Basketball Practice Plan

This blank template covers the core structure most basketball programs use: timed blocks for warmup, skill work, team concepts, scrimmage, and cooldown. Fill in the focus column with your drills for the day, print it, and post it courtside so assistant coaches and players know what is coming next.

Every basketball practice follows the same progression regardless of level: raise the heart rate, build individual skills, connect those skills to team play, compete under game conditions, and recover. The time spent on each phase shifts based on your players' age and the point in your season, but the sequence stays consistent.

The 5-Phase Practice Structure

1. Dynamic Warm-Up (8-15% of total time). Jogging, high knees, lateral shuffles, and dynamic stretches. Skip static stretching here. Save that for the cooldown. Research in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy(opens in new tab) shows dynamic stretching before activity increases range of motion without reducing muscle force output, while pre-exercise static stretching can temporarily decrease strength and power.
2. Individual Skill Work (25-35% of total time). Ball handling, shooting, footwork, and passing. This is where players improve as individuals. Rotate through 2-3 skill stations so reps stay high and wait time stays low.
3. Team Concepts (15-20% of total time). Offensive sets, defensive schemes, press breaks, inbounds plays. This phase connects individual skills to how your team plays together.
4. Competitive Play (15-20% of total time). Scrimmages, small-sided games, or situational drills (last 2 minutes, down by 3). Players need to apply skills under pressure before game day.
5. Cool-Down and Review (5% of total time). Static stretching, free throw shooting, and a quick review of what was taught. End every practice with the same routine so players know the rhythm.

How Long Should Basketball Practice Be?

Practice length depends on age and attention span, not ambition. Youth players (ages 6-10) lose focus after 45-60 minutes. Middle school athletes can sustain 60-75 minutes of productive work. High school programs typically run 90-120 minutes, including film and conditioning. Longer is not better if the last 20 minutes are low energy and sloppy reps. Cut practice short before quality drops.

Planning for the Season, Not Just One Day

A single practice plan is useful, but a season-long progression is what actually develops players. Map your weekly focus areas across the season: early weeks emphasize fundamentals and conditioning, mid-season shifts to team systems and game preparation, and late season sharpens execution under pressure. See how Striveon's season planning feature maps skill progression across your full schedule.

Every practice plan should touch on these seven fundamental skills. Dedicating time to each one across your weekly schedule ensures balanced player development, regardless of age group or competitive level.

• Dribbling. Ball control with both hands, including crossovers, hesitation moves, and dribbling under pressure. The foundation of every offensive possession.
• Shooting. Form shooting, catch-and-shoot, off-the-dribble, and free throws. Spend more practice time here than any other skill because scoring wins games.
• Passing. Chest pass, bounce pass, overhead pass, and skip pass. Good passing creates open shots. Bad passing creates turnovers.
• Rebounding. Offensive and defensive box-outs, positioning, and pursuit of the ball. Rebounding is effort and technique combined.
• Defense. Defensive stance, lateral movement, closeouts, help-side positioning, and on-ball pressure. Defense is the one skill that does not require talent, only effort and positioning.
• Footwork. Pivoting, jump stops, triple threat position, jab steps, and V-cuts. Footwork separates fundamentally sound players from those who rely on athleticism alone.
• Court Awareness. Reading the defense, spacing, cutting without the ball, and understanding when to drive, pass, or shoot. This is the skill that takes the longest to develop and the one that matters most at higher levels.

Map these seven skills across your practice plan templates. The 60-minute and 90-minute plans below allocate specific blocks for each category so nothing gets neglected over a week of practices.

A 7-year-old and a 16-year-old need completely different practices. The table below breaks down practice length, skill focus, game format, and coaching approach for four age brackets. Use it as a starting point and adjust based on your specific players' abilities.

How Long Should a 13-Year-Old Practice Basketball?

At 13, most players can handle 75-90 minutes of focused practice. The key word is focused. A 90-minute session where the last 20 minutes are low-energy and sloppy reps is worse than a tight 70-minute practice that ends on a high note. At this age, attention span holds if drills are competitive and varied. Build in one water break at the midpoint and keep individual drill segments under 10 minutes.

Beginners (Ages 6-8): Keep It Moving

Young players learn through play, not lectures. Use games that teach basketball concepts without stopping to explain rules for 5 minutes. Dribble tag teaches ball control. Sharks and minnows teaches court awareness. Keep every activity under 5 minutes before switching. If you see fidgeting, you have been on one drill too long.

