4 REASONS EVERY PRACTICE SHOULD START WITH VIDEO

Showing video before or dur­ing prac­tice is the best way to get your play­ers to retain what you teach them.

There is no ques­tion­ing the pow­er of video. It allows you to make crit­i­cal adjust­ments, elim­i­nate bias and dis­agree­ments, and con­nect with your play­ers in a way that words and white­boards sim­ply can’t replicate.

Video becomes an even stronger tool when used at the most oppor­tune times. Sharing it with ath­letes at key moments allows for deep­er under­stand­ing and bet­ter reten­tion. The brief pre-prac­tice peri­od is an oppor­tune time to use it.

Here are our top four rea­sons why using video just before prac­tice is ideal.

Keep It Fresh

The soon­er the play­ers get to put what they just watched into action, the bet­ter chance they have of retain­ing the infor­ma­tion. Watching video and head­ing direct­ly to the court elim­i­nates that in-between time that invites forgetfulness.

Showing video pro­vides greater clar­i­ty when you’re try­ing to dri­ve home a point. It’s proven to be an effec­tive teach­ing tool for coach­es all across the country.

The say­ing is that the tape don’t lie, so it’s great to take the things that hap­pen on the floor and slow them down, be able to pause, rewind and play a seg­ment back over and over again,” Shaka Smart, the head coach of Texas bas­ket­ball, said. ​Then to be able to take indi­vid­u­als and groups of play­ers and say, ​Here’s an area where you’re doing real­ly well. Keep doing that.’ ”

If you’re look­ing to solve your opponent’s 1 – 3-1 zone, watch video of them run­ning it, then run your offense against the scout team. Is your squad strug­gling to han­dle full-court pres­sure? With con­densed playlists, you can give your ath­letes quick hits they can take with them onto the floor. Pepper in some draw­ings and com­ments to tru­ly bring your points to life.

Lock Your Players in

Conducting video ses­sions after prac­tice can still be effec­tive, but it’s prob­a­bly going to be less effi­cient. Your play­ers are tired, most like­ly want­i­ng to relax and take their minds off bas­ket­ball. Their thoughts can stray to their upcom­ing meal, sig­nif­i­cant oth­er, home­work, jobs, etc. All these oth­er top­ics com­pete with what you’re try­ing to teach.

When play­ers arrive to prac­tice, they’re fresh and their focus is ful­ly on bas­ket­ball. This is the time they’re most like­ly to tru­ly digest what they see.

On a sim­i­lar note, don’t be afraid to sprin­kle video into prac­tice as well. Many coach­es have some kind of mon­i­tor on the court to review and address cer­tain things dur­ing prac­tices. Some even record prac­tice to instant­ly review what just transpired.

We record every prac­tice in real time. We’ll actu­al­ly use our phones to do our break­down drill. We call it the one-on-one paint drill and we’ll break up into groups of three and they’ll be record­ing with their own phones. They’ll stop and watch and say, ​How come this guy was able to beat me?’ What ends up hap­pen­ing is kids don’t ques­tion stuff as much because they know it’s recorded.”

Bob Rodgers, Head Coach, Whitman-Hanson High School (Mass.)

Encourage Them to Watch on Their Own

It’s very impor­tant for play­ers to not only watch film as a team, but also as indi­vid­u­als. If a play­er just sat through a film ses­sion, he or she like­ly won’t feel moti­vat­ed to go home and watch more.

Starting prac­tice with video (or hav­ing it inter­spersed in prac­tice) allows for a lit­tle breath­ing time. It gives the play­ers a break from video, so they’ll be fresh and encour­aged to watch lat­er in the night.

Give them spe­cif­ic things to look for. Create playlists that high­light the aspects of their game they need to improve on, such as han­dling tight pres­sure (show them their turnovers) or their shoot­ing from the right block (include a playlist of shots from that zone). By using sym­bols and notes, you can effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate with your ath­letes even when you’re not in the same vicin­i­ty as they are.

We’ll have a lot of times where they watch it with their note­book and we give them four or five things to find in the clip or this ses­sion of the game,” Rodgers said. ​It’s a lit­tle trea­sure hunt for these nuggets that they need to have.

Pump Them up

Don’t be afraid to have some fun with video! A hap­py play­er is much more like­ly to be con­fi­dent and engaged in practice.

If your team scored a big vic­to­ry in the last game, show off their top moments. Give them a chance to watch their suc­cess­es and get in a good mood. The more upbeat they are, the bet­ter their per­for­mance is like­ly to be.

This process doesn’t add any work to your plate — we’ll make the high­light for you. Just tag your game and your work is done. Now your play­ers hit the hard­wood with con­fi­dence, the right men­tal­i­ty and a touch of swagger.

Source: Hudl

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *