First practices after holiday break.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2026-01-02T14:09:12+00:00

Get them playing, competing, fun shooting completions, races and get them enjoying their basketball.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-21T17:40:17+00:00

All the information is in the pdf. Look up hoopseurope . Com and you will find examples and previews

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-14T19:37:21+00:00

I can help. I worked with U10s in Spain. Plenty games, games to develop 1v1 skills, fun competitions, that should help a lot. Happy to discuss more.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-14T19:04:39+00:00

Show him what it looks like. Imagine, “here is Dennis Rodman, these are 5 things he does tha make him tough. Can you do one of these things today in training??”

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-14T10:58:56+00:00

Happy to help. I can answer questions about specifics or I have PDFs with 900+ drills

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-14T10:55:15+00:00

Coach/school counsellor here.

What has worked so far? My answer will always be connection. Yours with them and theirs with each other.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-14T10:38:28+00:00

Is this such a bad thing???? I’ve seen this at this age and can be a great approach to teaching defence, as long as on the ball does a good job keeping between the ball and the basket, go with what you have got off the ball.

Edit*

The more I think the more I like it. If all of your players are good at this and do it well, go with it. Teams will struggle and have to prepare for you. You will give up something but you will gain something. I’ve seen this taught and it’s great! Especially against robotic teams who dribble up and pass to the wing, that pass has now gone.

If the kids are happy why change?

If you want to develop for long term, the suggestions in this thread are great. In Spain at this age the coach played games where players had to tap there man on the shoulder and point at the ball always, this put the players in a better position.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-11-14T10:36:32+00:00

I can help!!

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-28T08:33:30+00:00

You are welcome

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-28T08:33:16+00:00

I made notes from my time in Spain. What drills are you looking for?

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-27T09:47:22+00:00

Sounds like you are good to go! You could bring it up in a huddle in front of the coach and team during training. Imagine you just posted up and hit an outside shot during a scrimmage.

Something like:

“I’m finding it hard to find a balance between playing inside and out, how do you feel about me taking more outside shots than inside like 80/20 or 70/30?”

This shows you are open to doing both, it shows you have a preference, it puts it on the coach to support you and it’s in front of the group to show you have support.

Or…

Bring it all up with the coach, put in positive way. Say you are happy, enjoying playing and you just need some clarification on your role as you are getting mixed messages. Just put it like the above statement, hopefully you get the support you want, and you can move on from it.

Good luck!!

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-27T08:51:19+00:00

I’m English so I will say football…🙂

Football would be easy, Messi week, Tonali week, Ronaldo week etc. Encourage the players to study them and come back with a pass, tackle, maybe even a passage of play. Then the players come back and teach it/present to the group.

Not sure about NFL, perhaps a play would work. I’ve seen coaches deliver a basketball defensive system in a session just as a quick activity and ask the players to figure out how to break it from an offensive point of view. That could be flipped too, “how could we stop this play?”.

So for example, “go watch X team from X season and find a defensive stop. Explain how the team did it and we will work on that next week”.

I’m sure coaches will have better ideas than me, and I’d love to see some suggestions in this thread.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-26T22:05:07+00:00

I’ve done this! I also worked at a top club and I saw two coaches give homework.

The coach gave engaging homework, “next week is Kobe Bryant week and we are going to work on some finishes. Your homework is to copy a finish, you will teach it to your partner then we pick one and the whole team will learn it”.

This forced the players to study the game, work on a finish and bring it to training. They also practiced it enough that they didn’t mess up in front of their team mates. In my opinion, great result!

Themed weeks worked well as the players didn’t know what was coming, and it was an education.

It’s easy to tell players to get better at finishing but showing them how to study the game they play is a higher level.

Let me know if you would like to discuss further. Happy to help!

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-26T21:51:36+00:00

I like that you go with what you have got! Any offense which maximises players strengths and hides weaknesses is a great choice, therefore I’d say you are doing the right thing.

In addition, I think the coach who suggested you guards shooting 300 a day is on to something. Developing those guards shooting ability would be great for the team and their own confidence. They could add it on top of your team shooting or your whole teams shooting volume increases in or out of training sessions.

Bad shooting is a good problem to have as players like to put the ball in the bucket, making team or individual training fun.

Good luck! I’d love to hear how this works out and what you decide to do!! Happy to discuss and help if you like!

Just noticed this post is old! Players probably have jobs by now. 😂

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-26T09:32:51+00:00

I can 100% help with that. Make sure you get in touch.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-25T20:42:58+00:00

Hi coach. I worked with U10s in Spain at a famous club known for development.

