8th grade basketball begins to separate the players even more before they reach high school. At this grade and depending on how big of a high school you are coaching in, the players are starting to be grouping themselves into 4 groups as they progress through 8th grade. One group is coming to the end of their basketball careers. The 2nd group will be ending up on the freshman team. The third group is looking at starting or playing on the high school JV team. And the finally group is the players looking at playing varsity next year as a freshman. This last group is rare and most years, the 8th grade teams are not going to have anybody in this group. But what can you do as a coach if you have players in each group? During practice there should be a focus on skill development to help every player get better. The varsity player could be working on being quicker through the drills while the non-high school players are just trying to be able to complete the drill. Finding the perfect balance for each team is difficult. Hopefully the following 2 hour practice plan can help you develop practices to improve every player on the team. So here is a 2 hour practice plan for 8th grade basketball.
*Note-These plans and drills can be used for younger and older players.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
5-10 Minutes-Dribbling Drills-Diamond Dribbling
10-15 Minutes-Transition Shooting
15-20 Minutes-Full court 1 on 1 turn drill
20-25 Minutes- Chest Up on Drive 1 on 1 from Top
25-30 Minutes- Chest Up Drive 1 on 1 from Wing
30-35 Minutes- Chest Up Drive 1 on 1 from Other Wing
35-40 Minutes- Half court 2 on 2; 3 on 3; 4 on 4
40-45 Minutes- Half court 2 on 2; 3 on 3; 4 on 4
45-50 Minutes-4 cuts with shots
50-55 Minutes-2 man Outlets to Kick Outs
55-60 Minutes-2 Man Outlets to Kick and Pick and Roll
60-65 Minutes-2 Man Outlets to Kick and Pick and Pop
65-70 Minutes-2 Man Outlets to Kick and Pick and Pop to Pump Fake and 1 Dribble Pull Ups
70-75 Minutes-Free Throws
75-80 Minutes-BLOB Install
80-85 Minutes- BLOB Install
85-90 Minutes- BLOB Install
90-95 Minutes-BLOB 5v5
95-100 Minutes- BLOB 5v5
100-105 Minutes-6 minute quarter scrimmage
105-110 Minutes-Game Situation. 1 minutes left, game tied, shooting 1 free throw
110-115 Minutes-Game Situation. 30 seconds left, game tied, shooting 1 free throw
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 8th 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-Diamond Dribbling
Set up 4 cones in a diamond shape at the top of the key. The top cone will be on the midline at the 3 point line. Cones 2 and 3 will be on the elbows. The last cone will be in the midpost area on the midline. The players start between the 3 point line and half court line with the ball. They will dribble to the first cone and do a change of direction dribble. This will take them to the elbow cone where another change of direction dribble. And finally one more change of direction dribble at the midpost cone before either finishing with a layup or shot.
You can adjust the closeness of the cones to make the moves being made in a smaller area or spread them out to give more space for the players. You can also move the cones farther away from the basket to change the layup in a foul line shot or even a 3 point shot.
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.
20-35 Minutes-Chest Up Drive from Top and Both Wings
This is a 1 on 1 drill with the offensive player trying to score on the defense. While it is working on defending the focus is to get the defensive players to chest up the dribbler when they drive to the basket. It is a foul to use your hands on the drive but if the defender can square up the offensive player and use their chest to make contact then it should not be called a foul. Players struggle at first with the physicality of chesting up a drive as well as the concept of using their body to defend. It always takes some work to keep their hands out wide during the drive. I do this drill at the high school level in 4 or 5 minute time frames and have the players keep score. At first the players do not guard well but with enough practice the ability of each player to defend the drive increases over time and that translates to the game quite well.
35-45 Minutes- 2v2; 3v3; 4v4
After guarding 1v1 and chesting up then I increase the players to either 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4. I still want the players’ chesting up the drives but now there is some more basketball game movements when the number of players increases. The focus is still on good solid half-court defense.
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.
50-70 Minutes- 2 Man Outlets to Kickouts. To Pick and Roll. To Pick and Pop. To Pump Fake and 1 Dribble Pull Ups
These 20 minutes are all about shooting but shooting off of movement from the typical offense. Everything will start with a toss up and rebound. The players are partnered up and the rebounder makes an outlet pass to his partner and then chases him and fills in on the wing. The outlet pass receiver takes the ball to the middle and dribbles down to the opposite foul line with the rebounder now on the wing. Now we play 2 man game. All of the 2 man game movements can be changed to your own personal liking. I build one movement on the previous movement. So movements get more complex but since I am just adding on, the players do not get confused.
1) Straight kick out and Shot. The ball gets passed out to the wing for a shot.
2) Kick Out Pass to Pick and Roll. The ball gets kicked out and the passer follows the pass to run a pick and roll with the wing.
3) Kick Out to Pick and Pop. Same as before except now the screener pops for a jump shot rather than rolls to the basket.
4) Kick Out to Pick and Pop to Pump Fake and 1 Dribble Pull Up. The Pick and Pop happens. The ball gets passed to the screener on the pop. Now we simulate a defense recovering and rushing the shooter. So the shooter pump fakes the shot and does a 1 dribble pull up.
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-BLOB Install-Baseline Out of Bounds
This period will be used to install the various offenses you as a coach are going to run. So every practice could have an install period. It could be a motion offense or quick hitters or in this practice plan some baseline out of bounds plays. I have some pages over on the website under the offense tab that I have diagramed some plays. So for this practice we are going to install the basic stack play and some other plays run from the same stack formation.
90-100 Minutes-BLOB 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.
Now we will run the stack baseline out of bounds plays over and over again. 1 team will be on offense and 1 team will be on defense. I will have the defense play some man and then some 2-3 zone and then some 1-3-1 zone. Basically with some scouting information, I will know what types of defenses we could see during baseline out of bounds plays and then have the defensive teams play those different types of defenses. I will keep rotating offense and defense for the full 10 minutes.
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. 1 minute left; game is tied; one team shooting one free throw
Situation is game is tied and one team is shooting a free throw. This puts pressure on the shooter but also now the players are having to think about two different scenarios for both offense and defense. After the free throw, game might be tied or the defense might be up 1 point. The players need to be thinking about what do we do if the game is tied and what do we do if we are up or down 1. This type of drill requires the players to think about what the situation is and what they should be doing to win the game. 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 the segment.
110-115 Minutes-Game Situation. 30 seconds left; game is tied; one team shooting one free throw
Now we shorten the game from 1 minute down to 30 seconds. The 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 8th 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. If I can keep the players moving during the entire 2 hours, we as a team are able to get a lot of things accomplished. Over time this leads to a big jump in skill development.
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.