Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from Michael O’Halloran’s Never Forget They’re Kids – Ideas for Coaching Your Daughter’s 4th-8th Grade Basketball Team. It addresses the benefits of videotaping youth basketball practices and games.
The Value of Video
Several times throughout the season, I find value in videotaping players and their play on the court. As a coach, it helps slow things down, and you can watch the action on the court or a player’s technique multiple times, which allows you plenty of time to identify opportunities for improvement.
The video camera can be a valuable tool for players at both practices and games, as it can help them see how they execute individually and as a team.
Video Opportunities
Many times throughout the season, videotaping practices or games make sense. Here are a few.
First practice and last practice
I like bringing the video camera to the first practice to get the “BEFORE” shot of players’ appearance before a season of practices and games. I videotape the players doing dribbling drills, running the 3-man weave, and doing some shooting exercises.
It being just the first practice, players are understandably rusty and make many more mistakes than they will after basketball season kicks in, and they have a few practices and tournaments under their belts.
For the “AFTER” shot, I bring the camera to one of the last practices of the year to capture some footage of the players running the same drills as they did at the first practice. Bad passes and dropped passes are routine in the 3-man weave drill at the first practice.
At the last practice, there might only be one miscue for the entire length of the drill. At the season-ending party, an edited version of the first and last practice can be shown to showcase how much they’ve progressed for the players and their parents.
Shooting form at practice
Try videotaping your players’ shooting form early in the season. After taping, coaches should review the players’ shooting form and formulate suggestions for improvement. Show players their shooting form on video and then review the suggested changes.
One of the first games
I encourage the camera person to use a wide-angle perspective and not just focus on the player with the ball. By being able to view the entire court, players and coaches get a better perspective on how the whole team is functioning as a unit.
Watching game footage provides players a great opportunity to learn special relationships amongst their teammates. Especially at younger ages, you see players bunch together too much. Ball handlers tend to go to their right side too often because most players are right-handed, and players tend to bunch up on the right side of the court.
Play at younger ages is also characterized by a lack of movement by offensive players who don’t have the ball. By watching a game with your team, you can highlight some of these points and review them with your team by rewinding game footage and playing it multiple times.
Watching video footage is also a great tool for reinforcing concepts related to team defense—e.g., when the ball is more than a pass away, players should play help defense vs. smothering the player their guarding and rebounding technique—e.g., the importance of blocking out and when to attack the offensive boards.
Attacking zone defenses in practice
Understanding offense techniques to use against zone defenses – both full-court presses and half-court zone defenses – can be taught effectively with the help of videotaping.
Against a 2-3, half-court zone defense, videotaping an offensive team that makes quick passes, dribble penetrates and passes out for open shots, and avoids prolonged dribbling shows kids some effective tools to use.
Videotaping your team in an intra-squad scrimmage using a 1-2-1-1 full-court press can be very effective. By watching the videotape, kids learn what type of passes result in turnovers and what works effectively against the press. Coaches can reinforce key learning points by replaying sequences that highlight them.
Game highlights
Recruit a mom or dad who is willing to film a couple of games. Look for opportunities where the gym has good lighting and the camera person can sit at least a little higher than the court level. It’s fun to edit the game footage to some great plays and show the highlight reel at a team party.
I used Mac’s iMovie to edit a one-hour game down to about 12 minutes of highlights that we showed at the season-ending party. Mac’s iPhoto lets you load your favorite team photos, a background song, or two and create your own video storybook.
© Michael O’Halloran 2010
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike has written three books on basketball coaching.
Originally published in April 2011.
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