Have you been tasked with creating a basketball practice plan but unsure of what a good practice plan should include? It is imperative that you know how to create a basketball practice plan, and we know this, so today, we are going to help you with that. In this article, you will learn the necessary things to consider when creating a basketball practice plan and putting the plan together.

What Should a Good Practice Plan Include?

Sections that conclude with the achievement of an overall aim

One of the most important things that we need to consider when creating a practice plan is the overall aim of the practice session or sessions that are being planned. After you have identified the aim to accomplish, you should then make a practice plan with sections that will allow the dream to become a reality when combined.

If you make an aimless practice plan, you will waste the player’s time and all the persons involved. An aimless practice plan will use a lot of energy and may not result in a positive impact-full performance from players throughout games.

Warm-up

All practice plans must include warm-up time for players to get their bodies ready for the plan’s exercises. Ensure that you allow at least 15% to 20% of the overall practice time for warm-up. Remember that you can incorporate low effort drills into your warm-up as well as basic warm-up routines.

Incorporating low effort drills into your warm-up can serve as teaching techniques and warming up the player’s bodies. An example of a light effort warm-up drill is the spider dribbling drill. The spider dribbling drill can help players to improve their balance and coordination while dribbling while warming up the player’s arms and legs.

If you create your practice plans without a structured warm-up section, you will risk your player’s health as if they can develop injuries immediately or over time.

Presentation/demonstration of ideal outcome

Before asking your players to perform a particular drill or achieve a specific goal, it is a great idea to demonstrate what you want them to achieve. A demonstration will give the players a better idea of why they need to do the activities and know exactly what they are working towards. There are various ways that you can demonstrate the practice objective, and here are a few examples.

On court demonstration

An on-court demonstration is often favorable compared to other ways of demonstrating what you want your players to achieve because they can see the moves with their own eyes. If you have a coaching staff or a more experienced group of players, you can utilize them in your on-court demonstration.

For example, if you want to demonstrate the defensive slide, you can work with a player who already mastered this or a coaching staff member. Walkthrough the defensive slide’s movements and then go at the game speed a few times so that the players can understand where you want them to get in the end.

Video Demonstration

Videos are also good ways to demonstrate how players should operate on the court after they have mastered a drill. Ensure that you are using the videos that clearly demonstrate the moves you want to teach. You should edit the videos before presenting them so that the videos focus on the moves being taught and not other moves that will distract them.

It is also useful if you can get videos that players can relate to. For example, if you are teaching a group of high school students, it is best that you get a video of past high school teams that have mastered the move.

Specific Drills Based Around a Goal

Make sure that when you create your practice plan, the drills are specific and focused. This will help you control the player’s focus throughout practice sessions and, most importantly, make sure that the desired goal is achieved.

If you create a practice plan with drills that are not mainly aimed at achieving an objective, your players will practice these drills and may still be unable to perform what is required during games. In the end, you would have wasted valuable time and energy without completely achieving something important.

If you find that your players have mastered the practice drills before the allotted time, recognize that this is a good thing. You can either move on to another area of basketball training or have them practice amongst themselves to solidify the moves.

Goal Evaluation

After you have demonstrated the desired results and have the team practice drills to get to the result, it is now time for you to evaluate their progress. Evaluations are great ways for you to know if you need to tweak your practice plans in any way.

There are various ways to evaluate if they can perform the desired moves, but one of the best ways is through practice games. Practice games will allow you to see how players react at game speed and identify areas that need to be changed or improved.

Cooldown

Just as the warm-up session is vital to prevent injuries, the cooldown portion of training is equally important. Ensure that you include cooldown in your practice plans, which should be between 10 to 15% of the training time. Please stay away from intense drills during the cooldown so that the player’s bodies can adjust after their workout.

Make sure that you end practice on time so that your players will have sufficient time to cool down as if they don’t cool down properly, they can injure themselves after training. It would help if you educated players on the importance of cooling down so they will not approach it half-heartedly.

How Do You Write a Basketball Practice Plan

You can write basketball practice plans in different ways, but we will show you a way we believe is very effective.

Here are the steps that we take when constructing basketball practice plans.

Consider Goal to be Achieved

The most important thing you need to do when you decide to make a basketball practice plan is to identify the goal to be achieved by your players. An aimless practice plan will result in wasted time and energy. In addition to those two things, when your players realize that their practice sessions aren’t exactly coordinated, they will start to doubt and lose respect for you.

On the other hand, a practice plan that is constructed with a goal in mind will serve as a roadmap for you and your players to get to a useful result. Make sure that every aspect of your practice plan is designed to accomplish a goal.

Consider Players Mental and Physical Abilities

No two basketball players are the same, so a cut-and-paste approach will not work when designing plans for your team. Certain players are more advanced in their abilities to understand and execute a particular plan, and you must consider the mental and physical capabilities of the players so that your plan can be doable.

For example, you should not be designing a practice plan for players to perform Stephen Curry-esque jump shots for a group of really young beginners. They will not be able to do it due to their physical inabilities. Make sure that all your drills are doable and understandable by your players before you present them.

Consider Time Available for Objective to be Achieved

When formulating your practice plan, remember to think about your team’s amount of time to achieve the goals outlined. If you have a long offseason, you can formulate a plan that stretches out over more practice sessions. If you do not have a long off-season, you will need to think about training your players in a quicker manner.

In addition to considering the length of time of your offseason, you should also consider the amount of time available for each training session. If you have a good amount of hours to train, you can maximize the drills and practice throughout these practice sessions, but if you don’t have as much time as you would like in each practice session, you may have to focus on the most essential drills.

Research Best Drills to Achieve Goal

Even though we may know some drills or many drills, it doesn’t hurt to research others to find other effective ways to accomplish your goals. Basketball is a very dynamic game in all aspects of the game, and over time there are new and more effective ways being developed to coach and train players. When you plan your practice, it is an excellent idea to research to find out if there are drills out there that can help you.

Adjust Drills with Time, Player’s Ages, and Player’s Capabilities in Mind

After you’ve decided on what drills you will include in your practice plan, please go through the exercises and evaluate them based on your players. Ensure that your routines can fit into your training timeline, be performed by your players, and impact your team. After you analyze your drills, adjust them where necessary.

Write the First Draft of Practice Plan

At this point, you should have all the information you need to start formally formulating the practice plan. Go through all your notes and research and write your plans out. Ensure that you don’t take shortcuts because you may forget what you wrote, which could cause problems later on.

After First Practice Sessions, Evaluate and Adjust Plan as Necessary

After you have implemented your plan amongst the team, carefully evaluate the plan’s effectiveness and the team for the first couple of practice sessions. Take a step back and check if the plan needs to be adjusted in any way so that it can better suit you and the players. It is great if no adjustments are necessary, but if there are adjustments to be done, make sure you do them as soon as you spot them so that it won’t affect a large part of your practice time.

Individual Basketball Practice Plans

Even if you will be practicing on your own, or if you will practice on your own in addition to your team workouts, you should make a basketball practice plan. Here are some points that you should follow when creating your plan.

Make a Clear Goal

A plan without a goal it’s not really a plan but a random sequence of events. Ensure that you consider what you need to work on for your game to improve and develop a practice plan with that in mind.

Find Realistic Drills

sometimes we overestimate ourselves and give ourselves impossible goals to achieve. When you are making your basketball practice plan, please only include drills that you know you can do. After you research the drills necessary for your practice plan, adjust them, or choose the ones that you truly believe you can do, or you will have a practice plan that is not achievable.

Develop a Doable Practice Schedule

Another critical aspect of creating your basketball practice plan is incorporating this plan into your daily schedule. Many of us have things that we need to get done as basketball is only a part of our lives and not all of it, as much as we would like it to be no. Consider your available practice time when developing your practice plan so that you can realistically do the drills in an impactful way in the available time.

Find a Grading System to Evaluate your Progress

You will need a way to evaluate whether or not you are successfully able to perform the moves that you have been practicing. Include a way to evaluate yourself in your practice so that you can continue to work on moves that you haven’t mastered.

Commit

The final part of your practice plan should be commitment. Make a plan that you can do and stick to it.

Helpful Sites to Find Basketball Practice Plan PDFs

Here are some of the best websites with basketball practice plans that we could find.

This website has a complete 10-week practice plan for the entire team.

Check out this practice plan for the entire team

This extensive basketball training plan PDF includes plans, drills, and pointers on how to get the best out of your team practice. These are good high school basketball practice plans.

Check out this high school basketball practice plan

If you are looking for simple practice plans to aid in youth development, this one is the one for you.

Individual workout plans may be hard to make, so we went and got the best one we could for you.

Check it out here

Wrapping Things Up: The Best Basketball Practice Plan PDFs

A basketball practice plan should be carefully thought-out and designed to maximize the time available for practice. We hope you found good basketball practice plans and practice suggestions from our article to adapt to your players. If you are working on an individual basketball practice plan, ensure that you have a goal and a carefully thought out way to achieve your goal.

Did you find this helpful? Then also check out other basketball FAQ articles here.

The Best Individual Basketball Workout PDFs

> Basketball Defensive Drills: 11 Must Knows to Lock Down Opponents

> How to Get Better at Basketball: Tips & Drills