This drill lets the players know we are just about finished. It also gives me time as the coach to get anything I need to get to pass out to the players. It communicates to everybody that practice is almost finished. This 5 minutes is also where I usually will steal 2-4 minutes of time when I need it somewhere up above in practice. So I normally will only use 1 or 2 minutes of the 5 man weave before dismissing players from practice.
Conclusion
This is a full 2 hour junior high 7th grade practice. While I have every minute of the practice mapped out things will change constantly. I am constantly adding something in or taking something out to add more time when and if needed. I also do not have time set aside for water breaks. This is not because I do not let my players get water. It is actually the complete reverse. My players can get a drink of water at any time during practice. But my only rule is the practice drill does not stop. So the players are forced to communicate to each other about jumping ahead of them in line so they can go get a drink. Or subbing out during scrimmage time to give the break to get a drink. I do not refuse players to get drinks. They probably get more drinks for me than most teams and players. The difference for me is the players have started to bring their own water bottle and set it on the side of the gym so they are not leaving the gym during practice. Then as they are traveling from one line to the next, they stop and get a drink from their bottle before continuing to the next line. It is efficient and effective. Practice does not stop and players are never thirsty.
While you may modify this practice plan to your liking as a coach, I hope this has given you some thoughts or ideas about how practices should be used. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.