Generally, my articles favor a European-style system with players developing within a single organization where coaches work together for the best interests of the players and the club. Players develop year by year, mastering a few skills in one age group before being exposed to additional skills in the following seasons. Of course, drawbacks include reduced participation and effects of a bad coach or at least a poor coach-player relationship.
The most difficult years are progressing a talented young player onto an established professional team. We often see similar issues with NBA rookies or college freshmen, although those situations have other variables, namely the initiation to a new organization, teammates, coaching style, level of play, and more.
We had a team for the players on the cusp of the professional team in my club, similar to a G-League team. This was our 1st Division team, which was a mix of U18 players and 18-22 year-old players who were rostered with the professional team, but played few minutes. They played against other talented young players, developing professionals, and ex-professional players, not unlike the G-League. It’s downside was not unlike some we read about at the college level.
A 19-year-old college freshman received tuition and an apartment as his compensation to join the club, not unlike a U.S. college scholarship, except there was no meal plan or cost of living. He was on the professional team’s roster, and required to be at all practices, but the coach did not rate him, and he never played. He rarely dressed for games because FIBA allows 12 players to be rostered. He started nearly every game for our 1st Division and U20 teams.
Some complained about his lack of improvement and questioned his time spent in the gym on his own. This is a common criticism of college players by their coaches. I defended him.
He was required to be with the professional team for two to three hours during the day between practices and film. He rarely did anything at practice because he was outside the rotation. He stood and watched and joined in group shooting drills. He essentially watched practice for two to three hours despite four or more coaches on the court at every practice, plus three more coaches involved with the 1st Division in the office.
He lifted weights with one team almost every day for another hour, then at night he was at the 1st Division practice for two hours. I do not know when he attended classes or studied.
The coaches and management criticized him for not working out more on his own despite six hours on the court every day. He was not paid as a full-time professional player, but management dismissed his six hours per day on the court as insufficient.
I argued the club should stop wasting his three hours every day if he was not going to participate at practice and never play. Either work with him on the side during practice, so he is available in event of an injury, or release him from those practices to work with the 1st Division/youth coaches in individual sessions or to shoot with the shooting machine on his own.
Players do not have unlimited time. Players’ time, concentration, attention, and energy are zero sum: He cannot get back the three hours he stands around watching practice. Those three hours are gone despite him deriving no benefit. However, six hours per day at practices, film, and weights, plus classes and homework, is a long day already. Can we expect players to have the attentional resources to spend additional time on the court working out on their own? If we as coaches or a club/school cannot develop players in six hours a day, does that say more about the player or our job as coaches?
He got lost in the mix between needing development, being attached to a professional team, and playing for a coach who was interested in winning and getting a new job. He had no time to develop a 19-year-old he never envisioned playing for him, but he insisted on his presence at all practices in the event he was needed to rest the 30+ year-old center.
How often are players caught between the need to develop to earn playing time, whether with one’s present club/school or to attract interest from another, and the coach’s need to win? The coach’s need to win at a professional level is understandable; he was hired to win a championship. That was his specific job, but his job conflicted with this player’s needs.
This system had a fail-safe; he played for the 1st Division team. NBA teams use their G-League affiliates to get players much needed game repetitions to expedite their development and acclimation to the NBA. What about college players? High school players?
A college player signed to a Division 1 program cannot move to the local junior college or Division 2 program for a few weeks to receive important game minutes and repetitions. The player is either in the rotation or not in the rotation. Transfers are permanent.
The amount of development during practices varies greatly. Many women’s basketball programs use male practice players. How many repetitions are the 10th through 12th players receiving? They spend the same amount of time in the gym, in film, in the weight room, and at games as rotation players, but may not do not much beyond lifting weights; none of that time outside weights helps them improve. They are expected to do more, while also attending classes, eating, sleeping, and more.
Is there a better way? Why not use one of the 5-10 side baskets and one of the 10 assistant coaches to work with the players who are not in the rotation during practice rather than turning them into observers? Is memorizing plays they will never run in a game more important than developing their individual skills?
High-school players may play some JV games to play extra minutes, but many schools now do not have JV teams, do not allow varsity players to drop down, or have an extreme difference between JV and varsity. What does a high-school player do to develop when receiving few practice repetitions and almost no game time, but spending every afternoon from 3-6 PM on the court?
The easy answer is always to do more. We question players’ heart or dedication, their need for sleep. Why not wake up at 4 AM to get up shots before school? Why not leave the gym after a three-hour practice and go to another gym to shoot on one’s own?
I take the bus to my practices. We practice for two hours. I am gone for five hours. Almost every player on my team takes the bus home, several on my bus. How much time do they have to spend in the gym to compensate for the lack of practice repetitions when they finish practice at 5:30 and do not get home until 7 PM and must eat, do homework, and more?
These years are difficult as players strive to reach higher levels of competition and coaches focus more and more on winning. These transitional years are developmental for some, as they view college and professional basketball futures, and competitive for others, as high school ends their competitive careers. How do coaches meet the needs of each group? How can a high school varsity coach compete to win and develop players who may move on to play beyond high school? How do coaches develop the end of the bench who simply want the chance to play meaningful minutes?
I shortened practices in-season as a junior-college coach. We never went longer than two hours and rarely longer than 90 minutes once in-the competitive part of the schedule. The shortened practice allowed gym time before and after for players to practice on their own. I also offered voluntary individual workouts for players to practice on whatever they wanted to improve.
Our schedule was not replicable at most schools. Our gym was unused before our practice time at 2 PM, as volleyball practiced after us followed by men’s basketball. Player signed up for individual workouts after weights in the morning or between classes.
Our sessions were only 30 minutes. These were not individual sessions for me to rebound for them as they got in their reps. They have teammates for those drills. These sessions were to focus on one specific skill or improving one specific aspect of a skill. The sessions different for every player. I primarily played one-vs-one against my best player so she could practice shooting over taller players when teams switched against her. We practiced one player’s breathing as she tended to hold her breath during plays. We worked on another player’s running stride in an attempt to improve. Another player changed her shooting technique entirely. These were specific individual adjustments we never could have made during a team practice with myself and a part-time assistant coach.
Other programs lack our gym, coach, and player flexibility during the day, but have more assistants in the gym at practice. Why not work with the out of rotation players on the specific skill they need to improve on a side basket? Why not shorten practice and allow players who need or want more individual work to practice with coaches on individual skills rather than using group drills as individual skill work?
I know college coaches who have a three-hour window for practice, so they schedule three hours worth of drills despite only needing an hour to accomplish their daily goals because they do not want their players to think they are being easy or not taking practice seriously. Why not use the time better? Practice hard for an hour and be available before and after to work with players on specific skills the players want to improve. Is the goal to keep players busy? To exercise? Or to improve?
Just because tradition and schedules give a coach a two or three hour window for practice does not mean the group must practice together for the entire time. Maximize the available resources. For me, that was the empty gym during the day and my flexibility. For others, that may be having 10 assistant coaches. There are better ways to develop players than having players stand around as others get their repetitions then complaining that students do not spend additional time beyond their three to four required hours practicing on their own. Players time is not unlimited. We should help them maximize the benefits for the time they expend.