As grade school basketball coaches, we often wonder how best to use our practice time. Our young players are in the early stages of developing their basketball skills and learning the game. As coaches, maybe a sensible way to approach this is to select 5 areas of grade school basketball on which we would like to focus throughout the basketball season. Then we plan to spend time on each of those 5 areas during each practice. This article makes suggestions on choosing 5 areas and implementing practice time on each of those 5 areas.

In grade school basketball, it is good to keep in mind the players' concentration levels and the fatigue factor. Anything new that you want to teach is best done earlier in the practice when the concentration level is probably higher and fatigue is probably lower. It is also good to consider that there might be some latecomers to practice, so that the first 10 minutes of practice are best used for skill building rather than something significant that you want to introduce.

So a one-hour grade school basketball practice might look something like this: 1st 12 minutes on rebounding, 2nd 12 minutes on fast break basketball, 3rd 12 minutes on team offense, 4th 12 minutes on team defense, and last 12 minutes on out-of bounds play situations. Maybe you would put some team-building activities in there as well during one of the 5 areas. How you can plan is to list what you would like to practice in each of those 5 areas throughout the basketball season.

The planning is best when it is progressive: building from the simplest and most basic to more advanced skills which help your team win. For example in rebounding, you could start with basic positioning and stance to how to secure the basketball to what a player does with the basketball after getting the basketball. Also, you could add in what the other players do when their teammate secures the rebound. So you are going from the individual skll to what the team of 5 players do together on the court.

Practice planning can be exciting for you because you get to put on paper how you would like your team to play as the season progresses. You have a vision of how it will all look on the court and you get to move toward that vision in practice. By communicating to your teams its progress, you also help them to see how their practice is makng them better players on a team working together.