Chalk Talk Archives

Competitive-Fun Drills
Most Aggressive Gut Check Drills
Variants to the 11 Player Break Drill
Most Beneficial Drill
Practice Warm-up
Practice Planning
Keeping Practice Fun
Scrimmaging
Scrimmage Teams in Practice
Scrimmaging: Running your offense when the defense (your own players) know what s coming
Ways to Scrimmage to Involve All Players
Using Managers in Practice
Team Managers
Running as a Punishment?
Hustle
Conditioning in Practice
Stretching during Practice/Warm-up
Time Spent on Shooting in Practice/Number of Shots in Practice
Closed Practices or Not?
Do you let parents watch practice?
Practice Planning Before 1st Game
Deciding what to teach in practice

Tryouts (6)

Try-Outs
Drills For Tryouts
Your Best Drill for Tryouts
Main Things You Look For In A Player During Tryouts
Tryouts: How Many to Keep & What to do With the Rest
Cutting Players

Running A Program (14)

Turning around a program
Feeder Systems
Fundraising
Off-Season Workouts
Play Year-Round?
What is your focus in Summer League Games?
Pulling up a Freshman
EARLY SEASON & NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULING
Coach to Win or Develop in 8th grade?
How many players you need (not carry) for your system?
Open Gym
Preseason Organizational Meeting w/ Staff
Saturday Program For Elementary Kids
Your Program: Secrets of Success & Problems You ve Faced

General Coaching Advice (8)

Make Sure You Always:
Make Sure You Never
How to Coach Young Centers
General Advice
Being a Better Bench Coach
What Makes A Good Coach At The Youth Level
What have you learned from experience
The Hardest Thing in Coaching Basketball is because

Team Management/Motivation (29)

Losing Mentality
Dealing With A Weaker Schedule
Players Accepting Roles
Parents
Parents & Playing Time
Dealing with Parents: Your Philosophy
Having Assistant Coaches
Players Keeping Notebooks/Giving them Handbooks
Team Building
Team Slogans
Half Time Pep-Talks
Motivational/Reward Systems for Individuals & Team
How to Motivate Polite Girls to be Aggressive
Team Leadership/Team Captains
Choosing Captains & their Responsibilities
Team Concept/Selfish Players
Avoiding Team Burnout
Practice Attendance & Consequences
Players Violating School & Team Rule
Having Players Play Multiple Positions
Goals You Want to Accomplish This Year
Substitution Systems
Planning for the Season
Team Rules
Motivational Quotes
GOAL SETTING
Eliminating 1st Game Jitters
Preparing for a Championship Game
Losing in the Championship: What do you say?

Statistics (6)

FT Percentage
FT s Per Game
What is a good 3-point FG Percentage
Statistics
Posting Stats to Players
High School Girls Basketball Research What statistic has the biggest correlation with winning?

Special Situations (8)

Special Situations
Time & Score Situations
Down in the 4th Quarter Strategies
In the lead, tight game: When to start eating clock?
Strategy: How do you start your game?
Down By 2, 20 Seconds Left: What do you do?
Strategy: Key situations in games
Game Strategy: I love it when

Other (47)

Features of a Good PG
Aggressiveness
BIGGEST CHALLENGE AS A COACH
Likes/Dislikes
Bad Habits By Players
Pet Peeves
What will you change this season?
You Know it s Going to be a Long Season When
Community Service Project
Catchy Saying You Use as a Coach
Great Sayings
Use of Time Outs
Injury Liability Form
Parent/School Transportation Policy
Coaching Own Kids: Pros & Cons
Games & Contests for Summer Camp
Gift Suggestions for Coaches
Points of Emphasis Over the Summer
Coaching Resume
Activity Sports Fees
Rather have a natural athlete or a kid that had to learn how to become a player?
Your Best Prank
Toughest part about coaching
Stories of Parent Problems
Dealing With Refs
What has worked for you with referees?
Definition of a Good Coach
Rating yourself as a coach: Looking back at your season
Preparing for an interview
Telling players the truth: Do we sugarcoat things too much?
Breaking down game film
Preseason Parent Meeting
Awards Banquet
Summer Reading Coaching Books
Restrictions on Player s Appearance
Dress Codes
Coaching Philosophy
Can we teach toughness?
Working Camps
What Zone Do You Prefer & What Zone Do You Prefer to Play Against?
What does every successful coach have in common?
Unique or Interesting Basketball Ideas/Concepts
What your team does better than others year in and year out
Beginners Coaches Clinic
Beginners Clinic

OFFENSE

Fundamentals

Square Up & Triple Threat

The players are spread out on the floor. Each player has a ball. They spin the ball backwards, let it bounce, take their 1-2 step as they catch the ball and go into triple threat position. (Repeat several times in unison on the whistle.) We may advance further by having them plant their first foot, and make a rounded pivot (as if they were catching the ball on the perimeter and were turning to shoot.) I will have them do this in sets of 5 (the first four are working on the 1-2 step and getting low into the triple threat position. On the fifth rep they square up and begin to sweep and swing the ball while pivoting and protecting the ball.) I will make sure that they do this with each foot as the pivot foot
I don't think this is much help but, repetition is the name of the game. Start practice with individuals working their way around the 3 point line tossing and catching the ball with the feet in the air landing square to the basket with the ball in the shooting pocket. Have them work around the line both ways. No shooting just squaring up and getting in a good shooting position. Stress squaring up in every shooting drill you do as well as in scrimmages.
Here is a simple little drill I have done for years. It is very elementary, but hey, it has worked for me. Start a line at 1/2 court and another line on the wing. Guy on wing does a V-cut and catches the ball coming back to the wing. Focus on catching and squaring in the air. Upon catching and squaring they yell "Swoop" as they power the bal through once or twice. Then they pass it to the next man in the line at half court. That guy catches in with a jump stop and also "Swoops". By the this time the next guy in the wing line should be nearing the end of his Vcut and be ready to recieve the ball. The drill just keeps going. One other thing I stress in this is that the reciever has to give the passer a target. If the passer does not have a target they are told to not pass the ball. This backs one of our rules "Don't pass the ball to a guy who looks like he doesn't want it"

Passing

Bad passes aren't always the fault of the passer...they can be the result of bad receiving skills, too.
Having the hands ready to receive a pass, moving toward the passer, and creating a passing target/lane are as important as making good decisions with the ball. BBHighway has a clinic on catching/pivoting/faking that has much good advice.
We do a drill where you have 3 people involved. 2 people who are the passers spaced about 10 feet away with 1 person in the middle. The person in the middle stays in the middle until he can get a hand on the ball as it is trying to be passed to the other player. The middle person goes to the player who caught the ball and applies pressure trying to get a hand on the ball. Meanwhile, the passers are learning to pivot and protect, reverse pivot on the overplay to pass on the other side, fake a pass to make a pass, and so on. The drill continues for a specified amount of time. No lob passes are allowed, and the receiver must be able to catch the ball without moving.
Bobby Knight has a thought on passing that we have found effective. He states " The player should pass away from the defense rather than to the offensive man".
practice dribble entries into your motion; AND teach them how to USE the dribble to open up passing lanes.
DRILLS:

THE OLD STAR DRILL: (no shooting just passing): Do it with two and then three balls at one time. The other may be a bit difficult to explain without diagrams but I'll try.

DIAMOND PASSING DRILL:

CROSS PASSING DRILL:

INDIANA PASSING DRILL:

BEARCAT PASSING DRILL: (4 balls)

GET OUT OF THE TRAP DRILL:

10 CONSECUTIVE PASSES:

10 CONSECUTIVE PASSES WITH 4 DEFENDERS:

V-Cut Passing

Post Feeding:

A great passing drill

2 line passing race, no Defense.

3 man weave

2v1 passing:

Machine gun pass

Circle with D in middle.

50 passes

Is the chest pass overrated?

I think, with regards to passing, teaching the 2 handed chest pass is one of the biggest wastes of time possible. When do you use it. When is it more affective than a one handed step thru pass. Our entire program, varsity on down to camp for the 1st graders has stopped teaching it. We teach a right handed pass with a right step or a left step, a left handed pass with a right or left step. A Hervie pass, this is the 2 handed above the head pass, but not the lob. A lob, a baseball pass. The key to getting open to make the pass is pivoting. "Pivot to Pass" as we say many many times. Pivoting does not lead to many good chest passes, it is just too akward. How many times does a player have the luxury of stepping directly toward the intended pass recepient. Not if you are playing my team. On the perimeter, a chest pass can easily be deflected by the pass defender or the recepient defender. We teach outside hand to outside hand. So if I am on the right wing passing to the top of the key. I am going to step through the defender with a pivot, pass with my left hand since it is as far from the d as possible and aim for the right shoulder area of the guy I am passing to.
One of the points of emphasis when teaching this pass is to keep it in 2 hands as long as possible, but then at the end, all the strength and rotation comes from one hand. It is very similar to the off hand when shooting, keep it on the ball as long as possible then finish with one hand. I like what you are saying about stepping through and getting the knee to the ground except for 2 factors. First, I think you need to practice stepping with either foot because of not knowing which pivot foot to use and second, I worry about getting extended so far with the long step that if a defender starts to go for the steal, you can't regain your balance and pull out of the pass.
I've been having the same thoughts for a while. I think the one hand push pass (that's what I call it) can be much better that the chest pass in most situations. But, not teaching the chest pass would be a mistake. I find my self using it often when I play, simply because there are times it is the best pass. Their are different ways of dribling the ball from one side to the other. Do you only teach your players the crossover? There is just times when a reverse drible (spin) is better. You can play the game of basketball only using few fundamentals. However I think it is our job as coaches to teach our players the entire game. I agree on the push pass being a more used pass, hence a better pass. I teach it before the chest pass. This is also because it will help the development of the shoot better than the chest pass.
Chest pass is good in fast break when you are not closely covered and want to throw hard and quickly. When defended, you cannot use it. The overhead pass is what we use 90% of the time because it is quick, you can easily fake it one way and throw it the other whereas the long step to the side and throw from the hip is so slow developing that the receiver's defender can easily anticipate it and cut in front for the steal. Stepping across the defenders leg before passing is a good counter for very tight D on the passer.
We never teach chest passing. We teach right and left handed push passes. If we are going to the left side of the floor from the top, we want a left handed push pass. We teach our kids to pass with the hand away from the defender. We have both hands on the ball but the ball is anchored on the right or left side of the trunk. The hand on the side away from the defender is really the guide hand and the hand that pushes the ball to the target. Even on full court passing drills we emphasize passing with the hand that would be away from the defender. Our kids, most of them, do not want to use the left hand. But we emphasize it and hold them accountable for attempting to execute this properly.

Foul shooting

1) Check form and correct technical problems (make sure to keep the legs in the shot)
2) repetition - have them get a system so they do the same thing on each shot (ie. 3 dribbles and shoot, etc.)
3) practice ft shooting several times each practice. We shoot free throws 3 times each practice--first, after warming up and doing full court drills (O or D), we shoot 20, 5 at a time, trying to establish rhythm, etc.; second, after doing individual drills we shoot "streaks" (shoot until you make, shoot until you miss) again to establish rhythm and get the kids comfortable at the line; third, at the end of practice, depending on time, we shoot 5 1-and-1's or 5 2's. After that's done, we line everyone up to shoot 1. We assign 1 suicide at the end of practice for every missed free throw. Say we make 8/12 leaving four suicides, depending on my mood and how hard they've practiced, I select 1 or 2 players to shoot double or nothing (after we've run about half of the suicides). This adds a little more pressure to it.
Obviously pressure would play a little role in this, but I firmly believe the main thing is confidence. In practice there aren't any really bad consequences if you miss the shot like there are in the game. Therefore you have more confidence that you will make it, why shouldn't you. You got nothing to lose. I constantly explain to my kids; if you can do it once, you can do it 100 times. By making 1 shot you prove that your body is capable of performing the necessary movements to make it. The only challenge is to mentally get your body to perform it again. It is almost like training a dog. Initially he might speak on command 3 out of 10 times. But, although he fails 70% of the time, he can still do it. Eventually his pea sized brain will learn how to call upon that function 100% of the time. Just preach CONFIDENCE!!
I think Silver Coach nailed it. Conditioning is key. Its one thing to knock down 15 in a row in the driveway, and quite another to do it in a game. We like to practice free throws when breathing hard and then add incentives to simulate the pressure, so there are stakes on the line. The stakes can be a positive reward if the free throw is made and/or negative if missed (run more and try again). After players get used to shooting like this, they should feel more confident, and their game percentage should pick up. Steve

Shooting Pocket

A couple quick questions first: How strong is your daughter, and at what basket height is she shooting? The reason I ask is at younger ages kids aren't strong enough to shoot "3 pointers" and when they shoot from more than 10-12 feet away they will either start their shot from the side or down by their waist. What I've also seen happen, is to keep the shooting elbow "in" players sometimes push their shooting hand out, which makes them shoot more from the side of their head. I do allow players to be "slightly" turned when squaring up to the basket which helps overcome this problem. Example; left "ball of foot" even with right heel for a right handed shooter.

I teach shooting from above the eyes. Reasons:
1) There is a straight line from your eyes to the basket, and the ball is now also on that line. This results in less adjustments you have to account for.
2) It helps with your follow through because you're trying to "flick" your wrist into the basket, so your hand doesn't shoot from the side of the ball.
3) Your shots are harder to block because you're usually shooting from a higher release point.

I'm sure there are other advantages/disadvantages, but at the middle school level these benefits are enough for me to teach the way I do. My comment about shooting above the eyes, referred to "Learner's" term. I did not mean to describe the shot by blocking your vision with the ball in front of your eyes. The shooting pocket (for a right hand shooter) is formed, and starts, with the center of the ball even or just outside of your right eye, with the top of the ball about shoulder high. (Triple threat position) When you release the ball you should be releasing above the head, with hand and ball still aligned with the right eye. Hope I didn't confuse anyone.
You do not want the ball to be in front of your eyes when shooting, this limits your vision. The shooting pocket should be slightly to the outside of your head, but also slightly in front of your head. When the ball is in the shooting pocket, the inside of the ball should be about even with the outside of your stong side eye and the ball should be 6 inches to a foot in front of your head. This is a little method I have used for my 7th grade boys. Reach out like you are going to shake someones hand. Now, keep your elbow still and bring your hand up to the shooting pocket. This should give you good elbow position and hand position. When all of this is done correctly, you should see 3 fingers on your shooting hand and 2 fingers on your off hand when holding the ball.

Correcting Shooting Form

I currently have a number of players on my 7th and 8th grade teams who all seem to have a good form for taking a shot.... feet spaced apart for good balance, elbows are in tight, and seem to have their eyes set on the hoop. However, when the shot is taken, it is usually a flat shot, with little arc. This leads to the ball hitting hard off the front or back of the rim. What drills or ideas do you have for getting these players and younger players to shoot with more arc on the ball?
With my girls' teams I try to get them to imagine reaching into a cookie jar on the top shelf--that gets them thinking about getting up on their toes, getting their shooting arm moving up instead of out, and gets their hand to follow through (as though reaching over the top of the cookie jar). My boys' teams often have already been taught to think of a gooseneck on their follow-through. One good drill is to start out under the rim and make 3-5 (depending on your team's ability level) shots without using the glass or hitting the rim. After making a full set of clean shots, move back a step and do it again. Adjust the number of clean shots as the distance gets greater. What the shooter discovers is that a higher shot has a better chance of coming through the rim clean. It is much more effective to see this than it is to hear a coach harping on it.
Like Rockets Ch I have kids stand with their noses under the front of the rim to shoot 25. This position forces them to reach with their follow through up and over. It seems awkward at first but as they get it they seem to like the challenge. Also remind them of Michael Jordan's last shot in the NBA - follow through high, held, and waving goodbye to the ball!
Excellent question. I'm working with 9-10 grade boys and see the same thing. I think the flat shot comes from two sources: poor technique and/or linear thinking. Poor technique: the flat shot is a sign of weakness, so find where the power is lost. Is the wrist cocked back? Is the ball on the palm or fingertips? How much are the legs under the shot? Is the ball held far from the body when the shot is initiated? Have the players start from a triple threat position, legs bent, with the ball near the shooting shoulder. There should be plenty of power there for arc. When players try jumps shots, the shot often flattens out. Watch for elbow flare, timing of the release and where the ball is held to initiate the shot. Linear thinking: Some kids just think in straight lines. When shooting, they choose the shortest path to the basket. To them, an arcing shot is loss of control. As mentioned in earlier posts, shooting under the basket is an excellent drill. Have them shoot over taller people (hands raised) for longer shots to force the arc. I try to explain that a ball falling straight down into the basket sees a circular target. The incoming flat shot sees a smaller, narrow oval target. Look at the details. They may do many things right, but it just takes one fault to break the technique.
I suggest that if she will be playing at the 8th grade level the rest of her life, there isn't much need to change as she shoots OK now. If she has ambitions, its better to pay the price of learning technique now rather than later.
just remember to keep encouraging this player with positive reminders about the 4 elements of the shot: Balance (hand and body) Eyes (on the RIM), Elbow (shooting hand and arm position) and Followthrough (60 degrees +/- from plane of body, waving "goodbye" to the ball). If she can shoot it using her old methods and agrees to adjust her shot, her confidence will plummet because she will start missing shots. JUST KEEP ENCOURAGING with the "2 for 1" method: 2 positive comments for every negative. It will be difficult. Good Luck!
Incorrect form is a very common thing with youngster because they do not have a lot of power and make up for it with a lot of unusual shots, such as from the waist. I would not let up on her as far as the correct way to shot. If it is difficult for her to change now, it will be almost impossible later on! I would start with her real close to the basket where she will not have to compromise correct form for power and gradually move her back. Players with bad form usually do not advance too far. It would have been nice if someone had told her this earlier but you can still help her.
Make them do it right... over and over and over and over. Many high school players wind up as "Career JV's" because of 1 or 2 fundamental flaws and this is no different. Our high school jv team has 1 girl right now who can rebound and play defense with as well as anyone but she pushes her shot from about chest high with no extension. This is a bad habit that was never corrected at an earlier age. Now, since she is not an offensive threat she is probably doomed to be a JV player until her senior year and then become a "role" player and get limited time on the varsity. Try your best to make them do it right. That's why you're the coach.
If you have her practice correctly eventually it will replace the way she currently shoots. She will have to shoot several thousand shots the right way before she will "automatically" shoot in a game with correct form. Start close to the basket and practice a one-handed shot with proper form, within 5 feet. As her form improves, move her away from the basket. Do not let her shoot with both hands, learn a one-handed shot and add the other hand as a balance.
Strengthening shooting muscles:
1. Hold right hand in shooting position with wrist cocked back, elbow pointing at basket, forearm straight up. Use left hand to provide resistance on finger tips of right hand and flex wrist forward against resistance of left hand.
2. Squeeze a tennis ball.
3. Pushups.
4. Leg exercises, such as lunges, half squats, toe raises, jumping.

Correct Form:
Face basket, point upper arm at basket with elbow higher than underarm, bend elbow so angle is around 100 - 140 degrees (longer shots need greater elbow bend, short shots mostly wrist and less elbow bend). Make sure forearm (elbow to wrist) is straight up and down, not with the elbow sticking out to the side - the most common shooting form problem I see. Bend the wrist back as far as possible. Left hand should just hold the ball on the right hand until the beginning of th shot and then come off the ball. Don't push the ball with the left hand (2nd most common error). Extend the elbow and flick the wrist making sure the ball is held by the pads of the fingers and not touching the palm. Focus your eyes on the basket visualizing the rim as the edge of a small round table and make the ball land on the middle of the table. If you are shooting a jump shot, you should release the ball at the peak of the jump or just slightly before the peak. After you release the ball, your wrist should be bent as far forward as it will bend. You can practice form by standing with your right foot on the out of bounds line and shooting straight up so the ball lands a few feet in front of your foot, on the line, and with perfect back spin. Then start shooting at the basket beginning very close and slowly backing out. Have a partner check your form as you shoot. If you make two in a row, back up a step. If you miss two in a row, move in a step. Once you are shooting well with no defense, have your partner run at you and work on quicker release and a high release, shooting off a dribble left and right, off a jump stop and pivot, etc.

Problems with Missed Lay-ups & Short Shots

My 6th grade boys are having difficulty making short shots of all types - put-backs, baseline drives and lay ups from directly in front of the goal. I can't seem to get them to use the glass and it's driving me crazy watching them miss so many close in shots. I'm going to start using the Mikan Drill in practice but that involves only one player at a time. Practices are held with three other teams in the gym, so I have only one basket available to me. Is there a "team" drill I can use to help with this problem?
Well, there is one drill i know of. You put a ball on each of the two blocks and put two guys there, one under the hoop and one in the middle of the paint. The guy in the paint is the shooter. he goes to the first ball, grabs it, and shoots, he then goes to the other ball and does the same thing. The guys underneath hands the guys on the first block the ball while that guys replaces it. The shooter shoots ten times, then they rotate.
A drill I call stationary lay-ups works really well for that age group. I had the same problem with my guys missing too many underneath. The drill goes like this- One ball one player-standing under basket alternating sides of basket while shooting as fast as he can-emphasis on no dribble, arm extension, quick release, and speed- I require my 7th graders to hit 25 in a row, and 8th to hit 30- AND I give them 3-4 tries to achieve this or they do 50 wall slaps (I'll explain later) They get really competitive w/ each other w/ this one and really like it as long as they hit. During this drill I slap or pop the kids in their stomach or legs to get them use to contact under the basket when shooting. OK - Wall Slaps- I have the same problem with having only one basket so I get a couple strips of tape and stick on the wall - one for short ones and one for the taller kids- place the tape so it will be a challenge for them to jump and reach- then have them do ~50 while never allowing their arms to fall- if they fall the whole team does a double-suicide.
I got this drill from Gary Blair, Arkansas Lady Razorbacks Head Coach. Have your players make two equal lines on either side of the lane underneath the basket. The players will be facing the floor. Everyone has a ball except the first person in one of the lines. Start the drill by having the person w/o the ball curl around and receive the ball from the first person in the other line. First cutter shoots ( lay-up, short jumper, etc.). The passer becomes the next cutter. He will curl around (make sure they go around) the person who he just passed to. You should get a criss-crossing motion. You can adapt this drill to your offense and to accommodate longer jump shots or backside cuts. Hope this helps.
I like to use competitive drills for shooting like this one: divide your team into 3 equal teams, each team forms a straight line facing the basket - line A at the foul line, line B on the diagonal(just off the first hash mark) and line C opposite line B (off the opposite hash mark. Each team starts with a ball at the first player. Place 3 balls at the opposite foul line (other end of the court). At the coach's signal, the players begin shooting at the basket. If they make their shot, they rebound their own ball and pass to the next player in their own line. If they miss, they must rebound to their own line, sprint to the opposite foul line and make a foul shot before they can return to their original line. Score one point for each made short shot and the first line to 11 (21) wins! Players must rebound to get the free throw balls, if there are too many players at that end. "Shooting Challenged " lines run as a consequence. Have fun the kids love this!
Try this. 2 lines out of bounds baseline at each lane line. one ball in each line. the second line the 2nd player has the ball & the first person in the first line has the ball. The first player in line 2 curls through the lane and gets the ball for a jump stop and jump lay up(you can modify the type of shot you want them to shoot). The passer cuts off of this shooter as if he were a screener and curls to the other block and gets the pass for a jump stop and jump lay up. The shooter gets his own rebound and passes to the line he recieved the pass from and goes to the end of that line. this drill should be done quickly with crisp passes. This is also a good conditioning drill to get them shooting with tired legs. I let it go for awhile and when they get tired I have them make a certain number of shots before we switch to something else. I usually start with jump lay ups, left hand left side and right hand right side, and I extend to mid lane jumpers, elbow jumpers, top of key each side 3's and finish back with lay ups.
Preach high and soft, jump up not forward. Run chaser lay-up drill with man starting at half-court with defender following, Adjust distance behind based on speed. Both players take off when you pass out in front of first player, who races down using speed dribble for lay-up with defender following..simulates games situations with lay-ups.

Celtic lay-up drill: 2 person drill full-court: player tosses ball off-board, rebound and hits outlet player who dribbles down for lay-up, rebounder follows and puts it in if player misses, then steps out and hits outlet and repeat in the other direction. Make your lay-up drills more game-like. Put in defense as a chaser as suggested before. Get a football blocking pad and bump your players as they shoot. Stand under the hoop and give them light fouls as they shoot. Put them under some pressure. 4-minute lay-up drill. Let us say you have 10 players, then the team must make 10 right handed lay-ups in a row, then switch and shoot until you make 10 left-handed in a row, then switch and shoot 10 right side power until you make 10 in a row, and then left power until you make 10 in a row. A great team should get this done in less than 3 minutes. Every 30 seconds that goes by after 4:00 minutes is some sort of run. I have had teams do it in 2 minutes and 30 seconds and I have had teams that took 27 minutes to do it. The teaching points are this. You must shoot with some pressure. It take all 10 guys to make the team great. Do not get down on guys that miss but instead you should encourage. This is actually a better team building drill than lay-up drill. It will really show you the character of your team. Will they fold when the going gets tough, or will the shine.

3 Drills we use to teach the kids to finish their lay-ups:

#1. Power lay-up drill. Drill runs both directions simultaneously with a coach at each end. Two lines (offense and defense) at the FT line extended so the kids are facing the far basket. Roll ball out towards half court, Offensive player must pick up the ball and drive to the hole for a lay-up while the defender tries to force their player out of the lay-up lane . Coach with blocking pads steps in to make contact as the lay-up is being put up. Go to the next line switching O & D. Two keys keep the defender from diverting your path to the hole, and welcome the contact by going in strong (power up), not fading at the finish. Do these from both the R and L sides.

#2. Full court chaser drill. Both directions simultaneously, coach at each end to evaluate the finish. We use permanent pairings based on speed and skill. Offensive player at FT line extended, Defender with the ball behind the baseline under the basket. D passes the ball in to O who will push the ball hard up the remaining length of the court with D chasing. We encourage speed and contact. Switch O & D lines and go the other way. Keys for offense, finish strong and welcome the contact, for defense, beat the ball handler to the block (where the lay-up will take place) rather than chase aimlessly. Coach evaluates each finish providing feedback to the players. Again, make sure you practice both L and R sides.

#3. Full court outlet & trailer drill. Three lines one under the basket (rebounder), another at half-court sideline on ballside of rebounder, and the third out of bounds at the weak side hash-mark with an obstacle (we use a saw-horse). Coach at each station plus end basket. Tap ball off backboard, rebounder pulls down the board, pivots and looks to make an outlet pass near the half-court sideline. After the pass, rebounder will sprint to weak side block, filling the lane as the trailer. Before the outlet pass, the outlet receiver is trying to juke the defender (coach) and calls for the outlet pass (v-cut back to ball). Once outlet has the ball, drive hard to the far basket for a lay-up. At the same time outlet receives the pass, defender at the hash-mark can release, jump over the horse, and sprint to the strongside block to defend the lay-up. Lots of key points in this drill both offense and defense. The ones related to lay-ups are as follows: If defender has not established position on the block, YOU MUST FINISH THE LAY-UP. If defender has beaten you to the block, either pull up for a short jumper or feed the trailer on the weak side (keeps defender honest). Coach evaluates all finishes and provides feedback. Everyone rotates one line over.

Low Post Play

Our players use the drop step, Sikma move (up and under) and the hook shot. These are basic moves for all post players that we work on everyday day along with Mikens and Billy C shots around the basket. More important is to work on shooting in traffic and on offensive putbacks. We work on getting balanced, going up strong and shooting soft. We shoot in side tring to draw contact and fouls. A good drill for this is to give each player a ball, one line in the lane, have yourself and another person stand shoulder to shoulder in fornt of the basket and have the player with the ball throw it off the back board, rebound and go back up agianst you and the other defender (go up strong and get some contact). Post moves need to be worked on in the summer, consentrating on foot work, balance and a soft touch around the hoop.
We like to put tape on the floor and create what we call a power box. The box should be a half box with the open end furthest from the baseline. The box should be located about 3 feet in front of the backboard off to the side of the hoop - basically the area you want the player to release his power move shot. We work the player on how to break across the lane and receive the ball with a slight two foot jump stop. We work next on how to chin the ball and look baseline foot to see if he can beat his man. We next work the FOOTWORK. We drop step, slide, one dribble in midddle of body. This move should take us from the catch spot (line between the second and third free throw lane spot) to the power box. The feet should be pointing straight at the backboard - this is a must. The shoulders will also be square with the backboard. This will keep the inside shoulder closed and teach the player how to keep his opponent on his back. It is a simple drill but we do it by the 100's.

Post Play: Counter move to the drop step

Power dribble (one) towards the middle of the key and explode to the basket. We practice the drop step, the power dribble and with some players a short hook shot with that move towards the middle. What we discourage are fadeaway jumpers.
If the post player is feeling heavy pressure from the low side by the defender, then we teach our post to front pivot into the lane, so you are still using the same pivot foot. The important factor is to pivot fast and low so that your post player is in basketball position and ready to move. Now we have 3 reads. #1 if the defender stays back, we take the 7 foot jumper, from this spot I coach them to always use the backboard so they cant get more power on their shot and have less chance of it getting blocked. This is the least best option The next option is if the defender stays back and is still in a position to deny the move down the lane. Then we use a dribble to the middle and shoot either a left handed baby hook over the front of the rim. Or a power move and use the backboard from straight in front. This is the second best choice. Now the best move is if the defender uses and advance step to try to stop the jumper when the post front pivots. Now the inside leg as the post is facing the hoop is still free to make a step. So we execute a cross over step aiming our lead foot just pass and through the defenders outside leg and foot, then with a good power dribble we pin the defender on our backs and make the power lay up from the same spot we would have, had the drop step been available. This is the best option.
Another move we teach is a ball fake - show the ball high side near the shoulder and lean (but don't step). If the defender buys the move and steps up, you can then execute the drop step, sealing him off and making the power lay-up.
1) Ball fake to inside middle above shoulder before drop step baseline, add shot fake if needed before power lay-up
2) Fake drop step baseline with ball fake shoulder high, inside pivot, baby jumper (option: can also add step back dribble to create space)
3) Fake drop step, ball fake shoulder high baseline, inside pivot to middle, jump hook
4) Fake drop step, inside pivot, shot fake, up and under crossing over back baseline if they overreact to 2 and 3
5) If playing soft, pivot, square up and take quick jumper or fake shot and crossover middle and hookbr> We teach the kids to open up to the inside and then up and under to the power shot which they wanted to do in the first place.

Backdoor Cut

I just want to add that the back door is more of a a two man play than an individual move. The passer's role is just as important as the cutter's. Where is most often breaks down is when the passer simply doesn't see the backdoor develop and misses the opportunity. Another common fault is the passer not selling the situation with a fake pass. What helps is advance information. Offensive players that have an overzealous defender should speak up or signal (we use a closed fist). Cutter should use extended outside hand to signal for pass, then plant outside foot to stop and reverse, always facing the ball. Also a geographic marker for the actual cut (such as the three point line) helps improve success. Some of the best places to strike are the wing diving low, coming back to the wing and reversing again at the arc to go inside; post player comes out to get a pass in the corner but reverses back inside.
1. Use L-Cuts. Teach the players to cut at their defender in a streight line. If the defender is above the outside shoulder, cut to basket. If the defender is under the inside shoulder, plant the inside foot and cut up to meet the pass.

2. Look at the scouting report and game film. Do they play a flat triangle or an extended defense?

3. When executing a back cut, the inside hand mut be extended all the way to give the passer a target. YOU MUST DRILL THE KIDS ON BEING ABLE TO CATCH A BACKDOOR PASS AND HIT THE LAY-UP IN STRIDE, NO JUMP STOPS OR HESITATIONS. TEACH THE KIDS HOW TO SHOOT LAY-UPS WITH A DEFENDER PRESSURING FROM BEHIND.

4. The most frustrating part of teaching back cuts is the passing aspect. We use a lot of back cuts to offset the extreme defensive pressure that we face in our league (some of the best in the state). Teach the kids how to make a one handed bounce pass off of the dribble and they must LEAD THE CUTTER TO THE HOOP. This type of pass makes us harder to telegraph and the pass is lower, thus harder to steal. Watch old Princeton tapes, especially when Carril was there, they were the best.

5. If you want to use more back cuts in your .5 court offense, you must teach your players that only greedy players run at the ball. Plus, you have to be able to hit the perimeter jump shot to force the defense out into the lanes. If there is no answer at the backdoor, knock at the front.

6. It takes a lot of teaching time in practice. It has been a good cut for us, we have to use it. It makes teaching slips vs. switching easier, and once the kids get used to doing it they can get very clever and precise on both the cut and pass.
We also use closed fist to signal we are going back door and the kids are NEVER to start a back cut and not go all the way to the block. that way the passer can be confident the cutter is really going back door and can focus on the defenders. AK's point about the fake pass to the outside as the cutter plants to go back door is also important. Often the D will swallow the fake and take his eyes off the cutter which allows the cutter to get very open. Cutters also have to notice help coming and be ready to dish.

FUN Ball handling Drills

Basketball Tag - Everyone has a ball, they start dribbling inside the 3 point line and at the same time try to knock the ball away from the others. As long as you keep one continuous dribble, you stay in. If you lose your dribble, your out. 2. Dribble with one hand and juggle 2 tennis balls with the other.
SPORTS PAGE- each kid gets a page out of the paper they open it against their chest and have to dribble forward fast enough and under control to keep the paper off the ground without touching it. Each stop you fold it in half to make it that much harder.
Each player gets a ball-boundaries are the baseline and the three point arc-blow the whistle-each player tries to knock the ball of another player out of bounds-if your ball is knocked out you are out of the drill-as players decrease shorten the boundaries. Drill teaches: stay low, protect ball, court awareness, etc.
keep away with a coach helping the team on defense - time offense and see how long they can keep the ball. fox and geese? - dribblers have to stay on the lines (side lines, lanes, 3 point line, volleyball court lines, etc) while a chaser tries to knock their ball away - chaser replaces whoever he knocked out and they become new chaser - chaser does not have a ball. Option is to keep same chaser and last person caught is next fox. Time them to see which fox gets others out quickest. Maximum two minutes so slow kids don't go forever. Sharks and minnows: one person "it", others start on baseline with a ball. All try to dribble to other baseline while "it" tries to knock their ball away. Each person caught joins with original shark for the next iteration. Last one to lose ball is shark for next game. Relay races using cones (or kids lined up as cones) making various dribbing moves for each direction change (behind back, between legs, spin, crossover).

Better Hands

I don't know what it's called, but there's a toy/game/whatever, that velcros around your wrist and has an extremely long and strong rubber band attached to the end. Attached to that is a super ball about the size of a tennis ball. You throw the ball away from you and it goes out about 15 feet, then the rubber band zigs it back at you. If you don't catch it, the super ball will zing you in every part of your body. You learn real quickly how to catch a ball! Sorry I don't have the name of it for you.
Silly putty! Get ahold of some silly putty and play with it daily. This strengthens hands and helps prevent injuries.
Squeeze a tennis ball. Do fingertip pushups. Throw a superball against the wall and catch it. Have a partner throw a basketball to you and catch it with one hand - use your fingertips, reach out for the ball, let your hand give as the ball hits it, pull it in. You can also take a flat piece of plywood about the size of a ping pong paddle, drill some holes in it for laces so you can attach it to the palm of your hand, and practice one hand catches with the wood on your hand. This will help you learn to let your hand give when the ball hits it. I know this works for baseball players but have never tried it for catching a basketball. Close your eyes and have someone throw passes into your hands (gently). Have someone play defense on you (post them up by stepping in front of them and holding them behind you with your butt and upper arm) while another player throws you passes which you will catch with the other hand. Have them bump you and try to reach around you to deflect the pass while you hold them off. Concentrate on focusing on the ball as it comes toward your hand.

Pivot Foot: Does it Matter?

The left foot as pivot seems natural to me, but I stress ambidexterity as the goal for ball handlers. If a player is comfortable going either way, then what difference does it make which foot is the pivot? If our defenders realize an opponent is "right handed", he will be using his left hand a lot when we play.
I coach 7th grade boys and we select a pivot foot depending on where we catch the ball on the floor. I try to set up our drives to the middle, so when we cut to the wing on the right side, the right foot is the pivot, the opposite on the left side. In the post we try to use the high foot as the pivot so that we can use our drop step. So again, on the right post, our right leg is the pivot so that the left leg can lead step to the hoop. I drill this over and over until we get our footwork down. We work on catching and establishing territory with the preferred foot. We also drill catching with the other foot as the pivot because in a game who know what the defense is going to force you into. Drill. Have your wing start near the baseline and v-cut to the wing at practice the footwork for catching. I use this drill as a filler for dead time in my practices.
For perimeter players, we teach permanent pivot foot (left foot for right handed shooters). Want them to catch with pivot foot forward so they can face the basket and jab step with their "shooting foot". Now they are ready to read the D. If defender doesn't step up to contest the jab, finish the shot or pass to open players near the basket. If defender contests, then swing the ball low and to the weak hand, knife past defender with a quick dribble or two to clear space for a short jumper or dish (or in the rare cases of a true opening in half court sets - drive to the hole). Some of the conflicting materials you are reading are probably from coaches that teach establishing the outside as the pivot so either foot becomes the pivot depending on what side of the court you are on. While some very valid points can be made for this, we stick to a permanent pivot foot. We prefer to have the players learn one technique well so they are not tentative in their execution or turn the ball over with travelling violations.
We run an open post offense that is designed to create driving/scoring opportunities into the lane. Therefore, we feel it is important that our perimter players use their outside foot as the pivot foot. This allows them to attack the lane easier and puts more pressure on the defense. I do not agree that this is more difficult for young players to learn. I coach 8th grade boys and they have all picked it up quickly.
Phil clearly describes the reasoning behind a permanent pivot foot. We teach this way so that the jump shot is always the same. That is, step into the shot with the shooting foot. If you teach either foot as a pivot, how do teach a jump shot for a right handed-shooter with the right foot as the pivot?
Our perimeter players do a series of shooting drills at every practice. One of the drills is to V-cut to the wing position, meet the ball, pivot on the outside foot, square and shoot the jumper. This is done on each side. The next drill builds off the first where after they square to the basket, they make a hard escape dribble into the lane. This is done by making a big step with the inside foot and pushing off of the outside (pivot) foot. They make a Sprewell hop into the lane and shoot a pull-up jumper. By using a permanent pivot foot, the player would have to pivot away from the basket after they catch the ball and then use a crossover step to get into the lane. This is a slower, less aggressive move. That's not my opinion, rather simple body physics. In my opinion, teaching to use left and right pivots is as important as teaching dribbling with either hand in the development of a versatile offensive player.
I think regardless of your choice (permanent pivot, inside pivot, etc.), you must maintain some consistancy in your teaching and throughout your program. I have experienced success using both methods. Make sure that this is a point of emphasis each day of practice (even if only for 2-3 minutes). The key is creating the desired habit through repetition.

Proper Technique for Setting Screen

Coaching girls, I teach them to cross their hands across their chest a little away from the body.
I prefer 2. Arms crossed elbows out. If the arms are away from the chest a bit, they offer some cushioning when the defender hits. Also, if you have your knees flexed a bit, you can maintain balance better. I caution the players not to push away or flare the elbows out because they are inviting a foul call. I don't like the family jewels option because its too easy to get knocked on your keister. If the pick is set away from the ball, there's no requirement to take the defender head on. If the screener presents his/her backside, its safer for the screener and more brutal for the defender. If the pick fails, the fault is usually with the ball handler who didn't direct the defender into the screen.
Arms crossed, elbows out as much as you can get away with...protects the chest..makes for wide screen. John Kresse (College of Charleston) teaches as wide a screen as possible almost with fists together at chest with elbows out to make it wide. This is good as long as you don't get too wide and push out. Also teaches jump stop when setting screen.
I teach keep arms crossed and end. i found this cut down on leaning and "Blocking" instead of screening. I also teach the dribbler to get a close as possible to the outside shoulder of the screener
I teach the Family Jewels Screen for a few reasons.

1) Past Experiences when not preotecting them OUCH!

2) It allows the screener to set a tight screen, while discouraging the urge to push if arms are up and getting a cheep foul call.

3)By allowing the screener to get closer and make a tighter screen, it allows the screener to place his inside knee behind the knee of the defender and seal him out when rolling off of the screen. With arms up, defender has too much room to drop around screen and sealing out is much more difficult.
Another reason for having hands up and elbows out ... upon contact, the offense will probably be on one forearm or the other. Lean on that forearm enough to take the weight off the foot on that side. Let your forearm slide down some to lower your center of gravity. Then you can pivot easier to seal him out as well as know exactly where he is. The offensive player will have a difficult time going anywhere once you pin him. Another concept I've seen taught in this situation is to pivot and "sit" on the offensive player's leg. I have had screens set on me and been sat upon. Works good.

Setting Staggered Screens

I guess it depends on your definition of a staggered screen. The side by side screen is simply a double screen. A staggered screen is two screeners who are not together so the defensive player hits the first screen, then after getting around it hits the second screen. As for the best position, I think hitting the second screen a step or two after hitting the first screen is good. The staggered screen has the advantage of catching the defender off guard because he is still focused on getting away from the first screener while the second screen is being set.
We use staggered screens. We teach the screeners that they should be perpendicular to each other. For example, we will run a perimeter player from the short corner on one side to the wing on the opposite side. If we employ a staggered screen, screener #1 will set a screen on the opposite block with his chest facing the other block. Screener #2 will set a higher screen with his chest facing the baseline. After we run it a few times the defender will go over the top and try to beat our offensive player to the spot. When this happens we teach our players to pop out to the ball-side short corner for the easy jumper.
When we teach a staggard screen we treat it as two different screens. One shooter, one screener(first), and one reader (second screen). The first screener sets a solid screen and the second screen is set based on how the defense reacts to the first screen. If the defense trails the first screen we have the reader steps outside the first. This makes the defense go farther and also tells the shooter to curl the staggard. If the defense jumps under the first screen then the reader sets the screen inside the the first and this shows the shooter to fade for a jump shot.
The staggered screen concept is great if you like to shoot the "3". We run it as part of our secondary break. One additional thing to keep in mind is that you may want to set the second of the two screens with a post player. That way, if the defense switches, you could conceivably have a mismatch on the perimeter and the block.

Setting & Using Screens Better

The most effective drills that I have seen for teaching screening and cutting are on Lute Olsen's Passing Game video available from Sysko's. "Two on one with the coach" starts with a player at the point with no defender, a player at the forward position with a defender, and the coach at the wing opposite the forward. The point passes to the coach and screens down for the forward. Lute covers the forward setting up his defender for the screen, reading the defender when the screen arrives, and making the cut based on the defender's actions. Even though everyone knows what will be happening, the screen is very difficult to defend when run correctly. "Two on two with the coach" adds a defender on the player at the point and adds the screener reading the defenders and and the cutter and reacting accordingly. Once the lessons of these drills are ingrained, the screener and cutter are very difficult to defense even in a drill when everyone knows what is happening.
Along these lines we will play 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 cutthroat. Let me define cutthroat first -- basically if you score on offense you get to stay. We begin by playing two on two (with a coach) and forcing them to pass to the coach first and screen away. The coach has the option to decide if the screen and read were good and pass the ball (I have never told me team I do this) or if it isn't good they won't get the ball so they will need to go back and rescreen. Once they get the ball they can do whatever they want with it, including passing it back to the coach. They will do one of two things if they pass to the coach -- they will pass and cut or pass and screen away (our two basic options for them in our motion offense). Then we move to 3 on 3. We do this because they need to learn to pass the ball to players coming off screens. Again we force them to pass and screen away to begin the offense and then they are on their own. Both of these drill are used AFTER we spend hours teaching them how to pass and cut and pass, screen away and READ the screen.

Driving By a Defender

Closer is better!!!! Once he's up on you tight you have to "Rip and Read" - get into triple threat by squeezing the ball tight and pivoting through ripping the ball elbows pointed side to side. Don't throw an elbow at him just rip through his arms this should create some space or at least keep their hands off. THen seal woth your leg- rip and step over or under getting your leg around theirs with tha tgood first step and go right off thier hip. If they are pinned by your hip and leg they can't slide without fouling you. Don't be afraid of contact and as sugested before realistic small fakes. Use your shoulders and eyes to sell the fake but keep the bal tight and protected.
Deception is more important than quickness. Use a realistic fake to misdirect the defender (fake pass left, drive right; fake a shot and drive, etc) before making your move. Don't try to drive around your defender, go right at his hip so your hip and his hip rub as you go by. Going wider around him than you need to lets him drop step and cut you off. Once your lead foot is past his foot and your inside arm is past his body, cut toward the basket (make contact, don't avoid it) and lean into him strongly as you drive to the hole. Be ready to pass if another defender steps in to help on you. Sometimes faking a pass as you pick up your dribble to shoot your lay up will freeze the help man and allow you to go on in for the shot. Practice driving either way using either foot as your pivot foot. Also practice rocker step and spin move and faking as you start your drive. Nothing kills pressure defense like beating your man for a driving lay up when all the other defenders are out denying passes to their men.
It's all fundamentals. Focus on the basics. (1) When penetrating keep your head up. (2) If they are playing to close you can do several things. (a) Attack their high foot (b) pass fake (c) ball/shot fake. Study other players on varsity & watch what they do to get around overly aggressive defenders. You can learn from anyone, never forget. I used to go to girls games & watch them because they play for the most part below the rim. Good luck youn gun. You'll do just fine. Remember, practice the way you play. Keep those grades up too. Be a student athelete, not a goof ball with talent.

