Basketball Practice with Kelvin Sampson

Houston head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson has won everywhere he has been as evidenced by five coach of the year honors in four different conferences. In this video, you go inside three practices at Houston where Sampson is preparing his team for international competition in China. Coach Sampson uses the whiteboard to break down his drills and offensive and defensive sets. You also get live practice footage as Cougars players put Sampson’s teachings to work in drills and live scrimmage action.

The initial basketball practice session focuses on defense. Coach Sampson provides his philosophy for turning a team into great transition defenders. You will see a number of demonstrations and drills that Sampson uses to install the defense.

The team builds its culture through a series of warm up drills that demand intensity from players as they work on fundamental basketball skills like passing, shooting, and ball handling. Players work on transition defense in 2-on-1, 3-on-2, and 4-on-3 drills. Each of the drills has a trailing defender to simulate game action. Sampson emphasizes that players communicate, stop the ball, and match up.

Players move into the Shell Drill to work on the team’s defensive principles and to defend specific actions like pin downs and staggers. Coach Sampson interjects with the whiteboard to talk about help defense and the team works on rotations on a baseline drive, defending cuts, and stopping the slot drive.

Coach Sampson places high value on rebounding and uses a few different drills to build toughness. The offense is also introduced here with Sampson using the whiteboard to diagram how it all works. The video then moves into the second practice where Coach Sampson focuses on installing the major components of the offense. Players run through three baseline inbounds plays, four sideline inbounds plays, and two half-court set plays. The players do it first in a 5-on-0 environment before finally going against a full defense.

Basketball Practice Template

In the third practice, Coach Sampson continues building the defensive system with an emphasis on denying passing lanes. The practice features plenty of 5-on-5 action including half-court scrimmages. Full court pressure strategies off of a made throw are reviewed and much more.

This open practice from one of the game’s top coaches gives insight into how a championship program is run. You will find a number of drills you can implement into your program as well as ideas on how to build a winning culture. Rent this basketball practice DVD today.