Most youth basketball teams begin practicing in October, so now seems like a good time to identify some things that youth basketball coaches should be doing to prepare for the season.
Start of Season To-Do List
Here’s what youth basketball coaches should work on early in the process.
1.) Be ready for your first meeting with players’ parents.
It’s a great idea to get all the team parents together so you can discuss your coaching philosophy, plans for the year, administrative issues and opportunities, and other plans. Prepare a one-pager that you can hand out that lists your parents’ expectations.
These expectations might include Demonstrating good sportsmanship at games by applauding good play from both teams, respecting the referees, and not shouting out directions to your child. By getting everyone on the same page at the start of the season, you’re on a good path to having everyone understand your intentions and enjoy the season.
The players’ parents’ meeting is also a time to discuss carpooling to practices, how many tournaments everyone is interested in, and plans for making the season memorable for players. Prepare an agenda and require that at least one player’s parent attend.
At the meeting, try to get everyone to participate by having everyone introduce themselves and say something about some topic of interest. Maybe it’s their first experience with basketball or the favorite thing about their child.
See How an iPhone Can Help A Basketball Coach.
2.) Prepare for your first meeting with players.
In the same way, you’ve developed a list of parent expectations, prepare a list of player expectations. For example, you might include being on time for practice, trying your best, and respecting your teammates, coaches, and referees.
3.) Recruit assistant coaches.
Having assistant coaches makes the experience much more rewarding for players and coaches. Assistant coaches reduce the student/teacher ratio and can help you accomplish much more.
Assistants can fill in if you’re late or miss a practice, and more sets of eyes can help in practices and games. Before your first meeting with parents or players, meet with your assistant coaches and outline your philosophy, approach, and the type of help you’re looking for.
See 10 Things I Hate About Youth Basketball.
4.) Identify your team manager.
In addition to your assistant coaches, it helps to have a team parent to handle some of the administrative tasks associated with managing a team.
Your team manager might help you with tasks like collecting money from each family, team communications, party planning, tournament entries, etc. You’ll want to find someone who is organized and can communicate effectively.
5.) Create your practice and tournament schedule.
With some youth basketball organizations, your practice and tournament schedule might be completed by board volunteers. If not, you’ll have some work identifying the tournaments you want to play and the times and places for your weekly practices.
When the players on your team are identified, I’ve found it helpful to develop a wallet-sized card that, on one side, lists all of the player’s names, their uniform numbers, parents’ names, and phone numbers. The flip side lists all of the planned tournaments and dates.
If your team is formed with players and parents who don’t know each other well, it helps to have the uniform number of each player so that parents can quickly identify who’s who.
See 7 Pre-game Activities For Youth Basketball.
6.) Prepare your practice plans.
Setting aside time before the season starts to think about what you want to teach your players this season makes a lot of sense. In broad strokes, think of timing—what needs to be taught right away and what can wait until later in the season.
I’m a big believer in teaching team and individual defense first. We can compete in most games if we can slow down opposing teams’ scoring. Thus, I focused on teaching defense for my first practice with a new team.
As kids can get bored quickly, I like to change directions in practice by having a series of exercises and moving aggressively from one exercise to the next. By doing that, kids get some aerobic work without coaches having to devote separate time to run laps or sprints.
Our 30 Youth Basketball Practice Plans are great for planning the season and each practice. This PDF, which you can download on your PC or Mac, allows you to print out the 2-page practice plan and bring it to practice. I usually fold it and put it in my pocket, but some coaches prefer clipboards. It will give you an agenda for thirty 90-minute practices you can walk through minute-by-minute.
See A Motion Offense in Youth Basketball.
7.) Plan events to make it fun.
Year in and year out, players have enjoyed some of the events we’ve done as a team, even more so than the tournaments we’ve won. Most players are in it for the “experience.”
Kick around some events with your coaches and parents, like a “Parent vs. Player” game, a Halloween haunted house, a college or pro game with players and parents, or something else.
When the newness wears off of basketball practice, try to instill some fun by having some themed practices like “Crazy Socks Night,” where players wear their wildest socks, a “Contest Night,” or a “Motown Monday” practice where a boom box plays the Temptations and The Jackson Five during parts of the evening. Make it different, keep it fun, and players will respond.
See 7 Tips For Deciding on your Basketball Team Name.
8.) Reach out to neighboring teams’ coaches to plan scrimmages.
You can agree on one or two scrimmage dates by contacting the coaches of other teams in neighboring towns. Before our first tournament or game, I always try to have one dry run in the form of a scrimmage with a neighboring team. Sure, we do lots of intra-squad scrimmaging, but players get pumped up to play someone else, and it’s good preparation for your team.
You get a chance to practice your pre-game comments and see players competing against folks they’re likely not very familiar with. As a coach, you can walk your players through how it will work before, on the bench, and after.
At first scrimmages, I’ve had players who didn’t know that I expected them to come to each team huddle and listen. A scrimmage is a great way for players and coaches to understand how a real game will go.
9.) Sharpen the saw.
There are lots of resources available for youth basketball coaches. Please take advantage of them. Check out websites devoted to youth basketball, go to YouTube and watch a video to see how others coach by searching on youth basketball keywords, or read a good book on basketball coaching.
You can’t go wrong reading a John Wooden book. I like Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court.
10.) Determine your communications channel for your players and your parents.
Emailing parents seems to work well when you have to get some team communication out to everyone. Make sure to collect email addresses at your first parents’ meeting.
When you send your first email, ask everyone to reply to confirm the correct email addresses and allow them to add other email addresses, e.g., a spouse’s email or work email. You’ll also have the opportunity to talk to players at practices, and with enough notice, you can try to meet with parents before or after a practice.
Before you know it, your first practice will be upon you. Get your basketball lesson plan ready with a schedule so you know what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. Start your basketball practice planning now for a great season!
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike has authored four books on coaching youth basketball.
You might like:
MVP Off-season Basketball Workouts For Players
30 Youth Basketball Practice Plans For Coaches
7 Common Mistakes to Avoid at Practice
You are on 10 Things Basketball Coaches Should Plan Before the First Practice page.