Motion Offense

Teaching Motion Offense

I like to spend a fair amount of time on basic plays - give and go, pick and roll, back door cuts, etc. We work on these through 2:2 and 3:3 play, usually stressing a particular point within those situations. A big problem with learning continuous plays is that the kids memorize a process and then miss all the opportunities that open up along the way. My hope is that thorough familiarity with the basic plays will help them recognize the many advantages the offensive set provides. Another key teaching point is for the players to pay attention to details throughout the play. Sometimes the kids say that the play doesn't work. Actually the play is fine, its just a screen was missed or a cutter wasn't seen. everybody was thinking about completing the process, not looking for oportunities.
I have simplified my motion "O" down to very basic rules. I use 1 post and 4 out. On a pass you basket cut. You carry your cut to the goal. You flow out to the perimeter. You then may screen or cut. (You may have to designate screeners) If you screen then you become a second cutter. Run your drills with no ball 2/0 and 3/0 and 4/0. At first use basket cuts no screens add screens slowly. Then add the ball. Then go 5/0. Then designate who can score and defend him. Building to 5/5.
motion and set play off are philosophically diff off. sounds like you have decided to go with motion. i believe motion can and should be broken down into it's component parts for practice begining with 2on0 , 3on0, ect advancing to 2on2, 3on3, 5on5, and maybe even 5on6, after it is first shown and practiced in its entirty. the whole part whole teaching method. i believe every practice must include breakdown drills leading to 5on5. for example, when teaching a 5 man open post motion game i do the following: 1. 3man patterns- pass cut replace, pass pickaway rollback, pass go behind for hand off with hander-offer rolling to basket. 2. then i add def 3on3. 3. finally, we go 5on5. if we get real good i'll play 5on6. i would typically spend 2 to 3 min on each activity for a total of approx 20 min practicing my motion off.
In order to teach the motion, players have to be able to move without the ball. I favor to teach a motion offense, that involves a patter. This keeps all players moving without the ball. As they play more basketball, they will see the openings the defense leaves and react accordingly. One mistake is the players become programmed to run the pattern. This is when you help them with taking what the defense gives you.

Motion Offense Rules

my motion offense is simply; pass cut fill I run this from a 1-2-2 set and 2-1-2 if you pass the ball, cut to the basket, fill the open spot. the only exception is if a player dribbles toward you, set a pick and roll to the basket..everyone else will fill the open spots. on all shots the player furthest from the basket plays d safety while everyone else crashes the boards. Some basic rules:
1. Passer always cuts to the basket
2. Strong side always screens away
3. have preset f spots and they always have to be filled
1. lateral passer always screens the ball
2. opposite wing always cuts toward the ball side
3. posts always screen up
4. weak side always overloads the strong side
5. strong side post always pops out
In my role I implement whatever offense the varsity runs, but I have a motion offense that I have been working on. Its based on 4 rules. The purpose is to enable the entire team to be able to anticipate the next step without following a set pattern. Its really simple but allows for a lot of creativity. The basic setup is one point, two wings and two post players. Whoever is at the top of the key is the point. Doesn't matter where they are as long as they are spaced well.
1. If you pass to the wing, pick away. (point passes towing then picks for other wing; or post passes to wing, then picks for other post)
2. If you pass to a post, you cut to the basket. If a point or a wing pass to the post and cut, the other two outside players must rotate and fill the void. The cutting player goes to the basket then v-cuts to opposite wing spot if he doesn't get the ball.
3. If no pass at all, the post comes out for pick and roll.
4. If you pass to point, reset. Once the players are used to the rules, there is a fair amount of quick movement, screening and cutting going on. They are deliberate first, but soon play with tempo. The advantage is that based on the pass decision, we all know what will happen next and what kind of shot to look for. I have written a bunch more about it on my site. Its in the article "Easy Offensive Sets" and is called the Alaska Play.
1. HIGH POST: Pass and cut to the basket and post up - if you do not receive a pass right away clear to weak side block; constantly look to screen for guard with ball.
2. LOW POST: Move to high post when high post goes low.
3. GUARDS: Pass and cut to the basket looking for a return pass; move to ball if more than one pass away; if one pass away and guarded, move away from ball and screen for another guard on the way.
That's it. B-Ball Ed would be proud of me.

5 Out Motion: Combating a Sagging Man Defense

the biggest problem. What I have found works best is to use a series of 3pt shot quick hitters (3 or so) that we run scripted (usually saved for "crunch" time). If you can hit a couple, the defense is forced to run at your shooters, which opens up the penetration, drive-draw-dish, back door cuts, etc. that you're probably looking for.
Ball reversal is very important to counter sagging man to man on the weak side. Ex. : Ball reversal to attack the weak side and two staggered screens for the corner player following the ball reversal passes around the perimeter. If her defender helps too much they will get killed by the staggered screens. For sagging man to man where the defender is sliding behind the screener or sagging, flare screen action where the screener backs into the sagging defender while the player screened for pops back out for the shot. Also, when coming around the screen go toward the ball for perimeter shot instead of curling to basket. For pressure man to man including overplay and jumping to ball to prevent pass to cutter after his pass, use backdoor cuts and fade screens with skip pass fading away on perimeter. Also, pass and screen away with one wing screening across with back pick action for other wing player after cutting through.
The best thing to do (although easier said than done) is to make some outside shots. The next best thing to do is be patient. Very few high school teams are going to be able to defend for more than 4 passes. Sooner or later you will end up with a higher percentage shot.

5 Out Motion: Teaching Progression

This will be my fourth year running this offense and the thing that I have found that works the best is to use a whole-part-whole method. First I show them the offense as a whole so they can get the overall concept of the offense. Then once they get a basic idea of the rules, I will break it up into parts like, pass and screen away or the pass and cut and teach them the fundamentals necessary to run whichever series I am teaching. I think that it is very important that they have an overall understanding of what we are trying to do as a whole before we break it down into parts. Then once we have broken it down and taught the important fundamentals we bring it back together and run it as a whole. In term of the progression for which series we teach first. We teach the cutting series, the screening series, and then we teach the combo series. We teach all of these at the Junior High level. Then at the high school level we teach more of the 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 things that you can do out of this offense. Also we teach more complicated entries and specials at the high school level. I don't think that in one season kids can master all aspects of this offense. It took our varsity team 1 full season and a summer of basketball to even really start to get comfortable running this offense.
We run 4 out 1 in but the teaching progression is the same. part to whole. Of course you need footwork, catch, pivot, triple threat 3 person: give and go, replace 3 person: pass and screen away 2 or 3 person: V cut/back door 5 man dummy offense: as above 5 man motion with defense. screen options work:
1. curl to basket
2. move toward ball
3. go backdoor
4. flare (pop out)
5. fade screen action
6. slip screens on switch
7. Ball reversal-staggered screens

5 Out Motion: Corner Options

you asked: "In the 5 out motion offense, what are effective corner options against a sagging man defense? " I assume you are playing 5 out motion because you don't have a real big player and you have quick, good shooting perimeter players, that you have players that can hit shots on perimeter...when the defense sags.
Some thoughts:
1. Any time the corner player sets a fade screen for the wing player when ball is passed from wing to top of key, have screener pop out for open shot in the wing area.
2. When corner man reverses ball around perimeter, have wing and top of key player set staggered screens for the corner player cutting around perimeter.
3. wing passes to corner, and cuts through to other corner for surprise back pick for weak side corner player who cuts across
4. any player that posts up and is doubled by sagging defense needs to kick ball out for open shot on perimeter
5. on pass to corner from wing, wing sets flare screen for top perimeter player, who pops out with screener between him and basket
If you played 4 out 1 in, your post player can screen for the corner player when ball is reversed to wing from corner. Screener can pop out to perimeter for shot if sagging occurs
We utilize two main options. If it is a post player passing to the corner, we run a pick and roll with the post and the corner player with the ball. This is an unusual angle for a pick and roll, but proves to be quite effective. Another version of a pick and roll is that the wing cuts through to the opposite corner and then the player at the top of the key comes to the corner to set the pick and roll. If it is any other player passing to the corner, we screen away to the top. The top person cuts to the hoop and the screener rolls back to the wing. A variation of this may be to let the top person come off of the screen to the wing and have the screener roll to the hoop.

5 Man Motion: Drive & Dish

What cuts do you do from certain spots in the 5 man game when an offensive player penetrates and draws another defender? Should it be a backdoor cut? A relocate cut? I want to score a lay up or a very close jumper right inside the key. What should the offensive player without the ball do when this happens? I know the draw and kick for a 3 pt shot but what about for a forward that may have a weak outside shot? I already know the dribble out rule. But I would like something kind of different from that. Instead of dribbling to spot, we are going to be driving to the basket and drawing defenders who are closest to the ball.
I always have my post players cut to the block and try to pin their man. This creates a great scoring triangle. You will have the player driving to the middle of the lane, and then a player at each block. If the players at the block pin their men well, the driver goes all the way to the hoop and scores, if either of the block players's defenders rotate to stop the drive, then dish off to that player. Many times then the defender guarding the other block who did not rotate to stop the drive rotates over to the block that just received the pass, then a good bounce pass from block to block creates the wide-open lay-up. If the drive were to come to the block instead of the middle of the lane, then the player at the block should release up the lane to create a lane for the driver to take a lay-up and a lane for a pass. The other block would try to gain inside position for a good bounce pass across the lane.
So much of this depends on where the players are when the drive occurs. It is hard to set a specific cut. My focus is more on spots than cuts. As the drive occurs, every player has a spot they should go to so that the player penetrating knows where his team mates will be and where he should look. Near the hoop I always have 3 spots. One spot is filled by the player driving, then the post players fill the other 2. The goal is to get to the spot quickly and pin your man in a way that you create a passing lane from the drive. You also have to teach them to think in situations where, a post player is the one driving, then one of the wings should fill one of the 3 inside spots.
I've been following this series of posts with interest. One point I wanted to add was that when a player drives, the defense generally compresses in front to cut him off, but what's behind him? A vacuum. When a player drives from the perimeter, we like to have a trailer not too far behind. It can be a spontaneous thing - if a teammate near you drives - fill the vacuum. Ideally you'd like to dish inside, but if you can't, the trailer will be open. Depending on the situation, you might get a secondary drive, spot-up shot or a pass back to safety.

4-Out/ 1-In Motion: With a Poor Center

With a poor center: Been there... had a center that was an excellent defender and rebounder and couldn't shoot (or dribble) a lick. I ran a 4out 1 in with her and used her to set picks for cutters coming from the weak side so that she often had her back to the ball. We also ran a motion pattern, similar to the open post, where she would stay on the foul line and move from elbow to elbow setting picks for the cutters. There is also a variation of the flex that we used that kept the post player in the low post while the other players maintained the basic flex rotation. The complete version of this is on Coach Jackson's web site. It worked pretty well for us except that sometimes the rest of the team would sometimes forget which flex we were running...which sometimes worked to our advantage.
What screens the post man can do: 1) give and go 2) pass and screen away 3) backpick action by center for perimeter players up top after pass 4) center back picks for corner player when ball reverses from corner around perimeter See john Kresse's Flex Plus and Motion offense book or video
Im gonna use numbers for players. Assuming 1=pg and 5=center with 2,3,4= other three shooters. Try having your 1 bring the ball down the seam, with one player on either wing we'll say 3 is on the 1's side of the court and 2 is at the other wing, 1 at the top seam on one side and 4 on the other side at the top seam and a 5 at the low post on the opposite side. 1 passes to 3 on their side on the give and go. If not there, 1 sets cross screen for 5 and continues through to opposite wing as the player on the opposite wing (2) comes through to where 1 was off a screen from 4. Either 2 is open for the jumper or 5 is open inside. If nothing open swing it to the opposite seam where you repeat on the opposite side. 4 repeats with the give and go to 1. This way your 5 always stays down low!!

4-Out/1-In Motion Offense

4 out, 1 in motion offense: This offense will have 4 players running motion offense on the perimeter and one player working the low and high post area. The perimeter players have the option of filling a post spot opposite the permanent post player - for a 2-3 second count. This will be discussed in the rules of the offense. - The Basic Set The perimeter players have 5 possible areas to locate at. The 5 areas are: the point spot near the top of the key, the wings, and the corners. The post man has 7 different spots he can locate at: low posts, mid posts, elbows, and the free throw line spot.
- General Rules of the Offense
1. Players should know their shooting range and try to receive the ball within their shooting range.
2. Make good screens. Players should know proper methods of setting and receiving screens.
3. Players need good spacing. We like 12-15 foot spacing between players. If it is closer than this the defense can give help. If it is further than this the defense can deflect the long slow pass.
4. Practice the proper way to receive the ball - we want our perimeter players to immediately square up to the basket and be in a triple threat position.
5. Don't pass too fast - make sure you look inside before swinging the ball on the outside.
6. The dribble should only be used to do the following: improve passing angle, drive for a lay up, prevent a 5 second count. We don't want the unnecessary dribble.
- Perimeter Player Rules:
1. Pass and cut to the basket. If you don't receive a return pass break out to a vacant perimeter position.
2. Pass and screen away on either a perimeter player or post player. Continue all screening to the baseline - an example of this would be: point passes to the right wing, point sets a screen for the left wing, point sees the 4th perimeter player in the left corner, the point continues on and now screens down for the corner player.
3. We want every 3rd pass into the post. When a perimeter player passes into the post he should screen for the closest perimeter player or cut to an open spot on the perimeter. Non-passing perimeter players will be running the downscreen rule - if a player is below you then you screen for him.
4. Pass and "v" cut and replace yourself.
5. Pass and cut to the vacant spot on the perimeter.
- The Post Player Rules:
1. Stay in a post position for approximately 5 seconds. Moving too often and quickly will make it difficult for perimeter players to coordinate their movements with the post. If the post does not move enough then the defense will be in a position to "cheat" and "give help."
2. With no one else in the post, the post player has a tremendous amount of freedom to operate. The post may operate as a screener, passer, driver, or shooter from the high post, low post, ballside or backside position.
3. Post may screen for any perimeter player who does not have the ball. A good example of this situation would be the low post screening for the weak side corner cutting across the baseline to the ball.
4. Post may screen for any perimeter player who has the ball when there is no other offensive player between the player to be screened and the baseline. The example of this situation would be: player on right wing has the ball - right corner is vacant, post on right low post comes out and runs a pick and roll on the ball.
- Perimeter Player Rules When In Post
Perimeter players may fill any of the 7 post spots - we don't want them doing this on a regular basis and it must be done meeting the standards of the rules set. The rules:
1. When a perimeter player comes to a post spot he should be opposite the permanent post man. An example of this would be: high-low, low right - low left.
2. We only want perimeter players in the post for a very short period. A maximum of 3 seconds in the post area and then vacate to an open perimeter area.
3. Post up only if an offensive advantage is there. We want to keep it to a minimum - we don't want to clutter the offensive area for the post man.
4. A perimeter player who is in the post and makes a pass should follow the same rules that are listed above for perimeter players.
- Summary:
This offense is very easy rules wise. Players like this offense because it has unlimited number of scoring opportunities for all players. You can use similar teaching methods that I introduced in my article on 3 Out and 2 In Motion Offense.
We run a lot of 4 out 1 in, 8th grade boys traveling team. Depending on if the defense is aggressive with tight coverage, or sags in big time, dictates what the guards do (I make the call). Most players would rather basket cut than screen away. So I'll call 41 which means to screen away, or 40 which allows them to either screen away or basket cut (guess what they'll do most of the time) We'll run 41 when playing against tight D and 40 when against a sagging D.

Blocker-Mover Offense

The Blocker-Mover offense is a motion offense.
You have three movers and two blockers (screeners). The screener's main job is to screen for the movers. They follow the same rules as regular motion in that they open to the ball after screening, roll or flair depending. The three movers basically play off of the blocker's screens. All screens are off the ball. The movers may set a screen for another mover but it isn't part of their duties. Other words if they never screen they are still performing as the offense is designed. If they do that is fine also.

Blockers only screen for movers. There are several different combination of blockers. I probably don't remember them all.

Lane-lane (two post types) these two blockers play on their side of the lane on the lane line from around the elbow area to the block. they don't cross the lane.

Lane-Wide (one post type and one forward type) lane blocker does the same as above, wide means this blocker has the same area as the lane blocker except it extends to the sideline on his side of the court.

High-Low (one post type and one guard type) high blocker plays above the FT line extended and the low blocker players both sides of the lane.

I think there is also a Wide-Wide.

I guess you could have any combination of the three or so types of blockers.

I saw a tape of Coach Bennett speaking at a clinic and he said he has also ran it with three blockers and two movers. No I've never played it. Tried it for a couple of days in practice, it didn't fit my players or I just didn't understand it well enough to coach it?
I've used the Blocker Mover Offense, in fact I used it with my varsity boys' team this past season (we just got beat in out state tournament). I like the offense because it allows your best offensive players to move and make moves off of screens. Teaching this offense takes a huge amount of work, especially with h.s. boys. You must teach the kids how to screen properly, how to angle the picks, how to hold position of the screen, how to read the defense, how to read the screener, and many more areas of teaching "motion". I would not reccomend this offense for elementary or youth leage teams that do not practice everyday. As in any motion type offense, if the players don't understand how to move without the basketball, it is to easy to defend.
Against a zone: Vs. a 2-3 zone I've put my movers at the following positions: pt. guard and at the two wing spots f.t. line extended. My blockers were placed at one of the low blocks & the other at the center of the f.t. line. What this gave us was a 1-3-1 look vs. the 2-3. Movers could relocate while the blockers sealed the zone in, we throw a lot of skip passes vs. the zone. This also gave us the hi-low game w/ our two blockers. Vs. a 3-2 or 1-2-2 I've put my Blockers on the blocks and stacked my best shooting mover under one of the blockers. The other two movers are set up in a two guard look up top, splitting the top defender in the zone. The bottom or baseline mover will run off of the baseline dbl. screens set by the blockers looking for short corner jumpshots. After the mover comes off of the screen the strong side blocker will seal and post while the weak side blocker cuts to the high post. The same action continues on the opp. side when the mover cuts off of the other side screen. Vs. the 1-3-1 I put my blockers at the low blocks, my best shooting mover at the high post and my two ball handlers in a two guard set up top splitting the top zone defender. Here, the high post mover will run off of one of the blockers screens (ball side) and then we try to dump the ball in to the movers after the screen and seal (works very well vs. the .5 court trap). I like this concept because it keeps my best screeners and rebounders in postions where they can best serve their team. But, no matter how you choose to attack the zone, I feel that ball reversal is a must, especially if you can pin the weak side of the zone in. Let me know if you would like to see some of this stuff, I'd be happy to mail you whatever I can.

M-2-M Offenses (Besides Motion)

Flex

You might try starting in a 1-4 deep set. Start with your 2&3 players on the blocks, your 4&5 players at the short corners. Have your point take the ball on one side or the other, and have the opposite side wing (2 or 3) pop to the elbow for your entry pass. Flex cut from post away from pass, and you're in flex. You can develop many options from this entry which are hard to stop, such as a back screen for the point after the entry pass. I don't use the flex myself, but this set is one that an area Hall of Fame coach in our conference uses and it is very effective. She has over 600 career wins!
Absolutely, my team has fair success running the flex out of the 1-4 high set. Here's what we do (and I will throw in our secret play free of charge :) ) Ok, we start with the four across the free throw line extended, the two posts go straight down to the block, and the wings runs "L" cuts, using the post as a screener to work around. The ball is passed to one of the wings, and the point guard follows in the direction of the ball, cutting on the ball side off the post who has come back up the key to the corner (free throw line) to set a back pick. This first option can be very effective, especially at the JV and below levels. My point guard is a 5'10" freshman with great court sense, and we are often able to post him up on the block at the end of this cut. Then, the post seals his man and calls for the ball from the wing (if first cut wasn't there). When the ball goes to the post, the opposite post (who has also come back the the high spot, on opposite end of free throw line) screens away for the weak side wing, and there is your first guard to guard pass. The now weak side wing cuts off of your point as the first flex cut. Now for our quick score play. Post screen down and come back up the lane, same as normal. Wings also do their "L" cuts. Instead of hitting a wing, the point passes to a post as he is flashing up. Now, this play is about timing. As SOON as the ball gets to the post the strongside wing cuts over the top of the post and a fake handoff takes place (this gets the defense leaning). Meanwhile, the point guard needs to have jumped to the ball side following the initial pass to the post, leaving some space (a few feet), and look away from the action (stand up, take a step toward the weak side, act as if out of the play). Then, the point cuts off the post on the side where the wing WAS and takes the handoff to the basket. This has been a great way to get an easy basket in tough situations, or to get a quick score to start the game. Some teams take about 5-6 looks at it before they adjust, but then you can do the same (if the post defender steps off, run a pick and roll, if the weak side stops the lay up you can fade off with the handoff for a short jumper). A variation of the 1-4 high set that I experimented with was the same beginning (screens, coming back up with posts), an entry to a post (like the beginning of "special" (the handoff play)) who then looks to the weak side where the opposite post sets a backpick on the weak side wing looking for the backdoor cut or the lob. It has been somewhat effective, but the point has to try and keep his defender away from the ball.
I am a big proponent of the flex offense for a number of reasons. It forces every player to move without the ball, handle the ball, set 2 different types of picks, use 2 different types of picks and eventually to recognize potential mis-matches when the defense switches. These are all basic offensive elements that every player needs to learn. I have taught the flex to my elementary girls as (usually) their first offensive rotation. I have heard coaches say the flex is boring and repetitive but i believe that it is a good foundation for teaching kids offensive team fundamentals. There are a number of options (corner passes, reversals "up" picks) that make it a good offensive weapon. Hope this helps. One of the coaches that contributes tto this site (I think Coach Jackson) has a number of variations to the flex on his website.
Coach - I really like the flex and coach Thom hit on all of its important aspects. All 5 kids are involved and rotate through all spots in the offense, they set/use baseline and downscreens, and once they get used to running it there's many options/counters you can run to combat a def that thinks they've figured you out. We've run it at the Fr/JV/Var HS level for 3 yrs with good sucess. I've found that it's been a good O to start with for kids that aren't yr 'round Bballers (like ours) because even though it is a pattern O they begin to learn to read the D when coming off the screens or cutting. It has helped our grassroots effort towards motion O in that way. I like Ron Righter's stuff on the Flex. He has a video and a small booklet (check Sysko's) that are a good start.

Flex: Combating Switching of Screens

You may also try to run some set plays into the flex to give it a different look and disguise it. There are several books and videos on the flex that have some good entries. You may want to contact the men's basketball coach at Clarion University. His name is Dr. Ron Righter and is one of the foremost experts on the Flex Offense.
If the team is switching, then the screener must first set a great pick and then open up to the ball and "break the defenders leg" What I mean is put his rear in the knee of the defender and make them stand straight up. The defender has no mobility and your player is down in basketball position ready to pounce on the pass once it is thrown. Also recognize the mis match and when you big man gets a guard on him, clear out and post him. Or when your driving guard gets a slow defender, clear out.
Some thoughts on the flex. When we run Flex we WANT them to switch, particularly on the down pick. You can recognize the mismatch in the low post even before it happens. Make sure that your players open to the ball as Coach Creighton mentioned and you will get numerous scoring oppurtunities on the defensive switch. Try to arrange the rotation so that you have big people picking for little people and vise-versa. We run a few different secondary breaks that flow right in to flex. We have also run it out of 4-low, 4-high, box and a 2-1-2. Don't neglect the corner pass to the strong side. Have the cutter come across and the elbow down-pick just like they normally would and you will be surprised at the things that happen.
When using flex offenses, and more typically for me, flex principles (screen the screener, etc.) I always instruct my players that whenever "switch" is yelled by a defensive player, the screener is to abort the setting of the screen, and cut to the basket showing a hand for a lead pass. I tell them that we are letting the defense help us by calling this play for us. It is important to stress that the player with the ball needs to quickly recognize this situation and be ready with a timely pass.

1-3-1 High Post Offense

We ran this for a couple years and it worked well. I could draw it and fax it to you if my descriptions here are hard to follow. I think you could draw it as you read it and get it right. If not, email me (avamac@aol.com) and I will fax it to you or scan it and try to email scanned file. 1=point, 2 and 3 wings, 4 high post, 5 low post. Wing Entry A: 1 pass to 2 and do UCLA cut off 4 while 5 clears to ball side corner. 3 replaces 1. 1 clears to weak side wing replacing 3. 2 may pass to 5 on baseline, 1 cutting, 4 rolling off screen, or 3 at top of key. If 2 passes to 5, 5 also looks for 1 cutting and 4 rolling. Wing Entry B: 1 pass to 2. 4 down screen for 5 and 2 pass to either 4 or 5. (They should either score or pass to each other. If the pass goes to the high post, he can almost always dump it into the low post before the defense can get around to defend the new passing angle. If the pass goes to the low post, the high post can often flash low to the other side and be open or at least be in good rebounding position.) 1 and 3 exchange with a screen. 2 can pass out front to 3 to reset the offense. Post Entry A: 1 pass to 4. 2 downscreen for 5 who curls to basket if they don't switch and posts up if they do switch. 1 and 3 exchange with a screen. Back Door: If D pressures wings, 5 comes to elbow for pass, wing on his side back cuts to basket, then clears back out to same side if he does not get the ball. 4 moves to just outside other elbow and 3 comes off his screen high and 1 moves a few steps toward weak side wing, then cuts to basket using 3 and 4 as a double screen. (Timing is critical here, he should cut right behind 3 as 3 gets to 4's screen.) 3 can read the D and cut to basket if open, but usually he will come off 4's screen and move out front and become the new point. 1 will go back out to 3's spot, 4 will roll to the basket after screening and be the new low post, and 2 already cleared back to his original position. 5 passes out front to reset. Weave: Outside players dribble weave, 4 goes to baseline and will cross screen with 5 along baseline to open middle for dribble penetration or they can go to corners and join in the weave, or they can go out front and set picks for dribblers. In summary, the 131 gives good spacing, good angles for screening, and good protection from fast breaks, and allows for high-low post passing. If you have trouble getting open against pressure defense, the wings can both cut thru the lane to the opposite wings while the high post downscreens the low post (who becomes the new high post) to open everyone for the entry pass, or you can go right into dribble weave.

1-4 High Offense

I scouted a team last night who ran a nice 1-4 continuity which I will try to describe (wish we could draw on this site). Maybe you can draw it from my description. Point is 1. 2 and 3 on wings, 4 and 5 on elbows. 1 pass to 3 on right wing and cut to basket using screen from 5 at right elbow, then go to weak (left) side wing and replace 2. 2 slides over toward point to replace 1. 4 slides down lane and screens for 1 as he goes out to wing, then 4 goes back to elbow. Meanwhile, back on the strong (right) side, 5 goes toward 3 on wing and sets screen and they pick and roll toward point. 3 dribbles left off screen from 5 and either goes to hole, dumps down to 5, or passes to 2 who has come to the point. Now run same thing to other side. 2 passes to 1 on left wing and cuts off screen from 4 at high post, then replaces wing on weak side (3). 1 and 4 pick and roll and if nothing good develops, 1 passes to 3 at the point and he passes to 2 at the other wing, etc. It worked great for them.
WE luv to run 1-4 we've got all 5 of our offensive sets run out of it. If i understand you correctly though your looking for an offensive set that has continual flow and isn't just set run reset run. If this isn't the case i can post some of the sets. AS for your needs i can give you two. One is our zone offense we call it overload. The ball is up top and we are in 1-4 high. 2and3 on wings 4-5 elbowish. The ball goes to tthe wing and the following 1) the close post goes to the low block 2) the far post comes high block 3)the far wing runs a baseline cut off guy at low block so a box is set up on one side of the zone. If the ball goes baseline or top the passer suts through the middle and fills in the other side. once the ball is up top your in 1-4 again. The second is a set i just picked up called 'kentucky' a animated break down is found on http://members.tripod.com/~coacheshome/play.html. It's continual and gets good cuts and looks from the arc.

Bo Ryan's Swing Offense

Do any of you use Bo Ryan's Swing Offense? What are your thoughts on it? Have you had success with it? Has it ever proven to be ineffective at any point? I personally find it to be a very good all around offense (offering scoring from all areas of the court.) I like the way the off-side players, with movement, can get help-side defenders to neglect their responsibilties, thereby opening things up. This year I've added "Swing" as one of our mtm continuity offenses for our AAU Girls 15's. It is a relatively simple offense to install and teach. We've had some limited success with it and it seems to have good potential. But... quite frankly, we only get to practice twice weekly, so there hasn't been much time to explore many of the offense's subtle reads. I want our players to be more patient, especially while working the strong side triangle (e.i. post up stronger and work the upscreens better.) Another problem is that the wings become somewhat tentative, overlooking what I believe would be a good shot opportunity, in an attempt to continue the pattern. The majority of our points to date have come from the swing cut on ball reversal(basically a flex cut from weak side wing screening off the low post player to the strongside block). I like the concept of the swing offense were all players get to play in the post area. As Coach Bo Ryan says; "The hardest defense to play is one on one in the post." If you are going to run it successfully, you are going to have to work with ALL your players on post moves. Again I really like that theory, because anyone can play the post; in a man to man situation it does'nt matter who is in the post because you are usually matched up according to hight and ability. As long as my point guard is posting-up the opponents point guard what does it matter. I feel we do not teach our so called perimiter players enough post moves, so again I like it. I am a huge fan of the swing offense. I have used this offense three years and have had a great deal of success with it. Last year we ran this offense about 50% of the time. We finished 19 - 5. It is a very simple offense with simple concepts that put maximum pressure on the defense. You start by always looking into the post which gives you good scoring opportunities and increases your chances of drawing fouls. Then the actual swing cut puts so much pressure on one defender to guard two people. I would suggest to anyone looking for a new wrinkle to contact Bo Ryan at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. I contacted the atheletic department and Coach Ryan answered the phone himself and spent thirty minutes talking to me about this offense. He had some copies of the video that you can purchase.

Zone Offense

Zone Offense General

I call this offense the shell. 2 guards , 1 post on the weak block, 1 forward (guard) on the ball side block, and other player in the weak side corner. The motion--pt passes to g/f after L cut to wing. the pt basket cuts. If he/she doesn't get the give and go, the player screens for the post. the post cuts to the block on ball side. The other two replace.(keep balance-2-3 set) Ball is reversed to the guard on ball side, reverses to guard on opposite side intrun passes to the PG on the opposite side of the floor. Rules 1. On a guard to guard pass (across the top), the guard should interchange with the forward. 2. Guard to forward pass- guard basket cuts. 3. on basket cut by guard, the other guard replaces the cutter on top, and the forward rotates to the weak side guard spot. 4. The postplayer cuts from block to block on the screen by the basket cutter.

Beating the 1-3-1 zone

The best way I know is to place 3 men across the baseline. Put your small forward in the corner center on that side post and other forward on the weak side post. when the ball is in the corner post the center up and flash the weak side post to ball side high post. Make the defensive player half to make a decision on whether or not to guard the man in the corner or lst him go. if they do this you willl have the jumpshot in the corner. if the baseline defender decides to step out to the corner then make the pass to the post player before the rotating defense can get there. Also when the ball is on the wing look for the diaganal pass to the backside box.
I assume you have descent shooters if you are seeing a lot of 1-3-1? I have had success against this zone in the following way: Start in a 2-3 high set. Your two guards are splitting the top guy. Your center is in front of the middle guy. Your 2 forwards are directly behind the wing men. The series is triggered when one of the guards dribbles at the wing. The forward drops down to corner. The first few times this shot will be open. Once the bottom man starts to come out, your center will be open rolling to the rack. When they begin to stop giving the center the easy lay in, your weak side guard will always be open for a jumper. You can even have the weak side forward pin the back of the zone for him. Eventually they will stop you from making the pass to the corner, at that point your pg simply can make the entry from the wing. You can also have the pg enter it to the center at the foul line. When he recieves ball both forwards drop hard, one should be open. If not a guard should be open at the wing. This has worked for my team beautifully, we have little hieght but great shooters so a lot of teams try going 1-3-1 on us. This always blows it away. Especially if your weak side guard is intelligent enough to find the open spot and can drain the 3. I had one kid hit 5 3's in a quarter from that spot before the opponent got out of that D.
Start in a 1-3-1 set. 1 at point, 2 rt wing, 3 lt wing, 4 high post 5 either block. The entry can go to either wing but the weak side is preferred. Point pass to 3 and cuts straight down the lane for a give and go. On the pass 4 jumps to the ball side elbow and 1 cuts behind him. If 1 does not get the ball he cuts to the ball side corner. As 1 clears the lane 4 dives to the block looking for the pass. As 4 dives low 5 flashes to the high post. If the inside game is not open 3 pass to 1 in corner. 4 jumps to the short corner and 3 cuts to the basket looking for the pass back and posts on the weak block. Weak side wing pinches in to the mid lane on the pass to the corner to be positioned for weak side rebound or dish from 3 if he gets the ball. 1 looks to shoot the 3pt or drop in in to 4 or 5. If no one is open 1 dribbles up to the wing and 2 pops out to the top of the key-timing his arrival with 1 so he is getting to the point just as 1 arrives at the wing so he will be open. 1 pass to 2 at the point(2 looks shot or reverse) and 3 pops out to the wing and we reverse the process.
Another way to beat the 1-3-1 is to have a 1-2-2 set with 2 players(2,3) in the short corners and 2 players(4,5) at the elbows. Lets set 3&5 on left 2&4 on right. The point dribbles at an elbow-4 on right side, and 4 drops to the block and the ball side short corner 2 pops to the ball side corner. The other short corner 3 backscreens for 5 at the elbow and 5 drops to the block. The looks are penetration all the way by 1, pass to 2 in corner, pass to 5 going down the lane, or hit 3 at the opposite elbow. once this happens the 1-3-1 will be in a 1-2-2 or 2-3. If nothing develops reset and attack again.
Start with your best post on the block, a player in the corner on the same side as the post and one in the opposite corner, and show a 2 guard front. I call this set Baseline. I teach penatration by the guards with one guard always behind the other (45 degree angle). We also have a pick set for one of the guards which leads to a loob pass and an easy shot for the guard. Start with the ball opposite the post, have your guard pentrate and then kick it out to the opposite guard. This guard will penatrate and look to the post first, while this is going on the guard will get a pick from the player who was in the corner. The pick slips the pick for a 3 and you should have a guard on the opposite block for a loob pass. Pass to the bottom corner of backboard. This is a quick hitter. I hope you get the play. If all else fails get a lead and pull them out of the 131

Offense vs. 1-1-3 Zone

What you are asking about may be Tarkanian's Amoeba defense. Be prepared for heavy ball pressure on your point guard. They will close out your first pass with their wings,(the outside player in the three across the rear) so start your posts very low behind the zone in a 2-1-2 or 2-3 set. On the first pass, you can screen the middle player and baseline cut behind to ballside block from the weak side. Don't pass to the deep corners. They will deny reversals from there, and will run an X-cut from the wing back to the post and look to intercept if you try to pass inside. The most vulnerable areas are from behind the zone, so keep your post players working from baseline out. weak side guards need to find gaps for skip passes. Do a lot of screening on the three under the basket. With such short preparation, I don't think you have time to work out plays so keep players moving with motion rules and with the vulnerable areas in mind. Keep in mind also that it is a match-up with man to man principles so you can successfully screen off the ball. I hope I gave you something to work with

Attacking a 3-2 Zone

Overload the baseline, They only have 2 defenders near the basket so have someone at each post and a 3rd player finding gaps along the baseline. The key is the 2 guys up top must be great ball handlers and passers because they play the 3 players up top and find the open man down low.
I also like to overload. I usally start off in a 3 out 2 in set, then run my best corner shooter from one wing to the opposite corner, which overloads. Teams can catch on to that if their coach knows what they're doing and that's when they either follow the cutter through with the opposite wing, slide ball-side wing down, or have post defender step out (depending on athleticism and ability to distract perimeter shooters). We've had more trouble when they follow cutter through for some reason. I need help with that. When they slide ball-side perimeter down, look to throw it right back to the ball-side wing for the '3' or dump into post. If they bring post out, look to fake high and wrap-around to ball-side post who MUST use body to shield ball in most cases and if the rotation is not there, you can wrap-around pass to opposite post for easy lay-in.
You must flash someone to the middle. That's the way it beat zones especially a 32 is in the middle. Then look to kick out or to the low block.

Offense vs. Box & 1

try setting some picks for her so she can pick and roll.aslo remember ,it`s a teameffort that usually wins on a regular basis .Also ,are you under full court m2mpressure at that age or just from behind the 3 point line?
how about a simple in-out?pass in to a forward ,and have the forward draw a crowd,and then pass back to her for a good shot. I had a girl similar to her once and so we got the other guard to set a screen as she came around the top(where the screen was set),she drove in and got a few shots. Against a 2-1-2 or a 2-3 we tryed a 1-3-1.1 being a good passing guard, the ''3'' being the center, forwards set up along the free throw line,the last girl set up outside the forward on the weak side,the passer top of circle, the forwards free throw line extended, the center free throw line moving along the line to try and pull def center out of center lane,thus creating a passing lane to right of basket ,girl in rear breaks under basket for a little backdoor pass and 2 points.this is a awesome play when they can pull it off at that age,really looks great, just don`t work 100% of time. your player could be the down low player for a short shot on that play. Maybe a cutter from outside of 3 point arc or something like that.
Just some general thoughts about what we do when we see junk. Box and 1: We simply put our guarded player at the post and tell him/her to just stay there for the moment (practically shaking hands with the post player). This way the opposition is using two defenders to guard our "star" player. We then spread the others into the gaps (4 on 3) and keep passing the ball around until we get a wide open shot. Eventually, post defenders will have to contest and defend these other players. Now we can set some screens for our best (guarded) player. Triangle and two: Even better. We put both guarded players at the posts. Now the opposition is using four to defend two. The other three players spread and run the one remaining defender silly before taking a wide open shot. Once again, defense will need to abandon the post to defend shots and this creates opportunities to screen and free up the two guarded players. Two main points. (1) You have to have depth (especially passing and shooting abilities) beyond the two players that are closely guarded so you are a legitimate threat. The remaining players need to be able to score off a shot if wide open (imagine that!) (2) The star player(s) being guarded have to believe in this cat and mouse approach and be PATIENT - they will eventually be freed to score. Sometimes egos cause them to try to do everything themselves too early in the play. We want them to stay put in the post for a number of sequences forcing an overload with the remaining players. I realize that there is nothing specific about this, just conceptual. But then again, isn't basketball mostly situational? When the players can execute, I look like a genius. When they don't, I look like an idiot. Ah the joys of coaching....
Have your players play a little further outside than normal, and this should help open up the middle of the box. Keep a player flashing across the middle and they will find they have some open shots. If what you are doing is asking how to free up your player who is being guarded by the one, have your player run the defensive player into the ground. Also have them run their defensive player into offensive and defensive players. Use every as a screen. Try passing to the open player in the middle first, this works. 1) My first answer to any offensive problem. Jack up the defensive intensity and run them out of the gym. Don't give them a chance to set up, make them start worrying about taking away lay ups and making it up and down the floor not playing their position. 2) Run your man offense !! Their expecting you to see zone and run a zone o that the 1-1 coverage interferes with. Run yer regular man and see how they react to screens and cutters that way. Make them reactive not in control. 3) finally spread it al a UNC 4 corners and use the high screens with slashers and rollers to the middle of the box.
Set the 4 players getting the zone defense in a 2-2 alignment - 2 guards and 2 low post players on the blocks. Most likely, this will place these four offensive players near the zone defenders and will tend to freeze those defenders in their 2-2 alignment. The player getting the man-to-man coverage (let's call him the star) then works to get free at either forward location - wide along the baseline. The low post men aggressively set screens to help get the star free. The 2 guards have the ball (your star could bring the ball up the floor and pass it to one of the guards). When the star gets open on one side, the guard on that side passes him the ball. At this point, the defense should be matched up with the offense - all four zone players are near an offensive player and the man-to-man defensive player should be covering the ball diligently as his coach has instructed. Now the guard that passed the ball to the star follows his pass and sets a screen on the m2m defender. The star dribbles off the screen from baseline toward the guard position. If the screen works, the star may have an opening. As the star dribbles out, he should key on the low post defender on the ball side. If the low post defender stays with the low post offensive player, then the guard who just screened is wide open for a short jump shot (the screener should simply turn and prepare to receive the ball). If the low post defender comes out to cover the screener, the low post offensive player on the ball side will be open. If the defense rotates quickly, the weak side players look to fill the open areas. If none of this works, the star passes to the remaining guard, all players recover to their starting positions, and the offense continues. This offense punishes the m2m defender with continual screening and puts great pressure on the zone defenders.
The best way to beat a box and 1 is to have your"star" stand right beside one of their players in the box. This way they have 2 people always on one of yours and that way you have you're team playing 4 on 3!!
Some ways I try to attack the box&1. Post the player on the low block and you have an automatic double. Attack the baseline on the opposite side and flash your star across the lane. Have her cut off of the other teams defenders and use them as a pick. We ddid this once and it made the other coach so mad I thiught he would blow a gasket. Screen or pick for your star just like a man-to-man. The biggest difference is that there is no one to switch so if the defender can't fight through the pick the star should get open, at least briefly. Run at every opportunity and don't give them time to set up their defense.
My thoughts against box and one are simple firstly use your kid as a passer and decoy. Keep him out wide and then have your fuor others spread the 4 man zone and slash the heck the out of it. THe second is to run basline and L-cut screens for him. Have him run off a couple screens in sequence and his man either won't be able to fight through quick enough or they'll try to help and one part of the zone break down. Finally run, run, run and if e's that good let him attack the defender and zone to be a passer or just beat it anyway. Unless the defender's exceptional at grade five a good player outta be able to kill it. Suggestions: 1) Use your scorer as a passer and have the others run cuts vs the 3 or 4 remaining defenders 2) Run your man to man offense 3) Attack using baseline screens for your scorer
I agree with Coach D. I would also add the following... Put your player with the chaser at the same location as one of the corners of the box that is away from the ball. This does create a double team but it also insures that you have a man uncovered. In other words, force them to play 3 on 4 as the price for the Box and 1. Also, use the player with the chaser as a screener for your other players. The chaser may actually make the screen even more effective (almost turning the chaser into anther screener too). It takes some guts to take the ball out of your main scorers hands that much but if done right it shows why this is a team game. If your team is up to the challenge, then others should step up and should be open to do so!
baseline single and double screens/set up low. But I would add, scorer may get open when he rolls after setting a screen and other players should get in gaps ..like a diamond..and attack middle of box hard

Passes vs. a Zone Defense

Quick passes. Chest and two handed overhead passes are quicker than bounce, and they don't telegraph like the one-handers. Beat the zone with good ball movement. Just as important is good cutting - penetration without the ball to break up the straight zone alignment. Screens are effective against a zone to assist the cutter. Always, always hit the high post. 1) Zone has to collapse. 2) If low post gets a seal its an automatic 2 pts. 3) Zone can't cover shooters and help on middle 4) Forces unique movement in zone offense and defense.
We emphasize pass & shot fakes alot to get the zone to react. Also we put a man on the short baseline (*behind the zone) & use him as a passer. The high post is also a good area to get the ball!
Since most coaches have their players play zone with their hands up, we have found good success with bounce passes into the post. It is important to teach your players to fake-hands high-fake higher, bounce pass underneath. Hands low-fake lower-pass off the ear. Your posts must also work hard on holding their pins or seals.
Ball fakes, ball fakes, ball fakes, a zone moves as a unit and reacts as one also, makes the defense move then take the ball the other direction

OFFENSE VS. HALF COURT TRAP

We do something a little unusual, I think, when dealing with 1/2 court traps, we really on movement We'll set in the a 2-1-2 1/2 crt pressbreak but our middle person will start right under the basket instead of at the free throw line or top of the key. Just before we cross into the trap the opposite high man cuts through the top of the key - if we can't get the ball to him because the middle guy picks him up then our man under the basket immediately breaks straight up where the defender just left to chase our cutter with the bottom guy on the cutters side moving up to replace for ball reversal. By flooding the middle with two moving players we have found it much easier to penetrate the middle of the 1/2 crt trap and therefore rendering it useless. The other thing that I would recommend that is very simple is moving your middle guy in the offensive 2-1-2 to about 5-6ft above the top of the key - see if there middle guy will come that high - usually he will not and you can easily get the ball to the middle of the floor - as soon as you make the to the middle the passer should chase his pass getting the hand off and attacking the basket with wings cutting at angles and opposite guard spotting up for the 3 1-3-1 halfcourt zone trapping offense 1. Alignment - 2-1-2 2. both guards are at top. spacing is very important. 3. The forwards are at the bottom corners - both left & right - one on one side & the other on the other side. They are almost in the corners but around mid post area extended. 4. The post or center is at the high post, right in the middle. Rules 1. When you pass the ball, the post moves wherever the ball moves. The post has to stay around the key area, but he has freedom to go anywhere. He should come to about the Mid post area then stop, that leaves room for the forwards to cut on the baseline. The movement would look like a half circle of the post movement. Important: Spacing, passing - ball movement. The players on the outside look to pass the ball into the post, & then cut to the basket or relocate on the perimeter. The guards & forwards just relocate out on the perimeter either cutting or relocating. Remember that passing & spacing is the key, cut to the openings. Pass before the trap is set or when it is coming. DO NOT DRIBBLE THE BALL. when you do that it allows the defense time. Ask yourself this question, what is faster the dribble or the pass? I think the pass, duh. Your guards must look up when attacking this defense. Attack the weaknesses of the 1-3-1 trapping zone. The corners & the 2 front guard vs. 1 g front defense. Gap inbetween players. Look for lay ups & at the low post when the post moves there if he does. This is a freelance offense. Your players must read & react.
I would like to add a couple things to the above post: I've found that it also helps to make a quick pass from one guard to the other just after crossing the half court line, or just after the top defender begins their move to the ball. This reversal usually allows you to get them out of position allowing you to ATTACK which is how you should approach this defense. Also, anytime you can get the ball to the high post you can beat this press. We allow our high post to go as high as need be to get a pass. If the middle defender follows him real high than you've created a huge gap in the zone.
When facing an unconventional defense, such as the 1-3-1, we spread out into a 2-3 offensive set. The low middle man waits until the wing and point force the trap, he then flashes the high post. Upon catching the ball, he will turn and face the hoop. The two other baseline players will spit the open gaps. If nothing is available, he will reverse the ball to the weak side guard. The weak side guard will attempt to enter the ball to the now strong side baseline player, as soon as the baseline player catches the ball the high post will flash into the gap in the middle of the lane. He will either have a short jumper, a pass to the weak side baseline player cutting, or a reversal pass to the other guard. When the zone is extended, the gaps are going to be larger. We want our players to make well timed cuts. Good ball movement is a must. Players must make pass fakes before they pass, and must understand how to split the gaps with penetration. We want our players to be patient and not get caught up in the traps.
Against a 1-3-1: You have to get into a 2-1-2 set and look to get the ball in the middle, when you do crash your two low men to the block for a pass or a rebound. If your guards get trapped on the wing get your other guard behind the ball for a good passing angle, your center is always working to get open. If the weak side wing comes up to deny ball reversal to your other guard your low opposite forward should be open for a diagonal pass

Attacking a 3-2 Half Court Trap

A few years ago I ran this 1/2 ct. trap. We had the most trouble with teams that offensively would place a person in the middle of the court (top of the key) and would swing the ball just before they crossed 1/2 ct. to shift our defense. So, I would set up in a 2-1-2 alignment with your two guards at the top. Have one guard dribble the ball to one side of the court, not the middle. Just before he crosses 1/2 ct. have him swing the ball to the other guard. If you can get the ball to the middleman and get past thier first line of defense, you have a quick 3-on-2 opportunity (which also gives you a rebounding advantage).
Really, that particular allignment doesn't in my opinion present a strong halfcourt prescence unless they are able to match up well off it. So, what we would do is attack it with a 1-2-2 set. The deep two players have their feet on the low blocks. The middle two are at the junction of the mid court and the sideline. The point guard brings the ball up the middle and passes to one of the sideline guys. At this pass the strong side low guy goes strong side wide to the sideline (somewhere near the deep corner)......the weak side low guy flashes up from the weak side block toward the ball. The weak side mid court guy shoots all the way down to the weak side corner. Now, the man with the ball can pass to the post flasher who is coming straight towards him from behind the defence........or he can pass down into his own corner deep.......or he can 2 hand overhead skip it to the guy shooting deep......or he can pass it back to the point guard (who has advanced past mid court if possible.

