University of Tennessee - Chattanooga Head Men's Coach;
VMI Head Coach from 2015 to 2022;
2021 Southern Conference (SoCon) Coach of the Year;
Navy Associate Head Coach from 2011 to 2015;
Penn State Assistant Coach from 2006 to 2011;
played for Penn State from 1999 to 2002To execute at a high level in games, your team must practice at a high level - every day. Designing a practice that utilizes game-like, pressure situations ensures a roster full of players who know how to make the right decisions at the right time. The design for an effective practice that will accomplish this includes lots of 5-on-5 situations and disadvantage-situations.
In this Open Practice video, Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Dan Earl shines the spotlight on an extremely productive practice providing players with ample opportunities to knock down shots and finish around the rim.
Coach Earl showcases the reasons why he builds plenty of shooting repetitions and drills into each practice and how doing so builds a better shooting team up and down the roster.
The biggest takeaway in this video, however, comes from Coach Earl demonstrating how he uses game-like play in 5-on-5 and 3-on-3 practice scenarios to help his players develop an aptitude for making correct, split-second decisions during games!
Rebounding Drills, Warm Ups & Shooting Drills
Teaching and reinforcing the basics of the game helps players understand how to make the correct decision on the court in games, and more importantly, explains ‘why’ it’s the right decision.
Beginning this Open Practice with work on rebounding technique, Coach Earl instructs players to check, hit and pursue the basketball, all in an effort to secure the rebound and start their fast-break offense.
Coach Earl explains why improving team rebounding is the critically important ‘beginning phase’ of his fast-paced, up-tempo style of offense. He then shows off his version of the ‘Circle Rebounding Drill,’ which forces players to work hard to get into good defensive rebounding position and teaches them how to play tough, hard-nosed physical basketball, by forcing them to box out different players simultaneously.
Next up, Coach Earl discusses the importance of incorporating more shooting drills into your practice as a planned strategy for getting your players more shooting repetitions in your daily practices.
Describing how some coaches make the mistake of skipping shooting drills in practice and ask players to find time on their own to shoot, Earl lays out a variety of high-quality shooting drills that maximize practice time, while still providing lots of shooting reps.
In the ‘Top-of-the-Key-Shooting Drill,’ Coach Earl uses 2-3 lines of players and shows how to incorporate your team’s actual offensive actions into shooting reps. Players learn how to pass, cut and shoot within your half-court offense as you can manipulate this drill to fit any offensive action.
Coach Earl then shows the ‘Ball-Screen, Post-Feed Drill, explaining that in this drill, players learn how to get paint touches off ball-screens, while working on using a throwback option to feed the post so your post players also get reps at the proper technique for sealing on the block.
In a drill he calls ‘Wildcat shooting,’ Earl showcases players learning how to get into the paint, while utilizing a ‘one-more pass’ approach to beat either a long or short defensive closeout.
These are especially effective drills to use within a dribble-drive motion offense, as it teaches players how to move, while getting plenty of shooting reps during practice.
Drills Featuring Game-Like Situations
Next is a valuable segment of practice that features 5-on-5, 3-on-3 and 5-on-4 set ups – all geared toward teaching his players ‘how’ to play basketball, while doing so under intense, game-like situations.
During this phase of practice, Coach Earl can be seen stopping at certain points to teach and emphasize various principles that apply specifically to his team’s style of play. Overall, though, these teaching situations provide excellent and valuable insight in how to teach the game through playing.
In a drill called ‘5-on-4, with-Return Drill,’ Earl shows how players learn to push the ball in transition, while looking to find the open player. Whether using a drive to get into the paint and looking for a kick out pass or feeding the post to create an and-one opportunity, this is a highly effective drill to emphasize executing offensive concepts in the open court.
Coach Earl moves on to the ‘Press-Break, Options Drill,’ in which players learn how to move the basketball quickly up the court and flow seamlessly into the dribble-drive motion offense with a short shot-clock. It’s an effective drill for teaching players to be effective with their time and in attacking the basket.
In the ‘5-on-5, Offense-Defense-Stop Drill,’ players are shown learning to make good decisions in both one-ball or dribble-drive offense situations. Players also learn to incorporate ball-screens reads as a way of creating mismatches against defensive pressure.
Coach Earl then showcases a terrific ‘Player-Coach, Situations Drill,’ which emphasizes leadership skills and collectively raises the team’s basketball IQ. Beginning from either a ‘4-minutes remaining’ or a ’35-seconds remaining’ scenario, players are put into situations to learn the situation they are in and successfully play with a sense of urgency.
This ‘Open Practice’ video is jam-packed with highly valuable coaching information and important practice drills that you can immediately use with your own team – as tools to get players working hard to improve their game and raise their basketball IQ – while doing so in a variety of competitive situations.
Coach Earl promotes leadership and accountability within his basketball program and this Open Practice instructional coaching video is a critical, must-watch, first-step for any coach who wants to run a better practice!
Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 Stars. ‘I LOVE how Coach Earl uses game-like playing conditions to help teach his players and improve their decision making. This approach creates a more-realistic environment and keeps players' attention throughout the entire practice!’
117 minutes. 2023.