NABC On the Court Open Practice with Jeff Depelteau: Passing, Defense, and Team Drills

with Jeff Depelteau,
Berkshire School (MA);
formerly at Christ School (NC);
advanced to the 2018 NCISAA State Final Four in 2018 and the State Finals in 2019;
was at Suffield Academy (CT) for nine seasons;
qualified for the NEPSAC Tournament each year;
advanced to the Final Four 6x and the New England Prep Championship 3x - 2013, 2015, and 2017 - won the State Championship in 2013;
2x New England Prep Coach of the Year (2013, 2017);
2015 Nike's "America's Got Basketball Coaching Talent" contest winner

This video featuring coach Jeff Depelteau is a fascinating look at the thought and detail that goes into designing a high school team's early season practices. Coach Depelteau goes over the importance of teaching and correcting mistakes early and demonstrates how he uses his assistant coaches to leverage time and learning opportunities for his players.

With this detailed look and explanation of practice, you will learn how to more effectively design your own practices and get to see key points of emphasis that Depelteau focuses on in both offensive and defensive drills.

How to Practice

Starting from the warm-up, the emphasis is on basketball fundamentals for all players from the freshmen through the seniors. Coach Depelteau and his staff believe that "if you accept it, then you better expect it" and show you how to supervise and design drills that help reinforce the skills and behaviors that you are trying to build as a coach.

Some of the key topics covered on the defensive side of the ball include:

• Technique and effort on long closeouts
• The importance of having active hands on defense
• How to get better at secondary closeouts
• Making sure that the defense finishes the possession by securing the rebound

Game-Based Drills

Coach Depelteau demonstrates a variety of game-based drills for teaching both offensive and defensive skills. You'll learn what to look for in each of the drills and how to structure highly competitive drills that will challenge every player on your team.

One of the important aspects of this video is the relentless focus on improving time-on-task. Each drill is designed to promote active involvement of as many players as possible, and Coach Depelteau offers many tips on how to utilize your assistant coaches to help further this key learning goal.

If you're looking to build a winning team with a strong culture from the very first day of practice, you'll find plenty great instruction in this comprehensive and detailed video.

59 minutes. 2021.