Press Break

Breaking a 1-2-2 Press

I run 4 across at the free thow line. My 3 & 4 are on the outside with my 1 & 2 at the elbows, 5 is the inbounder. As the pass is made to either the 3 or 4, my 1 and 2 cut. Near side guard goes tword the sideline/halfcourt intersection while my opposite side guard comes to the ball. If the pass to either guard is not there, I reverse the ball to the inbounder (5) and to the other side (3 or 4) and run similar cuts on this side. Works like a charm. You MUST attack not just be happy with breaking the press.
I like the 1-4 as well. One thing to add to coaches comment: Get the ball inbound as quick as possible. Do not let the press get into position. Once the ball is in, get it down the floor and attack the basket.
This may be hard to describe without a diagram, but if you write it out while you're reading you should be able to work it out. Guards 1 and 2 on the elbows, 4 and 5 behind the secondary defenders. If they deny first pass, "bump and go" (v-cut to the outside of the lane) 3 inbounds to the open guard, and steps in middle for pressure release reversal. Guard without the ball immediately diagonal cuts hard across toward opposite timeline corner. If you can hit this guard, do so. Upon receiving the pass, your post player that the guard is driving towards releases down the sidline to the free throw line extended. He/she should be open because the defender has to stop the ball and comes toward the dribbler. Opposite post will create two on one break. If you can't hit the first cutter the opposite post comes straight toward the ball (x-cuts immediately when the guard crosses the top of the key.) This opens up the opposite side of the floor. The inbounder has the whole side of the floor with the dish-off from the post. Keep your players wide along the sidelines until they reach the free throw line extended, and ALWAYS advance the ball to open players ahead of you, especially the opposite post. You'll find yourself two on one most of the time. We shoot lay ups in this set and run our secondary break pattern when we don't get a lay up.

Breaking a 2-1-2 Press

start from a 4 across set: 3 inbounds ball to 2; 4 goes down right sideline and 3 (after inbounding) goes down left sideline, both for "throwovers". 5 heads down court in the middle; 1 comes back for possible reverse. 2 dribbles as far down right sideline as possible with head up reading the floor. he/she should look for the following passes and in the following order: 1st overthrow to 4, if not there, throw to middle to 5 who looks to throw opposite to 3 breaking down left sideline. if neither is there, 2 reverses ball to 1 who takes off toward left sideline with head up and making the same reads, 1st overthrow to 3, 2nd throw to 5 in middle who then looks opposite to 4 breaking down right sideline, and if neither is there, reverse ball back to 2 who heads back to right sideline, etc. etc. etc.

PRESS BREAKERS

Have you ever tried the sideline press breaker?. Very effective & can be run against a press off foul shots. Inbound 4 player who will remain behind ball as safety, 1/2 players start at foul line and break to each side. 3 player starts at centre and 5 player back at your 3pt line. Ball to Gd 1 on say R/Side, Gd 2 to sprint floor down L.Side, 3 to ball side and receive pass, 5 to ball side and receive pass, 2 should be on f/break. If ball cannot get to 3 on ball side, 2 who should be around centre will return, ball to 4 player trailing as safety, ball to 2 player returning up weak side, 5 should not react until ball goes to 3 player in first instance and if doesn't then will go weak side and receive ball of 2 player. 3 player having not received ball will break to basket for lay up.
I'm not sure if you're looking for a "press breaker" per say or what but if so...here's how we break it. 4 and 5 on foul line extended. 1 on elbow opposite of side 3 is taking it out on. 2 on block in front of inbounder. 2 has most critical job...screening 1's man THEN ROLLING BACK TO THE BALL. I stress rolling back simply because if a switch is made (2's defender picks up your 1) you'll never get it inbounded. Anyhow, if no switch is made, 1 should be open coming to the ball off of 2's pick. If the switch is made, hit 2 rolling back to the ball. If 3's defender is up on the ball, we will call out "1" or "2" from the bench and that player will fly while 3 hits them with a baseball pass. Burn them a few times on that and they'll get 3's defender back there quickly! (Trouble is finding someone who can heave it that far!)
To add to both previous comments, the best way to beat pressure defense I have found is to inbound the ball as quickly as possible before the press gets set up. If you send your wing men down court, you can sometimes get a long pass to them for lay ups against man to man pressure. Score a couple of these and the opposing coach will get out of his press quickly. Otherwise, work on getting the ball to your guard off screens. Also, teach your guard how to get open by closing the space between him and the defender, then cutting straight to the ball. Catch and square up, then look to drive it up using the middle of the floor, and not the sidelines. If you do use a clearout, have a designated player ready to come back and set a screen for the ball handler if needed.
we get them into a 1-4 set vs. m2m full ct. pressure. Vs. zone pressure we get them into a 1-2-2 set. We teach them how to attack the zone or run & jump. Here are a few of the principles that we teach: 1. Get the ball into the middle of the ct. w/in the first 3 passes. 2. Meet the pass, make good passes. 3. Don't dribble into 2 players. 4. Keep your head up at all times. 5. Reverse the ball from side to side. 6. Always use ball and pass fakes befor you pass. 7. Keep the players spread out, no clumping. 8. Catch and face your hoop as soon as you catch the ball
The idea of the Dean Smith press break is to have 3 near outlets 15 feet from the ball and one man down court near your basket. If you can picture the ball handler just one side of the paint, one outlet would be on top of the key,one outlet higher up on ball side close to the sideline and the third on weak side even to lower than the ball. If the press doubles the ball that leaves only 2 defenders guarding your three outlets.
#1 takes ball out #2 At elbow opposite ball #3 at elbow ball side #4 at half court opposite ball #5 at half court ball side #3 screens for #2 who cuts to ball side, #3 rolls toward ball to get open. #1 passes to #2 who will usually be trapped right away. #1 steps inbounds as the cross court release. #3 streaks toward the basket as the over the top option, seldom used. #4 comes from half court starting spot to the middle about 15ft. from the ball, the middle option. #5 moves toward the ball as the down the line option. So we have #2 being trapped, #1 cross court 15 ft away, #4 middle release 15 ft away, and #5 down the line 15 ft away. The best option is to pass it to the middle and look opposite to the #3 guy streaking. If middle not open and #2 passes across to #1, the middle guy stays, the streaker moves toward ball and the #5 streaks toward the basket, #2 stays as the cross court release.
When teams press a team I coach, I try to score off it. When you say "Press Break" it means we're just trying to break it and that it might be too tough for us. If you say "Press Attack" and go about it the right way, you can score by passing up the floor and cutting in the correct way. I'd explain it, but it takes too long. What point I was trying to make is that when I hear "Press Attack" I feel like I am the aggressor. I want my kids to dictate what the oppoent does, therefore I need them to be the aggressor, hence "attack."

Breaking a Diamond & 1 Press

I teach my players to pass over a zone press when possible. What you have in a 1-2-1-1 is a diamond and 1 configuration. If the front player (point of diamond closest to the ball) is tight on the inbounder, place one player inside the diamond, a player behind each of the two sideline players and your last player between the ball and the post defender. Have your inbounder attempt to pass inside the zone, and that player will turn and you sideline players v-cut to a pass. You can take it from there...hope this helps! I'm just going to focus on the "second pass". In my opinion, most presses are in trouble once the ball is in the middle of the floor, so well-coached teams will work hard to defend anyone cutting there for a pass. So, some little things that may help, are: 1. Be patient. The second pass doesn't need to be to the middle, it can be back to the in-bounder. Take the ball from once side to the other. You may actually make more progress up the sidelines. Don't force it. Ten seconds is a long time. 2. Many players that cut to the middle don't use enough mis-direction. They think they will shake a defender with a single jab step. Take at least three steps, then reverse direction. 3. If the player cutting to the middle comes from behind the defense, only the defenders behind the cutter will see her. The post players may be more effective breaking 3/4 downcourt, then coming back. 4. Unless you have some exceptional arms on the team, avoid long passes. Turnover ratio is too high. Keep the second pass short and crisp. 5. Once again, patience. Presses work best against teams that make hurried decisions. Often teams try to accelerate everything and even when they break the press, take a rushed shot. Line up in a 1-4 set with 4 players spread evenly across the free throw line. You can either enter to on of the two guards in the free throw area or one of the outside players. If the ball is inbounded to an outside guy, have one of the guards break to the middle. Inbound passer is safety valve.

Breaking a 1-3-1 Press

first thing I would do is make them get their 6th guy off the court! Then I would set a guard at each elbow in the backcourt, and my forwards at 1/2 court a couple feet from the sideline. Actually, my 3 & 5 are at 1/2 court, and the 4 throws it inbounds. Obviously, we first try to get the ball up court before the press is set. We do this bby sending our 3 up the court. If he does not get the ball, then he stops at his spot at 1/2 court. Our guards break towards the corners. This will generally draw enough attention from the front of the press that we can sneak our 3 up to the hash mark for the 25 foot pass over the potential trap. If we get this pass, our 3 turns and pushes the ball, our 5 cuts to the ball side block and tries to seal his man. If we throw the ball to our guards, they immediately square to the midle of the court. They look to hit either the other guard cutting in front of his man to the middle of the floor, or the forward floating to the open area. They can also look back at the inbouner who is the safety valve, his job is to catch and reverse the ball. We work our kids to love being pressed. Teach them to invite the trap, take a hesitation dribble or pullback crossover and make a good pass out of it. Attack the press to score! Make your kids understand that when the opponent traps they are taking a risk, and they give us the numbers advantage.

Unique Ways of Breaking Presses

I've always liked to use my post players as receivers of the inbounds pass. I think that it is a big mistake to send your 2 post players down to the offensive end & let your 3 perimeter players break the press. Work on inbounding the ball up the court. The farther up the court, the more difficult to trap & the more defenders you catch behind the ball! If man-to-man pressure, bring everyone to the ball, pass fake & send someone long. A key is to have your inbounder to a very active running the baseline & pass faking!
5 inbounds it, 1 and 2 at elbows, 3 and 4 at halfcourt sidelines. 1 and 2 screen and roll toward baseline, 3 break toward ball, 4 break toward 2 near baseline and try to screen his man. 2 goes long running his man into 4. 5 throws ball into 3 in middle who tries to hit 2 running down sideline. 1 also breaks down the other sideline in case 2 is not open. This worked well for my 8th grade girls vs man press last year and I think it would get a 2 on 1 against some zone presses as well.
I always run this play, named it after the play Cincy used to beat Duke at the Great Alaska Shootout. 4 inbounds with 1, 3, and 2 lined up in that order across the half court, 5 is long on the opposite free throw line. At the slap of the ball all three players at half court break to the ball, the pass goes long to 5 at the 3-point line. 1 and 2, after taking three hard jab step to ball, are streaking backdoor for a dish from 5 just as he recieves the pass. The play takes a big man that will go after the ball on the long pass and can dish,we have been lucky the last couple of years, our 5 is also a TE in football. We even ran the play on a last second shot against a zone. The entire defense collapsed on the long pass, and left a dish for a lay up on the wing. It's only a end of half or game situation play, got another one that Alaska might appreciate called the Wasilla sucker play, actually scored on that one 4 straight times in a row against Wasilla last year, really similar to the play someone else described above, I'll post it another time when I have more time.

Press Break vs. M-2-M Press

Against hard pressure, I like to run a box formation. Identify these five positions: Your best passer with enough strength to throw it long. Your best scoring guard. Your 2 best ball handlers. One big guy. Best passer takes it out of bounds. The other 4 set up a box. Your best scorer is closest to the ball with your best ball handler on the same side, but 15 feet further away from the ball. Your big guy is on the opposite side of the hoop, but in line across from the scorer. Your other ball handler is on the opposite side of the hoop in line with the other ball handler. So now you have a box with the center of the box as the top of the key. On ball side. The ball handler runs toward the scorer and sets a pick. The scorer flies long down the court for the baseball pass. If this is not open, the ball handler rolls toward the corner to get the ball. On the other side at the same time, the big man screens away for the guard who comes hard straight to the ball. the big man rolls toward the other corner. So you have 3 outlets and the long pass.
I like breaking the press with just three people and that includes the inbounder. I realize you specified a four across press breaker, but why have all ten players involved with the inbound situation? You need space. We send two downcourt. Their defenders will cheat,of course, but at least they are out of the vicinity. For teams that don't practice much, there are two simple ways to get the ball in. The first is hard work, but simple. 1. Put two receivers facing the inbounder (yes, your best passer - this skill is critical). Place them on the blocks, or maybe back a little bit. On the slap, the ballside receiver breaks hard to the ball side corner and the other straight back towards halfcourt. Each will cut back to the inbounder for the pass. No screens, dirt simple, but works only if the kids are quick and go at least three steps from the inbounder before cutting back. The best time to cut back is when the ball handler fakes a pass, especially to the corner. The defender will overplay the pass and create an opportunity for the receiver to reverse direction suddenly. Ideally, the defender is compromised moving away from the action as the ball comes into play. The receiver going downcourt can sell the fake by holding a target hand out as if requesting a lob pass. The defenders must guess when the change of dorection will occur, so the advantage is with the hardworking offensive player. 2. Another 3 player option is to have a big played involved. The big player goes and sets a screen for the expected receiver a la pick and roll, seals and pivots to face the ball. Once the ball is caught, its returned to the inbounder breaking up court. The critical piece here is the decoy receiver waiting for the screen to be set. If he/she leaves too soon, goodbye play. If they over play the pick, pass to the decoy receiver. Those are too simple but effective ways to inbound vs man 2 man. Space is the key. Once the defense is spread out and you're on the move, you should get some good shots.
I like using the 1-4 against man because it gives the point guard 4 outlets right away. I have him first read how the defense is guarding the wings. If the defense is playing tight he looks for the backdoor. If that's not open the point then looks to create the give and go or the pick and row. If we do not score off of those plays they go into a motion offense.
I use a "1-4" (i.e. four across" as my primary press break. Against tough man-to-man pressure, I have my big players (#4 and #5) set a pick for the guards (#1 and #2). While many teams attempt to have one guard screen for the other, while the #4 and #5 head further downcourt, I have found that at best this yields only one inbound target. By having both of the guards screened for, I get two inbound targets. I believe that the keys are teaching your guards the appropriate footwork (and body position) to get open, and to teach your inbounder when to use a bounce pass.
I know that this may sound a little unorthodox but I had a good sized post player that i used to break man pressure this way. I would put her at about the top of the key and use her as an outlet type pass and run a "give and go" with the guard or clear out and let her bring it up the floor against her defender, who usually was unaccustomed to playing open floor dribble defense. If someone comes to help against the post we would get the ball to the open player and run the break or secondary break using the post as a trailer. Don't know if you have this kind of personnel, but it worked for us.
We have a set play called Double High that has both post players at the top of the key setting ball screens for the point guard. We just extend this into the backcourt by having both post players up for the point guard to use the screens. The wing men spot up in the corners. Another piece of advice: Have your point guard start below the free throw line extended, then cut toward the basketball for the initial pass. This will give them more room to get open vs. starting above the free throw line extended.
1-4 press break with 4 inbounding, facing the inbounder, have 5 on left wing, 1 on left elbow, 2 on right elbow, 3 on right wing. Against in your face man 2 man, send 2 man long occasionally. Otherwise, have 5 screen for 1 and roll toward ball. Inbound to 5 to 1 or directly to 1. 1 shoudl push it up and attack middle and fill lanes (2 fills right lane/ 3 left). Run the baseline sometimes and inbound to 3 to 2 to 1 and fill lanes or directly to 2 to 1 and attack. Have 1 pass to 2 or 3 more quickly if he is not quick enough to get it up court.

Plays

Last Second, End of Game Play

"Big Ben" - Put your tallest player, or best jumper underneath your offensive basket. Put your two best shooters at half court, one on each side, out at the sidelines. Inbounder must be able to throw ball length of court, or at least 3/4 of the way (a concern with girls). Place last player , hopefully a decent foul shooter at freethrow line closest to inbounder, at elbow opposite inbounder. This player will set a screen for the inbounder as she moves across baseline. Many times player guarding inbounder runs over screen, resulting in foul (great if in bonus). As inbounder moves, players at half court take 1or 2 steps toward the ball, and then bust to basket running in outside alleys. Player under basket steps out to top of key. Inbounder throws pass to top of key, where player jumps and tips ball to one of the players cutting to basket in alleys. Player catches tip, shoots or gets a lay-up. We have run this play several times, and it usually has given us a good shot at the basket. Haven't always converted, but that's a different story.I have used this play with girls teams from grades 7 - 10 , and see no reason that it would not work for a boys team. It has worked against man and zone defenses.

Quick Hitters

we like to have 2 low posts one being our smallest player. We then bring the ball to the small players side. We then have them pick away for our biggest player. If they switch we have a big small mismatch, if they don't switch your big should receive the ball for a lay-up.

Baseline Inbound Plays

Here are 2 simple one that are effective against both zones and man. Both are from box formation. #1. 3 inbounds(best shooter), 4 on ballside block, 1 on ballside elbow, 5 on off block and 2 on off elbow. On slap of ball:4 jab steps in then breaks to corner and recieves ball. Turns and throws it to 1 who has cut to wing. 4 then screens for 3 who steps into corner and recieves ball from 1. 3 almost always has jump shot, If he doesn't then 4 is open. And 2 should be open up high. ...........................#2. Same alignment. 4 & 1 screen across lane for 5 & 2. 5 recieves ball and passes to 2 at wing. 2 takes one or two dribbles toward top of key looking for 3 on the wing coming off of a double screen by 1 & 4. 3 has shot. If not, 2 & 5 screen down for 1 and he pops to wing. These have worked for me at various levels for a long time, I hope you are successful with them also. P.S., I stole #1 from an opponent who beat my team with it for 12 points in 1 game a long time ago. When we played the next season, it got us 8 points against him.
We have used a very simple play with unbelievable success. Set up a stack with 4 players about 4 feet away from your person taking ball out of bounds. First player in line closest to OB screens players gaurding OB player(back pick)/next player in lines screens anyone under basket. This leaves your tallest player(#3 inline) behind a double screen for a lob pass and an easy bank shot. If this player is covered, #4(best shooter) in line moves to outside baseline for an outside jump shot or a quick pass back to player who inbounded the ball. We have averaged 2-3 shots a game with the lob under our basket. Also, look for players who set up the screens, they may be open as well.
My teams have always used this play and it is amazingly successful. It can be taught in 10 minutes. Your point guard is the inbounds passer. Your other four players line up in numerical order of position (2, 3, 4 and 5) starting on the low block and ending up at the free throw line. So when your PG (#1) gets the ball from the ref to trigger the play, all 5 of your players are in a vertical line. When PG slaps the ball to trigger play, #2, #3 and #4 take one wide step OUTSIDE - toward the sideline. At the same time #5 at the FT line takes a wide step INSIDE toward the center of the court. PG makes ball fake to throw the ball toward the sideline (use #2 as your decoy receiver). Then #2, #3 and #4 immediately cut back and sweep across the lane. (First option is #2! If s/he has shaken loose, slip it to them for an instant lay up! However normally this doesn't happen.) As #2, #3 and #4 sweep across the lane, #5 busts straight down the boundary line of the lane TOWARD the PG. (Sealing their defender on their inside hip.) At the low block s/he cuts diagonally straight for the rack. Almost always #5's defender will get caught up in the traffic in the lane created by your #2, #3 and #4 sweeping across and gets totally taken out of the play. Since #5 is usually a tall center your PG simply lobs a head-level pass - #5 grabs it and banks in lay up. AGAINST MAN DEFENSE THIS SHOT WILL BE AVAILABLE 90% of the time. It is extremely rare that you have to go to options beyond this one, but there are a couple. After crossing the lane, #3 and #4 set up in rebounding position along the opposite blocks. If no shot has developed for #5, #2 will do a jab cutback and flash back across the lane and continue out to the shortside corner. If all else fails, PG inbounds to them and then receives an immediate return pass. But again it's very rare you will have to resort to this option. One caution about this play. What your #2, #3 and #4 are doing is kind of a moving screen. They MUST NOT make any screening motion or attempt to push defenders out of the way with arms or hands. Simply run the patterns and sweep across the lane - "inadvertent bumping" will take care of the rest and clear those defenders out of there. This play is great anytime and is an excellent "buzzer beater" if you only have one or two seconds to score. My teams have won several games on this play in the final seconds. For younger kids, I have used it as our *ONLY* inbounds play. Even when opponents know what is coming it is hard to stop. As you move to higher skill levels you may want to have other inbounds plays and save this one for a real nitty gritty situation where you HAVE to score.
I too run a variation of the stack plays mentioned. 1. We line up 4 players strating out the fouline in a tight stack going diagonally away from the ball towards the opposit side of the floor. the first player jabs one way and cuts back the other, the second player does the exact opposite and the third player then comes straight down the lane looking for the ball. The last player steps back behind the arc level with ball as a safety outlet. 2. We run a variation off this called Rover. We have 3 players in the stack and then 1 "roving". The rover uses the stack as a screen trying to get an open shot or lay-up. they have a 3 count to do this before the stack runs as described in 1 without the forth player. Screen the screener. I also like these types of plays which open up a shot underneath the hole on the weak side. Our best big passer will take the ball (lets say the 4 man). We then have our best driver (3) on the ball side low post and our best shooter(2) on the ball side high post. 5 is on the weak side low post and 1 is on the weak side high post. Thus we are set up in a box formation. 3 steps to the sideline looking for the pass then goes and sets a screen for two who comes towards the ball looking for the shot. At the same time 5 comes diagonally across the lane and sets a screen on 3's defnder.who then flashes down to the weak side post looking for a lay-up. 5 rolls back towards the ball looking for a lay-up (they are usually open on a switch). Meanwhile 1 has stepped outside the 3 pointline as an outlet. My golden rule for the inbound passer is to go opposite from wher they passed the ball.
Player 5 ball in. Player 1 at opposite side elbow. Player 2 right below player 1 Player 3 at ball side elbow Player 4 right below player 3. At tap 3 screens across top of lane for player 1 moving to ball side wing. At tap 2 flashes to oposite side wing. At tap 4 flashes to middle. 3 then faces basket at freethrow line. All are options but our 4 and 1 usually get the shot with 2 next. Be sure and have all players close to elbow. This confuses the defense because no one is in the low "good" shooting spot to begin with. The D tends to open the middle when they see this. It has been our best play.
Here is one of my favorites, it is a pretty common play. But here it is anyway. It is called "Triangle" 3 is inbounder. 5 lines up in center of free throw line. 2 lines up on ballside block. 4 lines up on opposite block. 1 is out at point guard position as safety. 2 screens up for 5 rolling down the lane. That is the first option for a lay up. After 2 screens, 4 should be right there screening up for 2. 2 rolls down the other side of the lane for the lay up. In the meantime, 1 is counting in his head, when he gets to 3 he has to try and get open for the outlet. I usually have him V cau away from ball and run off of screen at top of the key set by 4. I also have a few pages of m2m out of bounds plays thay I got from coach Calipari.
I used this at grade & elementry level, and has been quite productive: "Post T" The formation forms the capital letter "T". A) 1 inbounds ball. B)the two post players (5 on top, 4 closest to 1)stand side by side facing the side line, standing on the line of the lane in front of 1, just below the freethrow line. C) one wing (3) is on the elbow opposite ballside. D)the other wing (2) is at the opposite wing position, even with the free throw line extended. On 1's break command, the (2) player cuts over the top of the two post players, who have formed a double screen, and cuts into the lane. (3) times his arrival to also cross the top of the double screen right after (2) does, and (3) cuts to the short corner area. After the second wing cuts down, the top post player (5) cuts straight to the basket using (4) as a screen-can cut on the side opposite of his defender. (4) then cuts to the top of the key as a safety outlet. Sounds complicated but if you draw it out, it's quite easy. We also run "Wing T" which simply switches the places of the wings and the post players. I cannot tell you how many lay ups and short jumper you can get with this.
this one won a few games for us last year(5th grade girls). I call it the double stack.The center throws ball in,the forwards line up on each block,the guards line up behind(directly) the forwards.the center slaps ball,players break in this direction,guards fake a step into lane ,and breaks for corners,forward nearest center(ball) cuts across lane ,sets screen for other forward,when screen is set,forward cuts across lane to other block,WIDE OPEN 90% of the time,when not,corners are open for a pass.you wind up in a 1-4 set.great play for younger kids
Very simple play, when I have described it to other coaches they look at me like I am nuts, even the players will not believe that it works until you use it in a game. Have your best passer throw the ball in. Line up the other four according to size across the lane facing the ball. With your tallest player as the second in line closest to the ball. Should look like this OOOO. When the in bounds passer is handed the ball, they quickly throw a lob over the top of the stack. The second or the tallest player steps back to recieve the pass. The other three quickly step in to seal off the open lane that was created or in essence, they set a triple screen. This has led to many 3ft shots for my high school girls. Also they may set up with someone behind the stack. Who ever does not have a player in front of them simply steps forward and the play is ran backwards. I have seen coaches get so frustrated over this that they will yell for the players to get behind them now I have all of my offensive players set up in between the defense and the basket. Easy! The key is to do it quick. The inbounder must almost take the ball from the referee before they are ready to give it to them and then qickly pass the ball.
Here is a simple yet effective way to get the ball in every time! You may not score every time but you will get it in. Best passer takes the ball out of bounds. Other four players are in a circle facing the back of the person in front of them (left shoulders inside circle, right shoulders outside) They should be around the first line above the block on ball side. On slap, four players run in a tight cirlce. After about two laps they all just break anywhere on the court. You could have set break areas if you wanted. I know it seems hokey BUT think about how you would defend this. You'll get it in every time! It is very easy and quick to teach and learn. The only thing to watch for is the players want to break too soon!

Baseline OOB vs. Zone

Here is an in-bounds play I use against zone defenses: Put a player in the corners behind the 3-point arc (best shooters obviously)....and a player on each side of the lane (free throw line extended)...at the slap of the ball both players at the free throw line flash down the lane (sometimes I have them cross in the lane and go to the opposite block). If the defense is sinking in on the posts then the corners will be wide open....if they cheat out on the corners then the posts will be wide open.
AGAINST ZONE: Try putting your guy's in a box around the key. The inbounder calls break and the guy on the low post,in front of the inbounder cuts out to the corner. The inbounder passes him the ball and the guy at the high post,ball side, pops out. The guy in the corner passes to the guy at the top,and then goes in and screens the player on the low post. The inbounder then comes off the screen and goes to the corner for a pass from the guy that came out from the top and shoots. The guy's on the weak side should exchange just to keep their defenders busy.
AGAINST ZONE: I have 1 run 2 different ways. 5 takes ball out. everyone lines up along the key - ballside starting at midpost (1,3,4,2). If 5 holds up arm closest to key we run a sweep, if outside/ sideline arm is up we run a wall. i let my inbounder make the call. Play 1 (sweep)on break 1 goes to corner, 3 sweep across key screening closest player, 4 sldes down to block looking for pass and 2 pops out free midblock extended. play 2 - on break everyone fakes their move, even taking a step in that direction, except for 2 who goes to their spot as evryone else reset turn to basket a forms a wall for 2. the key is practice, and execution. it sounds confusing but we practiced these plays evryday for 10 minutes and were very suceessful to the point that when our oppents tried to out guess us it left open easy shots for 1 or 3.
AGAINST ZONE: 1) out of box formation, ballside block screens for ballside perimeter player who cuts to ballside wing area...ball passed to that player who reverses ball around outside of perimeter back to weak side and ball is passed to original player who inbounded ball, who uses screen by weak side low block player to get shot on wekside wing/corner area...a little more complicated option on this is screen the screener action with weak side low block player moving diagonally up and across to ballside mid to high post area to screen for the initial screener, who curls off screen to weak side low block for ball and/or to set weak side screen for player who inbounded ball who cuts to weak side wing after inbounding ball 2) two players stack line up on ballside block with 1 player in ballside corner.. remaining player is on ballside top of key ..player in corner cuts off double screen either on baseline side or high side of double screen set a ballside low block..often for easy lay up...top player in double screen pops out to corner using screen by remaining player that set the initial double screen...player in corner is often open when popping out..this corner player can shoot or feed post to screener who posted up on ballside..two man game..or hit perimeter player cutting to wing from ballside top of key
AGAINST ZONE: We have a play run from a box set. It gets 1 of 3 very good shots and sometime a very good weak side put back. Upon receipt of the ball from the ref, the lower ball side player breaks to the corner 3 pt. line; at the same time the top ball side player breaks to the FT line extended 3 pt. line; the player at the top of the non-ball side breaks to the basket on the non-ball side. The inbounder passes to the corner; the corner passes to FT line ext. player. After the inbounder makes her pass she steps in and screens the middle player of the zone. While all this is happening the lower non-ball side player is breaking along the endline and around the screen set by the inbounder to receive a pass from the FT Line ext. player for the 5-7 ft. jump shot. The top non-side player is in position for the weak side rebound. All players on perimeter are free to shoot the "3" if a defender does not come out to guard. 2 years ago we scored 54 pts, off this in-bound play.

Sideline OOB Plays

Try this out of the stack. Have your best driver take the ball out of bounds, your best screener sets a pick for your best passer who comes to the ball and receives it, the other two players cut high and away from the basket area. Now have your inbounder cut hard for the basket and the passer should give him a good lob toward the hoop. Another option. Best post player in corner on ball side. Best 3 pt shooter at block ball side. The other two players set screens up top to get open, but only pass it to them as a release. The post in corner screens for the shooter at block. Shooter goes to corner, post to block. Inbounder can pass it to shooter for the shot or post feed, or inbounder can do a direct post feed.
If I have the ball on the side and the other team sits back in a zone, I do not try to score off the in-bounds.
I have a box I will use some this year.I have 2 kids who are pretty fast and I use them on this.Set up a box with a good passer inbounding the ball. My 2 fastest kids set up on the side opposite the basket. the 2 other players set up basketside of the box. When ready,the 2 kids (basketside)screen for the 2 fireballs and they are off and running for the basket ,looking for the pass.The only 2 problems I have are if center stays back to defend basket (then you may have 2 on 1 situation)or screens break down, such as a switch on defense. Most of the kids we play against don`t switch yet..so for younger players ,try it..
Here's one I swiped from a pretty good boys varsity team in my area. I have had it work for junior high girls and boys. Put your best post player on ball side block, and and best post feeder on block opposite of ball. Stack the remaining two in front of the inbounder (but they are simply decoys and safety valves. On ball slap, player on opposite block runs to ball side corner and recieves inbounds pass, squares up and looks for shot or dumps it into post player. 95% of teams are so pre-occupied with the two stacking up that they neglect to pay attention to players on blocks and we get a ton of easy jumpers in corner or 1 on 1 in the post. Sounds simple but it will at least get your post player to the foul line, maybe even shooting for a three point play.
2 Big Guys on the elbows, 2 Little Guys on the blocks. On the slap, the 2 Bigs drop down and screen for the 2 Littles who then cut to the perimeter for a three. One of the two Littles will be open to pass to. The inbound passer is the forgotten player. We like to have the ball side Big Guy come out about 15-18' after his initial screen is done. The passer cuts from the sideline to the corner area, using the Big Guy as needed. Common result is a pass back to the inbounder who is all alone. If the Big Guy's defender switches to the in-bounder... uh-oh. Big Guy scores on pass from the forgotten player.
Coach, You're exactly right when you say many teams will neglect to pay the inbounder much attention. I actually run three different sideline out-of-bounds plays from the set up I described in the earlier post. We always set up in the same formation I spoke of (I call it "blitz"), then I will hold up a number (1, 2, or 3) depending on what I want them to run out of this set up. I watch the inbounder's defender to see where they set up. Blitz 1 is the play I described earlier. Blitz 2 is for when the opposing team puts the inbounder's defender back in the paint...we will have the block post player break to the ball and pass it right back to the inbounder who steps in quickly after inbounding it. The inbounder invariably has a wide open 3. (Now if we could just hit one!) Blitz 3 is similiar but I will have the post player simply hand off the ball to the inbounder as he/she breaks to hoop. It's always good for one or two wide open lay-ups a game. On Blitz 3 I will have the guys who normally goes to the ball side corner (to get inbounds pass) just go to the top-of-the key to get his man out of there.
We get into a box formation like so; 1 takes ball out 2 at ballside block 3 at ballside elbow 4 opposite 2 5 opposite 3. 1 yells break and the following happens; 2 goes to her ride towards short corner 3 replaces 2 at block 4 turn set screen for 5 5 brushes off screen looking for ball. 1 hit 5 for lay up or 2 for quick jump shot. Our first goal is to score, but we want the ball inbound to avoid a 5 sec call
Vs. a Zone, End of game: Put 2 and 5 on blocks, 5 ball side and 2 weak side. 4 inbounds and 1 and 3 are high near half court line. 2 cut to ballside corner using screen from 5. (5 should start outside the corner man on zone if possible so he can screen him inside) Throw to 2. 5 post up hard and 2 can shoot, drive, or pass to 5. 1 breaks open in case 2 can't get open. 3 screens for 1, then runs to weak side block for rebound or possible pass from 5. You can also inbound to 1 who passes to 2. This assumes 2 is your best shooter and 5 your best scorer from post. This works well against pressure man as well as zones.

Jump Ball Formations

I put a player on the offensive free throw line. So you have players on the right and left of jumper on the circle (where half court meets the circle), a player on D at the Free Throw line and one on the offensive free throw line. The jumper has to read the other team. Usually it is an easy tip back to the player on D, but if the other team leaves a person open on the circle then we run a break off the tip. Try this formation and see how other teams match-up
If we feel we can win the tip we will place the point guard at the top of the 3 point arc on the defensive side. The 2 and 3 position are on the center line on either side of the jump circle. The 4 man is between the jump circle on the top of the offensive 3 point arc. We will tip back to the point and go immediately into our transition offense. The point brings the ball up the center, the 2 and 3 players fill the wide wings and the 4 player runs the center lane. The 5 player who tips is the trailer. If we don't get the quick hitter we are in position to go directly into our secondary break. This is where we score most often. We really value possessions and even track them as the major team statistic. Therefore, even though there is only one tip per game we want the additional possession and will devote practice time to this. Our goal is to "out-possession" the other team by 5 possessions.
Last year there was a coach who ran a no tip - trap on us. As the ball went up his girls would all fall back in to a box out position. they would steal the ball or if we got the ball immediately go into a trapping half court def. after seening him do this and getting the ball 8 out of 10 times i asked him about it. he said he read about it here about 2 years ago...funny what you can find here.
I put my biggest player in to jump then right as the ref is getting ready to throw it up, I have my smallest player switch and take the jump. This way I have my biggest guys available to get the ball.

Jump Ball Plays

My team just does a plain: 2 guys set up on the circle (offensive end) center hits it to 1 of them other breaks down court towards the basket and the guy with the ball nails the guy breaking down court then you have a guy on your own free throw line and one on the circle (defensive end) normally you get a fast lay-up Will you believe me if I tell you that our tipoff play works 95% of the time? It's very easy to run, and we get a lay up from it almost every time...now if we could only make all of those lay ups! Setup: one player on the circle facing the tipper, two best open court players straddling the midcourt line, one safety back at their FT line. The tipper tips to the player facing him. The wings head upcourt and angle toward the basket (much like lay up lines). Player who caught the tip pivots and hits one of the wings cutting to the basket. What happens is the other team's safety has to choose which player to defend; often he will run out toward the kid who caught the tip. Even if the safety stops your initial drive, one interior pass will lead to an easy hoop. During my season, we lost the tip twice and got lay up attempts on the opening tip in all but one of the other games. I should have been more clear about the wings' starting position. They set up about a step or two from the sideline...it really confuses most teams when they see us standing off the circle.
We run the same Jump Ball formation and if you win the tip you always get a lay up AND just like Rocket Coach we don't always make those lay ups. We have our 5 jump, our 4 face him, our 1 and 2 as cutters and our 3 back as a safety. Always have your player with the stronger left hand on that side, you can have the wing players hedge towards D or O based on weather you expect to win the tip.
We do similar to Rockets play but instead of tipping to 4 on the circle, we have the two players who stradle the line break toward the basket as the ball is tossed up and we tip in front of one of them, the defensive safety always goes toward the ball, and we pass to the other cutter. Tipping to 4 is fine if they don't have players on both sides of him, but tipping away from the circle seems like a more sure thing when the other team is on the circle.
We have no height, but manage to get more than our share of the opening tips, along with a lay-up. 5 jumps, 3 at our FT line, 4 between our 5 & 3 on the circle, 1 (right side) and 2 (left side) straddle center court on both sides of center circle. If opposing center appears to be right handed he'll usually try to tip it to his left (from our basket facing theirs, this means to the right side of center court. Our guard on that side, (1), breaks to this spot as soon as the ball leaves the ref's hand at the jump. He's off to the races. Try it sometimes, you'd be surprised how easy and effective it is.
JUMP BALL RULE - non-jumpers cannot change position around the center circle until the ball is tossed and cannot break the plane of the center circle until the jumper touches the ball. They cannot take a position in any occupied space until the ball is touched. That means standing right behind (within 3') another player who is on the circle. You cannot move onto the circle but you can leave the circle while the ball is being tossed. If you are at least 3' back from the circle, you can move at any time but you can't move onto the circle (within 3'). The rule book wasn't real clear but the case book explained it better. (high school)
WE line 1,2,3 up defensively up or off circle depending on our chances of winning tip. 4 lines up on the circle, offensive side facing jumpers. We tip back or hope they tip forward. 4steps up and screens the jumper, 5 goes to hoop we fire down the middle for a lay up.

Trick Plays

you are taking the ball out underneath your own basket, and yiu create a stack. The last player in line yells, as the ref hands your player the ball, "wait, coach wants me to throw it in!" as she walks to the out of bounds, your guard breaks to the basket, receives the pass and makes a lay up.
End of the game, ball under opponents hoop, they are in an all out denial press. Run the shoe string. Set up a box. the back player on ball side will screen for the player closest to the ball who will sprint down court for the touchdown lay up. The trick is the sprinter, facing down court, bends down saying his shoe is untied right as the ref hands the ball, now he is in a starting block formation and takes off.
Last year, I used one with my 7th grade boys team. When we received the ball to start the second half, I had my players line up in a box formation at the other basket and see if the other team matched up with us. If they did we'd send our point guard to our actual basket to get an easy lay-up We tried this in two games...the first game it worked but the second game the opposing team did not fall for it.
it was 2 seconds left in the game we had the ball. all tied as soon as the girls lined up i yell no Kris take the ball out as soon as the ball was handed to kris the orginal inbounder flew down court caught the pass, but missed the running lay up...
Stack play. If no defender directly in front of line, first person squats down, second person in line shoots off the glass. 2) Under opponents hoop. 4 players at elbows and boxes. Player on opposite box from ball side steps out of bounds and receives pass from person out of bounds (legal only following a made bucket). 3 players run towards her calling for ball. The player who threw her the ball goes long for a bullet pass to other end.
I have a friend that when it is his team's ball to start the second half ALWAYS (well alomost always - as I'll explain as I go along) puts three players at the wrong basket. And has the player receiving the inbounds pass face as if he is going to the wrong basket. The reason what he does works is because EVERYONE knows that he "ALWAYS" does this. So you can be sure they warn their team about it at half-time. The trick comes in when once in a great while he has his team line up at the "RIGHT" basket and the defense goes to the 'wrong' basket. Because the coach has drilled into his player's heads that this team "ALWAYS" lines up at the wrong basket. I saw his team play once in a tournament. It was his team's ball to start the second half. He lined his team up under the "right" basket. The opposing players knew this. But the coach was yelling for his team to go to the other end because he knew that Jimmy "ALWAYS" lined his guys up at the other basket. Three of the other team's players actually went to the other end. So Jimmy's team inbounded and scored 5 on 2. (I'm glad I wasn't that coach!) This happened on the high school varsity boys level of play.

Pick & Roll Plays

Here is another pick and roll idea to consider from a 1-2-2 set. Your point hits a wing, and cuts hard to the basket on a give and go cut. The ballside post clears as the pass to the wing has been made across the lane to the opposite post area. The post man on the offside sprints out to the wing where the ball was passed and sets a ball screen for the wing. Wing drives off the screen, post can roll or pop back. On the helpside, you can have the two guards spot up or run a double screen (I prefer staggered screens) for the point guard. Another idea similar is to run from a 1-4 set. PG hits the wing and cuts to the opposite corner. The ballside post screens for the opposie post. Opposite post cuts over and ball screens for the wing, while the strong side post who set the screen slides down to the opposite low post area. The wing can either drive off the screen to the middle or drive it baseline if the defense tries to squeeze up on the ball handler in order to get over the top of the ball screen. One other idea......think about ball screening after your post receives a post feed, but kicks it back out to the wing? I know a few college teams do this as well as some pro teams. Very hard to defend because the ball screen can occur so quickly.
One of our quick hitters is out of a pick and roll play. We set up in a high post 2-3 set and send the ball side baseline player up to set the pick on the guard w/ the ball. As he is moving up to set the pick, the weak side baseline player sets a diagonal screen for the middle player, and the off guard clears out. As the strong side baseline player gets about 1.5 feet towards the guard w/ the ball he makes a quick pivot on his outside foot and back door cuts. Because of the screening action on the weak side the help side "D" is destracted. This is good for a couple of points per game.
I GOT THIS PLAY THIS SUMMER FROM A COACH WITH THE PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS...START IN A 1-2-2 SET. PT PASSES TO THE WING AND THE STRONG SIDE POST COMES IMMEDIATELY TO THE ELBOW TO SET A SCREEN FOR THE PT. (LIKE THE CUT ON THE UCLA HP OFF.) THE weak side WING SETS A DOUBLE SCREEN ON THE weak side FOR THE PT GUARD WHO WILL EMPTY OUT ON THE WEAK SIDE. (FOR A POSSIBLE SKIP PASS.). NOW YOU HAVE ISOLATED A POST PLAYER WITH THE WING WHO HAS THE BALL. A GREAT PICK AND ROLL SITUATION. IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO PICK BIG PLAYER TO SMALLER IN CASE THE SWITCH YOU CAN POST UP.

