Transitioning the Focus of Practice by T.K. Smith

Written by Coach Peterman

I have coached at the NCAA Division 2 (Southwestern Oklahoma State University), NAIA (USAO), and JUCO Levels (Blinn College and Carl Albert State College) as well as high school. I just felt that fellow coaches especially young coaches need to constantly work on their “game”. Just like the basketball players that we coach. We as coaches need to improve ourselves. That is my story and why I do this blog.



Basketball Drills



0 Comments(s)



October 10, 2012

Transitioning the Focus of Practice – 5 Spot Close-Outs

I have found that often times coaches like to break practice into segments, an offensive segment, defensive segment, then team or scrimmage segment, with various stops in-between depending on the coach and the emphasis for the day. Sometimes a coach can find it difficult to transfer their team’s focus from drill to drill, especially when you’re entire focus has been on offense for the first part of practice and you want to transition to defensive drills.

One thing we like to do is find a drill that emphasizes the movements, motions, and principles we want to focus on for that day’s practice and identify drills that will cover these. But first, sometimes you have to shift your team’s mindset before you can shift their full attention. In essence, you prepare to work on something before you begin working on it. When you have been focusing on offense for 45 minutes it often turns out that when you start your defensive drills, they look like offensive drills BUT, that’s because your team has been doing everything with an offensive mind-set for the whole practice so far.

The key is to prepare your players to work the way you want them to and sometimes this means you have to transfer their focus before getting into the more heavy drills.

Coach T.K. Smith is currently the Men’s Basketball Graduate Assistant at his alma mater, University of Central Arkansas, which competes at the NCAA Division 1 level in the Southland Conference. Prior to Central Arkansas, Coach Smith served as Assistant Coach and Assistant Athletic Director at Ecclesia College (NCCAA D1) where he primarily worked with the guards, assisted in recruiting efforts, and was in charge of the team’s strength and conditioning program.

In his current position at C. Arkansas, Coach Smith assists in operations and works with the guards under Head Coach, Corliss Williamson. In addition to coaching, Coach Smith is also pursuing his MBA.

Career Aspirations: NCAA D1 Head Coach

Coach T.K. Smith can be reached by e-mail at: CoachTKendallSmith@yahoo.com