Expert: Michael Muro - 10/27/2006

Question
Coach Munro:

I'm going into my first season coaching 7th grade girls basketball. I've already
held tryouts and made cuts, and it's time to start practice, time to get to
work. My question involves finding different ways to structure practice and
looking for ways to assess players (I feel fairly confident in what I want:
hustle, rebounding, decision making, and defense; but anything here would
help).

First, I want to be able to properly adjust my practices to build skills in areas
of weakness, so....can you give me a link to a website that has some decent
team offensive drills.

Second, what are some of the finer points of running a full court press, I have
the basics down, but I want to know how to run a zone-press as opposed to a
man-to-man to keep my girls fresh.

I also would like some simple plays in beating the 2-3 zone. I'm planning on
making my team a defensive team, forcing turnovers and scoring off the fast-
break, but I can't rely on the ball handling skills of my guards too much nor
will I be in transition situations too often in this league.

Lastly, what are some more of the "fun" drills I can run at the end of practice.
Incentive based things, team-building drills.

I hope this isn't too long of a question, but if you could just answer one
portion I would greatly appreciate it.

Answer
Hi Coach Andrew,

Here is a great link that will help with your practices and running a a full court press. This site also has plays that will help with attacking a zone defense. It also has suggestions on how to end practice. Let me know if this site helps you? If you need anything else please write back and I will see what I can come up with.

Just copy and paste in your address bar:

http://www.coachesclipboard.net/PracticePlan.html