Fastbreak

Fast Break System

We use a middle break pattern. We want to push the ball to the free throw line. With the ball in the middle, we fill the lanes on the right and left (use the v-ball court sideline to keep your spacing). The wings the touch the blocks. You will now have two peolpe trailing the play. The two trailers balance the court(one on the right and one on the left). These trailers set down picks for the wings that have touched the block. You are running into a basic motion set (3out and 2in). We get into our motion offense without having to stop and set up. The key is to get the ball to the free throw line, fill the lanes, balance the court and set picks.
This is a fast break with my team which only has one player over 6'. this break utilizes the 3 pt line to perfection. Your 2 should fill the right lane, your 3 should fill the left lane, making sure they stay wide. your 5 the 6'1 kid should go to the right box. your 4 inbouds ball and trails the 1. On any ball reversal, whether from 1 to 4 or 2 to 4, the 2 sets a back for 4 once 4 throws to 5 on the left wing. 1 fades to the right wing replacing 2. 2 steps out after setting back screen (he should be open because his man must help on the 4 cut. the 5 who went to the righ box follows the ball on the reversal and now is on the left box. The 3 who has the ball throws to 2 stepping out, then the 5 sets a back pick for 3, and the 1 sets a down pick for 4. the 2 has to read the screens and decide who is open. after he passes to a side he then down picks the opposite box in which he passed to. Now the only rule from now on is if you throw a pass from the wing you get back screened if you dont throw the pass you down screen.

Fast break Drills

Drills - 5 on 0 to learn pattern, then 5 on 5 beginning with a missed shot (block out, rebound, and run break). When ball gets to other end, if no break (and secondary break options are not open), pull it out and have someone shoot and fastbreak to the other end. Pattern - whichever guard is closest to side the rebound went to will open up for outlet pass toward sideline. Other guard will move toward middle and head down floor and receive 2nd pass and dribble down middle. Big men who did not rebound will run the sidelines as soon as they see that their team has the ball (sprint out if you want score). Rebounder trails down middle, outlet guard trails down side and spots up for 3. Flexibility is needed for long rebounds, steals, etc so everyone should fill the nearest empty lane or trail depending on where they started.
I start out with a 3 on 2 into 3 on 3. Three players on the baseline 15 feet apart, 3 players along the free throw line extended directly in front of the man at the baseline. Coach throws the ball to one of the 3 guys at the baseline. If you are at the free throw line extended and your man receives the pass from the coach, you have to run forward and touch the baseline while your 2 team mates hustle back on D against the 3 guys coming off the baseline. What I stress is getting the ball in the middle, but not directly in the middle, I want a strong side and a weak side. The strong side wing must run a wide lane and the weak side wing would run a tight lane so that they could go directly into a lay-up if they get the pass from the point guard. The 3rd defender recovers and tries to help. Then on a change of possesion, they switch offense defense and run a 3 on 3 back to the beginning. It really helps for the coach to throw the ball to one of the outside guys on the baseline so that the middle guy must read and cut to the wing to fill the proper lane while the guy with the ball drives hard to the middle.

Starting Your Fast Break

I run a sideline transition offense and what to push the ball up quicker this year. In past years, my rules for rebounding were this. If one of my 2 post players rebounds the ball - The point guard cuts to the wing on the same side as the ball, the outlet pass goes to the point. Point takes one or 2 dribbles and passes it to either wing streaking down the sideline. If one of the guards or wings rebounds the ball, they just start attacking with the dribble. My idea this year is to have the outlet pass go to a wing streaking down the sideline at about half court, thus skipping the point guard or the dribbling to half court. How do you start your tranistion and what do you think of my plan for this year?
Coach - What you are proposing for your team's sideline break is pretty close to what we do (8th grade boys). We have been blessed with enough good perimeter players that we always have 3 good ball handlers on the court at any given time. Our rules are as follows: 1. If we hit the wing directly we are trying to get a 2 on 1 break in which the player with the ball attacks the basket and the other wing fills the opposite lane at the appropriate angle. 2. If a 2 on 1 doesn't materialize, the wing will either push the ball to the baseline and look to reverse the ball to the point who is filling the middle lane at the top of the key OR get the ball to the point in the middle lane earlier and try to establish a 3 on 2 break. Two things that I really like about the sideline break is that most transition defenses will over commit to the ball side making them vulnerable to ball reversal and the secondary break. Also, reversing the ball through the PG at the top of the key puts the ball in the hands of a good outside shooter/passer/decision-maker. Good luck with your new tranision game this season. By the way we also run a full-court transition offense up the sideline after made baskets that is very effective.
Last year I was lucky to have 2 post player ( 8th grade ) that could handle the ball. what I did was have the rebound grab the ball, pivot towards the side line and go. everyone else would fill lanes. the rebounder would look up court and pass to an open player, who then took on the same responsiblities. I like the ideal of sideline breaking since it takes away throwing the ball into the middle , where a crowd of people usally are. ps i spent extra time with our post players on dribbling / ball handling skill.
We use a simple approach. After the rebound, hit the first open man up the floor. The guards should be getting open on the outside lanes and are the most likely recipients. After the outlet pass, we want the ball in the middle of the floor, so dribble there if close, or hit the person cutting to the middle. Once the ball is in the middle, fill the outside lanes. We're deliberately not specific on who does what. The goals are to get the ball upcourt quickly and attack from the middle of the floor. The game is too dynamic not to be flexible and allow spontaneous decision making. Also, we run daily full court drills that reinforce the goals. I've come to question the value of the primary and secondary plays on the breaks. Compared to the amount of time devoted in practice, we haven't executed them much in games. Rather, the kids use their instincts based on numbers and spacing. Maybe that's because we don't teach it well enough, or maybe the structure is too restrictive in this case.
Unfortunately, we're not blessed with an abundance of good ball handlers. We work on our rebounding and outleting a great deal, but we try to get the ball to the point guard almost all the time with the wings flying down court and into the corners if we have no advantage for a quick break. The posts then bust to the block and high post (trailing post) overloading the defense and usually getting a good shot off a delayed-type break.

Fastbreak: Fill the lanes or numbered break?

I've always used numbered break (2 right, 3 left, 1st big down middle, 2nd trail). Is it better to use "fill the lanes" so no one has to cross the court to get to their lane and should I allow big men to fill wing lanes if they are first ones up the court (wing was rebounder or defensive situation had big man out on floor). Thansks for any help.
Having experienced each of the two styles you have mentioned, I have found that a good mix is best. Here is what I mean by that. We use the numbered fast break as our primary weapon in transition. However, any time we get a steal, loose ball recovery or long rebound (if possession is gained is above the foul line extended), we fill the lanes and look for a numbers advantage. That means anyone can fill the lanes at this time. It has been very successful for us and you get the best of both strategies.
The numbered break allows you to maintain an organized, yet lethal, attack. However, you may also consider being a little more flexible by allowing some players to be interchangeable. The 2 and 3 could fill either outside lane, depending on which side of the court they are on defensively. You may even permit any of the guards (1, 2, or 3) to bring the ball up and the other two fill the lanes. The first post (4 or 5) that can get to the block can go there and the other can trail. While normally you may want your 5 on the block, there may be times when he gets the rebound and the 4 will need to hustle down the floor to the block. By doing some of these things, you are still staying with the "numbered fast break" but are giving your players a little more freedom to get down the floor quicker in some instances. Just some food for thought.
We fill lanes always. I think it's important that players know what their teammates' roles are because it gives them an appreciation of the bigger picture - ie. team concepts. Therefore, I rotate players through all positions for our offences, inbounds plays, breaks, etc during practice. In a game situation all players can then react instinctively and just fill the open spot. I want them thinking about the game, not what spot on the floor to run to because the coach tells them to.
We use a numbered break following a made basket by our opponent (1=short right, 2=long right, 3=short left, 4=long left, 5=inbound). This helps us get into quick transition and gets everyone in the correct spot in the event we need to go to our press attack. Folowing a missed shot we outlet preferably to our 1, but any of the perimeter players (1,2 or 3) can take the outlet with the other two filling the outside lanes. 5 runs the middle lane ending up on the ball-side block, 4 trails to the top of the key for ball reversal in our secondary break. We work on it everyday since it is 80% of our early offense. I coach 8th grade boys and they catch on easily.
At 7th grade, early in the season, I number the transition. 2 goes right, 3 goes left, 4 goes left block, 5 goes right block. One brings ball up, but should only take one dribble and then get it to a player ahead of him. One also must stay with the rebounder as the outlet. The rebounder, if a wing, skips the point guard and attacks down their lane looking for others. A 4 or 5 who rebound look to skip the point and make a baseball pass out to the wings. If my 4 or 5 are good ball handlers, they have permission to turn and go as well. Later in the year, my 2 wings are interchangable and my 2 post players are interchangable. This is all on rebounds. On long rebounds and steals, we fill the lanes in basic 2 on 1, 3 on 2, 4 on 2 fashion. Which works best, a numbered system with flexibility. If our 5 man is running down the court and our point guard sees him open, I expect the pass to be made, even though he is not a wing. Then the wing can fill the lane.

Secondary Break

I believe the secondary break at this level (junior high) is even more important than the set half court plays. You players need to know how to flow right into an offense from a full court situation. What you go into should be your base offense for your system. If you teach a motion, have your secondary break evolve into your motion, do the same if you use a flex, passing game, or whatever. We use a simple 4-man passing game as our base offense. This is where the players at the wings down screen for the player at the post and the ball is thrown to the player coming off the down screen. Then the down screener screens across for the post player who seeks the ball. The #5 ends up only going from post to post while the other 4 rotate around from wing to post to post to wing to point and back to wing. That is why it is called 4-man passing game. Replying to a question on how to flow your secondary break into a 4 man motion: I have done it both ways. 1.Keep your 5-man on the opposite block from the first pass and only down screen on one side. If you can not get the entry pass off the down screen, the point guard can pass it to the wing on the side of the 5-man. The wing would v-cut to get open and the 5-man would not screen across, just post up. 2. This is great if you have 2 post players that are decent passers. Both post players start at the wing and down screen for the guards who start at the post. You might get a mis-match right away. Then the point has 2 equal sides to get the ball to and whichever post player is opposite the first pass becomes the block to block player and the other post is one of the 4 in the 4-man passing game. I use my secondary break, 7th graders, out of steals, rebounds, press breakers, every time we have a chance. If we break the ball quickly up the floor but have not initial 2 on 1 or 3 on 2 then we go to our secondary transition lanes and make those reads. Basically the ball handler in the middle, but favoring one side or the other, 2 wings running wide lanes and 2 post players running the trailer spots down the middle and then posting up. If we are in a transition situation, I do not want my team stopping to call a play, so as you said, we use this out of various situation and I think you are better off teaching 6th graders this than half court sets. I do think they can comprehend it because it also becomes 80% of what you run.

Miscellaneous Offensive Topics

COURT VISION

This is a drill idea that I picked up at a clinic a few years back. I also believe that other coaches may have made mention of it on this message board over the years. This works especially for point guards. Tape an "X" on the wall under the basket. It is the players responsibility to see that "X" at all times. This forces the player to keep his/her head up and see the floor at all times, thus improving his/her ability to see an open man, scoring opportunity, etc.
try scrimmaging without dribbling, everything is a pass. they are forced to see the court, and play team ball

Penetration & Dish to Post Player

The dribbler must not over-penetrate. I teach our perimeter players that when they penetrate the lane they have an immediate decision point. If the big comes over to help they make the pass, preferably a bounce pass. If the big man does not come over they either go all the way to the hoop or pull-up for the short jumper. Over- penetration is when the dribbler goes all the way to the hoop and then attempts to dish. The most common results tend to be a deflection or a difficult to handle pass that the big man bobbles. Both of these are due to the poor spacing in a tight area. The problem is exacerbated by the arm length of the defensive big man. To teach this we run a simple drill where a post man and defender are on the low block. A perimter man with the ball penetrates into the lane and reads the post defender. We teach our perimter players to come into the lane and immediately make a two foot jump stop while maintaining the dribble. We also spend a fair amount of time working on finishing shots with contact (something many coaches do with big men, but not perimeter players) and perfecting the pull-up jumper. We run a open post offense so "driving and dishing" is a very important skill for our perimeter players to develop.
In my opinion, this is one of the best and easiest ways to score. I run isolation drills where I look at the spots in a play that lend themselves well to drive. Then I put the players where they should be and we do a 3-D drill, Drive, Draw, and Deliver. The defender guarding the dribbler starts 5-10 feet behind the dribbler and must chase when the dribbler starts moving. This gives only a second or two to make the right choice before the defender recovers and you no longer have the advantage. I teach 3 passes from the middle of the lane to the posts. The bounce pass is my prefered pass and is best when passing to the post opposite from the direction you are driving. To pass to the post on the same side as you are driving from with a bounce pass often ends up hitting the post players leg. So I like either a shovel, scoop, pass if the post player has pinned his man behind him. Or a quick lob if the post player has pinned his man on the high side of him. I like the lob because our post player is insturcted not to bring the ball down, just catch it, jump quickly and score.

Delay Game

Set up your 3 best ball handlers in a triangle with the point of the triangle in the middle of the free throw line and the other two (one of which has the ball) about 10 feet away from each other and from the point of the triangle (farther away from the basket than the point). The guard that doesn't have the ball screens down for the point of the triangle, who pops up to get the ball. the person who passed the ball then screens down for the new point of the triangle and so on. They should always stay in this triangle formation. The two post players are spread out on the wings, and are just used as outlets unless they can catch their defender asleep with a backcut. make sure that all the players are very active screening and cutting. This usually results in a lay-in anyway, and can even be used as a regular offense from time to time.
Principles to follow: spread the floor, constant motion away from ball with screens along sidelines for backcuts to basket or downscreens to free up ball handlers moving toward ball, keep area around basket open for cutters or dribble penetration. If dribbler passes to player on side, passer cuts to basket and then back out to side and receiver dribbles into middle (unless cutter is open for lay up). We play keep away in practice to teach these skills with D doing pushups if they give up a lay up or go X seconds without stealing the ball, and O doing pushups if they lose ball before scoring.

Moving Without the Ball

How about a little fun thing to do that teaches everyone to move without the ball? Have your team scrimmage but they aren't allowed to dribble. If a player dribbles, the other team gets the ball. This teaches every player on the team to move without the ball. Do this for 10 minutes in every one of your practices, and you'll will soon see the same moving without the ball in your games.
Here's one idea to teach ball movement and make your players move. SCRIMMAGE WITHOUT DRIBBLING!!! Anyone who dribbles does 2 laps. They will learn how to pass better. More importantly, they will learn to move without the ball. Make sure everyone plays full court defense. There have been games when my team doesn't pass enough. I have called timeouts and made them play the game without dribbling. Every time they've done this, they became a scoring machine.
I do a similar no-dribble game but with a couple modifications: 1. I allow 1 dribble. That way if they catch 8 feet from the basket and wide open, they can shoot a lay up or if they are trapped, they can dribble out. 2. If you score, your team keeps the ball 3. If you shoot and miss, the defense gets the ball 4. You get one point for catching a pass inside the 3 point line, 2 points for catching a pass inside the lane, and 5 points for a basket. I also let the whole squad (18 girls) play at once, 9v9 half court. It helps them learn to space themselves, set screens to get teammates open, etc. Losers do a punishment for each point they lose by. By the way, I let the girls choose the punishment for the losers and let them choose up teams. They chose Australian Pushups as the punishment. I did not know what that was but I went along with it. When the game was over, the losers all laid down on their backs and pumped their arms up and down in a pushup motion and had a good laugh at my expense.
Last season I had a relatively inexperienced ninth grade team. We spent the early part of the season working on how to get open. The kids didn't realize how much work it can be to get free against a tough m2m. I told them it takes at least three full steps - not just a jab step - and a sudden change of direction to get open. Our wings went all the way to the baseline and back to get free. That way, if the defense chased them down there and all the way back out to the perimeter, they then had a chance to back door. We used post curls and v-cuts to the weak side, too, but the baseline dive was the bread and butter opening and the only one allowed until they learned to use it well. To practice, I break it down into 2:2 and 3:3. A related play is the inbounds pass against m2m full court pressure. The receiver still must move at least three steps and cut. You can isolate this aspect 2:2 simultaneously at several points on the court for practice.
Our rule is that if you are getting really stuck hard by your man, then you back door. The wing shows the target hand to let the point know she is going to back door. The wing should take at least 3 steps toward ball, then hard back door. Any cuts need to be set up by more than 2 steps, otherwise the players just dance with each other on the wing. Another thing we do is start our players in double stacks at the blocks and then they pop out from there, sometimes w/screens, sometimes w/o. Also, we sometimes have the wings cross before coming out of the stacks.

Offensive Rebounding/Defensive Coverage

I prefer to keep one guard or player about the top of the 3 point circle when the shot goes up, for several reasons.1)for a safety incase of the other team rebounding ,to stop the fast break. 2)if the rebound goes long, maybe she can grab it. 3)I want my other girls to try to form a triangle under the basket for rebounding reasons. hope this can be of help. 4)on defensive rebounds, if you have a girl up top, you can pass and maybe get a fast break going after you grab a rebound. 1)Shooter always follows their shot.... 2)the next three biggest players crash the offensive glass, playing the percentages (ball shot from the left side of the floor will most likely rebound off the right side, the longer the shot, the longer the rebound)... 3)smallest player rotates back to top of circle for defensive floor balance (if the shooter IS the smallest player, then the next smallest player should recover into defensive floor balance). Offensive rebounding is 10% coaching/instruction/technique and 90% individual hustle/desire/heart/intelligence. I can tell you how to be a good offensive rebounder, but if you don't want to, you won't! I tell my biggest players that, if you want to score, GET TO THE OFFENSIVE BOARDS!
We always want 3 and a half players going for the off. rebound and 1 and a half getting back on defense. Here are the spots we fill. #1 Right post area #2 Left post area #3 middle of lane, but favoring the opposite side of the lane from where the shot came. #4 Long rebound position (around the free throw lane or elbows) #5 Back at half court circle How you assign who goes where depends on the thinking ability of your players. If your players can always read and make the right decision, then the 2 closest players to the hoop assume spots 1 and 2, the 3rd closest spot 3, the shooter spot 4, and the furthest guy back spot 5. Now at 7th grade we do not always read this well, so my general rule is this. The 2 post players take spots 1 and 2. The wing that is not shooting takes spot 3, The shooter takes spot 4, and the pt. guard gets back on D. This assumes that one of your wings is taking the shot. The long rebounder, spot 4, also has defensive responsibilities if we do not get the rebound. I use the shooter for this role because as Larry Bird could prove so often, the shooter has the best idea where the rebound will go, especially the long rebounds. Some drills we use are the Superman drill with a put back. Throw the ball to the opposite side of the glass, grab it with 2 hands, then score. Aggressive rebound drill- 3 guys underneth. First guy to rebound and score 3 baskets gets out, new guy comes in. After each score, or the ball going out of the lane, the players throw the ball back to you and you shoot. The players can play the coach's make or miss and the players misses. I stand about 10 feet away and shoot under handed so that the ball comes off softly and close to the hoop. Any further away and then all the players do is chase long rebounds.
There are two scenarios. If we are playing a weaker or equal team we send everybody to crash and rely on huste to get us the ball and back. Sending all five forces them to rebound at a disadvantage or crash too. Any situation where we're not getting a lot of boards (dominant big man, small line) four go and the top guy on the offense is the safety.

Cherry Picking or Playing Smart?

I'm looking for ways to get my PG to look up the court. I heard a coach at a clinic discuss his philosphy of making teams pay for not getting back on defense. One player (usually the 2) had no box out responsibilities...as soon as the shot is taken by the opponent, he/she would simply break down court. He claimed that the times they scored easy lay-ups far out-weighed the times they get burned by not boxing out the one player. Thoughts?
If you have the horses inside to control the boards this is a great move. Forces team to get back on "D" and it gives you an opportunity to get easy buckets. We as coaches are all looking for ways to score easy buckets. Rebounding is the key though.
We have some basic rules on when to release and when to blockout. If the shot is taken from the 3-pt line in and you are above the 3-pt line on top, then release. You probably aren't in a strong rebounding position anyway and you aren't likely to get a long rebound. However, if the shot is a 3 ponter then blockout. Long shots create long rebounds and the outside players are more likely to be a rebounding position.
If you watch most NBA teams, they execute what they call a "run out" (which is exactly what you have described). In short, they automatically cherry pick any time they are running out to a 3 point shooter to contest the shot. Instead of boxing out, they continue down the floor looking for a long outlet pass and easy bucket. Some teams only allow certain players to do this (for example: the point guard). Unless you have a couple of 6'9" forwards and a 7'0" center, this is pretty tough to do with any consistancy at the junior high girls level:) It may be an end of quarter strategy that could prove effective and may be worth trying.
Unless the person is a complete non-rebounder, i have everyone stay back and box out. at the jr-high level guards are usually your most atletic players and are willing to crash to get boards. if you don't box that guard slashes in and gets a big offensive board. also if your pt-guard is down court who runs your offense? I'd rather get the d-board and have all 5 players sprint up the court.
Plainfield Indiana had a kid named Chad Masterson who did this one sectional and I believe had 30+ 3's for the tournament just playing the top of their 3-2 zone and leaving whenever ball was below the dotted circle. He ripped so many 3's from them corners 'cause he had teammates who could hit him there from a great distance. We couldn't stop'im ... couldn't even hope to contain'im! They ended up getting to the Final 8 using that technique that year and weren't really 'that' good.

Attacking Switching Defenses

My advise is to do a lot of screening for mismatches. Start your posts on the wing, and wing players low, then down screen. You'll have automatic mismatches with their little people guarding your posts. Also, just do a lot of headhunting with mismatches in mind.
Switches should allow the screener to seal a defender behind her if she will reverse pivot into the screened player. She should then be able to catch and score if the cutter clears out and takes the other defender with her and the passer hits the screener. Second advantage is creating mismatches of size or speed by having little/fast screen for big/slow and having the defense switch. Key teaching points: screener is the one who gets open if solid screen is set and screener can seal defender. Passer must look for screener if cutter is covered by switching defender.
If the opposition switches on every screen, it will shut down some offensive movements (i.e. particular plays). But, every defensive decision takes certain things away and gives other things up. You must look for and make the imbalances work for you. In the case of ubiquitous switching, the screener must aggressively roll and seal his/her defender from the basket. This action will often frighten the defender sufficiently to modify their behavior. This simplest approach to score off this is a two player pick-and-roll (i.e. a screen on the ball). However, if screens away from the ball (e.g. a weak-side down screen) are also switched, an aggressive roll and seal by the screener followed by a basket cut is devastating. Of course, the ball side has to be awake to see the cut and make the pass.
I am not sure how well this can be adapted into patterend offenses but it has worked well as a part of our motion offense. When we play teams that switch all screens we "slip" the screen. This technique has worked very well for us against teams that are taught to switch everything. This "slip" consists of a player going to screen and just before the screen is set she will step through (not roll) and go directly toward the ball. There is no rolling action because no screen is set. This presents a problem for defenses that are so accustomed to switching everything because when the screen is coming they are already anticipating the switch so many times there will be confusion (generally on who should take the "screener" who is now cutting to the ball) and we can get an easy look at the basket. Against teams that switch on occasion we teach our team to read the defense and then the screener needs to set the screen, roll, and step back to the ball. Both of these techniques have been effective for us in our program at all levels (7-12).
If a team continually switches on the pick we do 2 things: 1. We get into a 4 high and run a pick and roll with the post and the point guard, next time down, 4 high, when the post steps out and we fake the pick, usually can hit the post on the back cut when the defense anticipates the switch.2. Run the flex. Watch for the mismatch with the switch on the downpick. This is easy to anticipate and your players will probably pick up on it quickly.
Coach, Unless I misread your question, you're interested in finding out how to help your team deal with various defensive sets, not switches on screens??? We are a team that switches all the time, those opponents who have the most success against us, are the ones who recognize the switch and handle it methodically. It also helps to have a point guard that can see up the court and can recognize things for themselves. We also play a few teams who do the same thing, I try to tell my team that it is a compliment, and that the other team respects our ability to move the ball and attack the "D". We do time and score almost every day, which is where we work on various "D" sets. Biggest key, don't go faster than they can think.

Getting Guards to Dribble to a Certain Spot & Not Pick Up the Ball Too Soon

if the ball must be moved by dribble, the point must realize that the path to a chosen destination is rarely straight. The defense is in a reactive state, so if the ball handler can sell the intent to go left, he should be able to cross and gain a step to the right. Its all about misdirection. I hope this isn't too simplistic, but I think point guards must believe they have control in making the defense move and then having the ballhandling skills to take advantage of the movement. The defense can only stop him from going where he wants to go if they know where he wants to go.
Alaska coach was right. I played point in college and was not a very good dribbler (played center in high school), but I learned that if you want to end up at the elbow on the right side, you take the defense the other way and reverse back to where you want to be. A lot depends on how the D is playing you. Don't try to script it too much, learn to read the defense and take what they give you. Learn to manipulate the defender by setting him up with a move to the left before you go right, etc. It is also nice if the guard has multiple options instead of being forced to go to a specific spot and pass to a certain position. A drill I use to get kids used to pressure is 1V2 dribbling from the basline to halfcourt using only one side of the floor. I put a 4th player at halfcourt and when he raises his hands, the dribbler must see it and immediately pass to him (so he doesn't dribble with his head down). They have 10 seconds. Rotate thru the 4 spots and back to the dribbler line. You can run 4 groups at once, one in each queadrant of the court.
PAUSE, THEN DRIVE HARD AT THE DEFENDER BEFORE YOU MAKE YOUR MOVE. This should force the defender to retreat step and will deny him the space and time to recover once the move is made. Same concept as a 3 on 2 where you coach the ball handler to make the defense commit before any pass is made.
HEAD UP, BODY AND DRIBBLE LOW, CROSSOVER IN FRONT, KNIFE THROUGH (MAKE CONTACT). ball handlers need to know how to change the pace and height of their dribble (gets faster and lower with pressure). We prefer to see crossover moves in front of the body so vision of the frontcourt is constant. If necessary, a retreat dribble with a crossover is just a quick and preferable to a reverse dribble. We discourage the reverse dribble - they cause the ball handler to lose sight of the frontcourt and are vulnerable to traps and easy steals. Whatever the crossover move, strive to move past defender's hip, do not avoid contact or create space for the defender to recover. Just like post players, it is possible to get aggressive and quicker perimeter defenders in early foul trouble. We do the following - drive hard towards the defender, retreat dribble to get the defender to advance, then immediately drive into the defender's outside shoulder as they are moving(no crossover - just a fake and replace move). Got a least 4 or 5 blocking fouls called on the defender for every charge on us. Eventually, the defender needs to back off, opening up passing lanes.
your point guard has either got to have jets or be real savvy to get it done against top players. When I say get it done, I mean get into positions to run the plays the way you should want them run. If they've got jets, it makes it easy to start one way, explode the other, hold up, crossover go the other way, etc. If they don't have jets, they need a lot of savvy to be able to keep the defense on their heels. That's the key. Either way, it all depends on if your point guard is a threat to blow past the defender, draw the defense and make things happen. If they're not a threat to do that, no way they can get it done to the spot you want as effectively as you can because the defense can get out there and pressure more closely without that threat of being beaten.

PG Pressure Tips

Well first of all you need to use your body as a shield, switch your hand to the side away from the defender. Of course this requires becoming at least a decent ball handler with either hand. That's what summer is for. Better yet, draw the defender to you, pass the ball over him/her to an outlet, then if they turn their heads to look at the ball, run BEHIND them to get a return pass. Whatever you do, do NOT drop your head down and go into a shell to protect the ball. If you do that, you cannot see the court to make the passes necessary to break the press. Have an aggressive and confident attitude. Don't be scared by pressing opponents; lick your chops and make them pay. 1. Emphasize a firm dribble. Many kids bounce the ball too softly which makes them slow and vulnerable. 2. Keep the ball close to the body. Many kids "flare out" when driving under pressure and lose the advantage of the body shield. 3. My favorite - pass the ball to an open man. Advancing the ball under pressure takes a high degree of skill and assumes a lot of risk. Passing is easier, safer and faster.

Allowing Players to Drive to the Basket in a Half Court Set

Our team goal is to get a quality shot every time down the floor. I tell my players that anytime that they can create a shot that is better than our offense provides for them -- do it. This includes both drives and cuts. I really think that if you are going to be a coach that uses set offenses you must let the kids create. Just some random thoughts and I hope I answered your question.
Dribble penetration causes a defense so many problems that it would be foolish not to use it when the defense leaves it open. Even if the help stops the penetration, it makes everyone rotate and people are not in position to block out on a missed shot, you draw fouls, and you get high percentage inside shots. If you are small and don't shoot real well like my kids, you have to drive to score. We try to set up opportunities for driving with clear outs and lots of motion and an open middle.
We look at the half court set as a process that exists to create openings. The timing and quality of the openings are variables - not fixed expectations. Through a lot of practice, the players begin to recognize when the openings are about to occur and to evaluate the quality of the possible shot opportunity. This takes a lot of patience, discussion and exploration. We hope the kids will use the half court offense to obtain good shots and not get caught up in the pattern running from point A to point B. The play is not the purpose - getting a good shot is the purpose. To help them recognize the possibilities, we run the offense in practice with rules such as a shot may only occur in a certain point in the play (to help recognize the usual openings), or perhaps only a certain player can score which makes the offensive team watch for any possible opening in the process. We absolutely want players to drive when the situation warrants it. The key is recognizing the advantage. Sometimes, kids will make poor decisions, but that's OK as long as we learn from it. They must drive, though, even against bigger teams. Teams that get stuck out on the perimeter are going to struggle. The thing that hurts is when a player decides he is Kobe and starts the dribble dance looking for an opening. Then the whole play stops while he goes one on five. Can't have that. One other remark... I think the half court set is the most difficult team skill to master, considering the myriad of individual skills, decisions and timing points, and its easy to consume most of your practice time with it. Your observations may differ, of course, but I find that the half court set is only worth about 20-25% of our points. Defense earns about half, FTs and set plays (like OB) get the rest. Therefore I think the half court set should be easy to learn and open to spontaneous decisions. Time is better spent on fundamental skills and team defense. Great questions! I've learned a lot from everyone else's answers. Been away for a few days so I am late jumping on board this one. Here is what I think - open to your comments/criticisms. Q: What are your feelings on drives out of the half court set? A: Driving to the hole is a necessary part of half-court. Penetration pressures the helpside D to collapse to ball creating lay-ups off the dish and easier perimeter shots off the kick-out pass. But... because most good helpside D covers the ball, we do not look for lay-ups off the dribble that much - the purpose of the drive is to create a dish opportunity leading to a lay-up. Q: Do you try to set them up at particular spots? A: Not really. Want the players to read the D and take what they give you. ("Playing Basketball" versus "Running the Play") Q: Do you try not to use them and generate most of your shots by using a pass? A: Gotta do both. Drives help to open up the perimeter. Pass and shoot helps open up the inside (for both drives and inlet passes). Q: Do you just give the option of reading the D and driving whenever it is possible? A: Most of the time we'll let the players read the D and do what they think is right. The kids are already overcoached. Occasionally, we might try to get a certain defender in foul trouble so we might force a bunch of drives or post passes in that direction - otherwise we let them play basketball. Q: What is your basic team goal with the half court? A: Easy shot opportunities, both jumpers and lay-ups created with (1) good ball movement, (2) solid screens, (3) cuts with a purpose, and (4) crisp passes. Another point - it is important to teach the players the difference between an open floor drive to the basket (created in transition and on the break) versus a halfcourt drive whose purpose is to create a dish opportunity.

Determining Opponent's Half Court Defense

If it isn't obvious from looking, send a cutter thru the middle and see if a man goes with him. If so, it's man to man, if not, it's zone.
One thing I do if I am not sure if the other team is trapping or not is have my point guard dribble hard up to the half court line and stop short of it, then I read to see if 2 defenders started moving in for the trap.
I'm not sure it is important to exactly identify what kind of junk defense or matchup zone you are playing against. If you set good screens for your cutters, the SCREENER is going to get open in zone or man. If you move the ball (pass, not dribble) and people move without the ball, there will be weaknesses in whatever junk D they play. If you get the ball inside, any defense is going to try to double the ball and someone will be open if they are spaced properly. A sagging switching man looks just like a matchup zone and an aggressive matchup zone will look a lot like pressure man with weak side help. I try to use an offense that will work against either defense and teach the players to look for mismatches of size or quickness, to position themselves to catch and shoot outside or postup inside, to take advantage of defensive mistakes like a defender lunging at them, and to react to freelance moves outside the offense (like dribble penetration). Giving them freedom makes the game more fun and makes them harder to defend once they learn to think a little. My JV girls just finished a team camp and it's amazing how much they learned in the 10 games they played. My jr high girls will have to play a few more years before I can give most of them very much freedom since some have never played before, but I think they will be better in the long run if I give them freedom to make mistakes now than if I make them "run the play" all the time.

How Many Offenses?

Jr high girls - 1 for man and 1 for zone Varsity girls - 2 for man and 3 for zone, tried 3rd man offense and backed off, will add it next year. Our offenses are very simple except for the third one which we tried to add. We still had kids forgetting what to do in JV a lot, varsity did a lot better. Some Jr high girls had trouble running one offense well, always had to be reminded what to do. With a no-cut, everyone plays policy, guess it will always be that way.
Middle School boys- 2 man, Flex and a 1-3-1 motion. 2 zone, Iowa and basic 3 out 2 in. We also run the open post as a delay game and sometimes as a zone or a man offense
Coach AAU with HS aged girls. Assuming you mean what half-court offenses we teach, here's what we do:
Versus Zone: 1 Motion continuity offense. There are a number of different options that modify the order of some of the cuts, but the principle is the same - lots of ball movement stretching the zone from one side to the other, and in and out. Look for gaps and overload. And most important - PATIENCE. Versus man: 2 motion continuity offenses and a basic flex offense that we mix in occasionally. All three require and rely upon good screening and cutting action (execution is another thing). Again, nothing magical, just good solid basketball fundamentals. The above are what HS coaches have worked with our club to develop (we feed 6 HS programs) and are consistent with what they teach and use. Now in addition to above, I work hard on a few fastbreak patterns. In fact, I tell the kids that, despite the fact we have learned how to run these half-court offenses, I prefer never to have to see them in a game (tongue in cheek). If we can push the ball up the floor and hit the open players ahead for open floor points, why bother showing everyone our half-court offense? This is idealistic, but I always want them thinking fastbreak as a first option. In fact, I want them to get the ball up the floor ASAP even when we intend to slow the tempo down. If we want to go slow, let's do it in their half of the court, not ours. 7th grade boys school team. 1 Transition Offense that flows into a half court passing game. 2 half court man offenses, a flex and a simple triangle high post set. 1 offense for a 2-3 zone 1 offense for a 1-2-2 zone 1 offense for a half court trap 2 quick hitter vs. man I do not have trouble with the 90% of the team learning the multiple offenses. But I always have 1-3 players that have trouble grasping this many plays.
I coach varsity girls and we run straight motion, and operate our zone on more of a philosophy rather than an offense per say. Our motion has 3 different sets, with 3,4, or 5 players on the perimeter again all with the same motion principles. In addition to that we have 6 or 7 offensive plays we run that utilize a 1-4 set or a triple post set depending on what it is that we need to do.

Attacking A Shot Blocker

My team has this problem alot because I have a shorter girls team. As soon as we recognize that Goliath is a shot blocker instead of just being tall, we give the ball to a widebody forward and she is constantly shooting into Goliath using the body. We have had great success getting the Goliaths of the world into major foul trouble. If this doesn't work then I break my own rules and quit playing m-2-m defense. I go to a box and one, the one is a wide body that stays within 6 inches of Goliath, and makes her run and play hard physical ball every second she's on the court. Most shot blockers don't have the stamina, and will soon be bent over sucking air. If this doesn't work, we shoot 3 pointers and pray!!!!!!
I also try to get shot blockers in foul trouble. The spin move, the fake away and duck under, and the hook or jump hook are all effective against players who try to block shots, especially if they step towards the shooter to block his shot. I also try to match them up on a good shooter and make them defend away from the basket. Have your best shooter screen for the man the shot blocker is defending and try to force a switch, then give the ball to the screener and have him move outside with the ball and shoot or dribble penetrate against the taller (slower) player.
The thing about shot blockers is that they are edgy and they get addicted to blocking shots. Because they identify their play by shot blocking, the are eager to jump and stuff someone. So I always go right at a shot blocker with post up position. I have my offensive player make a move and get close to the hoop and them make a great head and ball fake. Then as the player is coming down, lean is just enough to draw contact, but not enough to throw off our own shot. We succeed in getting 3 point plays and the shot blocker in foul trouble. The other weakness of a shot blocke is they tend to leave their man and try to swat the shot as they come over to help. Teach you players to recognize the shot blockers moves and as the blocker cheats over to help, dish it off to his original man.
The thing I try to tell my kids is that its no big deal if your shot is blocked, even if the kids in the stands make a lot of noise about it. Why? Who usually gets the ball after the block? The team that shot it - and they are often in a nice position to run a scoring OB play under the basket. Blocked shots are exciting, but over-rated considering the risk of getting a foul called. So, if we get our shot blocked, that's fine. We'll just take another. And if the blocker is too eager, we'll practice head fakes.

Limiting Turnovers

First, every bad pass that causes a turnover earns the team a run. We stop right there in practice and the offense runs for the turnover. Second, we play half court 5 on 5 working on our plays and keep score, points count as 2 or 3, an offensive rebound is one point, a defensive rebound is 1 point and a turnover is -3 or -5. I make it a significant penalty so that the team can see how much damage turnovers can cause.
I used your advice in practice tonight. In our end of practice scrimmage a turnover counted as negative 3 points. After running deficit scores for a while, both squads got the message and starting protecting the ball a bit better. It worked. I will be using this technique again in the future. You continue to impress me with your clever ideas. They are all so simple, but effective. I am facing similar problems with 9th grade boys. This year's crop is not too wise taking care of the ball. I watched our 9th grade girls play and they have the same shortcomings. What I am trying to get across to my kids is space management, for lack of a better term. They need to use the empty space on the floor for ball movement, not the congested areas. Simply put, move to open areas to get the ball. If you have the ball, pass as soon as you can rather than wait until you're under duress. Too often they allow the defense to get right in their face and the first thing they do is pick up their dribble and hold the ball over their head. What follows isn't pretty. So... some rules for poor ball handlers: 1. Pass the ball before you get in trouble 2. Don't pick up your dribble until you pass or shoot 3. Do not drive into traps or split defenders 4. Dribble hard, low and close to your body 5. Use your body as a shield to protect the ball 6. Keep your passes short and fast 7. Pay attention to where the defenders are. I can't believe how many times a kid will pass the ball with a defender in the passing lane 8. When the defender is close, drive him back then step back for room. If you've lost your dribble, you can still step into the defender to pass around him/her. 9. Keep your head up. Its the only way to see who is open. 10. Keep moving with or without the ball. Statues aren't very good basketball players. There's ten rules to limit turnovers. I'm sure there are more. Let's build a list. A couple of other rules to help limit turnovers: - Catch the ball with two hands. - Don't leave your feet without knowing what you are doing with the ball (don't try to decide in the air). - Square up before you pass / dribble / shoot.
Excellent question. I had similar problems with jr high girls. I started stopping scrimmage on every turnover and making offense do 5 pushups (on a steal, I waited till next basket or dead ball). Drills: Keep away with extra players on defense. Bull in the ring: 5 or more players in a circle passing the ball to each other and 1 or more in the middle trying to steal ball. You cannot pass to player next to you and you can't pass higher than girls in middle can reach. 2v1 passing: 2 girls about 15' apart play catch with defense between them trying to deflect the pass. Emphasize ball fakes and proper passing technique (mostly wrist, very little elbow). I track the number of possessions and figure how many points per possession we score when we don't turn it over, then multiply that by the number of turnovers to see how many points we lost because of turnovers. eg 60 possessions, 20 turnovers, scored 50 points. 40 possessions without turnovers resulted in 50 points or 1.25 points per possession. 1.25 times 20 turnovers = 25 points we would have scored in those 20 possessions. When I tell my players how many points our turnovers cost us and then add that our opponents scored several fast break baskets off those same turnovers, it helps them see the value in taking care of the ball.
We had a severe problem with turnovers this past season so one day in practice we sat the girls (varsity) down and asked one of our turnover "leaders" to pick four other players she most trusted. I then gave her a fresh egg while talking about the value of a possession in a basketball game. We put the girls at one end of the court and gave them a time limit to get to the other end of the court without dropping the fresh egg to the floor. They could not hand it or drop into any other player's hands. They had to pick an order as well. Needless to say, they made it (which made our janitor happy) and when asked how it felt to take care of the egg across the court the immediate response was "scared" which is the same word used every time I have tried this routine. The girls felt they understood the value of a possession. We also made rules 1) No cross key passes and 2) No entry passes to post player until ball was reversed. This settled us down and we cut our turnovers almost in half the next three games. I guess when you lose a game 40-43 and you have 43 turnovers something has to be done. We are now playing a whole lot better. Just an idea

Penetration & Kick Drills

I use the 3D drill for 2 reasons. One is to work on passing after the drive, the other is for helpside d. Here is the basic drill. 3 line, 1 at the top of the key, one at the R wing and one at the L wing. Ball is at the top of the key. 3 guys on O, 3 guys on D. O player at top of key drives and tries to score, but if the defense rotates properly, he must dish it off to one of the other 2 lines, then it is live 3 on 3. The wing lines are allowed to move to an open spot while the drive happens. Now this is a man to man set. To run this vs a zone, I would move 2 lines up to the top of the key, one set up on the right side, one on the left. Then 2 lines at the wing area. Have the top two lines pass the ball back and forth while the defense plays zone instead of man. the passing will allow your offensive players to read the shifts in the zone. Then, when the player feels they can drive, they do it and the bottom 2 on the zone collapse on him forcing the pass. I would think this could simulate the zone fairly well.

Using the Backboard How much does it help?

I preach backboard use - big time. It requires less finesse. The ball can be shot more forcefully of the backboard and requires less arc. The primary exception is when the player drives right down the middle - then rolling ball over the rim is OK with me. But backboard is preferred. Players that take contact and still score are generally guys that concentrate on their backboard target. I'm sure there is an optimal target point on the backboard, but I would guess that successful shots off the glass would hit a range of points on the backboard that could be clumped into an oval shape near and on the ball-side vertical line of the square. Spin and speed are important factors. I probably wouldn't over teach this as kids don't have pin point accuracy anyway. But, they should be aware of the target oval and concentrate on that single target. Has anyone placed a spot on the backboard to use as a specific target? How did that work for you?
Every year at camp and during the season we always have a backboard day. That is every shot that everybody puts up all day must go glass. The threes aren't always pretty but it teaches shot selection and touch. I could never shoot but using the backboard increased my percentage and allows me offensive boards. Team rule our forwards shoot in the key it has to go off the backboard or they're out!!! This may be a controversial view, but I believe that you should NOT teach your players, especially when young, to use the backboard. My reasons are outlined below. 1. Aiming for a swish shot every time is a simpler shot. There are no angles to calculate. No matter where you are on the court, a shot from the same distance is identical. 2. Practicing swish shots will develop proper form, reinforcing a nice arch, and developing a soft touch. 3. I believe you are doing your young players a disservice if you have them always shoot backboard shots. What you are telling the player is "I don't believe you can ever become a pure shooter, so here is a way to make some baskets as long as you are close". I want all of my players to have the opportunity to develop an outside shooting touch. The 6th grader who plays inside and bangs the boards because he is tall might have to be a shooting guard by the time he is in high school. Just look at Shaq's shooting. If someone had made him shoot swish shots from eight feet away when he was 9 or 10, he might be able to shoot free throws today. 4. For younger players, shooting a swish shot requires less strength, as you do not have to shoot as far as you do on a backboard shot. Just so you know where I am coming from, I have coached girls teams from second grade through high school, and have run a training clinic for K-2 boys and girls for the last 6 years. I have worked with my current team (4th grade girls) since kindergarten and they always been taught to shoot a swish shot (except for lay ups). They are shooting about 25% these year, with a few games over 30%. With my very first team, I let them shoot bank shots and they were shooting under 17% even in 7th grade. The girl who shot the most shot all bank shots, usually from about 8-10 feet. She was strong, but had never developed a touch. One game she missed 22 shots in a row. After that, I vowed that I would teach all of the following groups to become real shooters. Hope this fuels some discussion on this topic!
Not teaching kids to use the glass at certain angles will hinder their perfomance as they move up in grade and skill level. I really feel old after reading some of these posts.
I really have to disagree with not teaching the backboard. maybe I grew up old school where the ony shots you have to make to win are lay ups and foul shots, and maybe an 8-12 footer if you out work the other team. my team misses more lay ups, bunnies, and angles because they want that d#$% swish cause it looks so good. When they miss its not even close and avoid getting them the chance to get the rebound. Making kids use the board tecahes them arc and touch because they can't line drive it and push it.it has to be high a drop. I know kids who couldn't hit a 15 foot shot if their life depended on it but once they started inside off the glass and moved out slowly using the back board they became three point shooters. Not to say you can't do that without glass but when the miss bad now we've got a rebound not air and a turnover.