Intermediate (Ages 9-11): Build the Foundation

Players at this stage can handle more structured drills and basic team concepts. Introduce the triple threat position, jump stops, and the difference between man-to-man and zone defense. Drills can run 8-10 minutes. Competition (relay races, knockout, 3v3 king of the court) keeps energy high while reinforcing skills.

Advanced Youth (Ages 12-14): Add Decision-Making

This is where basketball starts requiring reads, not just reactions. Teach players to read the defense before deciding whether to drive, shoot, or pass. The NBA and USA Basketball youth guidelines(opens in new tab) recommend age-appropriate rules, court sizes, and game formats for each developmental stage. Use 5v5 full court scrimmages with specific rules (no dribble offense, only backdoor cuts) to force new habits.

High School (Ages 15-18): Game Preparation

High school practice splits roughly 50/50 between individual skill work and team systems. Add film review, scouting reports, and conditioning blocks. Practice specific game situations: last-second plays, free throw pressure, pressing and breaking the press. Your practice plan at this level should mirror the intensity and pace of a real game.

Sixty minutes is tight. Every block counts, and transitions between drills need to be fast. This plan prioritizes skill development while leaving enough time for competitive play. Print it or copy it to your clipboard for spreadsheet use.

Coaching Tips for Short Practices

• Set up stations before players arrive so zero minutes are lost on equipment
• Use a whistle or timer app to enforce transitions. Two minutes between blocks, not five
• Skip team strategy if your roster is young. Spend that time on more skill reps instead
• Water breaks happen during transitions, not as separate blocks

With 90 minutes you can separate team offense from team defense and give the scrimmage enough time to actually teach. This is the standard format for most middle school and high school programs. The extra 30 minutes compared to the 60-minute plan go to deeper skill work and a longer competitive segment.

Making the Most of 90 Minutes

• Alternate high-intensity and lower-intensity blocks. Defensive slides followed by shooting gives legs a partial recovery
• Use the scrimmage as a teaching tool, not just a reward. Stop play to correct mistakes, then resume
• Build in a 2-minute water break between blocks 4 and 5 (the midpoint). This is also a natural point to regroup and adjust the plan if something ran long
• Track attendance and drill completion across practices to spot patterns. See how Striveon automates attendance tracking for every session

The 80/20 rule (also called the Pareto Principle) applied to basketball means that roughly 80% of your game results come from 20% of what you practice. In practical terms: a small number of core skills and situations account for most of what happens during a game. Your practice plan should reflect that.

How to Apply the 80/20 Rule

Look at your last 5-10 games and count how possessions end. For most youth and high school teams, the majority of scoring comes from layups, free throws, and open mid-range jumpers. Most turnovers come from bad passes and poor ball handling under pressure. Most defensive breakdowns come from help-side rotations and transition defense.

Build your practice plan around those high-frequency situations. If 40% of your possessions end in transition, spend 40% of your competitive drill time on fast break offense and transition defense. If free throws decide close games, shoot them every practice under fatigue (end of a conditioning set, not fresh at the start).

What the 80/20 Rule Does Not Mean

It does not mean you ignore 80% of basketball skills. Every player still needs footwork, passing, and court awareness. The principle is about emphasis, not elimination. Spend the bulk of your drill time on the skills that show up most in games, and dedicate smaller blocks to less frequent situations like inbounds plays or full-court press offense.

The practice plans above tell you when to teach each skill. The table below tells you what to teach. Pick 4-6 drills per practice from different skill categories to keep sessions balanced. Avoid running the same drills every day. Rotate them weekly so players stay engaged and develop across all areas.

Building a Drill Rotation

Choose one drill from each major category (ball handling, shooting, passing, defense) as your core rotation for the week. Add one wildcard drill from rebounding or conditioning based on what your team needs. This gives you variety without reinventing the entire practice every day.

Over time, you will build a library of drills that work for your team. Store them in a shared document or coaching platform so assistant coaches can run the same drills consistently. Explore how Striveon organizes your drill library with tags, difficulty levels, and equipment needs.

Paper practice plans work for a single session. They break down when you coach multiple teams, need to track what you covered last week, or want to share plans with assistant coaches who were not at practice.

When Paper Works

• You coach one team with a simple schedule
• You prefer handwriting notes courtside
• Your season is short (camps, clinics, recreational leagues)

When Digital Tools Add Value

• You manage multiple teams or age groups with different practice schedules
• You want to track which skills you have covered and which need more time
• Assistant coaches need access to the same plan without a group text
• You need to connect practice plans to player evaluations and development goals

For programs that plan practices alongside player development, platforms like Striveon connect your session plans to athlete evaluations, drill libraries, and season calendars. See how Striveon's structured training sessions tie practice planning to athlete development.