Clock At Practice

I think one of the best parts of our practice has to be the use of the clock. Our manager is in charge of setting up the clock before practice everyday and we time just about every drill.

Benefits

1. Keeps coach on time with each drill
2. For our competitive drills kids see exactly how we are doing
- My favorite drill is a transition drill where we have to score 55 layups in 5 minutes and kids see exactly how well or bad we are doing for the 5 min period
3. For shooting drills we rotate every 30 seconds and the manager hits the horn button and keeps me from having to yell out switch
4. Helps coaches transition from drill to drill at a faster pace
5. We will put 7 minutes on the clock and switch at 3:30 having 2 different groups for fundamental work
6. When I say put 45 seconds on the clock everyone in the gym knows to get to the sideline because we are going to run sideline to sideline 6 times in 45 seconds and keep doing it until everyone makes it.
7. I give our guys 5 minutes for a drink at least one time during practice. They know they have the rest of the time to get in part of their 100 required free throws for the week.
8. We get out of school at 2:40 everyday and we start practice at 3, I start the clock after my last class so they know how much time we have until practice will start.

Now as a head coach I have at least one assistant and a manager to help me run the clock at every practice. As a lower level coach I never was able to use this. I think it could still be done but isn't quite as easy. If you are lucky enough to watch college teams practice you will notice how good some coaches are with using the clock. They also have 3 assistants and 9 student managers to help out which makes their job a little easier.