NCHS Practice #1

The first 5-10 minutes set the stage for an entire season of expectations.

- Be early
- Don't interrupt varsity practice
- Don't walk through the wrestler's team practice
- ABSOLUTELY do not walk through the girls' basketball team practice
- No rubber bands
- White socks only (on game day)
- Wear at least 2 pair of socks until your feet get used to the pounding
- The trainers are available to tape ankles right after school, don't wait till later
- Unexcused lateness means you start running laps around the gym

- This is the family. When one screws up, the whole team pays.
- Talk to each other. Talk to the coaches. Ask questions.
- A few on the team didn't play last year. Help coach them along.

Coach has a gift for it, a well-honed combination of barking commands, affable jokes and helpfulness plugged into 10,000 volts of enthusiasm that infected the team. The chatter of teammate encouragement by practice's end was a promising start of team chemistry.

"Run! Go!"

Five minutes of the Mikan drill - launching a one-handed, one-footed layup from each side again and again, aiming to make 16 in thirty seconds. Keep the ball high, above the chin.

Five minutes of alley drill. The alley runs baseline to baseline, in a corridor stretching from sideline to just outside the free throw lane. Dribbler goes at 75% speed (I'm hoping this reaches 100% before too long to simulate game speed), zig-zag side to side. Defender is to beat him to the sideline and turn him. Position is critical. Hands out to the side, and hands off the handler.

Five minutes of defensive "close-out" technique and box-out technique. Close-out means you run at the ball handler on the wing. The hands should be up, but slightly bent at the elbows for more quickness in deflecting a pass. Butt low. Come to a stop about a half-step short of the man. Position self squarely between ball and hoop, encouraging the drive to the baseline but not on a direct lane to the basket. Yell "Ball!" upon arrival. Rebounding is a three part but fluid process. Make upper body contact with a (bent) arm bar. Then make lower body contact by getting the butt into him. Hands up! Move him a step outside the lane if possible.

Ten minutes of 2-on-2 rebounding drill. A player at each wing. A defensive partner for each wing with one foot in the lane. Shot goes up, defense boxes out. Offensive rebound means five push-ups.

Five minutes of shell drill. Call out each position as you find yourself in it... Ball: funnel dribbler toward the baseline not the middle. "Trace" the ball with the hands, shadowing it wherever the handler may be holding it. Gap (ball one pass away): play off the man and toward the ball, not chasing beyond the 3 point line but denying within. Tip passes with the hand nearest the ball, so that if you miss, you're still in position to recover. Help (two passes away): find the middle of the court. One hand pointing at the handler and your man. Head on a swivel, to keep an eye on each. If there's a skip pass, close-out on him!

Ten minutes of 5-on-0 and 5-on-5. Start with players circling near the basket (no defense, i.e. 5-on-0). Toss up a shot. Rebound and outlet to a guard. Come down and run the offensive sets. Now add defense at half court, to pick up the offense as it comes.

Ten minutes of Feeney's free throws. Each player takes a turn at the line shooting 1-and-1. Make them both, and there's no penalty. Miss the first, and the team has 24 seconds to make it up and down the court twice - dribbling with a different hand after each length of the court... no second shot. Make the first but miss the second, and you run up-and-down once in 12 seconds. Touch the end lines with your feet, not your hands.

After practice it's time to collect contact information: cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses.