Bob Hurley| “The Uptempo Practice”

I. Practice Essentials

-Put it Down on Paper

o Can't wing practices, plan in advance!

o Hurley keeps practices for several years to compare current quality of practice
o Stick to what you write down!

-Alternate Hard and Easy

o Hard parts of practice shouldn't last more than 5 minutes

o Alternate hard and easy parts of practice

-Practice the Way You Play

o St. Anthony's practice mostly in the fullcourt since they are an up and down team

-2/3 skills, 1/3 team

o Work on individual skills to improve the overall team

-Practice to Improve Team 1st

o Treat every game the same (Kids notice when something is different)
o Focus on your opponent 2nd

-Breakdown Work Daily

o Have 1 coach with big men, 1 with guards

-Shoot 20 minutes Daily

o Everything else you practice is worthless if you can't take advantage of opportunities

-Shorten Practices as Season Goes On But Keep Intensity Up!

-Special Situation Practices Regularly

o Hurley has 1 special situation practice per 2 weeks (1 1/2 hours goes over 20 different
situations)

-Shorten Practices Pre and Post Game

o Before: focus on things you want done in the game but leave time for legs to recover for game
o After: If team has bad game, don't take it out on your team (they didn't intentionally lose.)
Teach instead

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Bob Hurley| “The Uptempo Practice”

-Start and End Each Day with Meeting

o Starts positive
o Ends positive (reminders for what's coming up and tomorrow's focus)

II. Daily Practice Tips

1. Players are responsible for the mood and correcting mistakes

a. Leaders on team need to be held accountable for getting it going
b. Coaches just make a suitable situation for learning
2. Team Meeting at Beginning and End of Practice
3. Early Drills
a. Players call out names of teammates and names of drills
4. Head Coach uses each player’s name within first 15 minutes
5. Earn Maroon Shirt
a. No such thing as a game player (come to practice and work)
b. Designate 5 players who have maroon shirts at beginning of season (starters)
c. Each day the 2nd unit (Gold Unit) fight to earn the maroon shirts and the starters fight to
keep them
d. 5 players who finish a practice with maroon shirt will start the next day’s practice with
them on; if next day is a game those 5 will start
6. Change Practice Partners Regularly
a. New faces help push players instead of settle
7. Keep stats on drills
a. Have something to shoot for
8. Listen to Practice
a. You can find out a lot about your team by closing your eyes for a few seconds in practice
9. Use a variety of drills
a. Identify where you got them from
b. Makes players feel like they have the edge
10. All Conditioning with the ball
a. Don’t run just to run unless punishment
11. Utilize assistants and gym space
12. End Practice on Positive Note
a. Reward practice players for effort

III. Warm-up Drills

 3 Man Weave (5 passes, 4 passes, 3 passes)- Up and Back x2

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Bob Hurley| “The Uptempo Practice”

 2 Pass Outlet  Baseball

Pass

 3 players pass back and forth (there)  Breakout 1 pass for layup; opp. Wing covers backboard
 Chase the Point Guard
o PG has 4 dribbles to take length of the court
o 2 players on defense chase the point guard once the first dribble hits the floor
o When defense comes back for 2 on 1: Inbounder baseball passes to wing
 Chase the Point Guard- Drill B
o PG has a teammate; pass back and forth
o 3 defenders chasing
o Coming back: 3 on 2- outlet pass

III. Shooting

 4 ball shooting
o Baby hook
o Smart shot
o Curl @ Elbow
o Curl @ ElbowRip back to middle
o 3 point shot; big men shot fakejumper
 Follow the leader (Partner shooting)
o Group of 2; possibly 3---1 ball
 Lead shooter
 Follower

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Bob Hurley| “The Uptempo Practice”

o Whatever the lead shooter does, the follower(s) does

IV. Rebounding & Finishing Drills

 Superman drill
o Throw ball on opp. Side of the glass and go get it, landing outside the paint

o
 Tip Drill
o Throw off glass and tip it in (finish everything)
 Throw off glass, rip to chin, and score
 Rip, fake, and power up
 Rip, fake, and reverse layup

V. Ballhandling

 Quick change partner drill

o Start with right hand facing partner
o When arms length away from partner, switch hands
o Works on being quick in small spaces
o If you don’t call out which hand you are using, a collision is likely
 Crossover
 Through the legs
 Behind the back
 Spin

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VI. Combination Drills

 Foundation for passing

o Restrictions:
 Offense can’t dribble
 6 passes=1 point
 Post pass=1 point; Must put priority on feeding the post
 Basket=2 points
 12 passes=2 points
 Defense scores on a stop
 15 point games
o Start out by having 2 down screens and then flowing into a motion-type offense
 Foundation for defense
o Promotes communication, positioning, and rotation
o Starts out like a shell but with 5 vs 5
o On “switch” defense goes to offense
 However, no one can guard the same person
 Most important to guard immediately: Person with ball
 2nd most important: 1 pass away
 Least important: Weakside wing
 This is where communication comes into factor
 “we don’t talk, we have no chance.”
o On “double” we double team the ball
 Help defense needs to take away the next 2 passes
 One protector of rim
 Giving the offense a cross-court pass (gives defense time to regroup)
o On “change ends” offense goes to the other side of the floor and is now on defense;
while the other team is in their offensive transition downcourt
 Pass & Power Up

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Bob Hurley| “The Uptempo Practice”

o 2 posts on both sides of floor

o 2 guards on both sides of floor (1 designated for Offense, 1 for defense)
o Whichever post receives the pass is on offense and the other becomes defense
o Defense only guards in the half court
 Human Cones Drill

o “Coach Bob Hurley uses the Human Cone Drill as a competitive way to work on
ballhandling and attacking the rim. This drill can also be called "Guards vs Bigs." The first
guard will dribble around the human cones (the next guards waiting in line to dribble) as
they are trying to deflect the ball. Once the guard gets around all cones, he attacks the
rim being guarded by the post man who makes it as difficult as possible to score without
fouling. If the post stops him from scoring the post players get one point, if guard scores
the guard gets one point. And you keep alternating guards and posts until you reach a
set score. Note: Guards will always be scorers and posts will always be stoppers in this
drill for Coach Hurley.” –From http://triplethreatbball.blogspot.com

VII. End Practice

 “Last Gasp”- 10 lengths of the court (dribbling the ball)

o Down n back with right hand
o Down n back with left hand
o Walking figure 8 down n back

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Bob Hurley| “The Uptempo Practice”

o Alternating hands (crossover)

o 2 ball dribbling down n back
 Always finish with free throws!

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