Special thanks to Jason for sending this in. If you’ve every struggled with ways to motivate your players in your [tag]basketball coaching[/tag] career, you should give this idea a try!
I learned very early in [tag]basketball[/tag] coaching that it is extremely important to end your [tag]basketball practice[/tag] on a super positive note in order to instill in the players to have a great desire to return to the next practice. Therefore my idea is to allow the players to choose a game to play or a [tag]basketball drill[/tag] to practice to end the practice.
The most popular game that I’ve noticed over the years has been the game Gotcha.
Players take turn shooting from any spot that you need to stress or practice. We usually shoot from the foul line the most. Players form a line with two balls. The first player shoots; if he makes his shot he rebounds and passes to the next player. However, if he misses then he must rebound a make a follow-up shot before the second player makes a shot. If the second player makes the shot before the player in front does then the second player yells gotcha and the first player is eliminated. The game continues until only one player is left and is the winner.
The game then can start over at a spot on the floor that the winning player chooses. This is a great activity to work on not only shooting but also rebounding and passing. We also incorporate an activity, such as a [tag]basketball dribble drill[/tag] or conditioning activities, for the eliminated players to be working on while waiting for the next game to start. Over the years this seems to be one of the best ways to end practice on a positive note for my youth teams.