Attacking a Sagging Man Defense

You have to take what the D gives you. In this case, they are taking away the inside so you may want to down screen and flare screen and throw skip passes to get good outside shots from the weak side. Quick ball reversals are important. You may also want to try to flatten the defense down to the baseline with a 1-4 where the 4 are along the baseline and the point goes 1v1 looking for a chance to dish if the D helps on him. We run a sagging man a lot and teams that can shoot the three off a down screen really hurt us.
If you have a point guard who can penetrate, drive and dish those suckers. We often use a spin and pin on the skip pass and it will get you some lay ups.

Defense

M-2-M Defense

M-2-M Defensive Drills

We run it 3 on 3 inside the arc, or 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 in the half court. We put 1 minute on the scoreboard. Coaches stand outside the play area with an extra ball, ready to throw in if the ball gets knocked out of the play area. We're working on denial and straight up M2M D (without help). The defense must work hard to deny the pass to their man for 1 solid minute. The offense is not allowed to set any screens--they can only fake and cut to get the ball. The defense gets a point any time they get their hand on the ball (tip, tie-up, steal, etc.). 1 point is taken away for each foul. Things get pretty intense.
Everyone loves offense thus we make a team stay on defense in the shell drill until they stop a set number of possessions in a row. For example I may say to the four defenders - you play defense until you stop 5 offensive possessions in a row. You see pretty intense defense when they get close to 5. If a player fails to rotate and help and a score is made - teammates will put peer pressure on that individual to step up and do his job. I am a firm believer that in a good man to man defense team is only as good as its weakess defender on the floor.

Help-side Defense

I also use another drill that I think is even more effective for working on total team rotation for help defense. The drill I use is called the horse- shoe drill and I picked it up from coach Morgan Wooten at Dematha High School. Two point guards set up high and two wings set up at the wing positions. Place defenders on each of these players. I tell the offense to pass the ball around and hold the ball for two seconds so as to allow the defense to shift to their proper positions. If your man is one pass from the ball, you are in full denial. If your man is two passes from the ball, you have one foot in the lane. If your man is three passes from the ball, you have two feet in the lane. Make sure each player has the ball-you- man triangle going when in help-side defense. When I say go, the man with the ball drives to the basket and the man guarding him allows himself to get beat. If it is one of the wings, the other wing should be in good position to play help side because his man is 3 passes away and he has both feet in the lane. When he comes over (should stop the man out- side of key), everyone else slides one man closer to the ball. weak side point drops to weak side block to eliminate backside pass. Strong side point drops to middle of lane. The man who was beat should be trying to recover to his own man, creating a double- team situation. I like to leave the strong side point position open. It is very hard to make a kick out pass to a spot behind you as you are driving to the basket. After the players have been doing this for several practices, I start letting them decide when to drive to the basket and encourage them to try not to get beaten anymore off the dribble on defense. There is a progression where this drill advances to offensive cutting and defending those cuts properly. I do progress to this drill. If you would like more info. on the progression, just email me at gmcbride@marysville.k12.mi.us We played very poor defense at the beginning of the season and by using some of these drills, we improved 110%. Our first three games, we gave up 62, 74, and 56 points. Our last 11 games, we only gave up more than 50 points twice. I thought that was pretty good for a high school JV team.

DEFENDING THE LOW POST

When the ball is below the ft line we front UNTIL we can get behind with our feet OUT OF THE LANE. Now the offensive post player has his back to the basket at least 12' away. We think that's a tough shot-and we have rebounding position. We also dig/double from the perimeter but we do so from the top, lock up on the wing and rotate out to the next open man.
We teach our girls to front the low post when the ball is below the foul lie extended; 3/4 when the ball is above the foul line extended; and play behind the high post. One other thing that we have tried recently with some success is that we are having our defender "follow the ball to the post". In other words, if the perimeter player you are guarding makes the entry pass to the low post, follow the ball in and double the low post similar to a "run and jump" trap. We have forced several panic type turnovers by getting the instant front/back double team. Emphasize that the perimeter player must close in the passing lane to keep the ball from going back to where it came from.
Coaches: I just read something interesting in a book by Don Meyer, the former coach at David Lipscomb U. Perhaps it's nothing new to all of you but I've never heard it before; He teaches his players that, if their man is on the perimeter and puts the ball above his head, treat him as if he has used his dribble and belly up on him even though he may still have his dribble. Just thought that was interesting in that we were talking about putting pressure on the entry passer.
I coach an 8th grade boys team and we teach them to front the low post player. This works well if the on-ball defender applies pressure and our weak side defender is in the lane in proper help position. It takes a perfect pass and catch to make the entry into the post. When we get beat fronting the low post it is usually due to poor weak side help.

Why front the post?

This year we have a strict policy of dead front position on the post anytime he is below the free throw line. At the free throw line we play partial front and at the three point line we play "on the line, up the line" standard pass denial. Can you lob the ball over the defender when he is in the dead front position? Sure, its easy! But, there is another rule. If your man is two passes away from the ball, you should be sagging in the key. It would be your job to intercept the lob pass. You would have slight advantages of surprise and momentum as the post player usually needs to block out his defender before retrieving his pass. Another applicable rule... if the man guarding the ball is doing his job, he should be keeping the ball handler busy enough to have problems making a finesse pass like the lob.
I don't think that your wrong, it's just that a lob pass needs to be a lot more accurate and it's easily intercepted as well. I'm also 18 but I find that as a player first I didn't notice the mistakes that we would make out on the court. Now that I'm just a coach I find a lot more holes that could be filled. Don't forget that a lob can be intercepted just as equally as a perimeter shot is made. It has to be accurate. Don't know if I helped, but there ya go.
With every basketball team I have coached I have taught fronting the post and we have always done it successfully. First, it all starts with ball pressure on the passer. If we get ball pressure on the passer, it is pretty difficult for the offensive player to make a perfect lob pass into the post. Next, we tell the defender fronting the post that if a lob pass is completed it is not their fault. Either there was not enough pressure on the passer, or there was no weak side help. The way we teach defense, there should always be a weak side defender ready to help on any lob pass....usually we have 2 weak side defenders policing the lane. If a lob pass is completed, the lowest weak side defender helps while the higher weak side defender drops down to take away the post-to-post pass. Granted, there are some offenses that make it difficult to give help (clearing out the weak side), but not that many.
At the varsity level we usually use a 3/4 front with hand and foot in front in a hard deny position. The only time we front the post is if she is a tremendous player with great positioning, and can seal us off effectively. In that case we will front her with lots of weak side help on the lob.
We refuse to front the post. We refuse to do this because 1) it takes us out of rebounding position, and we believe aggressiveness on the glass is an integral part of determining who wins and who loses. 2) fronting does not enable you to defend any better than if you 3/4'ed around on top side and two-step to 3/4 position on the low side. Both positions deny an entry pass, yet enable your help side to become a factor as well.

Building A M-2-M Defense

Here is a very crude outline of what we teach defensively. 1. Basic fundamentals we stress include- stance, footwork, positioning, sliding, run-glide-run, close outs, box outs, post defense, combating screens including switching. (I hope I haven't forgotten any:) 2. From there, we build from 1 on 1...2 on 2...3 on 3...4 on 4...and finally 5 on 5. We continue to use build up drills from each of these as the season continues, especially if it becomes apparent that we need to add more emphasis to a particular skill. 3. The "Shell" drill is also a valuable drill that we use to improve various aspects of our defense. We have about 13 variations of this drill that we use to build our team defense.

Defending the Downscreen

It obviously depends how tightly the screen is set. However, players should generally go under the screen. If they go over, they are exposed to a give and go, where they will be trailing the player and the ball all the way to the rim. I know this especially well because we use a large number of screens in our offense. Because most teams try to go over them, we take advantage of their exposure. So, defensivly we go under.
I teach my players to switch downscreens. The defender whose man is setting the screen should jump into the path of the player coming of the screen and disrupt the cut. The defender who is being screened must jump above the screen before the screen happens and assume a side front position on the screener, thus preventing the player from rolling and pinning for a lay-up.
Rick Pitino video on D teaches pigtailing the cutter (going under the screen right behind the cutter) with the defender of the screener stepping out to cover the curl around the screen. This is vulnerable to a slip screen where the cutter starts to curl and the screener releases the screen and moves toward the basket, but it can work long enough for the cutter's defender to catch up. Pressure on the passer helps a bunch. I try to get my kids to see it coming and and slide around the screen on the ball side (high side) forcing the passer to lob over them to the cutter which gives you time to close out. (Girls JV level). At the college level or high school boys, Pitino's pigtail idea seems better.

Switch or Stay on Screens

I coach 5/6th grade boys and i tell them to fight thru all screens with a couple exceptions. One is cross screening in the lane. I have them communicate and switch on those. Screens on the ball outside the lane, we just double team the player with the ball.
When fighting through screens, make sure it's not as violent as that word sounds! Fighting can be mistaken for pushing and shoving way through screens, when in reality it is exploding past screener with huge step to get through. Northing more. Only one thing really goes with it and that can be a "swim" tactic with upper body. That's how you get through a screen, an explosive quick movement with the feet and a swim with the upper body. No pushing and shoving and it will reduce risk of fouls. Most teams don't know this then wonder why they get called for fouls.
Even before the switch vs. fight through discussion, I would emphasize the need to get everyone on the team to CALL OUT THE SCREENS - ALWAYS! It's important to get the players to communicate with each other, and it keeps everyone more alert and in the play. The players need to be drilled to do this - penalty for not calling out any screens in practice is a double suicide. After a few runs, the players really start "chatting it up". We generally fight through screens as much as possible with the exception of two types: Back screens below the arc and cross screen handoffs near the lane. Otherwise the players fight through because we don't want mismatches to be created on our mtm D. At first I tried to be real technical about how to work through - over the top vs. underneath. I've learned to be happy if they can get through with either technique.
My jr. high girls team switches everything except for screens on the perimeter, away from the ball. On these, we slide thru ball-side, and this is where alot of our steals come esp. if we are getting the proper ball pressure. I have found that this does not compromise our defensive intensity or create too many match-ups problems because we "switch back" as soon as the threat is gone. We "hedge" aggressively on ball screens and show numbers to the ball, thus taking away any penetrating dribbles - the number one rule in our scheme. This switching also carries over to our fullct press, where we face guard on dead balls and made baskets, with the mentality of "not letting your girl catch" since the ball (in this situation) has limited, if any, mobility.
First is call out the screen or pick, that allows you to do either option. What i usually do is outside the key is no-switch. The person guarding the picker or the screener has to either stop the ball or chug the person coming around the screen. this allows the defender being picked to recover. Inside the key don't let someone get the ball for an easy shot, so you switch. Personally thought, i think it depends on how you match up with the other team, especially as you move up levels. I stick with the philosophy above because i have limited practice time and this is easy enough to teach jr boys and girls
I believe in only switching on a block to block screen. On any other screen we call the screen. The defender should have his hands up & "pop" the screener with his hands to keep from getting bodied up. We check to cutter on all backscreens. The screener's defender checks the cutter. On a ball screen we call the screen body up to the dribbler & trap.
Coach to the strengths of your players, If they can fight over the top do that. If they need to switch, then switch. Anyway is the right way, just defend it. The most important thing about screens and picks is communication so the players know what is happening.
I teach my girls to fight through every screen possible. This takes a lot of patience because it creates a lot of fouls and angry kids in the beginning. When they see that's it's impossible to get through, or even another teammate sees it, then they yell switch. Which leads me to this thought, this situation takes a lot of common sense. Is common sense the hardest thing to teach a kid, or what?
I try to teach my kids to fight through a pick before I teach them to switch. The main reason is that they will yell switch and stand and watch if it even LOOKS like there is going to be a pick or screen. I also teach them to try to always beat the pick or screen to the inside, between the pick and the basket.

Best Way To Beat A Screen

Downscreens: I have my 8th gr. girls defend downscreens by "caboosing" and bumping. Just have the player being screened get right behind the offense player and follow him (the caboose). Have the player defending the screener bump the offensive man if he tries to curl the screen. After the bump,step back and let teammate through.
We switch cross screens, step back and slide through backscreens (w/o ball), and immediately double team and trap all ball screens, while rotating one man closer.

Defending High-Low Pass

Try to get some backside help so that you get a front/back situation which will limit his ability to catch and maneuver. Also, you can have your guards "jump" the high post when he gets the ball and perhaps disrupt the timing or trajectory of the entry pass to the low post. Either way you are sacrificing some perimeter defense to try to stop the post so you just may have to pick what you want to stop and dare them to beat you with something else. A 1-3-1 trapping zone can also be a good defense against the high-low game since you already have an automatic double or triple on the post.
First, teach your perimiter players to be aware of the post and put intense pressure on the passer so they have no clean look at the post. Have your perimiter players pressure the lob pass and allow the bounce pass. The reason to allow the bounce pass, is the post defender should be in a side-front position. If the passer is higher up the court than the post, then front on the high side. If the passer is in the baseline corner, front on the low side. A side front should have one leg and one arm in front denying any entry pass except a lob, and the other leg and arm behind the post, but maintaining contact with the post players body. This gives you a feel for the post players movements if they try to roll or fade. Finally, you must have great help side, 2 other players in the lane. They should fade to cover the lob pass. The goal is not so much to steal the pass or defend the post player, but to make the passer think the post is too heavily guarded to risk the pass.

Help Side vs. Pressuring Passing Lanes

When teaching your man to man defense, do you stress that the defenders on the ball side help the defender on the ball in case their man dirves, or do you stress more of a denial of the passing lanes. When I tell my players to deny, we usually end up with several steals a game, but give up some drives by the other team, when I tell my players to help on the ball, the other team has more success running their offense. When do you pressure the ball and when do you play more helpside? Do you have 2 types of m2m D so that you can give different looks out of m2m.
Your question has been a pivotal one for me. I coach at the middle school level (7th and 8th grade); girls for a number of years, and then boys for the last three. Up until last year I have always taught an aggressive denial of the passing lane: i.e. "one pass away you must have one body part in the passing lane, etc." Early in every season we were burnt a few times by backdoor plays with this approach, but small corrections on the helpside always eliminated this hole. In the girls' game, I found this approach to defense devastating to the opposition: it forced the other team out of their formal offensive set. For a host of reasons, I have found that girls at this age learn and execute formal patterned offenses better than boys. The flip side of this, however, is that the girls are less able to successfully improvise when forced out of their patterns. When I changed to coaching boys I had a number of new lessons to learn. I found the aggressive denial-of-the-passng-lane approach was regularly broken down by one-on-one moves (i.e. drive to the basket), when the help-side defenders dropped off to help stop the penetration, a quick dish to the open player lead to clear 12-15 foot jump shots -- something that boys of this age can make with frightening regularity. The fundamental problem is that when the ball-side defenders are denying the passing lanes, they are not in a position to help stop dribble penetration -- and we don't have a 7'2" shot-blocker protecting the basket. In response to these experiences, I have changed my approach to coaching defense over the last year an a half. After a great deal of thought and discussion (no small part of which was on this bulletin board), I now coach defense using the "PACK" (this was designed by Dick Bennet, now at Wisconsin -- there is an excellent video available on the approach, including numerous drills.) With this approach you do not deny the perimeter passing lanes -- in fact, the only defender at or beyond the three-point arc is the man on the ball. You do, however, deny every interior pass (e.g. dead front the low post when the ball is below the free throw line). On a perimeter pass, say from O1 at the point to O2 on the wing, D1 who was guarding O1 tightly when he had the ball must immediately sag back. Conversely, D2 who is guarding O2 in a sagged position must quickly close out. (We work our close out drills regularly.) Two things resulted from this shift in defensive philosophy: one was predicted the other was a surprise. First, we seldom have problems with the dribble penetration. Second, we actually get more steals in the passing lanes. Why? Because the boys are more comfortable laying back, reading the offense, anticipating the passes, and then gambling since they know there is help behind them. This approach of "passive on the perimeter, and aggressive in the interior" has significantly fortified my teams' man-to-man defense. For example, in each of the seven games so far this season, my boys have drawn two or more charging calls (player control fouls) on the opposition.
In our base M2M defense we teach our players how to be in a position to help AND pressure the passing lane. The key is teaching where that ideal position is. The passing lane is nothing more than a line from point A (the passer) to point B (the receiver). We demonstrate this with our players (8th grade boys) by having the passer and receiver hold a rope. The position that we want our defenders in is to be able to put their hand in the passing lane by taking one step. The key in being able to also help is to position the defender closer to the ball handler. If you think about it most offenses teach 12-15 foot spacing among players. If your defender is 2 feet from their man they have a big gap to cover for help. We teach them to be 4-5 feet away from their man. This reduces the gap considerably yet still allows them to be one step away from the passing lane. At first players are uncomfortable being that far off their man, but quickly see how well it works. Now, having said that, if the defender is guarding the other team's major offensive threat, we may have that defender play closer to his man and in some cases even deny the pass completely. Our players are also taught that when the ball handler picks up his dribble or they hear "dead" they then more aggressively deny the pass to their man. Over and over I am reminded how basketball is a game of geometry.
For me this is a game by game decision based on how my guards match up with the opposition. If we are confident that our guards are good enough to force the opposition guards to the sides and take away the drive to middle, we aggressively deny the reverse pass. If not, we sag off a bit and help.

Sagging Man Defense

For HS and Jr hi girls: On ball - still has dribble - play just close enough to prevent shot, usually where you can reach out and touch the ball if they hold it in triple threat position. One hand mirrors ball, butt low, force drive to side where most help is. On ball, does not have dribble - play very close and pressure the ball with both hands but don't break plane (window between you and ball handler, don't reach thru the window). Off ball - 1. stop the ball 2 Don't get split (don't let dribbler go between you and dribbler's defender) 3. Don't get led to the ball by a cutter 4. Sag to middle of lane if your man is on weak side (jump to the ball) Play no closer to your man than you need to to be able to close out and prevent a good shot. 5. See man and ball 6. Deny pass to post by playing 3/4 front or full front if ball is on baseline 7. If your man screens, call it and step out to delay the cutter switching only if necessary.
Not to step on toes, but I believe what he means is when you man is cutting in a direction toward the ball, ie cutting to the ball. You must maintain your position between the cutter and the ball, do not trail him, but instead lead and even hinder the offensive player during the cut. The case where this is most important is a flash from the opposite post to the ball side post. I teach my players that you play your helpside triangle and then if your man starts to cut to ball side, you close the gap between you and the offensive player, you put a forearm right on their chest and stop them from cutting to the post area on ball side.

Help & Recovery on Defense

got a good drill idea from Don Meyer to work on help defense. It is called 4-5 Series. You play four defenders against 5 offensive players. Depending on the type of team you are playing, you have a certain emphasis in the drill. For example, you have a designated shooter on offense. The offense must get him open for the shot. The defense now has to work on beating the screens, extending and helping, and contesting the shot. You can also have a designated driver. Whenever that player catches the ball, he drives it hard and the defense must help and rotate.
We also do a 4-5 drill with the offensive players spread on the perimeter. The offense cannot move and must move the ball quickly to an open shooter. The defense must rotate, talk, and contest the shot.
Sounds like you need to work on a hard "close-out" drill of some sort. Get them to close out with their hands up to contest the shot.
Closing out is imperative. Just as the other coaches said, close out, low-to-high, with their hands up, but you must chop your feet quickly to avoid being beaten of the dribble. Many kids want to lunge out to challenge the shot on the perimeter and a quick head and shoulder can give an open look or even free throws
I have an old and dear friend who probably has forgotten more about basketball than most of us will ever knnow. We were talking about helpside defense one day and he said that he felt that helpside defense has caused the deterioration of straight up man-to-man skills because every defender is sure that he has help if his player drives or happens to get past him on penetration. This makes the penetrate and dish possible no matter how you rotate if the penetrator can "read" your defensive rotation. I still teach helpside, but I place heavy emphasis on good "ball" defense and stress to my players that our first goal is to keep the ball handler from dribble penetrating. If you can stop the dribble penetration then all of the other possibilities disappear. Also, We teach that we help "down" or "across", we never help "up." And, if you help on the post after the entry pass, close in the passing lane with your HANDS UP.
Coach, are those short jumpers coming from the weak side or strongside? True help should come from the weak side, but oftentimes, defenders on the strongside corner players will abandon their man to "help" only to have the driver kick the ball out for the spot up jumper strongside. Coach Sheridan's observations are unfortunately true - most players don't recover in time for this jumper. If help comes from the weak side and the defenders one pass away are denying the kick-out pass as an option for the driver, you have a better chance at the driver making a bad decision or forcing a weak pass. We coach the weak side guard to dive down to assist the post in help (don't want an easy dish for a lay-up). This still gives up the skip pass, but usually, it is weak and gives us a bit more time to recover.

Defense with ball on the wing: How do you play the dribbler?

How do you teach your players to guard the wing, and given that, how do you teach your helpside rotation and when do you deny a pass on the perimeter, if ever?? I am not so interested in what drills you use to teach your d, but why you prefer forcing to the baseline or playing straight up.
This is a good question....I tell / teach my players to keep their body between the ball and the basket, inside foot high dont let your man dribble into the key. Off-ball players cheat toward / into the key for help. If a player gets beat the next closest player must stop ball. We only deny the pass on the perimeter when we notice a player is a shooter or has a hot hand.
I always teach to play the wing straight up. The reason for this go back to my teachers of the game who played semi-pro and they always said to NEVER let yourself get beat baseline. They taught me this because if the person wants to drive into the middle then they are easier to pick up on our rotation, and also because your help defenders can see their man and the ball at a better angle than if they have to look baseline.
I work primarily with 5th - 8th grade girls and I prefer to force to the weak hand (usually left) no matter if that is baseline or to the center. At this age only the very talented player can accomplish anything going to their left. Even those that can dribble left will not be able to pass or shoot very effectively going left. I suppose at a more advanced age this rule may change as weak hands become more developed. With girls I would prefer forcing baseline since most are not athletically able to really get to the hoop from a baseline drive. I also like the trap on the baseline from the weak side defender coming over to help. Oddly enough, my HS coach 25 years ago taught us to NEVER give up the baseline. Of course, he didn't teach us anything about M2M weak side help defense either.
I agree with the last 2 post, I began as an assistant 4 years ago and was teaching not to give up the baseline,the old school way I was taught, and started a big war with the head coach, his philosophy being forcing baseline and trapping with his post players. I demonstrated to him just what has already been mentioned, the helpside defense in an attempt to get in position lost sight of their man. His philosophy was to trap with his post man on the baseline, but I countered why would anyone drive baseline when your post player is on the low block, you only drive when he vacates to flashes high or screens away. I know if you give me baseline as a passing point guard, I will dish to open man for a lay up everytime. Always force to middle and your helpside I say. As a girls coach, I recommend playing straight up or forcing to the weak hand, but still NEVER get beat baseline.
This is what I teach: I strongly believe in keeping the ball away from the middle of the court. If you let the ball get into the middle of the court, you will have no weak side help. So if the man your covering, is going to drive on you, make sure its going to be baseline, and not to the middle. That way your weak side can leave their men and help. If the ball go to the middle, it would be to easy to pass of to the guys (it should be 1 only) left open!!! Comment to the post above me: I don't really think help and rotate is a good solution. I prefer help and recover. It's much easier. But no matter what type of help you use, you should never help from high post. Always keep the man at high post guarded closely, for the same reason as above: Keep the ball away from the middle. Sorry, for my english..
I disagree that the baseline is a more potent position than the middle. I teach my offensive players to get into the middle of the lane because then we create a triangle in the lane with a 3 on 2 situation. But when we go baseline, a good defensive team can close out the passes quickly. With that said, we try to force baseline for several reasons. 1. the wing defender can react quicker because he knows the offensive player can only go one way quickly. 2. All the helpside is geared toward the baseline and we do not have to be in position to help from both the middle and the base line. 3. We can totally deny the pass back to the top of the key, thus disrupting the reversals of the ball and throwing the other team out of their offense. We call it closing the door. If the other team throws it to the wing, we shut them off and don't let them get it back to the middle. If we played the wing straight up, the guard at the top of the key would have to play helpside and could not deny. Now when I say let them drive baseline, what I really mean is we teach them to make the baseline option look open, but we teach our wing defenders to beat their man to the baseline about 10 feet out so as not to give them the block or even let them get within 3 feet of the lane. So I actually agree with some of you about the baseline being a good option offensively, but we try not to let the wing get deep enough to make it a good option. Our rotation will come from the opposite post or wing if the player drives and our goal is to pick up the drive outside the lane. If the opposite post rotates to stop the drive the opposite wing rotates to stop the pass to the opposite post. Overall though, I still think the middle of the lane is more dangerous to the defense than the baseline.
We teach the wing defender to mirror the wing and try to take 3 out of 3 things away (shot, middle and baseline). If one must be given up it will be baseline because we prefer to double the ball at the block with the "deep help" defender. Ideally we would like the ball to go to the corner, so we might tell them to channel the ball there.
"Shrink the Floor" Direct away from the middle, steer to the outside and toward the corner. From there, no ball reversal or movement to swing ball around, only along the deep baseline into help. We pick up pressure just below the jump circle and begin "herding" from there or allow the pass to the wing and continue "herding" to the corner from there. But... you still have to challenge and pressure any baseline drives. And.. Help needs to sink deep on this or you'll get waxed if the ball handler can make a quick pass from his side to the weak side short corner - everyone will be out of position to both defend and rebound.
We teach kids (HS girls and JR high) to take away the baseline drive because our help on a drive from the wing is going to come from the strong side guard sliding down. At the jr high level, we also emphasize never letting a player beat us right handed until they show they can beat us left handed. At higher levels, you take away the offensive player's strength, whatever it is. If he is a good shooter and poor driver, play him tight. If he drives well but does not shoot well outside, stay back an extra step. If he can score inside, deny the entry pass. If he can do all those things, recruit him to move to your school or try to get him in quick foul trouble.
In a 2 3 zone, I play it straight up because we have help in all directions and do not deny the reversals as we do in m2m. In our m2m, our goal is to prevent reversals and limit drives to the baseline, our 2 3/s goal is to have ball pressure and no drives. So we do not want to force one way or the other at all.
I prefer to have my players force, or "cut" the ball toward the wing, or to the baseline and/or corner. This allows us to shrink the "box" that we have to defend. It allows us to play 5 on 3 vs offense, since most offenses don't involve more than 2-3 players ballside. The other 2 are usually involved in some sort of "diversion" to try and occupy the D.

Zone Defense

1-3-1 Zone

I use a 1-3-1 with a high school rec league team and with a 5th/6th grade boys team. Here is how I implement it. The point man follows the movement of the ball down only as low as to the wing man's position. At that position, there is a natural double team situation and I have the point man and wing man trap on the ball. If the position of the ball goes lower towards the baseline, the wing man goes down all the way to the baseline, but the point man stays up high. The middle man in the 1-3-1 and the baseline man, both drift toward the ball side of the court, but I tell them to try to keep at least one foot in the paint if possible. (I know some coaches like to bring the baseline man out and trap with the wing man when the ball goes into the corner.) One key to using this zone is to have the weak-side wing drop down to defend against a pass to the weak-side block and also to be in position to rebound. I emphasize to the weak-side wing that he is the main rebounder if a shot is taken from the other side of the court. I have found that this man tends to go up above the free throw line if left on his own. My best results with this defense have come when I had a point man who likes to harass and pressure the ball handler, and also with a baseline defender who is quick enough to cover both sides of the baseline.
I've used this defense very successfully at several levels, from 5th-6th grade boys to HS girls. I put my most tenacious, speedy player at the point, and have him/her attack the ball as it approaches the 3-pt arc. The point makes the ball handler work hard to go anywhere at all, and stays with the ball handler down the sideline until the "wing" joins the fun, hopefully trapping the ball. Weak side wing and center cheat to fill the lane. Baseline defender comes to the strong side, and forms a trap with the wing if the first trap didn't stop him. Some points to consider (from experience!): 1.)The point man will wear down! Consider using someone who can be less involved with your offense. 2.)Baseline player must be a good athlete, and will also be working very hard. 3.) Beware the skip pass, it can be a killer! 4.) Baseline, both sides, are your weak points, IF the other team can get the ball there

3-2 Zone

We ran a 3-2 last year with a lot of success (with the exception of two games where the offense overloaded us and sent a man to the middle of the high post. Basically, it is a 3 out 2 in defense that matches well with most offenses. The player at the top has the responsibility of the high post but may have to step to the 3 point line if the point is a threat to shoot. This is rarely the case so he can play big up top. The wings are responsible for their side of the floor on the perimeter with help from the top man and maybe some help from one of the posts. We never wanted our posts to step out on a shooter so we even ran the backside wing out on the ballside when teams tried to overload. It helps a lot if you have a long-armed mobile guard at the top of this defense. Our post players simply matched up with theirs and denied the entry pass ballside and gave backside help when they were away from the ball.

1-1-3 Zone

I have 2 very small but fast girls. By implementing a 1-1-3 defense I can use their speed out front. Other than the standard rotation of the 3 others (strong side and weak side help) is there a specific movement of the 3 lower girls?
What I do is this. From the 2-3 set, as soon as the ball crosses half court a guard is on ball. the other one cheats toward the side the ball is headed looking to either steal the pass. if they can get it they have on ball responsibilities. The guard who was on ball now is protecting the high post area. My 3 guard / small forward has to always play along the edges of the key staying between the ball and the basket. My post players have key protection / rebounding duties duties except when the ball goes to the corner. they are on ball and the 3 replaces them. On a skip pass then the closest player takes the ball until help arrives.
We've run this defense in a match up style as well as a pressure zone. From time to time we'll take our #3 and place them in the middle or on the strong side. I coach girls and they have a tendency to drift toward the right side because of dribbling skills. Anyway...we will send our big #3 out of the middle and let her pressure the ball, allowing our two quick guards to drop into a better read and anticipate move. You can' do it all the time, but it sure works once in a while. The girls like the surprise it brings! Good luck!
An important thing to remind your center and two forwards is to position themselves half way up the paint. That way the forwards are able to close out alot faster on the pass to the wing area. I like to double the ball at the wing area with the forward and the guard. The center is one stride away from the block but is alert for any pass to that area. If the pass goes to the corner, the center determines who is closer, him or the forward at the wing. If the center is closer, he tells the forward to drop into the paint to protect the basket and he closes out on ball. The guard will deny the pass back out. We get alot of steals when we double the wing or when the ball is in the corner.

MATCH-UP ZONE

Coach: First you must evaluate what type of zone you are wanting your kids to play. What are you trying to accomplish (i.e. traping, slowing the game down, speeding the game up, keeping the ball out of the paint, developing peremiter coverage, or forcing the offense to play a certain way). I hardly ever play zone, but that does not mean that I won't. When you start to teach your team how to play "D", it is my contention that you must first teach them how to play good m2m defense. This is because that a good defense will incorporate both man & zone concepts. Many coaches make a big mistake by not teaching their kids how to play good fundamental defense, no matter what type of "D" you are wanting to execute. Teach the kids how to execute the following:

1. how to guard the ball, where do you want the ball influenced?

2. how to play the passing lanes, do you want them to sag or deny one pass away? 3. how to shut off baseline penetration.

4. how to play help side "D", do you want them one the line & up the line, or only concerned about who is in their area?

5. how to COMMUNICATE ON "D"!! Communication is the glue to any "D".

6. how to play the post. Do you want the post fronted or played behind?

7. how to trap. Do you want the ball trapped when it is entered into certain parts of the court?

8. where is your pick up point going to be?

9. how to block out. How many kids are you sending to the boards? Do you want triangle rebounding coverage?

10. how to cover the high post. 11. are you going over the top or under screens?

12. how are you going to play a player that penetrates, are you going to dbl or alow single coverage.

13. what do you do with cutters? Do you want them bumped or just called out? These are some very basic elements of team defense (which you know) that I feel must be taught & learned before you can start to teach a variety of team defenses.

Now, if you want the players to play a match up zone, here is what I would suggest you start off doing.

1. Decide what formation you want. 1-1-3, 2-3, 3-2, 2-1-2, or 1-3-1.

2. Define each players area of coverage.

3. Now correlate that area with a player playing in it.

4. If the ball is in your area you must jump to it, & allow no penetration. If your matchup allows any penetration you will be forced to guard 1 "O" player w/ two "D" players.

5. Weak side players must stay on the line and up the line. 6. Agian, communication is imperative.

7. Players must be able to rotate to the zones natural gaps, to fill them--quickly.

Here is what we do. This info comes from a video by Bill Green on the match up zone. Good luck. We will mirror the offense. We will usually start from a 1-2-2 set but we can use any set and the rules generally stay the same. Match up Zone Defense Rules We will mirror the offense, we will usually show a 1-2-2 set but we can use any set and the rules stay the same. X1 guards the point guard or the man on the right side. X2 guards the first man to the left of X1 X3 guards the first man to the right of X1 X4 is the rover and guards the second man to the right or left of X1 X5 guards the center man-for-man Here is how the sets would look like against particular offenses. 2-1-2 Zone X1 guards the point guard or the man on the right side. X2 guards the first man to the left of X1 X3 guards the first man to the right of X1 X4 is the rover and guards the second man to the right or left of X1 X5 guards the center man for man, if no center he guards the man in the low right in a 1-2-2 or the man in the high right in a 1-4 1-3-1 Zone X1 guards the point guard or the man on the right side.with or without the ball on a two guard front X2 guards the first man to the left of X1 X3 guards the first man to the right of X1 X4 is the rover and guards the second man to the right or left of X1 X5 guards the center man for man 2-1-2 No Center X1 guards the point guard X2 guards the first man to the left of X1 X3 guards the first man to the right of X1 X4 is the rover and guards the second man left of X1 X5 guards the man in the low right High 1-4 X1 guards the point guard X2 guards the first man to the left of X1 X3 guards the first man to the right of X1 Force the first pass to the wing by bringing X2, X3 in to prevent the pass to the middle., then adjust to their offense as it rotates to a 1-2-2 or 1-3-1. X4 is the rover and guards the left of X1 X5 guards the man in the low right. Low 1-4 X1 guards the point guard X2 guards the first man to the left of X1 X3 guards the first man to the right of X1 X2 and X3 play a little higher to prevent being screened by the inside low post player. X4 is the rover and guards the left of X1 X5 guards the man in the low right Teaching Points: We have to defend against the seven basic things the offense can do. The key is that everyone reacts to what X1 does.

1 Deny the point shot or drive.

2 Defend the exchange or screen away. Point to wing pass. X1 drops to the free throw line, looks away from the ball and picks up the closest man. This is basically a switch.

3 Defend when the point leaves to ball side. X1 drops to the free throw line, looks away from the ball and picks up the closest man.

4 Defend when the point leaves away from the ball. X1 drops to the free throw line, looks away from the ball and picks up the closest man. X2 switches to first man left.

5 Defend when the point dribbles or slides to the wing. X1 stays with his man and X2 adjusts.

6 Defend when the point loops to ball side. X1 drops to the free throw line, looks away from the ball and picks up the closest man. X2 switches to first man left. Defend when the point loops away from the ball. X1 drops to the free throw line, looks away from the ball and picks up the closest man. X2 switches to first man left.

7 Defend when a player flashes. The man guarding the flasher stays with him man to man. All other rules are in effect.

1-2-2 Half Court Trap

I use the following positions and responsibilities for the 1-2-2 half court trap. The one is the"herder", her job is to keep the ball out of the chute (the lane lines extended down the floor) . Ideally she should force the dribbler to her off hand. The next two are the wings. Ball side wing becomes trapper, weak side wing denies reversal pass,AND has basket protection responsibilities if a pass comes out of the trap up the sideline, or to the middle. The ball side back man has first pass out of trap up sideline, while weak side backman has middle pass responsibility. We leave the deep diagonal open, as few players at our level can make that pass with any kind of regularity or authority. Stress to your back players to play in front or 3/4 ballside players in their areas. DO NOT LET THEM PLAY BEHIND!!! If a pass should be completed to the side or middle, the weak side wing dives to the basket, hand out, attempting to deflect any pass. We only trap once, then fall into a 2-3 zone unless ball gets knocked out of bounds, giving us opportunity to match up man/man. Some coaches continuously trap. I have run this defense with an 8th grade girls team that has only one quick player (herder). The rest of team is average or below average in quickness. It has worked exceptionally well. I release the herder to pressure full court, but trap after ball crosses timeline.In Illinois,we have no shot clock, but we do have the backcourt and 10 second count.I hope this information will be ofsome assistance to you

Half Court Trap

THE 1/2 COURT TRAP THAT I HAVE HAD THE MOST SUCCESS WITH IS THE 1-3-1. I DIDN'T HAVE 5 ALL-AMERICANS ON THE COURT AND STILL MANAGED TO WIN 20 GAMES. A HALF COURT TRAP IS A DEFENSE THAT WORKS BEST IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS AND IS SOMETHING THAT IS TOUGH TO SIT IN THE WHOLE GAME, SO PICK YOUR SPOTS. THE ONLY CHANGE I USE IN THE 1-3-1 IS THAT I NEVER TRAP IN THE BASELINE CORNERS. THE BALL IS IN THE BASELINE CORNER AND WE ARE IN A 2-3 ZONE LOOKING TO STOP BALL REVERSAL AND HOPING THE OPPONENT WILL TAKE A CORNER SHOT WITH A HAND IN THE FACE. I PUT MY SLOWEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER IN THE MIDDLE AND HAVE MY BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER ON THE BASELINE TO COVER CORNER TO CORNER. I NEED THE POINT OF THE 1-3-1 PLAYER TO BE A HUSLER BECAUSE THEY HAVE A LOT OF GROUND TO COVER. MY WINGS ARE ON A STRING, WHEN ONE IS UP THE OTHER IS DOWN HELPING ON HELPSIDE. I WORK AN AGGRESSIVE DOUBLE TEAM FOR BALL PRESSURE AND I LEAVE THE PERSON FARTHEST AWAY FROM THE HOOP OPEN. GOOD LUCK COACH T

1-3-1 Half Court Trap

Press

What type of press do you like to run & why?

We love the 2-2-1. Allow the inbounds pass and funnel sideline. The hardest part to teach is getting everybody to rotate everytime the ball moves, it is damn near impossible to dribble through it if done right but many teams try it anyway. If you make a commitment to doing it all game you'll find that the good decisions and passes that the other team was making in the 1st half that beat your press aren't as crisp or sharp in the 4th quarter when they are fatigued. I think the most common mistake people make when judging a press is taking it off because they aren't getting turnovers every time. As long as you aren't giving up lay ups, then the value of the press can't be judged until the end of the game. It does fatigue the opponent mentally. We fall back into M2M the majority of the time. We get confused sometimes too but as long as we communicate on defense AND have the person with the ball 'occupy the ball handler' it usually gives us the few extra seconds we need to get back into good position.
I also like 221 but mix it with a man press which starts out in 221 and then matches up and everyone moves up a man leaving the back man covering the two deepest offensive players. We run 221 in "safe" mode leaving the reversal pass open so we can cover deep player while doubling on the ball. At the junior high, I will run it in "gamble" mode cutting off the reverse pass and leaving the deepest man open once we get the ball trapped. High school players can burn that too easy but jr high girls usually can't throw baseball pass that far. We also fall back into man. We teach kids to stop the ball if they are closest defender to it, then get in lane and move out to their man once we are all back. It isn't hard. YOu could also drop back to a zone, then once you are matched up, switch to man when your captain (someone on the back of the zone who can see everything) calls it out.
The 2-2-1 is a very safe press in that you can dictate the amount of pressure that is being put on. You can turn it up and be very aggressive with the trapping and going for steals...or...you can lay back and selectively trap in certain areas (near half court for example)...or you can simply fall back gradually to slow the tempo. The coverages are also easy to teach and explain to your players. It can be a fun press to use even at lower levels. We fall back into a man to man. If your players understand that they may have to guard someone who is not "their man" until a good opportunity to switch back, then you should be able to go from one to the other without missing a beat and maintaining good pressure. We were able to do this at the 7th grade girls level as well as all the way up to varsity.
I don't press very much (HS Varsity Girls), but I can tell you we have a much easier time breaking zone presses than m2m. We have more problems with m2m front the players, switch on screens, with a safety back. Although, when I had a 6'1" center we didn't have any problems inbounding the ball.
My sophomore girls team ran a m2m total face guard w/ a zinger at shortstop. We waited to trap until the receiver of inbounds pass began her dribble, then everyone rotated 1 player closer, turning the press into a zone press. We also ran a 1-2-2 3/4 press that was very effective, as well as a 2-1-2 1/2 ct trap.

Diamond Press

The proper rotation goes like this: The point man (#1) will be lined up guarding ball/inbounder as he inbounds the ball, trying to tip or deflect the ball. The wing men (#'s 2 and 3) are in a sense denying the ball inbounds. They deny the ball so that if their man catches the ball, he will catch it in front of them an towards the sideline. They do this so that the will have the baseline and the sideline helping them trap their man when he does catch. The middle man (#4) all out denies the ball to the next closest man, and the back man (#5) denies the man farthest from the ball. So prior to the inbounds pass, everyone is basicly in man to man defense. Once the ball is inbounded (preferably to the corner, in front of a wing man) the 1 man and that wing man (for example, #2 here) trap the ball hard. The opposite wing man (#3) tries to steal the pass back to the inbounder as he steps inbounds. Most teams will try to throw it right back here so he will get a cheap lay up. The #4 man will take away the middle and try his best to steal any lazy pass to the same sideline as the ball. The #5 man covers the backcourt and also tries to steal any lob passes. The key to running this press successfully is to

1) trap deep in the corner, and trap hard!

2) take away the short passes out of the trap; the one back to the inbounder and ESPECIALLY the one back to the middle. If they get it here they'll score a lay up.

3) If they do beat your initial trap, the wingman who isn't trapping (he will be taking away the pass back to the inbounder) has to sprint back because they will probably have a 3 on 2 or a 3 on 1. This is the way we rotate in our diamond and one.

We are a running team (average about 85 points per game) so we don't mind the fast pace it provides. However, you will probably give up some cheap buckets out of this, but hopefully the easy lay ups you shoot will be worth that risk. You could try changing the rotation of the press (having the wingman who isn't trapping guard the middle and the middle man guard the sideline) to make it a little safer, and then mix up the rotations. I have seen team do this and have great success because the opponent never knew where it was safe to pass the ball. It all depends on how quick your kids pick it up and adjust to the different rotations, because if one guy is lost it probably means the other team scores two points. I hope this long explanation helps you out.
We use this press a lot with our senior women and it is quite effective. We start with our top three players channeling the ball to a specific corner. This means that your top three players may not be alligned 1.2 all the time. Your point press player will guard the inbound and direct to say the right side. The Left side guard will deny all passes to left side of court (inside 3 pt line) and the right side guard will be back o/s 3 pt line to stop pass over top. This forces pass into the particular corner/side of court you want and the players immediately know where to then rotate to. One less thing for them to think about - which isn't bad sometimes.

2-2-1 Press

You might try going 4-4 and work without the safety. One drill I use constantly is called 4-4-4. You have 3 teams of 4 playing 4 court. On any made baskets, each team runs a different type of press. For example, team A would run 2-2-1 (without the back man), team 2 would run a 1-2-1-1 (without the safety), and team 3 could pick up full man to man and faceguard. This drill is great for conditioning as well. I also like to work on form trapping, where you have 2 defenders attack one ball handler, learning how to steer him to the side, then setting a tight trap, with hands up and getting body to body on the ball handler.
John Kreese (college of Charleston, SC)has a video on the 2-2-1 and here`s what he does. Guards first, next come the forwards, center last. Try to drive ball to sidelines with guard so guard and forward can trap at halfcourt, either before or after halfcourt line. Protect the center of the court with other forward and guard. If ball goes up center, both guards trap. Watch out for ball reversal. Let them have first pass in,then go to work.If press is broken, run setup in a 2-3 zone asap! While the ball is being trapped at sidelines, the center protects basket and sidelines against long passes.The (non trapping) guard and forward protect the center court area against short passes This explanation will be easier to follow if you draw it as you read it. I describe two versions of the 221: An all-out gambling press and a safer, slow-em down, don't give up a lay up press. We will call defensive players LF, RF, LM, RM, and S for Left Front, Right Front, Left Middle, Right Middle, and Safety. Front players usually are around the foul line, middle players in front of halfcourt line, safety just behind deepest offensive player or just deep enough to get to longest pass the inbounder is capable of throwing. We allow inbounds pass but try to make them catch close to the left sideline.

