Basketball Observation

DJ and I coached a fifth grade, early season practice; our objective for practice was to teach fundamental skills needed in order to play basketball, those skills consist of layups, jump shots, foul shots, and passing techniques. I believe if we had come up with a stronger, more specific objective, rather than overemphasizing the technical drills, our practice could have been more successful and our athletes would have been more engaged. We decided to break into two separate groups of 6 when performing drills in order for each athlete to get multiple turns, and to avoid having athletes standing and waiting, however to explain each drill, we gathered as a group so everyone received the same information regarding the drill being performed. We

circled everyone around us so they could see and explained the drill, then went into a demonstration using the two of us before splitting up. For the lay up drill, the teach cues I used were: 1. pushing off of the opposite leg to shoot (right hand left leg, left hand right leg) to create a balance in the body, and 2. gently hit the ball off the center square on the backboard in order for the ball to go in. The sound in the first portion of the video was inaudible, but from what I remember, I was relatively quiet giving the first instruction, whereas DJ had projected his voice much better than I did at first. At one point during the explanation, I turned my back to the athletes while explaining to point to the other half court, where I should have used the side of the court we were on to explain. I also began to creep in towards the center of the circle, which put two of the athletes to the side of me, and I failed to look around to make sure everyone was paying attention to the explanation. I explained and we demonstrated both right-handed and left-handed layups before beginning, where I could have explained one at a time to avoid confusion.
After beginning the drill, I had to stop the drill momentarily to clarify switching lines after each rebound/shot because one of the lines were becoming too short. Some of the feedback (for athletes that had more basketball experience) was just "good job" and "good form", and there were a few athletes who needed to be pulled aside and given specific feedback about the balance of pushing off foot and shooting hand, and using the backboard. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to see how the athletes with DJ were performing, and could not give those 6 feedback.
For the second drill, we lined all the athletes up on the half-court line and did a thorough explanation of a jump shot.

By this point of the practice, I believe my voice had gotten louder. The teaching cues for this drill were to come to a complete, solid jump, keep feet shoulder-width apart on the ground, or this drill to avoid travelling, and to get power to shoot from one's knees, as well as positioning one's stop at a good angle, so feet and shoulders are facing the basket, to ensure accuracy. With each lines drill (layups and jumpshots) I made a clear statement about avoiding cutting up the middle, to be sure to go around the outside of the lines, to avoid collisions and injuries. Unfortunately, for this drill, we forgot to do a demonstration for this drill. After beginning the drill in separate groups, I noticed the instructions of staying somewhere outside of the key and inside of the three-point circle were not clear, because two athletes went straight to the basket to shoot, similar to a lay up. I stopped the drill, re-explained and demonstrated myself, the positioning on the court. With my demonstration, I had my back turned to my athletes, where I could have used a player to perform the demonstration for me and explained, so everyone could hear/see what the drill was supposed to look like. Continuing for a couple of minutes, and then proceeding to do dribble with one's left hand, and take a jump shot from the left side of the court. I began giving feedback in high

information; praising those who were doing well, and again, pulling aside other athletes that were having trouble landing correctly on their feet to gain a balance throughout the body to avoid taking extra steps, and keeping their bodies squaring up to the basket.
For these first two drills, I think one important aspect that we left out was to make the athletes aware of the gender differences in form that may appear. Naturally, men can jump higher, and have the ability to "lay the ball in", where as women have to really use power from their legs to make the basket, and I feel this is a difference we should have specified.
The third drill was a passing drill.

The demonstration was during the explanation, and for this, the athletes were circled around while DJ explained. I noted in the video that some athletes were standing behind others, possibly causing them to not see. DJ's teaching cues wee for a chest pass: step with strong foot, and pass with arms completely extended to hit target (of other person's chest), the bounce pass: step with strong foot, bounce the ball about three-quarters of the way to one's partner for them to catch it in the abdomen, finishing with thumbs pointed toward the ground and, for the overhead pass: begin with ball over your head, and toss it straight to the other player's chest. Those receiving the pass were given cues to chant "ball ball ball" to express they were ready to receive the pass. Explaining/demonstrating all three passes at once was successful because they were simple enough skills, yet if it were any more difficult, it could have confused to athletes to overload them with information. Quickly after breaking off into groups, we realized the drill would be more effective if we performed it together, and we did. All of the athletes executed this drill near-perfectly, which made it difficult to give teaching cues on. It eventually got repetitive, and as the drill continued on, I noticed some athletes getting bored with the drill and lackadaisical with their form.
I believe that these three drills were fairly basic, and lacked relation to the game-setting.

They were focused on a simple basketball drill, without having the opportunity to use it that was not so mundane and repetitive. The athletes should have had the opportunity to perform the drill in shorter time periods, and then use those skills to scrimmage in a game-like setting towards the end of practice.
The fourth drill was a foul-shooting drill. We lined all of the athletes around the key while DJ explained the game rule of not going over the line. He emphasized lining shooting foot up with basket, and to keep it forward, and to get all power from one's knees to make the shot. After splitting up, I lined my players around the key in the appropriate spaces and provided an explanation that they have 10 seconds to make the shot, and the importance of 10 seconds in a game. After a few athletes shot, I noticed that everyone was getting antsy and bored, so I quickly demonstrated how to box out, and made a competition out of it; to see who could get the rebound first. I put it in a game-like setting for them by counting to ten like a referee in a game would, and gave them two shots each; this challenge seemed to engage them more and made it so nobody was standing around.
After realizing how the competitiveness of the rebound/foul-shot drill was, I believe if each of the drills we performed were shaped to be more competitive, it would have put a real-game situation and attention-grabbing spin on the practice, te athletes probably would have been more interactive, and enjoyed it more. We took a traditional approach to this practice, whereas I believe if we took the Games Approach, and providing an opportunity for challenge, the practice would have been more successful and entertaining (Martens 154). If we were to shorten each drill come together as a big group at the end and participate in a scrimmage, we would see how each player implements the skills they learn into a setting that isn't cookie-cutter, where there's room to mess up and improve.