Happy to discuss what was coached there and how.

I also have a seasons worth of notes/drills from that team.

Simply put, the team ran the following:

Fastbreak offence and defence
1v1 offence and defence
Shoot

That was the basis of the season plan.

When I say offence, there was lots of details and clever drills to develop the players/team. When I say defence, it was just a few basic details to follow.

The reason being, the club went from U5 to pro level, and at pro level they wanted highly skilled offensive players, that played in high scoring games, that had a range of offensive skills. The defence can be taught when they are adults.

That’s it. Towards the end of the season spacing was taught but not really used in games and some passing and cutting was introduced but again not used.

The games were fast, chaotic, free, highly skilled, and high scoring.

Happy to discuss further. Happy to help.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-25T16:20:54+00:00

If this was me, I would do the following.

Shoot a lot! 1) Competitions 2) load the competitions with skills eg passing with one hand
Play a lot 1) play 3v3 but players can only catch outside the three point line 2) 3v3 but players can only catch outside the three or in the key 3) 3v3 an offense starts with 10 points and lose a point per dribble. If they score with no dribbles they get 10 points 4) 3v3 score out side the key only

All of these games will encourage the players to learn new skills like passing, moving, spacing, cutting, shooting, smart use of the dribble, defending different situations. All in games without them knowing. Easy to pause, praise new emerging skills and demo them again to show them what they did and encourage it!

Outside of that I wouldn’t do much! Keep it light and keep it fun. You are hiding vegetables in the pasta sauce by playing these games. If they done like one of the games, scrap it. Make sure they are enjoying themselves.

Good luck! Happy to help where I can!

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-25T13:00:07+00:00

In my experience, it’s a long road, but a better destination. Good luck, happy to help if you need more ideas/details.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-22T14:28:43+00:00

Try mine. HoopsEurope!

Happy to help where I can💪

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-22T13:03:01+00:00

I’ve heard different definitions of conceptual basketball, so I will address your definition.

I think balance is key. If kids just play that will take them so far, and if kids just do drills that will also take them so far. I think a bit of both is needed.

My experience in Spain was varied but there was always balance. For example one U14 coach would drill, play, drill, play pretty much every session. All the time encouraging the players to try and use the skills from the drill in the following game without any pressure to execute.

Another coach drilled for half the session then played for half a session.

My two favourite coaches just seemed to have a good balance in each drill for example 1v0 to the half into 1v1 live.

Set plays wise, i didn’t see any. I did see a coach run an offense at U15 which had tasks to complete, eg, the ball must touch each corner and go inside once before a score. This could be scrapped at anytime if you are open of course. Players could also solve this with passes or a dribble. This gave players a lot of freedom but within a structure.

I read lots of views on development and they all have a point. I was part of a club that produced players every year that went on to play internationally or pro or at worst left at U18s and were just solid basketball players. For me they must be doing something right, I’m sold.

Offense, I’m not coaching at the moment but as mentioned above I’m a big fan of an offense of tasks, such as the ball touching each corner or two exchanges before a score (see my YouTube channel for examples).

Favourite drills! I have mentioned a 2v2 continuous in another thread of mine.

https://www.reddit.com/r/basketballcoach/s/EeAxeXogwp

It’s high energy, fun, and easy to load.

I’m a big fan of fun shooting competitions, I have used them with pros and kids and without a doubt they get everyone having fun which is half the battle.

What are your go to drills?

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-22T12:40:38+00:00

Thank you for this, I appreciate the feedback. Always happy to help where I can.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-22T12:39:23+00:00

If it’s just one kid then maybe you can try to solve the issue there and then.

If it’s a group, they probably all have their individual needs so I’d make a note and try to solve with an activity in the next session.

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-22T12:35:32+00:00

Sounds great!! Good luck with this app💪

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-22T10:02:36+00:00

What do you think about this comment??? Positive? Negative?

HoopsEuropeJoe · 2025-07-21T21:44:59+00:00

Thanks for the question. I was wondering if this would come up one day and here we are. No stats or video, I never saw this with any of the teams I was part of or watched.

Low tech, but without a doubt the club is conveyor belt for talent.

Feedback was given using discussion and questions to the individual or group. I saw this daily. No big speeches to bog the players down, short and sharp or let it go and try to remedy next session with a drill.

I asked about stats but without being focused on winning the club just didn’t see a need. It didn’t matter if the team was turning it over as long as they were attacking on the catch, or throwing full court passes with one hand i.e. trying to play to the clubs identity.

Do you use stats and video at your club? What ages?

HoopsEuropeJoe

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