Gambling Press: We stay back off the ball handler and encourage him to dribble up the sideline. As soon as he starts to dribble, LF will close in and try to force him to the sideline, LM will move to dribbler to cut him off and he and LF will doubleteam him against the sideline. LM must slide step ahead of dribbler until he has one foot out of bounds, then stop with hands up ready to take a charge if the dribbler doesn't stop. The other players need to hold back until the trap is sprung, because if the dribbler gets past the trappers, S is going to be trying to stop a 3 on 1. Once the dribbler picks up his dribble, everyone needs to move quickly into the passing lane between the ball and their new man. RF will be responsible for pass back to man closest to baseline, usually the inbounder. RM will be responsible for pass to next closest man to baseline, usually the other guard. S will be responsible for pass down left sideline to the man originally guarded by LM. The man left open is the on originally guarded by RM who is on the opposite side of the court. This is the gambling, all out, go for the steal version.

Safety Press: The safer version which is much easier to get the ball down against, but not as likely to give up a lay up follows. It starts the same way with the trap of the dribbler on the sideline, but the players away from the ball (RF and RM) stay back on their original men instead of moving up a man to stop the reversal pass. When the ball is reversed, LF will leave the trap and go to the new ball handler and try to force him to the sideline. LM will slide back toward middle, RF and RM will also protect middle and be ready to trap on sideline if dribbler goes to their side. S will also slide back toward middle staying even with deepest player the passer is capable of throwing to. This version is more of a delaying tactic than a high pressure stealing press, but it can get a team out of their offense and if your front players are quick with long arms, they may deflect some passes and get some steals. You will also get a 10 second violation sometimes.

Rules:
1. Keep ball out of middle.

2. Force dribbler toward sideline.

3. Play upline to deny pass to man in your coverage area.

4. When you trap the dribbler, do not allow him to throw deep. Try to deflect passes but don't reach in and foul.

5. If you are behind the ball, SPRINT back.

6. LM and RM should play closer to the middle of the court than the man in their area and should see the ball and their man at all times. They must beat cutters to the ball.

7. should play closer to the middle than the deepest offensive player and be just close enough to him to cut off a long pass. He will also be anticipating a cross court pass to the man formerly guarded by RM so he can't just play on the sideline in front of the man LM was guarding before the trap. He should be smart enough to foul well in front of the basket if he sees the other team is going to have a 3 on 1 (assuming you play at a level where 3 on 1 usually results in a basket and you have some fouls to give).

LF should be best dribble defender. LM should be quickest big man, not prone to foul trouble. S should be 2nd quickest big man. RF is the other guard. RM is the other big man.

2-2-1 Press: Backside Question

With regard to the 2-2-1 full court press...obviously the ball side front man is forcing the ball handler up the sideline while the opposite front man drops into the middle...but the backside guys...what are your directions to them? Are your players taught to come up aggressively and meet the ball handler OR do you teach them to wait for the ball handler to come to them? Here's the problem I sometimes have with my 8th grade girls: When we come up aggressively, we often find it hard to rotate back to cover the deep ball when the ball is reversed. Then again, when we wait for the ball handler to come up the sideline...she (the ball handler) can often slip in between the trap. Just looking for other teaching points. Thank-you!
In the 221, the ball is forced to the sideline and usually trapped near half court. Two players (the strong side front defender and the strongside midcourt defender) are dedicated to the ball handler. The object is to stop th edribble and prevent the pass long enough for a turnover or to cause a hurried pass out of the trap that can be picked off. The object is not to reach in and tie up the ball. A foul is a waste of a good trap. There are two common passes out of the trap. The most common is over the trap immediately down court; the second is laterally out of the trap. The last man back on the 221 is responsible for the pass downcourt. Therefore he must go to the same side of the court as the ball. I tell my players that 80% of the time the offense will elect to pass over the trap directly down the same side of the court. The last man back MUST intercept or deflect this pass. His job is NOT to defend the basket. If he fails to play for the pass, the press is nearly useless. The job of guarding the basket belongs to the weak side halfcourt defender. The weak side front defender should not chase the ball past the middle of the floor. If it goes away from him, it will be trapped over there and his job is then to intercept any pass to the middle of the floor. If the passer is successful escaping the trap at midcourt, we match up m2m, each player taking the closest opponent.
A successful press needs two states - a sense of urgency and the illusion of an easy way out. The 221 lends itself to this real well. If the trap occurs just in front of the half court line, the ball handler has the ten second count ticking away. Of course, on the other side you can get the 5 second "closely guarded" call or the over-and-back call. Near the midcourt line is best because the options for escape are limited. If the trap is too aggressive and too far down court, then it is possible that the ball handler will squirt out or pass out of trouble and suddenly two defenders are behind the ball. Traps on either side of the halfcourt line are effective. Near half court, the passer escape routes are generally more predictable. You also want enough room behind the trap to invite the overhead pass downcourt - the illusion of a safe way out. Hope that answers the question ... either frontcourt or backcourt trap is OK, as long as it is close to the halfcourt line.

RUN & JUMP

This defense is a man defense. It can be used as a press or halfcourt defense. The main thing about this defense is that when an offensive player turns there back to another defender, the defender comes to trap the offensive player with the ball because the offensive player doesn't see him coming. I think this is a very effective press because it only traps at certain times, to play the offense out of it's strong areas. (I am still learning this defense too.) There is a website on this defense. Check out on your search engine for Michael Wells & Basketball. He has a thing about this defense. And I also forgot, everyone else not trapping leaves there man to gap the next closest man to the ball on the man they are with. Gapping means to play inbetween two players, with enough time to try to steal the pass. The trap must be set so that the offense can't see forward.
When the other defender is coming up to trap, he can either fake like he is coming & sag off. Make sure that the dribbler dribbles the ball. It will be difficult to pass the ball, but still make sure he dribbles the ball by pressuring him. You have to make the dribbler reverse dribble by cutting him off & forcing him to reverse dribble. Don't allow him to go one way, cut him off with your body & then the defender can come & trap him. Cutting him off & making him reverse slows him down & allows the defender to trap the dribbler because the dribbler can't see the trapper coming.
Coach: We use the run & jump "D" a lot. We use it on the full ct. .5 ct. and 3/4 ct. levels. Basically we just run a m2m full ct. press & utalize the traping aspects that the "D" offers. 1. if using it while playing a m2m "D", force the drbbler to utalize a back spin dribble, when the help side defender can see the balls back-he jumps it. 2. if the ball is entered to the center of the ct. (which is a cardinal sin in our philosophy) again, have the help side "D" jump the ball and force it either back to where it came form or to the side. Never allow a forward pass. 3. Players must understand that if they trap, they must rotate. 4. The key is to cut down the dribblers vision. Must play the ball very tight. 5. All other defenders are on the line and up the line.

Run & Jump vs. Run & Double

Which is better? run and jump or run and double? In the run and double, where the ball handler is turned and double-teamed, with a back player rotating up to pick up the man of the player who trapped the ball-handler. In the run and jump, the player who initially stopped the dribbler "jumps" back to pick up the man of the player who came over the pressure the ball-handler ? Which do you prefer? Why?
I never heard the term Run and double. In Run & Jump though, the guy that comes to stop the dribbler should not return to his man. Then it is just help and recover (or trap & recover). Run and jump is a rotating defense, where you actually attack the dribbler. Not just stopping the dribbler. The guy attacking the dribbler should stay with him. It is the guy defending him at first that finds the open man. Anyway, I would prefer that everyone contains their own man, and then be trapping from behind. That is however not always posible. If someone gets beaten we have to come straigh at them. I think trapping and returning to your own man is much easier, but far from as effective. Trapping and rotating is very effective, but it takes time to learn.
According to Coach Wells: Rules of run and Jump are 1) play tough defense on your man when he has the ball - you want to force the dribble down the sideline and then cut him off - the goal is to stop the dribble or make the player spin dribble back into a help defender. (2) the help defender sees the player with the ball dribble toward the sideline - when he thinks a possible spin move will happen, he will need to be at the spin spot squared up, in his face, with hands up. The offensive player is caught off guard because he has now just spun with a reverse dribble right into the face of a trapping defender. (3) if the offensive player keeps his dribble going then both defenders must stay on the dribbler and double team him. (4) if the player picks up his dribble - the help defender yells "jump" - this will free the original ball defender to sprint across the court and pick up the open player left by the help man. The original ball defender sprints back to cover the player that helped trapped. No rotation from a third player. But the Run and Double, as John Kresse calls it. has the same trap but, a third player rotates up to cover. the original ball defender stays in the trap. I never meant that the original help defender goes back. and I was wondering whaht the pros and cons are. Sounds like you think rotation is harder to teach. But I'm thinking rotation up may be easier than the original defender having to leave trap and sprint over.and that a two person trap may be more effective.

Rebounding

Blocking Out Drills

Here is one I devised to break my 5th/6th grade team of their tendency to stand around and watch whenever a shot is taken by a teammate. Position two players just outside the lower blocks on each side of lane. Position two more players on each wing. The coach lines up on the free throw line and the rest of the team lines up behind the coach. The first player in the line behind the coach moves into the painted area. He is the defender/defensive rebounder. The coach has the ball and he either takes the shot himself, or he can pass to one of the wings who will take the shot. If the coach shoots, the player in the paint blocks out the coach, if the right wing shoots, he blocks out the left side player on the lower block, if the left wing shoots, he blocks out the right side player on the lower block. This teaches the player in the paint three things, (1) to move instead of standing still and watching the ball when a shot is taken, (2) to position himself on the side that is more likely to be the rebounding side when a shot is missed, and (3) to properly box out in order to get the rebound. After the player in the paint gets a rebound, he moves to the right wing, the right wing moves to the left wing, the left wing moves to lower left block position, the lower left block moves to right block, and right block moves to end of line behind the coach
I like to use a 1-1 blockout drill in which the defense must get 3 blockouts in a row before they can go to offense. Put your defensive player in the middle of the lane and the rest of the team in a line at the top of the circle. The coach shoots the ball and the first player in line goes after the ball. The defender must turn and make contact, then get the ball. The defender must get 3 block outs in order to leave the drill. Later on, you can go 2-2 and 3-3 with the defense getting 3 box outs before leaving the court.
Obviously the first thing I preach to my players about boxing out is that they have to initiate contact. One drill that I like, and more importantly, my players love is this. 3 offensive players, 1 at point and 1 on each wing. All players should be inside the 3 poit line. A defensive player on each offensive player. Set one basketball in the middle of the paint. When the coach yells "shot" the players box out. The offensive players try to use fakes, spins and any other legal means to get to and touch the ball. The time is 5 seconds. If the ball is touched in under 5 seconds then the defense does 10 push ups. If it is not touched then the offense does 10 push ups. When we first started using this drill I had the time set at 3 seconds. That kept it even initially, but now I find that 5 seconds is the most effective. We do this drill every practice, one group at each end of the court, Forwards one end, guards the other. We usually go through it 16 times with the offense and defense switching after the eighth time.
In the past, we have put a bubble on each of the rims. We play full court 5 on 5 under normal rules. The only difference is that we score points by rebounds (offensive and defensive). We want everyone to take the shots they normally would take out of the fast break and offense. However, no shots will be going in because of the bubbles. Therefore, every shot should turn into a rebound and an opportunity for the offense of defense to score a point. We may play games to 5 and rotate 3 teams. After several rotations, the team with the highest total wins. We have run this at camp as well as during the season in practice. We have also done 1/2 court versions of the same game.
We have incorporated a good block out drill w/ our 5 on 5 shell "D" drill. Have all 5 "O" players take at least one step out of the lane, they should be facing the player that they are guarding. The coach starts (w/ the ball) at the top of the key. As the coach shoots the ball, the players must yell shot & block out their assignments. The "D" must get 3 rebounds in a row. On the third rebound, the "D" takes the ball on "O" and runs their secondary break, as the new "D" unit must match up w/ them. Then the drill starts over at the opposite end of the floor-w/ the "O" & "D" switching. If the "D" lets the "O" get a rebound, they must do frozen pushups for 30 seconds.
3 on 3 box out drill 3 Defensive players in a straight line inside paint facing the basket (cannot see the offense.) 3 Offensive players anywhere above the foul line extended also facing the basket. Coach and shooting guard outside the arc. Drill starts on the whistle. ALL THE FOLLOWING OCCURS AT THE SAME TIME. Coach passes to shooting guard who will take an immediate shot. 3 offensive players start crashing the boards. 3 defenders turn around, communicate and pick up the 3 offensive players, yell shot, box, and rebound. If defense rebounds (including the made basket), they get a point (offense does a full court sprint). If offense rebounds, play continues until either defense rebounds (no point for D) or offense scores (full court sprint for D). Reset with same D but 3 new offensive personnel (keeps D honest when they turn to pick up a body - they can't preplan). 4 minutes for each defensive group. Remember, D gets a point only if they rebound 1st. At the end of practice, D with the most points gets a permission from 1 suicide.

Rebounding drills - 70% of shots go to opposite side of basket

Factors in rebounding:

1. Habit of getting position (yell Shot as cue),

2. Effort,

3. Jumping,

4. Controlling ball and outlet Protect ball (chin it), pivot, outlet pass or dribble clear - look long first Step in front box out - if beside offense - elbows high and wide, butt low, jump to ball. Block box out - forearm into chest, pivot into them, elbows high and wide, butt low Offensive rebounding - step away from blockout with quick sidestep or reverse pivot, go to side away from shooter, step across, spin, swim, use other players as picks, not over the back, strip rebound by stepping around and swinging up. If blocked out, push on his back with shoulder and reverse pivot to step in front of him.

Spin - reverse pivot and slide arm in front of D and side step in front of him Swim - stick arm under D s arm, duck under his arm and step in front

Slide - Fake L and go R (push off), step across in front of D. Free throw rebounding - defensive assignments, stunts for O, don t move.

Tipping - if you can't control it, tip to teammate or tip out.

Drills - Most tips in a row (30 secs)

Tip relay - groups of 4-6 in circle, tip ball around - both hands, each hand, count tips without miss Superman drill - throw ball off glass to come down on other side of basket, rebound, throw across, repeat for 5 rebounds and score.

Butt Wars - use your butt to back the opponent out of the lane (3 pairs of kids at once). Arms out but only the elbows may be used to contain the opponent. Spinning off the opponent is allowed and if you push the other person out even on your original side, you win. Winners advance against winner until we get a butt wars champ.

Rebound and 1v1 - shooters around perimeter, 2 rebounders, whoever gets it tries to score in 3 seconds and 2 shot limit - go to 5 points and rotate to shooting area. Track points scored (1 for each rebound plus 2 for basket if you score) and loser from each pair runs before joining shooters.

Continuous 1v1 - rebounder pass to 1st in shooter line, he shoots, D block out, whoever rebounds outlet to shooter (other jam pass, if stolen or deflected, pass to shooter) and go to shooter line. Loser close out shooter, block out, both try to rebound. Variations - shoot, allow 1 dribble before shot, add passing line to receive outlet pass and pass to shooter with D denying pass. Must get ball and make good outlet pass to get in shooter line.

Circle box out - 4 outside circle try to get to ball in middle, 4 inside box out. Time it. 3 reps, switch positions, longest total time wins. In scrimmages or drills, treat made basket as live ball so either team can rebound and throw in.

Rebounding - cont

I think the key here is to establish roles. Don't go and tell the players, okay harry you're our scorer, Dan you be our defensive man. But set goals for your team like today lets get 10 more rebounds than the other team and only 12 turnovers, and encourage them to set goals for themselves during the game. Then glamorize the man that got the job done on the boards after the game. Soon they will be fight each other for the reb.
If you look a tapes of games for kids of the age group you coach, I guarantee you that you will see one thing. When the ball is shot, there is a period of a second or two where all animation is suspended. This is the period of time in which the ball is travelling from the shooter's hand to the rim. That is because they are all watching the ball. What I stress is that you know where the ball is going so why look at it. When the ball is in the air, teach your kids to find the closest person with a different color shirt, box them out, then look up. When they look up, they know where the ball is. My premise uses the following concept: the basket doesn't move but the opposing player does. Go over this in practice, use drills, and show your kids tape of themselves just standing around looking. With repetition, they will eventually get it. Give them incentive such as rewards for the most rebounds, this also takes emphasis of scoring which I always think is good. Kids don't realize the value of the intangibles of the game.
Here is a one-time-only drill that sounds silly, but had a big effect on my team this year. Place all 10 players inside the paint, toss up a shot and tell them to get the ball before it bounces. Them have them line up around the lane -- kind of like a free throw, but a couple are on the free-throw line. Again, toss up a shot and tell them to get the ball before it bounces. Next, have them line up, evenly spaced, one big step out from the lane. As before, toss up a shot and tell them to get the ball before it bounces. Have them take another step out and repeat -- at this point they should be evenly spaced around the three point arc. Finally, space them evenly around the entire half court boundary lines (both side lines and the time line). Toss up a shot and tell them to get the ball before it bounces. At this point ask them what they learned. They will respond with something like: "we can get the rebound from anywhere on the court" and you respond -- EXACTLY!!! Since the first step in rebounding is mental, you must get them all thinking and believing that rebounding is the responsibility of each and every one. As a last thought, I have found that many rebounding "drills" do not much help -- other than teaching a bit of footwork and mechanics. More usefull, in my opinion, is a ubiquitous emphasis on rebounding. In every drill, and every scrimmage, and every game emphasize rebounds. If you see a kid being a "spectator" (e.g. watching the flight of the ball flatfooted) chew on him hard. Praise a good block out more highly than you praise a good shot -- do it loudly, and do it often. Coach your parents in this regard as well. You are attempting to develop good habits -- and sometimes eliminate bad habits -- as such, you must apply consistent, relentless pressure. By-the-by, we usually use a modified scoring scheme in our practice scrimmages (whether it is 1-on-1, 3-on-3, or 5-on-5) -- an offensive rebound counts as 1 point for the offense.

Getting Players to be Aggressive Rebounders

I believe that you can instill the "I own this court" mentality. My way of doing it is to get them to believe they better own the court or else! Once my girls learn how to do a drill in our learning sessions, from then on they must do it competitively. I always break my kids up into 2-4 equal teams and they compete against each in every drill. Losers do 2 laps full speed. If I really want emphasis placed on a weakness that we need to shore up, then losers do suicides.
I agree completely with BBall-Ed on making it competitive. I saw a video on making practice drills competitive and used the idea in camp a couple weeks ago and it made a big difference. The kids put in a better effort and enjoyed it more. I gave candy to winners instead of making losers run, but I won't do that anytime except in camps. Drills for rebounding: Continuous 1v1 - rebounder pass to 1st man in shooter line, he shoots, D blocks out, whoever rebounds outlet to shooter (other rebounder jams outlet pass) and go to shooter line. Loser close out shooter, block out, both try to rebound. You stay in until you get the rebound and make a good outlet pass. Rebound and 1v1 - shooters around perimeter, 2 rebounders, whoever gets it tries to score in 3 seconds and 2 shot limit - go to 5 points and rotate to shooting area. Track points scored (1 for each rebound plus 2 for basket if you score) and loser from each pair runs. In scrimmages or drills, treat made basket as live ball so either team can rebound the made shot and throw it in. Circle drill - 4 players around center circle, 4 others inside circle block them out, coach stand in middle holding ball (or lay it on floor) and see how long it takes for offensive player to get past defense and get ball. Go 5 times, then switch. Losers (those with longest total time to get to ball) run.
For aggressive rebounding we use the "3 Player War" Drill. Line up three players at the foul line (one in the middle of the FT line and the other 2 at the elbows). The coach shoots the ball and all 3 go for the rebound. The player who gets the rebound is on offense and the other two try to stop him from scoring. If the offensive player misses the shot, whoever gets the rebound next is on offense and the drill continues until one of the 3 scores vs. the other two. To stress aggressiveness, no fouls are called in this drill. The drill gets pretty intense. I read an article on the Michigan St. team this year and after one of their losses Coach Izzo used this drill and ran it for 30 minutes with the team wearing FOOTBALL pads.

Miscellaneous Defensive Topics

Defending The Flex

First you have to go through the pattern with your "D" and point out parts of the pattern where you can switch. We don't switch on the baseline flex cut, but we give help. When the 2 players on the weak side down pick or back pick for the shot at the elbow we run an automatic switch. This two defenders are playing zone on the weak side. Ball pressure and keeping all 5 defenders playing the ball will give you the advantage. The flex pattern your opponent runs can be repeated in shell drill until your team can run the pattern as well as your opponent.
Here are two options we use. 1. Switch on all screens. 2. Go to a 2-3 zone.
We: 1) switch on the downpick 2) Don't chase the weak side corner. Stay in "help" with one foot in the paint. Let the cutter come to you. This also gives some help when you get the(inevitable) mismatch on the downpick. 3) always "bump" the cutter 4) keep good pressure on the ball. Try to push the ball out away from the basket to make the entry pass too long to be effective. 5) ALWAYS see the ball and see your player
slide over the pick and front the player on the other side. If this doesn't work, i've found a 2-3 zone can stop most flex offenses.
The way you defend the flex cut depends on what the screener does after setting the pick. If the picker does not look to step toward the ball, and just go off the downscreen, we have the defender on the screener step low and bump the cutter, and the defender on the cutter go over the top. When the downscreen occurs, we would switch it. But if the cutter steps toward the ball after screening, or they look to post, we tell the defender on the screener to get right on the back of the offensive screener and do not help on the cut. We want to prevent the screener from stepping back toward the ball and sealing out the defender. You also need to have good ball pressure to take away the easy look into the lane to the cutter or the cutter coming off the downscreen.
i teach ballside and china (weak side; we never guard a player in china) therefore if your is cutting baseline from china you should already be in the paint and the screen should not be effective
One of the most popular defensive tactics that I have seen is to switch everything. switching everything can be very effective especially if you are coaching at a younger age level (hs fresh. or lower). Younger, less experiened players will not be able to make the reads necessary to adjust to this tactic, older players will eat you up with backdoors and bumps if you switch exclusively.

Trapping after a Missed FG

This is a tactic I love to use and is sometimes an easy way to get a few "cheap" points. If the defensive rebounder gets the ball low and has her back to the floor the two closest players will "body up" and try to leave her nothing but a baseline pass. Try to teach your other players to jump into the passing lanes to intercept the outlet pass. Sometimes it is better to do this selctively so that you have the element of surprise. This is also a good way to slow down or stop some teams who like to get out and run the break off of the short rebound. If you at least force the outlet pass to go to the baseline instead of the deep wing you can buy some time to get back and defend the break

DEFENDING PICK & ROLL

I think the way you defend the pick and roll is based, as Coach Creighton mentioned, on the personnel running the pick. Is the dribbler a penetrator or a shooter? Does the roll man pop out or does he just roll to the basket? Where are the picks being set? What is occuring away from the 2 man action? This is very important when working against pick and roll. One thing you might want to consider is trapping the pick and roll early. If you know the signal for the play or if your players read the pick and roll being set up, teach them to go ahead and trap the ball handler immediately, rather than when the pick is set. That is one way to break up the play. If you are looking for some additional material on this, I highly suggest Del Harris's book Winning Defense. He devotes an entire chapter to defending the pick and roll. The rest of the book is a gold mine of ideas and concepts for defending every type of offensive action imaginable.
Remember to spend time on the helpside individuals - they must know what to do since you are double teaming and they will be playing 3 on 4
We teach out players to hedge and recover on all picks on the ball. We also teach a technique to the player being picked to a) overplay the dribble to go opposite the pick and b) get as tight on the dribbler as possible. This works well provided the player defending the person setting the pick communicates early to the on-ball defender. The on-ball defender is taught to go over the pick. We avoid the "fight over the pick" description because young players will take this to mean bulling their way through the pick. We have the on-ball defender try to "get thin" by pulling their hips forward and taking a big step with the pick-side foot as they go over the pick. Players are taught on offense to rub as close to the hip of the person setting the pick as possible. This being the case a "hedge" is when the player defending the person setting the pick steps into that space perpendicular to the path the dribbler wants to take. This forces the dribbler to take a much wider path around the pick giving the player being picked additional time to slide over the pick and defend the dribbler without switching. The hedge player "recovers" to his man. Where you get beat on the pick and roll is when the player defending the screener stays behind the screen virtually requiring a switch thus resulting in the pick and roll mismatch assuming you have a post player screening a perimeter player.

The Hero Defense

A couple of years ago, I read an interesting article in Scholastic Coach magazine. The title was something about a "Hero" defense. The main object was that you had one player that was a full time help defender. He was assigned to the weakest opposing player and was to only guard his man when the player was within 8-10 feet of the basket. Otherwise, he was responsible for doubling down on the post, trapping the ball, staying in the paint to prevent drives, etc. If the opponent was going to beat you...it would have to be the weak player who would have to do it and become the "Hero". Has anyone applied this type of strategy? If so, are there any other things that you assign your "Lone Ranger" to do?
we run a similar defense to this but we play it from a 2-3 zone. It actually turns into a box and 1 but the "rover" guards the ball were ever it goes. For this defense you must have a "rover" that is in shape and will hustle
We used the "hero" strategy as a box and 1 against two teams which had star players. We chose a lesser skilled offensive player and told her that her only job was to stay between the star and the ball - in her passing lane all the time - with her hands up. The goal wasn't to guard her but to make any pass to her unattractive. After one quarter of no passes she got frustrated and angry and ended up "taking herself out of the game" Our player's confidence hit the ceiling and we held a stud to 15 points!
Recently I coached a team where we went to watch the opponent play and decided we were going to play a certain type of zone, then go to a M2M and "not guard" a particular kid no matter where the kid was when they were in the game. Remember, these are varsity kids. Well, we started in the zone and then the player came in the game. We immediately went to this and the kid never scored and we were able to harass the other kids. As long as you take care of telling the kid what the kid needs to know, they can play this occasionally when the opponent has a kid who is a great offensive liability. Instead of a box-and-one, it was a man-and-one. BTW, we won the game by four in a homer dome.
An opposing coach referred to our "Hero" defense as a "Dot and Four":)
A less kind opponent referred to ours as a goat and 4 - obviously referring to the likelihood of sacrifice before it was all over. :)

Transition Defense

When defending the fast break, we have always taught to protect the basket first and then take/stop the ball. However, once we get back, we seem to have problems closing out on the shooters in the secondary portion of our opponents break. I would like to hear some suggestions or drill ideas to help us improve this aspect of our game.
We are teaching the kids to "Stop the Ball" as the primary concern. Our hope is to either contain the dribbler or guide him to the sideline. Once stopped, try to make passing as difficult as possible. In the fast break situation, if the defender can buy a second or two or even get the ball handler to throw a high pass, we may have enough time to recover. But, the total focus is on the ball, not protecting the basket. The closest guy tries to stop the ball or at least create hesitation. The rest "beat feet" to recover and matchup.
we have a group of fast kids,short although.we have been working on a few very simple offenses where we leave a guard at the top of the circle to stop the fast break or at least slow it down till help arrives.Also we have a small, very fast girl who in most cases can catch the opposing player and steal or knock the ball away .This has worked fairly well so far.I feel there`s nothing like the basic fundemental transition pratice with the players to carry them into their future games.Starting next pratice,we are going to spend a lot of time on transition drills,3-2,2-1 etc.A team needs many tools to use.
Besides being a team who fast breaks as much as possible, i also teach how to stop the break. first i teach the closest player is on the ball....stop the ball is the most important thing... the rest of the team take 3 steps look over inside shoulder and find the ball. hustle back and protect the basket... I emphasis Us against the ball....no point in the paint
We are always stopping the ball first, however we keep a man on the other side of half-court just in case they do break the press. We play out of a 1-2-1-1. We look to trap the inbounds pass and force toward a sideline or to make a pass toward the middle of the floor for a quick steal. Practice odd man counters, 3-2 2-1

Slowing Down an Athletic Team

I wouldn't play and up tempo game against a much faster team any more than I would work an inside game against a much taller team. The thing is, your team has the ball as many times as their team, so its what you do with it that counts. If you have patience and the ability to control and protect the ball, then the result should be high percentage shots for your guys. Chances are your opponent counts on the tempo opening the game up for them. How well do they handle a half court game? Better or worse than you? They may find the slower pace very frustrating and will make poor choices on shot selection. If my guys are rushing trying to keep up with a faster bunch, I'll call for a spread early in the game for a couple minutes just to get the illusion of control back. Sometimes tghe other coach and the crowd get noisy, but its all part of strategic basketball. Make them play to your strength if you can.

When you don't have a lot of time to practice before the game, if they know how to screen, then physically screen them all the way down the court. If they know how to pick and roll, that's even better. If you play physical ball you will tire them out and slow them down. If they are your next game, that's all I can suggest within a limited time frame. You'd be amazed at how many different ways you can use a pick and roll.
1. Don't press them - pick them up at the half.
2. Control the boards. - no fast break there.
3. If they gain control of the ball from a rebound, turn-over etc. or if you expect this to be a problem, designate your 3 or 4 to leave immediately and sprint to the opposing three pt line to stop the ball and defend the paint until help gets back.
4. Do what it takes to make the passing lanes unattractive - hands up, in the passing lane etc - make them think twice about passing.
5. Emphasize taking the ball to the hoop on offense to try to limit long bounce-out rebounds which can ignite fast breaks.
6. Make sure you always have one guard rotating back for defense.
7. Against their man-press, as suggested by another poster above, do a pick-and roll in the backcourt.
8. Use a big man as a safety valve to inbound the ball then bounce it right back to your Point Guard. Then clear the floor and let your PG bring it up.
9. Use a halfcourt trap against them. 1-3-1 or 1-2-2 depending on how much coverage you want in the lane. A halfcourt trap stops the ball just past halfcourt and puts the brakes on a fastbreak team.
10. Pray a lot. Speed is the one hardest thing to defeat on a basketball court, way more so than size. Size means nothing if you get outrun down the court.

Out of Bounds Defense

We play man defense exclusively. We do not guard the inbounder when a team takes the ball out under their hoop. I have always had this player guarding the inbounder turn and look into the lane as they stand directly under the hoop. The longer I coach the more I'm inclined to have this guy continue to stay under the bucket but turn and look at the inbounder. This way they can see the ball being passed and pick up the inbounder as soon as the pass is inbounded. What do your teams do with this player gurading the inbounder?
I tell my players that they must see their player and see the ball all of the time on defense. If we get a team that doesn't guard the inbounder under our basket we go right back to her as soon as she steps in. We shoot alot of 6 or 8 footers this way. The only zone I play is against the baseline inbounds just for this reason. We will start in a 2-3 and then "jump" into a M2M after the inbounds. That assures that no one is running around loose.

Defending a 5 Out Motion Offense

Coach: We play a team on the 8th grade boys level that runs it like a well oiled machine. After getting burned repeatidly backdoor for wide open lay ups, I made the other team shoot the ball from the perimeter. I was not going to lose to these guys on lay-ups anymore. So basically what we did was play with one foot in the lane at all times except when our man had the ball. No passes were denied. When our man got a pass, we left the lane and playe straight up man2man. When he have it up, we went back to one foot in the lane. I suppose it was kinda like playing zone but I kept telling myself it wasn't because I won't play zone defense at this level. It took them out of thier bread and butter and we were able to knock off a team far better than us by defending them this way. What do you think?

How Much Ball Pressure?

I require no more than arms length. I want to make the offensive player worry. This does lead to some drives by the opponent, thus I need good help side. Do you ever back off from the ball so that you can pressure the passing lanes and not get beat on the drive? Do you use this as your primary D, or situational?
We try to give extreme ball pressure. I have a very quick guard who can do the job and not get beat very often. We make sure we give good help if she does. I think it's very important to always pressure the ball. If you allow the player with the ball to just stand there and see the defense and the passes that need to be made I think you are going to give up too much. Pressure will force the ball handler to worry about other things and in turn you are forcing the action and not sitting back and waiting.
Here's what we do... with the expectation that any time the defense takes intitiative there is additional risk. In this case, we will gamble on the passing lanes. The ball defender's job is harrassment, not steals, and to herd the ball to the side of the floor and stop. Sometimes the ball defender gets beat and then its the job of the closest sagging guy to step up and stop the ball. There should be a rotation to protect the sagging guy's man, but its a finer point that we don't always get. So, we do see the dribbler penetrate and pass to an open guy. Its the price of the pressure defense. The benefit is the intercepted passes and inability of the offense to get into any kind of passing game to distort the defense. Defending the ball well can be very difficult so we work hard on that. Nearby defenders can help a lot by "showing" themselves in anticipation of the ball handler's drive attempt and they can abort the drive without making a real commitment away from their own man. This is our primary style and we haven't been forced to abandon it for a more conservative m2m yet.
For everything the defense takes away from the offense, they have to give something else. For example, if you play extreme pressure on the ball, you give up more drives. If you deny passes on the perimeter, you give up more backcuts and you can't help as well. If you have players who are much better athletes and are very well coached, you might be able to do both but you wouldn't need to in that case, you would beat them anyway. The key is to know when to do what and be able to do either. We teach two defenses: sagging man (our normal defense) and GUTS (Gambling Upline Trapping Stealing) man. We use guts against a team with weak guards or when their best ball handler is out of the game, when we are behind late in the game, and the first couple minutes of a game when nervousness might be a factor. We will also run it for a possession or two after a time out or a free throw but we go back to sagging once they get into their offense. Sopme coach said "The team that gets the most EASY baskets usually wins". We try to get easy baskets with steals by pressing, and we try to prevent easy baskets by sagging once they get close to their basket. (Sagging defense: close enough on ball to prevent shot, everyone else no closer to their man than neccessary to prevent a good shot, jump toward ball on every pass, don't let dribbler go between his defender and you, get to middle of lane if ball on opposite side from your man, swarm the post). Playing off and anticipating passes leads to more steals and less fouls than playing upline and denying every pass. This is for girls, junior high and high school level.
Heavy pressure on the ball, almost always, but no reaching. We work on "mirroring the ball" on defense. Also, when the dribble is lost, we close in even tighter -- and usually try and go to a full denial on the ball-side. We look to steal off the less than perfect passes.
I teach my kids to be "an arm and a foot" away from the ball handler on the perimeter. Stick your arm straight toward her chest and your fingertips should be about a foot from touching her. It is the type of terminology they seem to remember. We generally try to deny inside the three point line unless the ball handler picks uo her dribble, then it's full scale "we want the ball" deny defense.

Stopping the super guard

I've had a situation like this before and we did use the 1-2-2 zone with great success. You just need to make sure to drill them on watching the weak side because if you double team the guard up high, he will probably not make the shots but someone else will be the target. Keep your center moving at all times and keep everyone communicating underneath for ctters so that they can cover quickly. My 2 cents worth
Here is another idea that I might try as a change of pace. Have your team play m2m and have the player covering the worst offensive player double-team the dominate guard everytime he catches the ball. I think that Don Meyer calls this "dork trapping." This will get the ball out of the dominate players hands and also forces the worst offensive player on the floor to beat you. Also when the dominate offensive player passes the ball you need to have someone playing no-help defense and denying the pass back to him. I am not sure you can run this for a whole game but it might be something you could do in spurts that may give you an advantage.
The man to man where you trap that one player is a good option, but the second option requires less precise trapping/timing skills. Instead of a box and 1 we sometimes use a chaser on the scoring guard, and a 1-1-2. It's really a triangle with a quick guard at the top of a triangle, a tall guard at the top perimeter pressuring the point (or helping double the scorer on perimeter) ...following the ball on perimeter, the chaser is on the scorer (loose when they have the ball out of shooting range to prevent drives) and tight when the scorer gives up the ball, preventing the return pass. The top player in the triangle must be quick as in the triangle and two. It's pretty effective depending on the the rest of the scorer's team..if they have other outside shooter's, the man2 man doubling option is better.

Creating a Defensive Mentality

They will reflect a defensive mentality that you as a coach has. How much emphasis do you put on defense in your practices? For me, it's the number one priority in my practices and I spend more time drilling defense than offense. We have a scrimmage with the team we share the gym with at the end of practice and alot of the times I will stand on the defensive side only. My kids know how important defense is because they see that it's important to me.
I think you need to spend more time in practice on offensive skills, because they are usually the weakest and need the most work. However, as the coach you have to emphasize the defense. It's not what you do, it's what you emphasize that will get their attention. Defense is the key to winning games...the tougher the opponent, the better and harder you need to play the D. The more you work them on defense, the more you demand from them in practice, the better prepared you are with your defensive concept, drills, coverages, etc., the more the team will see it and reflect upon that. YOU have to believe that defense is a number one priority...then you have to sell it to them. It will pay off. Good luck.
I sometimes scrimmage using a "Make it Take" Type of format. The idea being that you can't get the ball unless you take it away on D. You get some lopsided games but they will WANT to play defense.
The best motivational tool I know of is playing time. Sit kids out in practice when they fail to play good defense and let them know they will also sit out of games when they don't play good D. Then follow thru. The previous postings are correct. Teach it, emphasize it, then discipline them for poor D and reward them for good D. I saw a video on motivating kids in practice by making every drill competitive with minor reward/punishment for winners/losers. It made an amazing difference in my practices. Maybe you could have some competitive defensive drills?
Thanks a bunch for your opinions. I do spend a ton of time on defense, and I do emphasize it a lot. My kids are just so exceptional in their offensive skills that they overwhelm some teams with their offense, and once they get up by 10-15 they start coasting a bit. I'm just worried that when a really good team plays us we may struggle defensively.
Two other suggestions: 1) Tell your team that your starting line-up will consist of not necessarily your best players or scorers, but your best defensive team. I have started my best defensive 5 for all but one game so far this year, and in each of those games we have gotten out to a quick lead (in the one game I didn't start my best defensive 5 we got down 10-0.). 2) Have competitive drills in practice that reward defense. For example, we use a 3X3 drill where the 3 defensive players will stay in the drill until an offensive group of 3 scores on them. Then the group of three that just scored goes on defense and tries to get as many consecutive stops as possible. After 10-15 minutes, the group of 3 with the most consecutive stops does not have to do sprints. In essance, the drill is asking the players to WANT TO play defense rather than saying that they HAVE TO play defense.

Defending the 4 Corners

my suggestion would be full court pressure. Trap in the back court, force them to up tempo. Once over half fall into a 2-3/ 1-2-2 (matchup???) and deny the swing. Force them to keep the ball on one side of the floor. If they do get it set don't bite and get caught back door.
I think you have to double-team the dribbler and deny the easy passes which leaves the opposite corner open. I'd prefer to have that be a corner away from the basket so begin by leaving the ball-side baseline corner open and cover everyone else. When he catches, leave the weak side guard open and trap the baseline corner. This leaves them one open pass and it is long and away from the basket, plus if you intercept it, you are on the way to a lay up. To trap the baseline corner, have the weak side guard move into the center to cover the middle man and have the trapper who was on the ball previously move down to cover the new ball handler. When the weak side guard gets close enough to deny the pass to the middle, the middle defender leaves to double team the ball. The player covering the other baseline corner can cheat up a little and anticipate the long pass to the open weak side guard.
I got this from the Duke staff before the shot clock. Take your best shot blocker & play him under the basket. Take the defender guarding the other offensive corner man & send him to double team the ball.

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

Practices

Competitive-Fun Drills

I use a lay up drill: divide your team in half. I have each girl take a rebound off the backboard, dribble to the free throw line ( extended ) and pass to another girl at half court. she must drive to the basket for a lay up. they must make 30 lay ups in 90 sec. or its a liner.
4 -3 shell drill is a great idea. - 4 offensive players and 3 defensive
You could try having them play 3 on 3 on 3. It's a camp game where you divide up into teams of 3 (obviously). Two teams start on the floor, if a team gets scored on they are out and the next team (on the baseline) steps in to play defense. If a team commits a violation or foul they are out and the other team gets the ball with the next team stepping in to play defense. Every change of possession must be cleared to the 3pt line, and after every score the scoring team must take the ball back to the jump circle to throw it in , there is no checking the ball. Another shooting game is "Around the Gym". Everyone has a ball to shoot and must spread out to different baskets. They must make a jumpshot at each basket, if they miss the jumper they must make they lay-up before they can try the jumpshot again. When they've made a jumper at a basket they go to the next basket, when they get back to their original basket they must run to the be inside the jump circle, when you get half of your participants in the jump circle they are the winners and they get water while everyone else does a lay-up drill or more shooting whatever you choose.

Most Aggressive Gut Check Drills

the player must make 5 lay ups in a row full court if they miss they start over first right handed dribble and right handed lay up and then left handed dribble left handed lay up at game speed no laziness or they run laps and start over the players love it and hate this we start and end some practices with this a great drill at full speed
I do a variation of the lay up drill. the team has to make 60 lay ups in 70 sec.. 30 right handed and 30 left. if not they do 2 ladders ( liners ) now say they miss its now 50 in 60.
Gauntlet Drill (run by Bart Belair - VMI)
Break up court into 4 zones - baseline to foul line (extended), foul line to half-court line, half court line to foul line, and foul line to base line. Place two defensive players in each of the four zones. They must defend their zone but cannot leave it. Two players must attempt to bring the ball up the court through the Gauntlet (eight defenders in the four zones) and score. On a miss and defensive rebound, steal, turnover or out of bounds, they must SPRINT back to the beginning and try again. If they make the basket, eight on defense run a double suicide. Five minutes for each pair. Up-tempo and aggressive. The kids really love it. 1) Box Out Drill Pair up players and put one group at each end of the foul line. Put a ball in the middle of the foul line and have one player in each group be "O" and the other "D". Blow the whistle and the D player must box out the O player for Three seconds. The O player is trying to get by the D and just touch the ball (because there is another group on the other side), and the D is trying to keep the O from getting the ball. If the Dplayer keeps the offensive player from touching the ball for three seconds then the offensive player sprints a lap, if the offense gets the ball the D player sprints two laps. They do this five times, then switch offense and defense, and do it five more times. The players keep score as to the number of wins they have and after all ten sessions are done the losers have to run lines. 2) Loose Ball Drill Line three players up along the foul line extended and put a ball at halfcourt. Coach stand at foul line opposite to players and runs the players through a series of d-slides. After a while the coach says "GO" and all three players go for the loose ball and play one on two at the basket the coach is at. I do this back and forth, each time running them through more and more d-slides. This is great to see who is willing to dive, as well as, preparing kids to hustle when they are tired and have no legs. 3) Foul Shot Pressure This is easy. Split into groups at as many baskets as you have with a foul line. In each group one player is shooter and the rest line up on the baseline. The second the shot hits the rim the players on the baseline begin to sprint to halfcourt and back. They continue to sprint until the shooter makes five free throws. There should be a coach rebounding and the players are allowed to stop when a shot is made, but begin running when the shot hits the rim. This puts similar to game like pressure on the shooter to make the foul shot and helps conditioning.
Coach - Here's one: Use half the ct and all 3 baskets. Line players up at half-ct. 1st 3 players in line start. Coach tosses ball in play somwhere and all 3 players go after it. Whoever gets ball is on O and other 2 on D. A player must make 3 baskets to return to end of line and can not score at same basket consecutively. My kids love this one. I'm sure others run this but I got it from Coach Wells who called it 'Cutthroat" I think.
Similar to other responses but will post anyways. Divide players in groups of three or four and station at a hoop, every player has a ball. Within each group players must attempt to score as many baskets as possible while preventing other players in group from scoring by blocking or knocking ball away (anything goes). Losers must run walls, wall taps, whatever punnishment you choose. I usually go 5 one minute rounds. Teaches aggressiveness and taking the ball up strong.
I realy like this one for intensity and competitiveness. We play 4 on 4 passing game (pass and screen away) no dribble and no shot for 10 passes. This really promotes solid screens and making the offensive player get open. I like to see who will set a solid screen.

Variants to the 11 Player Break Drill

Most Beneficial Drill

What one (OK, two if you want) drill do you think your team gets the most out of? (This could be an offensive or defensive drill.) For my money, I find the Denial Drill (aka Deny the Wing) is most beneficial for my team. With wings on both sides being denied, I can hit one or the other with a pass and quickly incorporate helpside D into the fray as well as rebounding when I throw it up. I like it the best probably because there isn't any place to hide with only 2 defenders and 2 offensive players on the court.
I am a run-n-gun type of coach. My favorite is the 3-on-2 to 2-on-1 drill. Teaches both sides of the ball well and is a great drill for conditioning.
Aggressive Rebounding Drill. 3 guys under hoop. The rest of the players in line out of bounds. I throw up a shot, rebounder is offense, other 2 on D, score 3 times and your out. One new guy enters in at 0, the other 2 keep whatever score they had.
Keep away - 1 point for catching a pass inside the 3 point line, 2 for catching in the lane, 5 for a basket or foul and offense gets to keep ball. On a missed shot, the ball goes to the defense. Play for 3 minutes or to 25 points. To make it tougher, you can have a "wild man" who always plays for the defense and tries to double team the ball. This drill teaches ball handling, moving without the ball, denial defense, stalling to protect a lead, trapping, and shot selection. It is also a good conditioning drill.
3 on 3 or 4 on 4 cutthroat: If the team with the ball scores they get to stay on offense and the team on defense goes to the end of the line. If the team on defense stops the offense they get to play offense.
Here's two No dribble 1/2 court scrimmage - great for teaching moving to get open, passing under pressure, aggressive defense. Offensive rebounding, No Dribble, Everybody for Themselves - coach tosses the ball off the backboard, everybody in the lane, have a whistle to stop play when the ball goes outside the lane. Fouls allowed but no pushing or knocking a player down - you must go for the ball.

Practice Warm-up

our court time is shared with other grade levels and the girl's teams. we have a 2hour block. my guys are asssembled in the hallway ready to go 15 minutes prior to court time (sooner if i have alot to say). we skip rope various ways, pushup and situp of increasing amts and after we are sweating we stretch. when the floor is ours we are on and immediately into drills. the first 30 minutes are basically the same fundamentals everyday. 10 min full court dribbling with chairs placed to do moves off of, 15 min shooting (i usually use 5 spots/3kinds followed by 2fouls after each spot)players are paired up. 3 kinds are stepping into pass and shoot, off the dribble , and pump fake and go. 3 to 5 of each type of shot depending on your skill level. the last 5 min is post moves in groups of 3. mikan, drop, jump hook, up and under.
I have always believed in letting the kids stretch on their own ---- why take valuable practice time to do something they can do before hand and doesn't help them become better players. I have been a varsity coach for 10 years and this has worked out very well.
have you ever tried it with 7th graders, I would love to use that time for basketball, but am afraid they would not follow through with proper stretching.
3 laps Stretch: (pull arm over head, across chest, partner shoulder stretch, leg cross overs, hurdlers, butterflys, calve stretch, hamstring leans. push ups , one leg jumps.) 2 laps stutter steps Z drills Shooting series, (partner shooting 30 seconds each, 2 spots each from 5 ft, 10 ft, 3 pts, 6 spots of 15 ft, 1 dribble strong, 1 dribble weak, post moves, wing moves.)
The managers time the boys' while the jump rope. 30 sec both feet, 30 sec. R leg, 30 sec. L leg, 30 sec. x overs, 30 sec. double hops, 30 sec. speed jump. 2. Stretching routine
10 one hand freethrows and 10 normal : from time school lets out ( 2:45pm ) till i hit the gym floor ( being a non teacher - coach this could be only for 10 mins) stretching ( head to toe ) combo-ladders; jump stops - pivots / rh lh dribbling 3 man weaves - no dribbling 1 - 1 zigzags
This is probably politically (probably spelled wrong also) incorrect. But in 19 years as a head coach we have never stretched before practice. And we've never had a pulled muscle. While my assistant and I are going over last minute practice details the players have a ball each and work on game shots. Then we go into about a 5-10 minute shooting drill - could be lay ups, 3 man shooting, whatever - then we start practice.
I was at a clinic about five years ago and heard Jerry Tarkanian speak. One of the things he said was that he did not believe in stretching. If the players wanted to stretch, they did so on their own. He did not waste time doing it. Interesting?
Or the other hand, New York Knicks strength and conditioning coach Greg Brittenham in his book "Complete Conditioning for Basketball" credits the amount of time that Coach Riley allowed for stretching each day as the reason for low number of injuries.

Stretching during Practice/Warm-up

We open practice with a series of warmup exercises, with a gradual increase in intensity. After about ten minutes of this, we stretch for about 5 minutes (a good chance to talk). Don't stretch while cold and have them stretch gently. Generally speaking, the older the kids, the more time needed to warm-up before running hard. So, if you're my age, that means warm up gently and stretch for a half hour then stop before you get hurt
I coach 7th graders and I just do not think they will put the effort into stretching on their own, so we run a few laps, do some lay-ups, and then do about 10 minutes of stretches. Our routine includes push-ups, fingertip push-ups, and leg strengthing exercises, as well as the normal stretching (shoulders, arms, calves, hamstring, hurdler, butterfly, cross overs, spread eagle).
We also do some light warm ups then stretch, I use that time to make any announcements, give them an overview of what we'll be doing, etc. We stretch for maybe the first 8 minutes and then get started. The younger guys could probally do without it but it's a good habit to help them develop.
My situation might be a little bit different than the other coaches in that there is another team that holds practice before our practice. I have my kids come in 15 minutes before we have the court for warm ups. I have them run 2 or 3 easy laps around the court dribbling a ball. Then they will go through a stretching routine. By the time it's our turn to take the floor they are all ready to go. I've read that it's very important to stretch "after" you warm up the body so that's why I have them do an easy run first.
My girls warm up with dribbling (no defense) for 5 - 8 minutes, then stretch. We make announcements while they stretch. It is also good to stretch at the end of practice and that is a good time to talk to them again. You can say some positive things to help everyone leave on a positive note, also repeat any points of emphasis you taught during that session. The best learning times are the beginning of class and end of class. I have heard that with older girls (college?), team chemistry is so important that just letting the girls talk for 15-20 minutes while they stretch does more good than using that time for skill development.

Practice Planning

im always looking to improve the efficiency of our practices. im interested in hearing your thoughts on how you run in season practices. my basic sch follows understanding at times adjustments must be made pending unforseen problems. 15 min pre-court warmups 30 min fundamentals 10 dribbling 15 shooting 5 post moves 20 o break down drills ie. parts of the half court o alt man zone days 30 d breakdown drills ie. flash cuts, de fending the post alt man zone days 10 transition or fast break 20 press/press break alt m and zone 10 special--diff days oob v man/zone, freeze spec o plays, down 1 30 sec to go , ect. at various times when we are ahead of schedule i say fouls-kids get partners each shot 2 we must get a team percent, ie. 60% or we pushup ect. and cont until we reach the %
I get 2 hours a day, 30 minutes warm-up (stretch, stutter steps, shooting) 15 minutes of groups by position
15 minutes of individual skills, dribbling etc 15 minutes of team skills(picks, blocking outs etc) 15 minutes of team defense 30 minutes of team offense
similar to coach B but i spend more time on defense than offense
You are going to have some drills or situations that are harder physically than others. As much as possible run a hard-easy-hard-easy-etc. Work your conditioning into your drills. If you're introducing something new do it early in practice. It is not as necessary to vary your drills and situations as it is to vary their location in your practice plan. Never run a drill or situation over 10 minutes at a time. If you want to spend more time on it, come back to it later. If you have 7 minutes scheduled for "post defense" stop at 7 minutes. Don't 'keep doing it until they do it right!!!'. What you emphasize is probably more important than what you teach. After we do our shooting to warm up the first thing we do EVERY DAY is a defensive rebounding drill. Even if it is only for 5 minutes each day - our players KNOW that blocking out is very important to us. After the fundamentals are learned make every drill and situation competitive. Have a winner and a loser. Losers do a short penalty - sometimes it is just run to the far end-line and back (we just way "Wall & Back"). It isn't to kill them or even really to condition them, it just let's them know they didn't win. Believe me our players hate a "Wall & Back" as much as running a timed line drill. Because it shows that they didn't win. Winners are rewarded - quick drink, even congrats from the coach. Try to work your drills so that if it is individual they are also in teams. Say a 1 on 1 drill. Now, have the loser of the 1 on 1 do a mini-penalty (example: one push-up) then the losing team at the end of the time limit do a team penalty. Communicate with the players: Ask the winners "Why did you win?" - Losers: "Why did you lose?" Be prepared, at first they'll say "because Joe was on our team." Then you'll say "Don't you think it had something to do with the fact that as a team you gave up 8 second shots?" Don't be afraid to let the players set the penalty before the drill starts. This way it is their penalty, not yours. Never leave practice mad or on a negative note - UNLESS IT IS PLANNED BEFORE PRACTICE BY YOU THE COACH BECAUSE YOU FEEL IT IS NEEDED. Every other day try to make one of your drills "really" fun. Just 5 minutes in the middle of practice. Have an emphasis of the day for every practice. AND EMPHASIZE IT THROUGHOUT PRACTICE. Don't over-coach. Have an easy (physically) practice the day "after" a game. Not the day 'before.' The day before have a "medium" practice. It takes 24 hours to recover from a HARD whether it is a practice or a game. If you play a game on TUES. and have a "HARD" practice on Weds. you already need 48 hours to fully recover. And if you play on FRIDAY you don't get that 48 hours, you only get 24. Be especially aware of this after tournament play with games upcoming. We let our players get a drink (we have a fountain at both ends of the gym) anytime they want as long as they do not miss their turn on the court in whatever we are doing. If they miss their turn there are no excuses.
A few additional thoughts on practice scheduling. Sketch out the flow of the more complicated drills on the daily practice schedule. Plan the details of the drill - how many balls will be used, special equipment needed, etc. and make a note of these on your practice schedule. Look for opportunities to make use of student managers and advise them ahead of time the role they will play. Name each drill when it is first presented. Use one word or a few words that will identify the drill for your players at later practices. Use videotaping. Tapes are inexpensive (I just bought 40 tapes at Wal-Mart for less than $1 each). It is sometimes difficult for players to fully comprehend what you are doing until they see it from the opponent's point of view. Make sure your players understand your terminology. And don't confuse them. Don't tell them to box-out one time and then the next time tell the to block-out. Don't tell them one time to set a screen and the next time tell them to set a pick. Etc. One other thing in terminology. Several years ago a friend of mine told me that players needed to understand the terms: up, down, in and out as far a court location. And I think he is right. In our terminology - no matter where on the court the player is located - "UP" means move directly toward your offensive baseline; "DOWN" means to move directly toward your defensive baseline; "IN" means to move directly toward the center of the court (line drawn from basket to basket); "OUT" means to move directly toward the nearest sideline. Being a geography teacher I have a 'compass rose' with these marked on them. In this way our players also understand without further explanation what we mean when we say: "move UP & IN"; DOWN & IN"; "UP & OUT"; & "DOWN & OUT."

Keeping Practice Fun

Do have a reg. practice call it an open gym. let the kids who show up decide what they want to do. I did these and the girls played knockout ran some 4 on 4 games. practice their shooting etc. i told them if they wanted help i was there fore them. they stayed at one end of the court and i prcticed my skills ( i still play after all these years ) about 20 mins into things 1 by one they came down to my end of the court. we platyed horse and joked around. they really had fun!!!!
Break your boys down into teams of 3 or 4 and have all your drills be competitive, losers do laps. They'll get into it.
Try having a 3 on 3 tournament within your team that lasts for the period of time you are on break. Have them play each team 3-4 times. Make a mini season out of it, have a tournament, etc. You can add any stipulations that you want to add (must set two screens before you score, pick/roll day, etc.) You can do the same thing with 1 on 1, 2 on 2, etc. Here are some more ideas: 1. Have each player come to practice with a college or NBA or WNBA shirt of their favorite player or team. It just breaks up the monotony of the every day practice jersey. 2. Take a break in the middle or at the end of practice and bring it some popsicles. I have done this with elementary through college age players and they love it. (crazy?!:) 3. Play music during part or all of practice. I would suggest any of the "Jock Jam" type CDs or tapes. 4. Allow the players to make up part or all of practice each day. You may give them a 15 minute segment in which they may choose the drill to do. 5. Play something other than basketball that is team oriented. (whiffle ball, dodge ball, ultimate frisbee, etc.)

Scrimmaging

I believe that one of the main goals of any practice needs to be to put players in game-like or tougher than game-like situtations so that they will be prepared when game time comes. Yes I believe that coaches should have their teams scrimmage full-court but it is important to control the scrimmages. Practices are still a time to teach so something we do is we place restrictions on players during our scrimmages. For example, if we are emphasizing flair screens in our motion offense we will tell our players that in the scrimmage they can only score off flair screens (unless they have a layin). We feel like there are two keys in our scrimmages. First, we scrimmage to simulate game situations. Second, we do not stop teaching during scrimmage situations. We will stop the scrimmage if a teaching point needs to be made.
I do not scrimmage every practice. However, when we do scrimmage it is rarely a full-court up and down scrimmage. We work specifics in the half-court for the offense; the defense runs our primary and secondary break on all turn-overs and rebounds.
I let my 6th grade girls scrimmage some, half and full court almost every practice. I will sometimes stop and discuss things with them and sometimes I just let them play backyard basketball. Now I try and find scrimmage games against other teams, boys when possible, and run the clock and get people to call the games. I try to get them into game type situations as much as possible. We played a 5th grade boys team several weeks ago,it was a good game, we did finally win by 1 point. We play them again tomorrow morning. I was told to let them play boys teams as much as possible. It gives them a great workout
Control is the big work. I do not ever let my guys go more than once up and down the court without stopping it. Half court scrimmage is run the play until a change of possession and then we reset and I critique or complement. We do one of the two every day for the last half hour of a 2 hour practice. The other time is for drills.

Scrimmage Teams in Practice

Do you scrimmage your first string against the next best 5 or do you split your team up into 2 equal teams?
I can't tell you who my best five players are. Maybe the top two and the bottom two, but day to day the kids play up and down so who knows. Anyway, I balance the squads for games and 5on5 practice. I find that sometimes there are pairs of players that click, so I tend to keep them together for overall team effectiveness.
If I had the gym to myself I would start the scrimmage with the first team against the subs. I think it's important that the first team be given a chance to play together so they can develop their timing and rhythm. Then I would split them up into groups that would be identical to the way I would sub in the games.
I'd like to address your question about scrimmaging your top 5 vs. your next 5 or making your teams equal: Two years ago I tried scrimmaging my top 5 vs. my next 5 in order to get a flow going with the players who would actually play with each other in the game. I stopped doing that, however, because that ended up hurting the morale of my bench players. Last year I evened the teams out in our scrimmages, but that hurt our chemistry during the games. This year I do a combination of the two. For most practices I even the teams out. That way the scrimmages are more competitive. But for practices the day before a game, I group together the girls who I know will be out on the floor most of the time in order to get them prepared for the next day. It seems to be working so far.

Scrimmaging: Running your offense when the defense (your own players) know what's coming

I tried counting it as a turnover and giving the ball to the defense if we did not get in our offense within 5 seconds of crossing mid court but the defense overplayed the plays so much it was hard to run the offense. I installed pressure release options to counter the overplays but the kids usually just try to dribble penetrate instead of using the pressure release options. I hesitate to tell the defense they can't anticipate because I know other teams will be anticipating once we have run our offense (flex) a few times. Maybe I'm expecting too much since we have just been practicing a couple weeks and have not had a game yet.
I know what you mean coach, you do not want to alter your offense, that is not the point of the scrimmage. You want to see the offense in as close to game situations like a opponent who does not know what is coming. What I do is work real hard on my wings v-cuts. They have to really work to get open. My d does just like yours, they overplay because they know what is coming. So our wings will take their man down to the post and then cut hard to their spot to get open, or they will make a cut in front of the d then cut to their spot. If the d does not follow, then we throw the back door pass. what is the end result of all this work. Your kids get into the game and go, wow, this is really easy to run. But the get better at not throwing the ball away to aggressive D.

Ways to Scrimmage to Involve All Players

Here are some ways I have seen scrimmages done to keep everyone involved so no one sits out too long and strong players don't dominate all the time. If you guys know of some more varieties, please post them. Thanks 1. scrimmage to one basket, new team comes in on offense and winners stay in on defense 2. king of the hill - play 1/2 court, D stays in until they get 5 consecutive stops, 5 new offensive players come in after each stop and old offensive players get back in line to play offense. 3. no dribble or limited dribble scrimmage - I prefer allowing one dribble so they can drive if D overplays 4. zero tolerance scrimmage - team is out if they turn ball over, foul, or allow an offensive rebound, or give up a shot in the lane or whatever point you want to emphasize, new team comes in on D and winners (team that did not do the bad deed) stay in on offense 5. Everyone scores or Unselfish scrimmage - first team to have all 5 players score wins. Another way to do it is have first basket by each player count as 5 and the rest of his count as 1 and play to 25. That way they still have to defend everyone but the offense is trying to get everyone to score. (I just dreamed this up last night and wondered if anyone has tried it?) 6. Transition scrimmage - after a change of possession, the offense has 3 seconds to get 3 players and the ball across halfcourt or else you whistle them and they have to hand the ball to closest defender and play on. (This has helped our girls develop the habit of reacting quickly to a steal or defensive rebound) Those who fail to make it in 3 seconds come out on the next dead ball. 7. ???? got any to add?
We do a lot of Double D a team of 5 on each end with a set "D" and one "O" team that has 8:00 minutes to get as many points as they can. Thats to work on our halfcourt "O" and "D". The other is the UMPA drill or 4 on 4 on 4. Team A starts with ball at half court. Team B is on "D" with 2 guys under the basket and 2 at half court. When the ball crosses half court the other 2 players run to center court then play "D". On the other end team C has 2 guys under the basket and 2 on the side.
This got me to thinking about a new defensive drill. Have them play 6-5, but the defense has 5 players. After the offense takes a shot 1 player must get off the floor during transition. As the ball passes half court the odd man now enter on offense. a variartion would be the player who name is call leave the court. on paper this worked well with 12 players.
I have often put twp teams on the floor with the extra players at the foul lines around the gym on their own. When the extra player makes a designated number of foul shots he/she automatically inserts himself into the game at the next dead ball. This keeps the play flowing and allows the players to work on their foul shooting with a type of pressure situation....the more they make the quicker the get in.

Using Managers in Practice

One thing I've started doing this season is that I DON'T keep kids who were cut as managers, I get younger kids to do it, ones who I expect will make the team the following year. We are a middle school so I have 6th grade managers for the 8th grade team. I find them to be much more enthusiastic and willing to do anything you ask them to do, they are just happy to feel like part of the team. With the older kids I found that they spent the whole season watching practice and thinking 'I should have made it, I'm better than him". We also put the managers on a 2 day on/1 day off rotation (except gamedays) and that keeps them fresh.
I also like to use younger girls as managers for our varsity team. We usually recruit junior high girls who often develop "basketball fever" which carries them through the off-season and summer. Most of our junior high girls who manage become our better players later on.
I use my managers to record free throws, time sprints and run our warm-up shooting drill. Then, I use them as dummy D during drills. If I want to teach block-outs, I have the managers shoot the shot, since the usually miss. They also fill in for partner drills if a player is missing.

Team Managers

At the HS Varsity level I use 3 managers chosen from 6th grade. I have an application that they fill out & hand in to the office on a specific date(this eliminates alot of them already). I chose them based on: 1) Behavior 2) Reliability (both them & their parents) 3) Grades 4) Interest in becoming a good basketball player. I use them for the typical stuff (cleaning up, carrying things, etc) but also use them to run the clock (shot clock & game clock) in practice, video tape, and keep practice stats. If you get bright kids they can really help!
My managers prep the gym prior to practice, one will video tape practice, two will take stats during practice, and one will execute on the court duties. I look for reliablity and work ethic when I select managers. Their other duties include: laundry, tape editing, minor taping, tutoring, and setting up our hospitality room prior to home games. They also keep and organize our stats. Good managers can make my life a lot less stressful. I also require that our managers dress up for all games. DON'T permit your players to haze or pick on the managers. Make them feel like an important part of the team, because they are. I have found that you have to keep them busy, if they become bored they will not stick around. I don't list them as managers, we list them as video technicians, statisticians, and one will be listed as a practice assistant. The old "water boy" label is not attractive anymore. Also, I send them out to pick up game films from rival coaches. This saves me the headache from rushing around. I coach in a city with 5 high schools, and over 20 other high schools in the general area. Often times, students that aspire to coach, teach, or go into physical theapy have been the best managers that I've ever had. We also give them a varsity letter. If my AD knew this he'd shoot me, but, I also will give them a $20.00 spot every now and then througout the season. My wife will buy them small gifts throughout the season. Off of the subject, but, I have found it to be beneficial, keep the cheer squad and their coaches happy. Those girls put in a lot of time.

Running as a Punishment?

My take: I *Never* use running as a punishment. Ever. The reason being that we do a lot - i mean a LOT - of running in our normal practices. We do full court full speed lay up drills, full court passing drills, full court combat defense drills, full court tornado lay up drills. I would say 80% of what we do involves nearly continuous running. We have transferred many normal fundamental drills and exercises and convered them to full court running situations. As I have stated before we play a very high pressure high intensity high speed style of play, and players MUST be in good condition to play that kind of game. Therefore I believe in order to play that kind of game, players must be prepared to do everything at a high rate of speed and have the endurance necessary to get it done. However a couple things we do very rarely is run sprints or laps. We incorporate running into almost all of our drills. And one thing I NEVER do is use running as punishment. Our players expect to run, and run a lot, every day in practice. When a player misbehaves, instead of having them run, I tell them to lie on a wrestling mat on the sidelines. No books, no CD player, no nothing. They lie there until the practice is done. No talking with anybody either. Well, it gets very boring and it gets very COLD lying there on the ground. Usually at the midway break of the practice we ask the player if they have learned anything from lying there the whole first half of the practice. USUALLY the player realizes what they have done wrong and they admit to the team they are wrong, at which point they can rejoin practice. If they don't seem to be getting it, they get to lie their for the second half of the practice as well. Usually it takes no more than one day of this punishment and kids straighten out. If it continues more than a second day, a talk with the parents is in order to see if little Junior really wants to be on the team or not.
I WISH YOU WOULD SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH MY COACH!!! We are a very fast paced team and have the same style of practices you do, it sounds like. We are doing full court drills constantly and if we "jack around" all coach says is inline and we know we're had. While we are running our ladders he explains what we did wrong. After we are done we resume were we left off. Being a player I believe sprints are a way of punishment that works. I do not like them, but it is a quick way to regain attention from your players and also it adds to the conditioning process.

Hustle

DISCIPLINE It comes down to discipline. Don't let the players mess around. Tell them to be quiet & listen to what you have to say. Tell them to hold the ball when you are talking. Sit them out if they don't do what you say or make them run. Tell them to leave if they are not following directions - because they are a distraction. You have to be firm & disciplined with the players. It's your choice, either have a crud season, allowing them to run around getting picked by the other team & watching them miss lay ups or right before the game - pregame warmup - watching your players shoot around - but actually messing around not working on there shot at all, having your centers shoot 3's or having players that can't shoot, shoot 3's. Make your players do drills, even until the beginning of the game. And yes you can have them shoot around but make sure they do it correctly - taking there shots, centers taking close shots not 3's, etc. Do not scrimmage all game. If the players do well & do what you tell them to do, then allow a fun scrimmage. But they first have to do what you tell them to do. I feel this is the way to truly win more games. Believe me, I did this & won a state championship with a 7th grade all star team - I swear. We were so disciplined, you never heard a kid speak unless he had something to say about the drill or whatever had to do with our basketball team. Yes, I believe in allowing them to have fun too. Have a hard drill, then have a fun drill. But have balance. Your players must execute the fundamentals. They must execute the drills with poise - properly & correctly. Discipline will solve your problems. Discipline your players and you will have a more successful & enjoyable season.
I get a lot out of my practices by timing everything. If I yell baseline, bench, freethrow line, or whatever, I count out loud and they have 6 seconds to get there. If one player is late, the whole team runs 2 laps. It doesn't take long for them to learn to get somewhere in a hurry. Be careful, once they are where you want them, you better know what you want them to do. If you let them stand around, they lose interest. Have your practices planned.

Conditioning in Practice

Full court ball handling drills. Princeton ex-coach Pete Carill says he never asks players to do anyhting they wouldn't do in a game and he has never had a player run a suicide. I do some strength training but almost no pure running. Our jr high and JV girls need the ball handling badly and we have plenty of subs so conditioning is not a priority except for strength training.
All of our conditioning comes from full court drills or coming in last in the drills. All of my drills are competitive so I break up my girls into teams for every drill. The team that loses the drill does 2 laps, full speed, dribbling a ball with their weak hand. If they do suicides because they lost, then they dribble a ball while doing a suicide.
Some of my drills are suicides, while dribbling 2 balls, losers do it again. If you make everything competitive you accomplish three things. 1. They are more aggressive and competitive in games. 2. Conditioning is more fun for them, because they think they are playing a game. We all know conditioning can be boring as "the Dickens." 3. If you turn your drills into competitive team drills, they learn to depend on each other = teamwork. They are only as good as their weakest link.
All conditioning work is done with a ball. I don't have enough practice time to not develop skills while conditioning.
In my years of experience as a coach I began the first few years using the suicides to condition. Then for several years we went away from them, only conditioning with the ball or in drills. Now, I use a mixture of both but I definitely have my players running the straight suicides for several reasons. First of all I feel like that the years that we moved away from the suicides we lacked mental toughness in our program. Second, I didn't think that my players were in as good of shape.. Third, I think that I did a better job of emphasizing things when we had the suicide as a tool to remind players of what they needed to be doing.

Time Spent on Shooting in Practice/Number of Shots in Practice

Not counting drills taking in live play, how many shots a day to you have your team take. I spend 20 minutes a day just on shooting drills and each player averages 140 jumpers, 10 lay-ups, and 30 free-throws. Do you spend this much time on shooting, why, why not.
I coach 8th grade boys. We spend approximately 25 minutes a day on shooting. Our shooting drill focuses on shots created by our full-court and half-court offenses. Perimeter and inside players each have areas they must shoot from. The drill includes a live passer and token defender. I have found this is crucial to our success to do this every practice because we only get to practice 2-3 times per week and the weather rarely allows players to shoot on their own at home.
We practice shooting daily - about 20 minutes as you do. There is a regimen we follow starting with the basic Mikan drill, then simple free throw style shots from 2' away, moving outward in 2' increments. The team shoots in pairs - each member of the pair shooting for one minute. The low count on each set does some token penalty ie 5 pushups. After the set shots, we follow the same pair shooting pattern but include additional elements, like curling around a screen, receiving a pass and shooting. The one-minute time keeps things moving. Kids get about 20-25 shots per drill depending on distance to goal and added elements.
Shooting Series - one to two pairs at a hoop. Shoot for 30 seconds while partner rebounds, then switch for 30 seconds. 2 spots at 5 feet, 2 spots at 10 feet, 6 spots at 15 feet, 2 spots for 3 pointer. Then we do one dribble stong, one weak, post moves. Then 2-line lay-ups and free throws. It takes about 20 minutes. We do this early in practice every day.

Closed Practices or Not?

All my practices are closed to anyone but team members. My try-outs even more so. I do not want parents their distracting their child as they try to make the team. I do host 3 open practices on Saturday's so that parents can come in and see what we do.
I would go with closed practices. I have tried to open my practices before and the kids were just try to either impress their parents or everytime I would raise my voice they would look over at mom or dad. I do let parents in during the last 15 mins or so because we are just shooting freethrows and I think this helps them concentrate more, cause each kid must make a freethrow before they can go home. the kid who doesnt make one owes me a lap the next day. I like your idea of allowing parents to see an open practice so they do get a better understanding of whats going on or why their kid doesnt play so much.
I am a proponent of open practices. I like parents stopping by to watch and I enjoy talking with them afterwards. I've known some of my players' parents for many years and find their comments useful. New parents need to feel comfortable with the program, so I invite them to watch (and later to help out with booster stuff!) Parents that get upset are ones that don't know what's going on or feel shut out. Maybe they have been involved with their kids development, and now have to stand back. That's hard. There are so many kids at the high school tryouts, though, that there is no time or place for parents. We get so many kids sometimes that we bus to different gyms for Ctm, JV and Varsity workouts.
My tryouts are open so the parents can actually see how their kid fared against the competition. When they ask me why they're girl didn't make it, I will remind them of the specific results their kid had against the competition. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I have less explaining to do. My practices are also open for the same reason. If a kid dogs it in practice and doesn't get to play much in the next game, the parents know why
Being a jr-high coach we don't get to much option about closing practices. It's not that the school wouldn't let us but the parents would have fits. We rely more on our parents than the high schools do in the sense that they provide transportation to games, manpower for fundraisers and such. Besides from my experience the parent who complain the most about lack of pt or getting cut are the ones who a) don't show up to practice or tryouts to see that just maybe there are better players than their kid, b) are just looking for a babysitter after school or c) have no common sense whatsoever and even if you did play their kid 2 1/2 quarters they'd complain their kid isn't playing 3 1/2 quarters. Also it's nice for the parents to see you're not being abusive to the players incase one of the above situations occur, especially for a male with a female team. However, if i was a high school coach my practices would be locked down tight.

Do you let parents watch practice?

What are your rules for watching practices? I want to close them out completely. I don't let students watch because the girls are learning new skills and may be uncomfortable with others watching. That goes the same w/ parents. I also tell the girls that parents are not allowed because "if Susie's parents are attending practice and Susie plays a lot, others may get the impression that she is playing because her parents are monitoring everything. Which could lead to others coming in to monitor practice. I also believe that if a coach needs to get on a kid, he may not because their parent is there. Where do I draw the line?
I coach varsity and let no one in for tryouts. Once the team is complete, parents may come if a written request is made in advance on an irregular basis. I look at it like I don't need a lot of mini-coaches upsetting my practices.
I coach 7th grade at a school and I close all my practices except for 3 times a year I open the practice up for parents to come in and watch. Absolutely no one besides the players are allowed during try-outs. I tell questioning parents that I do not want any distractions for any of the players during practice. They need to be focused on the team and what we are trying to accomplish. Now if you are in a rec league where the parents pay for their kids to play, you may have to take a less strong stance. If a parent would ever question my tactics and their sons effort, I would invite them in for several practices just to show them what we do, but this has only happened to me once in 10 years.
One of the ways I am weird is that I allow parents to attend practice anytime they want. We have a mezzanine around the gym so its easy for them to watch and not interfere. Parents who watch have a better idea what I am trying to teach. I also welcome their opinions about the team. I found that if they talk to me, I don't have to deal with somebody's pent up frustrations - like about playing time for their kid. If they want to talk strategy, plays, whatever, that's fine, too. Most parents, once they have their say, don't initiate much conversation about coaching. 99% of the parents get along with me pretty well. My whole emphasis is to get parents on the team somehow. I need their help in so many ways, including reinforcing the way I am trying to coach the team. In fact, I like to spend time with parents showing them ways they can help their kids practice at home. At the games, our parents are pretty enthusiastic fans. I love it when they are reminding the players to box out, hustle back on D - all that stuff. Ideally, its a big family thing.
All of my practices are open. I lay down some rules about parental behavior, what I will discuss and not discuss and what to expect during my practices. I have never had a problem that I feel was related to this policy.
Just finished my 5th season with 7th grade girls. Practice is always open. What usually happens is parents who are interested arrive 15-20 minutes before our 1.5 hour practice ends. They get to see a lot activity; sometimes a scrimmage, sometimes drills. We include parents in our team rules - can watch but not interrupt practice. Can talk to the coaches before or after practice, but not games. Never had a problem. What usually happens is they put pressure on their daughters to work harder. They rarely question the coaches. If it's too much pressure, we talk to the girls and remind them that "Mom & Dad expect them to be almost perfect. The coaches know what the player can rally do. These aren't always the same thing." They, too, are vocal during games, shouting the encouraging things like "box out", "keep your head up", etc. Only had 1 parent come for a whole practice in 5 years. Mom was very worried about her daughter "fitting in" since she never played basketball before. Daughter did just fine. Mom went home happy

Practice Planning Before 1st Game

For the high school girls basketball team that I coach, I have a total of 9 practices before our first game. What 5 items do you believe should be emphasized in order to get ready for this first game.
What you need to do is really based on your situation. How many seniors/starters/top players did you lose from last year? What are the skills/abilities of the new players (jvs, transfers, etc.) moving up to varsity? Is your first game against a strong opponent? However, I don't think you can go wrong early in the season by focusing on: conditioning, defense, and rebounding. If you use a ball during your conditioning drills, you also get in some work on passing, dribbling, and ball handling skills.
Why 5 items? Anyway, begin with foundation and build up. Foundation is 1. individual defense, 2. team defense including blocking out, 3. ball handling (pass, catch, basic dribble), 4. shooting, and 5. movement without the ball (spacing, cutting, screening, press break, running your offense). Begin with rules and principles, then break them down into more specific items. For example, the team defense principle might be to "Stop the most dangerous offensive player" which would break down into Stop the man with the ball, double down on the post, sag into lane if your man is on weak side, etc. I read that it is easier to learn principles and then apply them to situations than to memorize a lot of situations and how to respond to each one. I would not spend any time on pure conditioning but run drills long and hard to accomplish the conditioning while learning skills. We run our offense against no defense for about 10 minutes as our warmup, then stretch. We do dribbling drills with defense instead of just running lines. In the limited time you have, combine 2 or 3 things in one drill anytime you can. You might also consider giving homework - learn inbounds plays from paper the day before teaching them in practice?
Hmmm... faced with that schedule with a high school team I would emphasize these 5 things: 1. Pressbreaker - if you don't have a plan and your opponent hits you with a press, your hosed. 2. At the same time the press breaker is developed, practice your own press. Just one. Time is short. You can add more looks later. 3. Individual defense. As mentioned previously, individual basics must be covered (stance, footwork, positioning, etc.) 4. Team Defense - early help, stategy vs post, vs screens, defensive boards 5. Offensive spacing - not much time to develop an offense with all the other stuff to teach, but you can cover balance, entry passes to wings and post. If the kids can pass to wings and posts fairly well, you can get some movement. If they are stymied at that, then you won't have an offense. 6. lay ups - gotta make your lay ups!
Need more than 5 to be ready: Fit offense and defense to personnel, 1) conditioning with transition drills/running 2) Passing vs pressure/traps 3) dribble moves 4)competitive shooting 5)defense-individual and team (stance, shell drill) 6)individual offensive moves/footwork/movement 7)man-simple motion and zone defense (verloads, triangles, movement behind zone) 8)1 or 2 inbounds plays/simple press break/press

9 practices at a high school level.

You have no time to worry about fundamentals, individual skills, etc. Forget it, unless you want you girls to look like total idiots out there. You have to focus on team team team and then some more team play. 1. You need to teach your players a transition offense to use to get up and down the floor 2. You need to teach your players how to find gaps against a zone and to overload a side. You have no chance of getting them to know a offense for 1-2-2, and 1-3-1, and a trap, and a 2-3. So teach them to gap the zone, then they can play against all zones, including presses. 3. Teach them your primary team defense 4. Teach them a few quick hitters that are easy to master 5. Teach them a secondary defense. You have absolutely zero chance to make drastic improvements on individual skills. You have to verbalize skills during the team learning and hope the girls pick up on it, then, after the first game, you can go back and work on the fundamentals. Oh yeah, you will need some out of bounds plays.

Deciding what to teach in practice

Ok guys I need some help!! I coach freshmen basketball and each year I ask myself the same question: Throughout the season should I teach my players a number of different skills and concepts without going into great detail (width approach), or should I emphasize only 4 or 5 areas of the game and hammer away at them through repetition and getting more detailed (depth approach)?? For example, last year I leaned more to the depth approach. 80% of our practice time was geared towards one of these 4 areas of basketball: team half court defense, eliminating turnovers, free throws, and half court offensive execution (screening, cutting, timing). In the prior year I did more of the width approach where I tried to cover a lot of concepts & skills, but only touch on each one briefly. I believe there are benefits to both approaches, but I'm still undecided on which one is better for the FRESHMEN level. I think in grade school the width approach is better because you expose the kids to many different skills & concepts, but at the JV and Varsity levels the depth approach is better because you're focusing on your team to be great at a 3 or 4 things. I think the freshmen level is kind of a transition year, and either could be appropriate. What do you think????
7th grade boys in a very good system. I really do a hybrid of the depth/width method. I prioritize. I begin with the 4 or 5 things that are most critical. Then everyday for the rest of the year, we will hammer away at these basics, but each day or couple days I will introduce a hight level concept and spend 10 minutes on it, but maybe not return to it very often. So I want to expose my players to many skills, because they can use them and develop them outside of practice, but I dedicate most of my time to the top priorities. So give them 10 - 15 minutes a day of advanced skills, but go back to the basics.
It depends on your team. If they are solid in all of the basics, then you can go with width. If there are some basic areas that need to be worked on, then spend your time on instilling the basics, or depth. One thing to consider, if it's too wide your players might not remember anything.
I think it's very important to do both. No matter the age or level, you should do both. Good players can do a lot of skills, without thinking about them. They don't need to concentrate on doing a crossover, pulling up for a jumper, or sliding with their man. They have made these things a habit. To make something a habit, you need to do it time after time after time. It will take a lot of practice to do something new, without having to think about it, everytime. Therefore you really should spend a lot of time on repeating skills. Depth. Most players spend time on basketball outside practise. Make sure you go throw a lot of different skills, so that they always have plenty of challenges. Further more, some players learn some things VERY fast (or already know them). They need to have something to do as well. Width. Therefore I think both is very important. During both will give the best result, I'm sure. Don't underestimate the time and effort your players might spend on basketball. If you see your players doing something wrong, show them how it's done. Even if it's something above their skill-level (players see NBA stars and want to do what they are doing), teach it. If your players will spend tons on hours on something outside practise, they might as well do it right.
I'm a big proponent of depth. While i like to think about complex things i look at my frehsman and if they get more than one instruction in a time out their forgetting all of them. I believe that it doesn't matter how much (width) you do so long as what you do (depth) is done better than everybody else. SO long as you know what to do and out run, outwork, outplay the other team odds are you'll be all right. By hammering a few basic cimple concepts rather than getting complex your players learn how to adapt fundamentals rather than rely on a series of systems to do right in a very chaotic environment.
I was just thinking about the same thing this morning. We had an incredible season last year and I am finding out some of the things I "taught" to the players that are returning didn't sink in. We had a great senior class last year and I think that their athleticism hide much of what they didn't understand. So anyway my conclusion is to go back to the basics and focus on several areas of the game and make sure that we have a good foundation to build on. We may end up spending the whole season on just those foundational things but unless you have a good foundation you can't build a solid house. So for you, my vote would be depth.
Anybody into gardening? If you are you would know that if you work hard at preparing the soil a plant's root system will grow deep and strong. What you are rewarded later on is a very strong plant with alot potential for growth. I believe building a basketball player is very similar to gardening. If you take the time to build a solid foundation of the basics, that player will have a greater potential for improvement later on down the road. You mentioned that these are freshmen - first year of high school and their first year having you as their coach. These kids are probably at different levels of basketball basics so what I would do is teach them hard and long on the fundamentals. Then as they progress to the upper levels they will have a better understanding of the finer skills (width) that they can execute with more meaning. Keep it simple. Oh, by the way, my Zucchini is really producing this year.
Depth is the foundation for your house. Width is the siding. Teach basics until they are mastered but expose the kids to the correct way to do other things so if they practice doing them, they can use proper form/technique. The width approach helps maintain interest because it is fun to do a variety of things, but if the basics are not learned thoroughly, the games will be less fun because good fundamental teams will kick your butt.

Tryouts

Try-Outs

Agree with 3 on 3. Let's you judge players' abilities to play with and without the ball. Would add a zig-zag drill so you can evaluate offensive dribbling skills (crossover, reverse, and weak hand) and defensive skills at the same time. We don't let them steal, just turn their players when on defense. Might also add an elbow to elbow jump shot drill to evaluate shooting form and accuracy.
Coached 8th grade/9th grade for 6 years. During tryouts, I spent a lot of time (as the other coaches suggest) in individual fundamental work. I also provided basic situational play (2-2, 3-3) and 4-4 scrimmage situations. My advice: look for the players who listen and execute THE FIRST TIME: those are the players who will be on the bubble. The "sure cuts" and "sure makes" will sort themselves out early. Don't be afraid to give your "sure makes" (I'd advise no more than 8 players) a day off: this will help you to evaluate the 10-12 "bubble" players for the last 2-5 spots on the team. Finally, have as much OBJECTIVE data that you can gather (made free throws, made lay ups {rh & lh), made jumpers, etc from your individual drills): this will make your SUBJECTIVE decisions much easier AND more defendable IF you are questioned about your reasons for cutting certain players. As a sideline: include LOTS of conditioning work early (full court shooting, f/c tip drill, suicides, etc) early: you will be surprised at the number of kids who WON'T be at the next practice. The reason for this is that, at their age, MOST of them are not aware of how much WORK is involved in being a basketball player. To them, basketball is just something they do in the driveway to pass the time away! By employing some strenuous conditioning drills early in tryouts, the people who WANT to be there will come back. 2nd sideline: DON'T overlook grades and classroom behavior in tryouts. No matter how good you think a player is, if he gets failing grades, doesn't work up to his potential in the classroom or their classroom behavior is not acceptable, DON'T EVEN think you won't see this at practice! The poor grades mean that he will have eligibility problems; the "not working to potential" will loaf or goof off in practice, as will the class clown. The last two presents coaches with more potential problems than the first one does, so BEWARE!
Day one, 6 even groups done alphabetically so that it is easy for you to work on your list with out flipping from Zorn to abbot back to miller etc. I do not teach in the school I coach for so I have the kids stay in exact order so that I can go down my list and learn the names. I do all 2-line drills and conditioning. Lay-ups are the big key. See who can make lay-ups on both sides. All I want to find out is who will not make it past day 3, the obvious cuts. Day 2, take your obvious cuts and split them to 3 groups on one half of gym, the obvious keeps on the other side. Go through most of the same drills, see who improves. All you want to do now is make sure nobody on the cut side should be moved to the keep past day 3 side. If you see a keeper, move them right away and record it. The 3 groups on each side should be divided by position, post forward guard so that you have one cut post group, one keep post group, one forward cut group, one forward keep group etc. Day 3 Same groups, be critical of your keeps, say to yourself, does this player have any chance of getting in the top 18. If not cut them at day 3. Keep 24 after day 3, 18 after day 4, 15 at day 5 and make your team on day 6. This is a big pet peeve with me and I hope you will do this. Tell the players in groups why they are cut, not by a list. Let them know if it was their attitude, talent or skill. Before Day 3 it will almost all be skill
Hi Coach, I coach 7th grade but do not use a skills test, but here are the skills I look for. Must be able to shoot a full speed lay-up from both sides of the hoop. Must have good form on Jumper, making them is not as important as form at this level. Power lay-ups at full-speed from both sides. Speed dribble with both hands. Protection dribble with both hands. 60% ft shooting. Listening is a really good key too.
First of all, no matter what criteria you set for making your team you should put it into some kind of chart or "checklist". This allows you to sya exactly what it was the player did well or needs to work on. This helps to protect you when an angry parent is wondering why their little Johnny All-Star did not make the team. When I run a try-out for a team that I am going to have all season (not a post-season team like AAU), I look for the following things: agility, speed, balance, good listener, good behavior in line, hustle, hard worker, etc. Basically I look for the potential to be a good basketball player. I believe I can teach a kid, that is a good athlete, the game as well as the skills of the game like shooting form. All too often coaches fail to teach the fundamentals because they either don't know how or assume someone else has or will. This is really unfair to the kids that is why skill is not the only factor. Skill can be taught, hustle and wanting to learn and get better cannot.I have a skills checklist that we use in selecting the varsity team that I coach. I used it last year with 7th grade boys. The skills we evaluate are: footwork, defense, rebounding, passing, ball-handling, lay-ups, jump shot and free throws. The player is given a score of 1-5. 5 = demonstrates skill all of the time 4 = demonstrates skill most of the time 3 = demonstrates skill some of the time 2 = needs further instruction to develop skill 1 = has not learned the skill yet. It was amazing how consistently the various coaches ranked the players. When we go to 5 on 5 and 3 on 3 during the try-outs we are more subjective, but are looking for more objective measurements for this year. There is also a comment section where a coach can address issues such as attitude, effort, etc.
Potential is very hard to judge on a check list, however, I always keep at least 2 players not necessarily the best, but with potential. Make sure that your players know attitiude and listening are 2 important factors, they are subjective and up to you alone. I have had parents come to me and say "my son is better than so and so, and he made the team" The first thing I do is stop them and say "I will not discuss other players, it is unprofessional and unfair to both your son and the individual you want to discuss, what I will talk about is how your son can improve his game to make the team next year." I had a parent do this last season and I hand wrote 2 pages of drills specific to what his son needed to improve, the initially hostile conversation quickly turned into a great discussion about how to help his son. He saw that I was not out to get his son, but saw areas of his game that must be improved. Here is what we do for our girls AAU 13's: First practice: (3 hrs) 1. Warm-ups and stretching (pre practice chat) 2. 2 double suicides (everyone is timed on both) 3. 10 full court sprints (everyone is timed on 1st and last) 4. Full court 1 on 1 zig-zags (evaluate both ball handling abilities and defensive skills) 5. Full court 3 man weaves (passing and catching skills) 6. Continuous 3 on 2, 2 on 1 drill (evaluate offense's ability to make defense commit then hit open man for easy points) 7. Free throws - two at each of the six baskets (now that they are a bit tired, FT made recorded by coach) 8. Break (about 90 minutes into practice) 9. Split up perimeter and post players and do 10 and 11 at same time. 10. Perimeter Players: Timed jump shots slide between elbows near the arc. 45 seconds each player. Twice through. Video taped (don't underestimate the value of video!) Evaluate form and accuracy. 11. Post Players: Drop Step Drill player moves from block to block receiving pass, drop stepping and lay up with coach playing D. 45 seconds each player. Twice through. Video taped. Evaluate positioning, footwork, and aggressiveness when posting up. 12. 3 on 3 half court (4 half courts). Coaches pick initial groups and continually substitute. Evaluate movement without ball, pick and roll, give and go, and defensive skills of each player. 13. 5 on 5 full court. Coaches pick initial group and continually substitute. Evaluate key positions matching up players. 14. End (about three hours from start) Second practice: (3 hrs) 1. Warm-ups and stretching 2. Continous 3 on 2, 2 on 1 drill. (Looking at my transition players) 3. 3 on 3 box out drill (Who's gonna fight for the boards?) 4. 3 on 3 - use four baskets (continous substitutions by the coach evaluators). This is done for most of the remaining practice - at least 90 minutes. (Looking at all half court skills) 5. 5 on 5 (last half hour) 6. End We make preliminary cuts after second session (although some not in condition do not return after the first). Everyone cut talks with coach and is given an evaluation of skills they need to acquire/improve upon and are told of rec level opportunities for the season. We may take another two workouts to further evaluate bubble players. Final cuts after fourth workout. Gym allotments drop to two 2 hour sessions per week for regular practice.
I made up a skills list and described the skill level on a 0-4 gpa list for each skill. Example: Dribble - 0= loses ball easily with little defense, 1= has to look at ball, has to move slowly, 2=ok with no defensive pressure, trouble vs tough D, 3 = handles pressure ok right handed, trouble left handed, 4= no problem either hand vs tough D. You can have as much detail as you want. I had ratings for each dribble move (crossover, spin, behind back, speed dribble), various shots, speed, vertical, defense on dribbler, passing, etc. Too much detail and it takes too long to fill out rating sheet.

