Maximizing Christmas Break as a Basketball Coach
Christmas Break, especially if you’re not participating in any holiday tournaments, offers some extra time to help grow your team in multiple areas — togetherness, culture, identity, extra skill, more practice reps, etc.
If used wisely, you can return from your break as a better team (and program).
With Christmas Break and the holidays right around the corner, here are a few ideas on maximizing the extra time you’ll have with your team:
Do something fun
- This doesn’t even have to be basketball-related. Go to a movie as a team, play a game of volleyball/dodgeball/kickball, go bowling, etc.
- If you want to do something basketball-related, host a Program 1v1 or Program 3v3 Tournament. Get a poster board and draw up a bracket. Or have a 3 point contest/half court shot contest at the end of practice. Have fun with it.
Give back to your community
- Volunteer in some capacity — this could be officiating rec league games, soup kitchens, shoveling snow, or anything else similar — this is a great time (with ample opportunities) to serve and give back to the community your team is a part of
Attend a college practice or game
- Shoot an email to a college close to you and see if your team can attend a practice or a game. Most colleges (especially smaller ones) will hook your team up with tickets — especially over winter break when students are gone.
- This is also a great way for your players to see the game played “the right way” and at a higher level as an example
Have the team over to your house
- Have the team (maybe even parents) over to the house just to hang out. Have each family bring a potluck, put a game on the TV, and just commune.
Host a Christmas Party
- Ask your school if you can use the cafeteria to host a Christmas party. Invite your program, parents, the girls team, their teachers, the cheerleaders, faculty, staff, administration — WHOEVER. You can make this something huge or intimate.
- You could also do a White Elephant Gift Exchange or something similar
Involve the Alumni/Former Players
- Invite the alumni to a practice, host an alumni game, have them jump into drills/practice over the break, invite former players to games — the options are endless here to include former program players.
Take a team photo/Christmas card
- Have your kids deck out in Christmas gear and sweaters and take a photo
- Post it on social media, print it out, give it to the faculty, email it to your email list — you choose how to do it
Use the extra time in the gym (you probably don’t have to worry about the girls basketball team needing the gym right at 5:30) to get reps in and add new skill stuff
- Open the gym 30–60 minutes early every practice for kids to get in extra reps
- Pick one thing for each kid to consciously work on over the next 2
Get involved with your youth/feeder program
- Host a Winter Break Camp, go to AAU tournaments, invite youth teams to your practices or workouts — get involved in some capacity with your future players. Plus, it connects and streamlines your program.
Do a ton of situational stuff
- Make sure your players are crystal clear on your end-of-game strategy, sets, and how you want them to handle certain situations — both on offense and defense
- Something else to consider — put two minutes on the clock with a tie score and let them coach themselves through situations
Add a wrinkle to your offense or defense
- This is a great time to throw in a new offensive concept, add a set or two, adapt your offensive/defensive wrinkles, etc.
Clean up some areas that are lacking
- It’s also a great time to shore up any areas that may be struggling or behind. Struggling to rebound? Emphasize it hard during these few weeks. Too much middle penetration? Same thing. Turning it over too much? Make it priority #1 in every drill over break.
