Coach Bill,

This weekend is our first practice for my son's rec team and even though I played in high school, I haven't been around an organized basketball practice in a long time and forget how to run a practice, etc.  Any suggestions?

Coach,

My first thought is to send you to our website and watch any of the videos posted there by the coaches.  They really give you great examples of simple drills to teach ball handling, shooting, etc.  I just had my first practice last night with my kid's team and we had to get to know each others names, so one of the things we do is get in a circle, and pass the ball to each other and we call our each others names as we catch and pass the ball.  Another thing we emphasized was pivoting.  To often kids travel because they don't know how to keep their pivot foot.  So, have them practice doing fakes with the ball while they pivot, so they get to use to that.  Don't jump into scrimmaging so fast.  Try building up to it, by doing 2 on 2, 3 on 3, etc., and show them how they can screen for one another and plus it helps them understand how to pass to someone when they are being guarded.  As always, keep if fun and make sure you work in some shooting drills where one group goes against the other.