The one basketball season ends and another basketball year begins. If you are only playing and working on your game during the “official school season” than you are missing out. Below are the 4 sections / timelines that make up the “4 part basketball year” plus the off-season. Let’s start with the day after your school season ends…
Off Season (Spring/Summer/Fall)
- Spring AAU
- Summer League
- Fall AAU
- Open gym(s) at school
- Pickup games
- Weight Training
Once practices can start, the season is officially ON ! Below are the parts of the season along with the focus area for each time period.
1st Quarter- Pre-Season – before first game
- Tryouts
- Practices / Conditioning
- Learn techniques and formations
- Scrimmages
- Keep it simple / Learn The Basics
2nd Quarter – First Encounters (1st Half of Season)
- Play first round of home/away games
- Find out what works vs. competition (adapt as needed)
- Fine tune & Accelerate “The Basics”
- Continue conditioning / strength gains
- Gauge the competition (Strengths & Weaknesses)
3rd Quarter – Revenge/Payback time (2nd Half of Season)
- Must get better (the competition isn’t standing still)
- Prep for playoffs
- Keep conditioning / Make it Fun !
- Maintain FOCUS. Stay sharp.
- Take breaks when needed to maintain energy.
- Cold & Flu season… rest to recover quicker.
4th Quarter – Win or Go Home (Playoffs)
- Perform at your best.
- Few “Easy Wins”… even lower seeds are playing hard.
- Have a few surprises up your sleeve.
- High level of Mental Toughness / Facing The Challenges
Why use “4 Part Basketball Year”?
Breaking up the season into “chucks”, each with a different area of focus and specific “feel”, helps your team fight the boredom of a long season. It also breaks up the grind of weeks of conditioning and keeps players fresh.
A physical test in each quarter, either as part of a game or practice, can be a good milestone to show progress when compared with tests earlier in the season. I like to have some standard tests for evaluating players and it is good to come back to them in each section of the season to show players that they are indeed getting better.
Bottom line…
Looking at the overall season as a “4 part basketball year” helps your planning efforts as a coach. It should also make the year more enjoyable and more successful for your players. The outline above is just a starting point. Feel free to add your own components to each section and use the outline as a planning tool for this year as well as years to come. If you see something that doesn’t belong, please leave us a comment below. Even if you disagree, your comments and ideas will be helping us get better.