No coach can ever have enough drills. Great Basketball Drills is the solution to a coach’s worst nightmare: five minutes into a planned hour-long practice, players are bored, distracted, and standing around. It is the perfect complement to The Baffled Parent’s Guide to Coaching Youth Basketball purchased by thousands of new coaches, and a wonderful resource for any coach looking to plan an active, interesting, and fun practice. Great Basketball Drills arms coaches with advice on creating the right blend of drills and offers the keys to holding the attention of 6- to 14-year-old players. Coaches will also find a unique troubleshooting chart that shows how to isolate specific problem areas and choose drills to correct them. Developed by an elementary school physical education teacher with more than 30 years as an instructor and coach, these 125 drills are really simple games that teach shooting, passing, movement, and dribbling - games designed to keep practices fresh and kids moving and excited. The games teach both basic and advanced skills. These games - clearly outlined in one- and two-page spreads provide players with the opportunity to react to situations that will occur during competition, thus providing a more realistic setting than standard drills. Games for example, are designed to find a way to keep possession of the ball, head in a particular direction with the ball, make an intelligent pass, or score a goal. Players learn and refine their skills without the tedium of rote passing, dribbling, and shooting exercises. Traditional basketball drills usually call for players to wait in line before getting the opportunity to touch the ball, for example making a chest pass or a layup then returning to the end of the line. Jim Garland’s games approach gets all players involved and moving - and teaches not only how to make that chest pass, but also develops the player’s decision-making skills. It’s fun - and it’s better suited to teaching a child how to deal with situations in a real basketball game. Great Basketball Drills uses the same hands-on, positive coaching approach encouraged by all the Baffled Parent’s Guides.
