October 21, 2016

9 Tips to have Great Practices – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 3

“Practice is everything” – Pete Carroll

One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:

‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’

Here are 9 Tips coaches have shared with me on Having Great Practices

Use Mini-games – it’s all about the # of touches
Everything in short bursts – John Wooden would talk in 20 second bursts
Rick Pitino – ‘As I go through practice, I try to make corrections in 7 seconds or less.’ There needs to be a rhythm and pace to your practice. For youth- maybe this needs to be 20 seconds.
Learned from Dave Cisar: Conducting everything at a much faster pace. Teach against air and instead of running a play every 2 or 3 minutes, run 4 plays per minute
Design your practice in 4 quarters – and the energy level builds up throughout the practice
Kids will lose focus as the practice goes on – so when you need their full attention teaching them something – do it early in the practice
Passion and energy as a coach – including sensing when the team just needs a break or some fun – sometimes just play some loud music and have some fun
‘Short lines, lots of repetitions, learning fundamentals’ – In baseball – Instead of having one coach hitting to the infield – have two coaches hit to each side of the infield and players run to the next line
Bill Bellichick – Put 6 hours of preparation into a 1 hour practice

Be organized and have a great system! Next week we’ll look at some great ways to build mental toughness.