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by Joao Da Costa (Author)
As a coach I always find one of the most challenging parts of my job is keeping the players motivated. One of the best ways I have found for doing this is to vary the drills I use in practice. Drills provide a powerful opportunity for coaches because they combine so many important elements of training at once. Drills can train all fundamental skills. They train the team to work together in speed, agility and execution. The flowing repetition of the drill allows the training to become second nature to the players. Using new and varied drills and incorporating them into our practices, we train a wide variety of fundamental skills and variations on basic offensive plays like the fast break. I have found that drills are often overlooked as an asset in coaching. No matter where I am coaching whether at a clinic, or watching the practice of a club in Europe, South America, an NCAA or high school team. I see that coaches around the world often get into a routine of the same drills every practice. If a drill becomes routine, then the players will lose interest and focus. I was inspired to write this book after coaching a group of professional players in the Euro2003 tournament in Spain. The players were from all over the world and they responded enthusiastically to my drills. Other coaches who attended the tournament also said my drills were unique and asked me to share my techniques with them.