Drills For Tryouts

For defensive drills: 1 on 1 & 2 on 2 fullcourt. 3 on 2 fast break, middle on offense gets back to stop returning 2 players who break the other way. 3 on 3 name game (3 offensive players on baseline, 3 defenders on foul line extended, coach says name of defender who must touch endline, then get back and help). slides plus taps: start in corner, slide to basket, 3 backboard or net taps, backpedal to half court, slide to left hash sideline then angle back to basket; can have line at opposite corner. 3 on 3 : with points for deflections and steals. closeout 1 on 1 drill where defender starts from foul line and tries to stop offensive player starting at half-court. I may use a few of the Saylor shooting drills with the timed music segments as part of a skills test that also has quickness slides across lane, speed dribbling, consecutive tips SKILLS TEST All events are timed thirty seconds in length except free throw shooting, spot shooting, the mile run and scrimmaging. EVENT: WALL PASS SCORING: Passes X 1 EXPLANATION: Player standing behind a line six feet from wall continuously passes (not slapping or batting) ball, using two hands. Dropped ball does not count. EVENT: SPEED DRIBBLE SCORING: Cones passed X 2 EXPLANATION: Set up five cones ten feet apart. Player starting at one end dribble weaves in and out of cones. Count only cones dribbled around correctly - passing on proper side, not touching cone, etc. EVENT: BENCH JUMPS SCORING: Jumps X 1 EXPLANATION: Both feet must clear bar (15" to 18" high) as player alternates jumping from one side to the other. Player must jump off both feet at same time. EVENT: QUICKNESS SCORING: Across lane X 1 EXPLANATION: Player shuttles erasors (2 on floor, 1 in hand) back and forth across the free throw lane. EVENT: MIKAN DRILL SCORING: Made shot X 2 EXPLANATION: Player alternates shooting hands and sides of the basket in layin type shooting from close range EVENT: CONSECUTIVE TIPS SCORING: Tips X 1 EXPLANATION: Player tips ball against the backboard using one or two hands while in the air. May restart if ball is misplayed. Count longest consecutive number of tips. EVENT: lay upS LEFT SCORING: Made shots X 2 EXPLANATION: Set Up: cone in the middle of the free throw line. Player must shoot and dribble with left hand moving clockwise. Players start at free throw line to left of cone, dribbles left for left hand lay up, retrieves ball, dribbles left back to free throw line around cone and contiues in for another shot EVENT: JUMPSHOTS LEFT SCORING: Made shots X 5 EXPLANATION: Same set up as lay ups left. Player must dribble with left hand but should shoot jump shot with natural hand. Start at free throw line next to cone for first shot, retrieve, dribble clockwise around cone with left hand, stop at free throw line next to cone and shoot again. EVENT: lay upS RIGHT SCORING: Made shots X 2 EXPLANATION: Same set as lay ups left. Same procedure except dribbling and shooting must be done with right hand and movement is counter clockwise. EVENT: JUMPSHOTS RIGHT SCORING: Made shots X 5 EXPLANATION: Same set up as jumpshots left. Players should dribble with right hand but should shoot with natural hand. Movement is counter clockwise. EVENT: THREE POINT SHOTS SCORING: Made shots X 8 EXPLANATION: Player starts and shoots anyplace behind the three point line, retrieves, and shoots again from behind the three point line. EVENT: FREE THROWS SCORING: Made shots X 5 EXPLANATION: Players shoot ten free throws, starting on first made attempt. No time limit. EVENT: MILE RUN SCORING: Place EXPLANATION: Scoring points awarded in reverse order of finish. Example: 20 runners 1st Place = 20 Points 20th Place = 1 Point EVENT: SPOT SHOOTING SCORING: Made shots X 5 EXPLANATION: Set up poly-markers or cones at desired location (each spot is numbered). Player starts at spot #1 and moves to #2, etc., only after MAKING jumpshot from the spot. Player gets one minute or 15 shots whichever comes first. EVENT: SCRIMMAGE SCORING: Subjective EXPLANATION: Choose teams / 5 on 5 full court to 3 baskets. Winners stay, losers go off. Coaches rate players. BEING ON TIME FOR TRY-OUT = 20 POINTS. (Being on time means completely dressed (shoes tied, etc.) and on the court or designated area.

Your Best Drill for Tryouts

The Gauntlet. Split the court into 4 qtrs. First is baseline to FT line extended, second is FT extended to half court, third is half court to other FT line extended and final is FT line extended to other baseline. 2 defenders in each qtr, they may not leave their area. At one baseline, 2 players with one ball. the 2 players have to dribble pass, screen use each other and try to break through all 8 players to score. You will see in this drill some basketball smarts come out. The true players will talk to each other, either on D or O, they will make smart moves like on O, do not pick up the dribble early, do not get caught at one of the boundary lines because then you are playing 2 on 4 instead of 2 on 2. If you do not have the ball, do not advance into the next zone, because then 2 defenders can gang up on the dribbler, and 2 can guard you. Do not rush. And many more. The kids really like it and it is fast paced.
Combination Defensive Footwork Drill ( modified from playbook software download ) Each player does this for 30 sec. I dont just look at form but how many time they can complete a cycle Player line up behind baseline at left hand edge of key. 1. Player closes out an imaginary defender at the elbow. (Emphasis: sprint first half, get in good defensive position, squeaky shoes and use voice "ball ball ball") 2. Player drop-steps and shuffles back and forth across the width of the key. (Emphasise: push hard to drop step, make it quick, feet don't come together) 3. Player closes out another imaginary defender opposite elbow. 4. Player does a defensive retreat along line of key(Emphasise: good stance all the way, back hand above shoulder) 5. Lateral slide to left to starting point. Repeat. A variation would be the Box Defensive Drill Player line up behind baseline at left hand edge of key. 1. Player closes out an imaginary defender at the elbow. (Emphasis: sprint first half, get in good defensive position, squeaky shoes and use voice "ball ball ball") 2. Player Lateral slide to right. (Emphasise: point toe in direction of slide, make it quick, feet don't come together) 3. Player does a defensive retreat along line of key(Emphasise: good stance all the way, back hand above shoulder) 5. Lateral slide to left to starting point. Repeat.
My favorite team drill is 11 (man)person fastbreak. Up tempo, show's me passing, decision making, ability to use floor, head manning skillz, and team play.
Ballhandling---old fashioned dribble tag, each player with a ball. This drill forces each player to dribble with their head up. You can specify left or right hand only.
Rebounding-a drill called He-man I think I learned from BBall Highway. 4 to 6 players lined up in the spots along the free throw lane with a coach tossing the ball off the backboard. The players attempt to put the ball back in the basket and keep score, with the first player to 3 baskets winning and the others doing pushups, laps, etc. This drill gets them used to contact, discourages the use of a rhythm dribble and will show who your most aggressive kids are.
All-around offensive skills-a 1 on 1 closeout drill. One player stands under the basket with a ball with another player standing at the foul line. The player with the ball passes to the player at the foul line and runs to defend. The offensive player is limited to one dribble. If the shot is made the offensive player stays and a new defender enters. If the shot is missed the defender rebounds the ball and is limited to 1 dribble wherever he recovers it. Players continue rotating with each miss and the player who converts stays. Better players will be able to convert the jumper, and fake and drive left or right. I also use this drill to teach kids that they can reach the basket on one dribble from pretty good distances from the basket. I worked a camp this summer and had middle school girls reaching the basket from the foul line with one dribble.

Main Things You Look For In A Player During Tryouts

If your goal is to develop players for high school, I think you have to look at physical potential and attitude more than skills. If you want to win now, then go for kids with skills. We have a no cut policy at the jr high level so I don't get to cut and I think that is great. Some kids who I would have cut ended up being pretty good players by the end of the year. I look for size,long arms, agressiveness, hustle, speed, strength, coordination, willingness to listen and learn, and I try to teach the skills so they will be good players when they get to high school. I had two 8th graders come to camp this summer who did not play last year and who have probably never played much based on their skill levels. Both are going to be very good players if they keep progressing like they did in camp. If I had to make cuts, they might not make it because we have 12 kids with better skills than them. My biggest problem is convincing kids to quit who want to be on the team but don't want to work in practice. I'm going to make the first week really strenuous and act tough and see if some drop out this year. Last year I was Mr nice guy and had 18 7th graders - about 10 of whom were serious. By the way, when I was in 7th grade, I had never played before but a very nice coach took me anyway and put up with my stupid mistakes and taught me the basics and by the time I got to 10th grade, I was playing some varsity at a large school.
I coach jr. high ball and I am interested in only 2 things, ball handling skills and aggressiveness. I am not concerned at all if they can hit the broad side of a barn. I figure I am going to have to teach them the correct shooting form anyway. When a kid hits jr. high here in St. Louis, most have been playing ball for at least 3-4 years. If a rookie tries out, unfortunately they will never make a team. Use my 8th graders as an example. They play 11 months a year and have for 4 years, going on 5. How can a kid who's never played before make a team trying out against this type of experienced player. I'm not saying what's right, I'm just saying what's real in this town.
I have coached 7th grade boys for 9 years. I generally have 40-65 boys try out each year for 12-14 spots. I give everyone 3 days, then narrow it down to 24, then another day to get to 18, and then one to two more days to narrow my team down to the final squad. To make the first cut, players must be able to show good form on both right and left side lay-ups, thats it. That gets me to 24 almost every time. This way I know who has worked on the basics on their own. Some of the other coaches have said that they do not worry about skills, well I do. If by 7th grade the player has not shown enough drive to have developed a lay-up, I question whether they ever will. However, we have a fantastic elementary program which gives the players 3-5 years of opportunites to play. Some of the coaches who are looking past skills may not have a feeder program that develops solid players. Once I get to 24 players, I start instucting on specific form, offensive and defensive, I am looking for who will listen and improve. The biggest key here is who is willing to change if I ask them to. Once I get to 18, I am looking for players that can learn plays, that can play great one on one agressive defense. Ball handling is important and shooting form, not accuracy, but form. I wait until the 5th day to judge form because I have been critiqueing them for 5 days and they have had the opportunity to change if they wanted to. I also look at grades. I will not keep any player who has failing grades.

Tryouts: How Many to Keep & What to do With the Rest

Try a "Saturday Squad". What I mean by that is, keep the kids that would normally get cut on this group. They meet every Saturday for two hours. The first hour, they work on whatever skills necessary. The second hour, they play 3 on 3 and/or 5 on 5 (depending on your numbers). We tried this for a year with our junior high boys and it worked out pretty well. They are not good enough to make the regular team, but you are giving them an opportunity to improve their skills and perhaps have a better chance of making the team next year. We used "working hard" and "improving" as an incentive. If we had players get injured or quit the regular team, we promoted someone from the Saturday Squad.
Saturday Squad Continued: At that time, we had 3 coaches for two teams (one for 7th grade and one for 8th grade). The third coach was there as an extra helper for either team. They were paid, but not much so they might as well have been a volunteer. Anyway, the third coach was the one in charge of the "Saturday Squad". Although, I was there most of the time. They would practice right before or right after the regular team.
In our program (7th & 8th grade boys) we make no cuts. We have A and several B teams. The main idea is to develop the players. Last year we had 25 try-out. Our A team had 8 and one B team had 8 and the other 9. This year we will have around 30 try-out. All I know is that the A team will have 8-10 players depending on how many can compete at that level.
Now that I have had some additional time to think about this topic, I remember another possible option that we used in a girls junior high program. We had a 7th grade team and an 8th grade team. Then we had a "B" team that was made up of 7th and 8th graders that typically would not get any playing time. We would contact all of the schools on our schedule (as well as the referees) and request one extra quarter after the first two games were completed. Most schools (having similar problems caused by the no-cut policy) were more than willing to cooperate. We ended up doing this with 8 of the 14 games in the season.

Cutting Players

We always talk to everyone who is cut. This is not popular with some of the coaches in our organization, but over the years, I've come to appreciate that it is the right thing to do. With each player I cut, I have learned to compliment something positive about the player first (attitude, hustle, willingness to volunteer, anythhing!) Then I try to point out things I believe need improvement, based on my notes and the notes of others taken at the try-outs. You know, work on the weak-hand dribble, moves without the ball, etc. I also take the opportunity to let the kids (I've coached up to 14's) know of other recreational, club, camp, and clinic opportunities that are available to them in our area in the ensuing season. I encourage them to keep playing the game - it is the only way to get better. After some initial awkwardness, the kids and their parents usually (not always) appreciate the extra time spent bringing some closure and providing feedback. This is a time consuming process, and it is draining emotionally. There is another post with 80 kids trying out. I wonder if our approach would work in that kind of a circumstance. We usually have about 25-30 trying out for 10-12 positions per team.
What I have done with my big groups is take them in like groups, ie, take 7 who need to work on their week hand and tell them at once. Then take the 6 who need to get their grades up, etc. I have had great success with this, I shake every kids hand and they shake the hands of the guys in the group.
I noticed this fall when our volleyball coach made cuts that she simply posted a list of numbers on the gym window of those players who had made the team. Apparently she had every player numbered from 1 to however many she had and obviously every girl knew her number. I suppose it's not as personal as sitting down and speaking to each individual player but then again, it's not like you are listing names whereby everyone in the entire school can see that "so & so" didn't make it. As you know, it's not exactly the most glamourous part of the job, but then again that's why they pay us as well as they do (ha, ha.)
I coach at a boys and girls club and I call every player to tell them if they made the team or not. There has been situations where I have had to tell the kids to their face and it was very difficult. Then again I knw many of the kids trying out and getting cut by me is often seen as a personal issue because the kids know me so well. We have had coaches say "if you don't get a call, you didn't make the team", I really hate that. Either way you should talk to the kids, I prefer by phone but you do what you feel most comfortable with.
Here is something that I have used in the past. I tell the kids that I will post a list of who made the team. Then I tell them that if they are not on the list, they have skills that they need to work on. I encourage them to come and talk to me if they want to know why they did not make the team. This seems to work better than talking to every kid. This way I don't waste time talking to kids that don't care why they didn't make it. The kids that are seriously willing to work, will come talk to me. hose are the kids that will get better. It ain't perfect, but it works.
At our HS (and others in the area) the principal requires face-to-face meetings with all players that try out. We must have at least 3 calendar days of tryouts so cuts are usually made each day. Meeting with a kid who didn't make it is difficult sometimes - usually they know where they stand but a couple are always emotional. I think a 1-on-1 meeting is the best for both the coach and player. Making difficult decisions and enforcing them is a leadership characteristic and coaches are leaders. For the player who doesn't make it, he/she will at least be informed on a personal level at the right time.
Right or wrong this is what I have done with 4th and 5th grade girls. At try outs I tell them that I will call everyone on the phone (after the last day of tryouts) and talk with their parents. I don't enjoy it, but I try to give an honest evaluation and point out the areas of improvement needed to possibly make the team next year. On the whole, the parents which I have talked to have generally understood the situation and don't have a problem. I feel its probably best for the parent to break it to the girl at home and in a way they think best. P.S. I did have one parent ask if my daughter made the team. The question sorta caught me by surprise!! Fortunately, I had her ranked #3 out of 12 chosen for the team. About 7 were cut that year. P.P.S. One year, I witnessed another coach at the same school (older boys) line everyone up at the foul line and pick his team by name with the parents watching from the sidelines. I personally thought it was in poor taste.
Tryouts are a tough time for everyone, including the coaches. I was cut in both 7th & 8th grade, I have made cuts as a coach and I've watched my son get cut too. Its not fun and it's never easy. I always tell my players that being cut doesn't always mean you're a bad player. I have cut kids for grades, attitude, sportsmanship and even because of poor parent attitude. Is it right? Not always, I would love to teach them all everything I know but sometimes as a coach I have to make the tough choices. Is keeping room open for a friends kids right? No, but I doubt thats all there is to it. Did you piss somebody off at the "top"? Just remember there's not much you can do about getting your son back on the team but you can tell your son about the fairness of life, and make sure (if HE wants) that he is the number 1 pick next year. Good luck with the AD and know that he will probably be there next year too.
I tell the players on the first day of try-outs that I am looking for 3 things. Talent, Attitude, and skill. Talent is given to you by your parents and God. Because of this, it is the least important factor. Skill is developed by properly executing a drill over and over. This is done on your own in the drive-way. This is very important because it shows if you are willing to work at basketball. The last thing is Attitude. It is the most important factor, grades, listening, effort all are part of attitude. This is a paraphrase of what I tell the players I am looking for.
Now, I have had parents such as yourself come to me with the same reasoning, and I am not saying that this is your case, but here are some things that happen. Being good in summer ball does not always make you good on a school team. I have had some really good players not make my team because they would not listen. They could not learn plays. Or they did not want to play defense. Also, be careful about what another parent says, I have heard so many reasons for why I do things the way I do that just are not true. You can come up with a political reason for any kid in the gym as to why he did or did not make the team. EX: goes to coach's church, went to elementary that coach's wife went to, works with players dad, player is related to a school principal, player has a short hari cut, player is on the student council, players mom babysits coach's daughter, player did not go to varsity coach's camp, players dad is mayor, players dad is rich,
Our 8th grade boys team just completed try-outs and we have made our team decisions. It is a tough time for all. The ones that handle it the best are the players. Our situation may be unique in that we have a varsity and 2 jr. varsity teams. Everyone gets placed on a team - so no one is really cut. However, there is great disappointment in not making varsity. Prior to try-outs we explain what we are looking for: basketball skills, team-orientated attitude and the desire to improve. As we get to the final selection to fill the team the decision may be made on what type of player we need to balance the team (i.e., perimeter vs. post player). That is what happened this year. It will be the most difficult thing that I do this season to tell 2 very good players who played on varsity last year that they will play jv ball this season. I will challenge them to make the most of this opportunity (more PT, bigger role on the team) to become a better player. If I was approached by a parent who wanted their son to play with a friend I would tell them to find a recreational league to play in and not go out for the school team . If an AD suggested who should be placed on the team I would ignore them and suffer the consequences. Some things I have said to high school players I have had to cut were: 1. Thank them for the effort put forth in the try out. 2. Give them a list of main things that I felt they need to improve upon. 3. Encourage them to remain involved at some level (YMCA, AAU, etc.). 4. I may offer them an opportunity to be a manager and still be involved with our team. 5. I tell them that getting cut does not make them a bad person. I also explain to them that if this is the worst thing that ever happens to them, they are probably going to have a great life ahead of them. 6. I gave them an opportunity to ask me a few questions. Most of the time, the players do not say anything at this time. 7. I always ended the conversation by putting the ball in their court. I told them that they needed to cool off...calm down...and think things over. They earned and deserved an opportunity to continue to discuss the matter with me. If they chose to do so, they could schedule an appointment with me and I would be glad to talk with them. Obviously, talent plays a big part in the selection of players for a team, especially at higher levels. However, I know most coaches also equally consider things like attitude, coachability, work ethic, etc. Just my two cents worth...
Suck it up and do it face-to-face. Tell them why they didn't make it and what they need to work on to make it next year. Find out other leagues and coaches that need kids and pass out that list to the ones who didn't make it.
These kids came for 3 nights and gave you everything they had. To not know why they didn't make it isn't fair to them. I have seen a lot of promising kids quit the game because of the way the cuts were announced. The hardest thing about coaching is announcing the cuts. I would rather lose every game than cut a kid. Do it with class and the respect these kids deserve for putting their hearts, their souls, and their future confidence on the line for you. I am sure you will do the right thing or you wouldn't have asked us in the first place. Coach = Teacher, so tell them what they need to work on to improve enough to make your team next year. They don't deserve to be left out to dry! My heart goes out to you because we have all been there!
Saw a good article on this which suggested giving each player a 3x5 card telling her if she made the team and if not, what she needed to improve to have a chance next year. That way they were not shown up in public by being cut in front of their peers. If you have time and place to speak to 30 kids 1 by 1, face to face is the manly way to do it. Welcome back, BBallEd and tell your great daughter she is welcome on this board anytime imho. It is nice to get a smart kid's perspective.
Cuts are about the part of basketball I hate. But, they are a necessary evil. One mistake I have made a couple times is keeping and extra kid (more than planned) because I didn't have the heart to say no for some reason. These situations went sour by mid season, usually because the extra depth compromised PT. I think the kids deserve a semi-private face to face rejection. Last year, on the last day of tryouts, I spoke to each kid individually for a few minutes and called them over in a random order. It is really tough seeing tears in a young man's eyes, but you gotta do it. We offer tips and ask the cut players to come out for our spring league and fall league programs. Usually, I tell them they're just just not ready yet. Another mistake, I think, is over-explaining. You cannot make a cut kid feel better. Just tell them why and answer questions if they have them. Dragging the explanation on and on is fruitless.

Running a Program

Turning around a program

I took over a program that ranks 27th out of 32 in our county for the last 30 years. I was the JV coach of a 17-3 team last year, before getting promoted. We've had several problems here to overcome. We've had a new coach on the average of every third year for the past 15 years--some who have gone on to great things in other programs--but guys who never stayed long enough to see anything through. So, that's the first thing I've done is make a commitment to see this through. I figure, if you can win here, you can win anywhere. I would say that there are 4 or 5 things we're trying to establish in our program. First, we're trying to establish a new sense of discipline and pride in our current players. Second, we're trying to develop consistancy from top to bottom--amongst coaches and players. It's not easy, when the middle school and younger h.s. teams/coaches have done their own thing for years. Third, we're trying to develop a feeder program all the way down to 4th grade--we started a new league which empasizes more teaching and less competition for all of our elementary schools at the high school on Saturdays, rather than allow our kids to just play in their traditional individual school leagues or in the city parks and rec league which is hyper-competitive. Fourth, we're establishing a year-round training program for our high school players to develop strength and athleticism. Fifth, we're taking advantage of summertime opportunities to compete and play with some of the better programs in Detroit/Michigan. We believe that we have to play year round if we're going to be competitive in the winter. Sixth, we're plugging our better players into AAU and making them more aware of other opportunities (ie. camps, etc.).
You mentioned the consistency from one level to the next. I think that has been the key to the success of our girls program. All four of the coaches on our staff have the same philiosophy: It all starts with DEFENSE. I can similar things in the boys program where they try to do something different on every level. something else that I think is critical, yet hard to do, is have a coach on the junior high level who is a teacher of the game first. Winning at that level is wonderful, but low on our list of priorities. Learning the basic fundamentals of the game at that point is critical, as I'm sure you know. Finding the right person (and keeping them!)is the hard part
I've seen and been involved in several of these "program resurrections," and the aforementioned suggestions esp. by Coach Hope are all good ones. My experiences/opinions are thus: There is no one proven "way to win." If there were, everyone would do it. However what you must do is establish in the program the philosophical consistency and self-perpetrating generation of talent which can result in a winning program. Your first task, in fact one which should be done BEFORE you even take the job, is to assess what the problem is. (You need to know if any of the problems are insurmountable, i.e. an actively countersupportive administration. If that's the case, find somewhere else to coach). Is the problem lack of participation? Lack of talent? Lack of organization? Lack of execution? If your program has been under .500 for 30 years, probably it's some of all of the above. But you need to identify where the most SERIOUS problem exists and attack that first with the most vigor. Also, upon assuming command, you must make some noise. Coaches assume jobs under all sorts of conditions. Maybe the old coach was fired, maybe s/he retired, maybe you were hired with his/her full approval. S/he may be a friend of yours. Regardless, if the team has been losing for 30 years, WHATEVER THEY WERE DOING WASN'T WORKING. Depending on the circumstances of the departure of the previous coach, you can be as diplomatic as you want about it, but you have to make it clear from the outset that things are different now, and you are not going to accept past problems as an excuse. Make it FUN to participate and make sure to give ALL players an active role. You can't afford to write off ANYBODY's potential. One thing I would caution is, do NOT necessarily assume that the problem is that the team hasn't been working hard enough. That MAY BE the problem, and regardless of what was done in the past YOUR policy is going to require maximum effort and dedication from all concerned. But many losing teams work very hard - sometimes the talent just isnt there. Don't come in with a guns-blazing boot-camp approach unless it is clearly obvious to you that lack of effort was indeed the primary problem. Confidence, consistency, attention to detail, preparation and 100% EFFORT should be the hallmarks of your new program, regardless of what they "used to do." You will also have to implement separate plans to make the varsity team as competitive as possible immediately, and to improve both the quantity and quality of talent coming into the program from the lower grades. Again, if the program has been losing for 30 years it's inconcievable that talent would not be a problem. And I have never seen a team which couldnt use some more talent. So ensuring your program a consistent flow of solid fundamental talent should be your top LONGTERM priority. In the lower grades I wouldnt worry so much about anything other than to GET THE KIDS PLAYING BASKETBALL. Set up a rec league where everybody can play and encourage all kids to take part in it. As the kids get older they can have school teams or travelling teams which introduce more strategy and technique. But more than anything you have to make the kids ENJOY PLAYING BASKETBALL. Since with most players you have freshman and sophomore years to install your offensive and defensive patterns, I wouldnt tell youth coaches or junior high coaches what kind of offense or defense they must run, with the following exceptions: 1) Make sure everybody plays in every game, even if for 30 seconds. 2) I dont care what offense you run as long as it isnt "one guy hogs the ball and shoots every time down," and I dont care what kind of DEFENSE you play as long as it is aggressive, hustling, high pressure defense with proper ball recognition and reaction principles. You can play zone or man to man defense, either way is fine as long as players are aggressive. If participation (low numbers) is a problem, and at some smaller schools it is, you won't be able to be picky about your players. But at the varsity level at most schools, you DO have some discretion as to who you do or do not keep. Here again you have to make a clean break from the past. Do not feel obligated to base your choices on who was on the team last year. IN FACT, and this is a little brutal, I would strongly recommend to CUT any seniors who are not starters. The last thing you want is some kid or some parent at the end of the bench sniveling that old Coach Jones told them last year that Jimmy would play this season, how come he's not getting playing time, etc. etc etc. To put it bluntly, seniors are not your problem; they're the problem of the previous coach. (You may make partial exceptions here if the senior in question has younger siblings who can contribute.) But be very clear to any seniors you keep, what their playing time situation is. Be realistic and make sure you discuss it with the player AND the parents. And if they don't like it, show them the door. On that same subject, never move freshmen or sophomores UP unless they are going to PLAY. Kids and parents are not mollified by the "practice experience" argument. If a frosh or soph is good enough to play for you, of course move them up. But if a frosh or soph is better than your No. 10 or 11 player... forget it. Keep those kids down where they will get the playing time and build confidence. Finally, believe in yourself and invest as many people as possible in your program. Get parents involved. If there are dads who know the game, have them scout for you. (Scouting is extremely valuable and can help you steal a win or two while you are building the talent base). Have fun, roll with the punches, and make sure you and your players stay focused. Unless Michael Jordan's brother moves into your school you probably won't turn into a state finalist overnight. But you will be more organized, more focused, harder to beat, more fun to play for and before you know it you will start knocking people off and generating some excitement.
I was in a similar situation about 4 years ago. I know what you are going through. Here are some random thoughts. Make sure that you have the administrations support. Make them aware of your long range plans and goals. Make sure that your coaching staff is all on the same page and that they have bought into your philosophy. Convince your players that they must buy into the system as well. Keep things as simple as possible (don't add all kinds of complicated offensive and defensive sets). Find a few sets that suit/fit your personnel. You are on the right track by emphasizing fundamentals. Defense is much easier to teach. You can do this within your regular practice schedule. Continue to spend your off season working on offensive skills. Set up an elementary (feeder) system. Make sure that the coaches at this level are just as loyal to you as the high school assistants. Be disciplined and demanding, but not too militaristic. Your players may have a tough time reacting to a drastic change, so be careful here. You don't want to scare everyone off. Give positive reinforcement when it is earned and deserved. Have the players set individual and team goals. Keep track of these as the year progresses. There will come a time where you may have to re-evaluate and reset your goals. You can help give your players some direction in this area. Don't be afraid to give the younger players a lot of playing time to gain experience. Everybody wants to win, but taking your lumps now will pay off later. It sounds like you may want to center your schemes around the sophomore. Take your team to a team camp, get into a summer league in your area, or both. Be patient. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Although, there may be some immediate improvements, it may take 3-5 years before you see some permanent results. You are going to be breaking old bad habits and creating new desired habits. "It is not what you coach, as much as what you emphasize."
I'm not sure how large your program is but here are some of the things a number of successful HS programs in our area do to keep the girls constantly involved and improving. First, develop a strength and speed program and expect the kids to stick with it. Consider testing and timing them at the end of the season, set some goals for improvement with the idea that you'll test them again come try-outs next year. The programs I've seen emphasize weights three times a week and running on the alternate three days with one rest day per week. Players keep a log of their activities. Second, develop an individual skills work-out sheet with individual drills specific to the positions they play (post vs. perimeter type skills). Typical workout lasts about 45 minutes and rotates various ball handling and footwork skills over five days but always involves at least 100 jumpers and 50 free throws daily. Players keep a log of their activities. The purpose of the logs in the above two items is to measure progress. You cannot improve that which you do not measure. Third, keep playing the game! Most of the good players play AAU in spring after their varsity season, but do not overlook good pick-up games. In our area, there are tons of good pick-up games in open gyms and schoolyards. Drop in with a group of friends and say, "We got next." Fourth, play together as a team in the fall. In Maryland, the coaches cannot have direct contact, but there are plenty of volunteer coaches who step in and take these teams in fall leagues while their HS coaches observe from the stands. It gives the girls additional opportunities to keep playing with each other and it also gives the HS coaches an added advantage of evaluating up-and-coming talent (JV and incoming Freshmen). So basically it boils down to this, keep working on the game, both individually and as a team. You can't pick up the rock two weeks before try-outs and expect miracles.

Feeder Systems

Here's ours, and it stinks. Starts in 5th in an uncompetitive league. Parents coach. Most are power hungry rather than teachers. They play other 5th grade teams in the district. Instructional program? Zero instruction! Jr. High"s have 1 to 4 teams per school. League is not officially associated with school. Again, power hungry parents coach. The high schoo had had 5 winning seasons in last 20 years. The whole program sucks. The best system I have seen consists of a major public relations league. He runs 3 leagues: spring, summer, and fall. You can enter as a team, or enter as an individual and he puts you on one of his teams.Cost? $35 per player, minimum 10 players per team. His high school players coach his teams, that way the kids learn his system. He advertises it as super select, and gets 900 plus kids per session to play. The league goes from 4th grade through 12th. He gets to see most of the city's players, and he recruits on the side. Think about it, where can you play in the off-season? Especially, if you aren't on a team? Results? Of course he has won the state title. Playing time and cuts? Until March, I am coaching 2 jr. high teams. I play everyone equally. I had tryouts and felt so bad for the kids that I took 2 teams. Suggestion? Find someone with a passion for the game and set up an AAU club. Make it a prestigious thing to join. My 1st year I had 230 plus kids play for me. Next, set up your leagues. Good-luck!
First of all, I totally disagree with bball Ed. Second, our high school had the best winning percentage in the state of Indiana for the decade of the 90's, that includes Varsity, Jv, and Freshman. Here is what we do. We have 11 elementaries that feed 2 middle schools that feed one high school. the 11 elementaries play each other, 4,5, and 6 graders are eligible for the one school team. No zones allowed, no press except 4th quarter, every A team member must play, b- team plays for 10 minutes at half time. Each middle school has 7 an 8 graders. One team per each grade per school. We play schools all throughout north central Indiana, 20 per year. We try to balance playing everyone with winning. 8th grade is more to win than 7th. All middle school players are invited to participate in AAU made up only of our schools players. We play 10 games tops. We try to play larger schools to get a different exposure. Everyone plays equal time, winning does not matter, development is the key. One freshman team with a b-team one JV team One week camp run by varsity coach is absolutely essential. He runs the best camp around. The kids learn how to practice over the whole summer. The varsity coaches run intramurals, open to all kids, not just players at the end of the school year. Once a week open gym all summer long for the middle school kids, 2 times a week for freshman and above. varsity coach gives each middle school and elementary coach a binder with the skills he wants learned at each grade level
I can see where yours works as long as you have the right coaches. Any program works as long as you have the right coaches. The key to any program is to have a coach that teaches the kids. Your program is excellent with those types of coaches. What we have in St. Louis is mostly a bunch of power hungry screaming maniacs that don't teach! If you had these types of coaches, your program would suck. Consider yourself blessed that you have a higher caliper coach. If you can't get the quality coach, then the league program works, believe me, I've seen it.
My job as a jr. high coach is to get my kids ready for the varsity. In my brain that means that I teach them the basics and proper techniques., IE, footwork, shooting form, lay ups, positioning, blocking out, and the list goes on. Every varsity coach I have ever talked to expects their kids to know the basics, so they can teach x's and o's and advanced ball. If I can fit it in to teach them the varsity's basic offense, I will. If it takes too long to teach them the fundamentals, then the varsity's complicated offenses and defenses will fall by the wayside. If the varsity coach is ignorant enough to tell me to skip m-2-m and teach them zone D only, then I will nod my head up and down judiciously, and ignore everything they just said. Every defense uses m-2-m principles and if you don't know them, no defense will work very well. My question is, should your loyalty be to to to, (sorry about the stutter) your varsity coach, or to your kids? Especially when there is a direct conflict between the 2.
I am a Jr. High Coach in a strong program where the varsity coach has helped with the feeder schools, so I am looking at this from the other side as you, but this is our situation. First of all, we have a great school athletic program at the elementary and Jr. High level. We have 11 elementaries that play each other in a league. Then we have 2 Jr. Highs that play Jr. Highs outside our town. Our varsity coach has prepared a 3 ring binder with a breakdown of skills that he would like taught to the younger players. The skills are broken down by grade level. So the first section is huge and goes to the elementary coaches. All the basics. Then each grade level after that has a page or two of more advance skills that build upon the skills learned the previous year. Our varsity coach also runs 3 weeks worth of summer camps. This provides money for the program, as well as allowing him to see the players coming up through the system. All the assistent coaches, JV coaches, and freshman coaches, as well as some of the Jr. High coaches like myself, help run the camp. But we also have all the varsity, JV, and Freshman players there as councelors. Our varisty coach has often said that camp is as much for the high schoolers as the younger players. The high schoolers must "teach" fundamentals to their groups of 5 or 6 players. This makes them really focus on it themselves. Our JV coach runs and intramural program. This is during the spring and the players from the school teams are allowed to play unlike some in season intramurals. Again, the varsity JV and Freshman players become the coaches and the coaches referee and oversee the games. AAU. Our varsity coach has assigned me to coordinate AAU for the Jr. High level. We invite everyone who made the teams at the 2 middle schools to play and divide into to equal teams, but we mix up the 2 schools. This is done because they will play together as freshman and we want them to gain some experience with all the other players. We only play about 10 games in AAU. We encourage practice and open gym among our own, more so than travel teams. The varsity coach has several meetinga each year with the elementary coaches to discuss some points of emphasis and to answer questions. He comes to my try-outs and several practices and 2-4 games per year. The main think is our coach always has a presence in the younger levels. He gets to know the kids. They get to know him. When you go to one of our varsity games, you see on average about 50 kids wearing our camp t-shirt from the previous summer. The results. We have more wins at the Freshman, Varsity, and JV level combined than any other team in the state of Indiana for the decade of the 1990's. Now this may not be possible for everyone, as b-ball ed has reminded me several times by saying "Coach Bonifield, you live in basketball heaven there in Indiana."
I have coached in an elementary girls feeder program for several years. I feel that at the 4th,5th, or 6th grade that you can teach all of the basic individual fundamentals. We "tie" one hand behind the back for weak hand dribbling, emphasize proper shooting technique, defensive footwork,and passing skills. I work alot on rebounding skills, but it seems that they really don't start to box out effectively until late in the 5th grade or 6th grade year. One of the things that I think some coaches tend to ignore is teaching the proper terminology so that the player knows the "foul line extended," "elbow," etc. One other thing that a high school coach can do is to show up at games and practices occasionally. Your enthusiasm will become contagious. We have a "shadow day" every year also where the girls get to hang out with the high school team before and during a game. They go in the locker room before the game and at half-time, and get to sit behind the bench during the game.When the elementary girls hear the high school coach use the same terms and emphasize the same things EVERYBODY'S credibility goes up a few notches. Our high school coach does one other thing that I think is unique. EVERY girl in the school district is invited to the open gyms regardless of age, grade, or ability.IMHO, this has been the single biggest contributing factor to the long-term success of our program. If a 5th or 6th grader shows up, he just somehow finds a way to integrate them into the activities. As a result, the players know and understand the coach and his philosohies and points of emphasis by the time they reach High School.

Fundraising

Have a bottle drive (I am not sure if your state has bottle deposits). Our team was able to get over $500 in less than two weeks by knocking on doors. 2) Have a Free-Throw-Athon were each player goes out to sign people up. The donar contributes an amount for every free throw made out of 100. Afterwards they go back with a signed copy by the coach showing how many they made.
well, one way is to have people sponsor your players for foul shooting. here`s how it works, players, coaches get people to sponsor them for foul shots, shoot 100,maybe not all at one time,and have coach sign a paper confirming the shots, and have them pay so much per shot hit, raise $$ and get shooting practice at same time!!
Here's a few quikies we do well with. 50/50 drawing. If you have a county or independent summer event sale POP! a case costs 5.99 at the store at .50 @ $12.00 profit $6.00 a case. Also a good idea at these are bike drawings, buy an nice yet inexpensive bike set it up during the event and sale chance for $1.00 @. Kids really go for this one.
A Free-Throw-athon. Get a donation for each free-throw a player makes out of 100. This not only raises money, but works on a skill too.
Here's a small one that has worked great. Find a local restaurant that has the NTN Trivia on their tv. This is a free trivia game where the restaurant supplies you with a computer box for answering trivia questions shown on their tv sets. It will also keep track of each individual's score and rank you. Once you find a place that has NTN, get them to let you hold a kid's trivia Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Charge the the kid's $10 or whatever for entering, and give prizes to the winner. We have 3 different 1 hour sessions in an afternoon. We normally make about $250 profit, and the kids have more fun doing this than any other fund raiser you can find. Just an idea.

Off-Season Workouts

The most important aspect of any atheletes offseason is to stay active and competitive. Being involved in any summer camps and or league is the best way to improve as a basketball player. At age 15 she is ready to begin a weight program. The program should involve low weight and high repetitions. Any fitness center or ymca will have professional staff that can help your child develop a program to suit her needs. For increased jumping ability special "jump shoes" are available at around $60 a pair and can greatly increase leaping ability. Having your child stay active and COMPETITIVE in the offseason is just as imortant to her athletic development as any training sessions or methods.

Play Year-Round?

Coach we never quit playing, we play year round in a local league. Last year in AAU we came in 4th place at state, missed qualifing for nationals by one spot. This year no team can stay within 35 - 50 points of us. When they quit there season we were working workning workning. You would like to think in the off season players would work on there own game but its my experiance they do not. Playing year round also weeds out the part time peolple only the dedicated PARENTS and kids stay involved. Ive never cut a kid, this year round program seems to take care of that, the kids that dont want to work hard leave, and the untalented ones that stay develop.
my friends on the college level tell me their best players have been multiple sport athletes. i believe the variety of skills and movement patterns learned from the different sports is critical to developing athleticism. one of the biggest differences between athletes as you go up the ladder(hs-div 123-pro) is strength. you must allow time for off-season heavy strength training which should not be done while you are in season. however, if you are going to be among the very best in your chosen sport you must play year-round in some capacity.
As Jim said, you would expect that players would work on their games in the off season by they dont. I know 90% of the kids on my 5th/6th grade boys team dont. When I was a kid (back in the stone age) we had a group of guys in the neighnorhood who always got together for pick up games. Sometimes we would challenge kids from other neighborhoods. In the winter, we would shovel off the snow and play on icy ground with frozen fingers. Today I never see kids around our neighborhood playing. My own kids rarely go out in the driveway unless I go out there first. I dont get it. Some of the kids on my team last year had obviously never played before, and were helpless when I put them into the game. But I know those same kids will come back next year without any improvement whatsoever. One thing we are considering is to announce to the kids that we will designate two nights a week where a couple of the coaches will oversee open pickup games at the school.
I think year round basketball makes the game ordinary. Too much of a good thing. Soon instead of kids being pumped for a game it becomes just another day at the office. In our program we have a 2 month AAU season after a 3 month Regular season. We play 20 games in the regular season and 10 in AAU and I think this is more than enough. I would say that 25% of our players do a regular workout at least 4 times a week, 50% do it once a week and 25% never. This separates those that are willing to make the committment. Year round ball gives an artificial desire from the player. They are working because they have to because a coach is there telling them to. A player that will work on his own truly has a desire to be better and will become a great player. Now we do not ignore our players in the off-season. We have Intramurals run by the varsity coaches. 2 weeks of summer camp and open gym all summer long. We know who is doing what at these outings. My AAU teams, made up of my regular season team, get killed in AAU every year. We never do well. Who cares. At the varsity level we are consistently in the top 10 in the state. This year we made it to the final four and then ran into Michigan State bound Zach Randolf and his Marian Giant team mates. I think if you are interested in performance at the high school level, you need an off-season.
80 games from Oct. - Apr. and 11 months a year. If you play year round, make sure they have a life off the court. Here in St. Louis, if you don't play year round, you get left in the dust. Both sides have merit.

What is your focus in Summer League Games?

What kind of importance does your staff place on winning summer league games. Are they of the mindset that it's as important as a regular season game or is development more important? At my particular level (8th grade girls) I really could care less about the wins and losses. My main concern is putting forth a "winning effort" and trying to execute the offense/out-of-bounds plays, learning and refining our man-to-man principles and having fun. I find that I seldom look at t he scoreboard. Maybe I'm way off base but I wondered how others approach the summer games. I have used summer leagues almost as a tryout. Put a lot of kids on(jv and frosh level) and see what they can do. And the starters now this they get their minutes too. I always have plyed for the win. For our varsity, JV, & incoming freshmen our summer consists of 2 aspects: playing in summer leagues & playing in a few tournaments. When we play in the league games winning and losing really doesn't make any difference. The important factor is just getting girls playing time and staying active in the game over the summer. Last week I was watching our JV team play a summer league game against a team that played a 1-3-1 zone the whole time. WHY would you play zone defense in a summer league where it doesn't matter who wins and loses??? Now, the tournaments we enter winning is emphasized more, but playing time is still relatively equal. I do both. I took all of the incoming freshman girls who have played before, and put them into a weak league and we play for fun and to learn. Next I took my 3 original remaining girls who have been with me forever, and added 5 average players who have a passion for the game. This is my tournament team. We play to win. I think I know you well enough to know that you don't tell your kids you don't care if they lose, because at some point in time they have to develop that winning attitude. While I don't make an effort to worry about the score during these games, the girls never know this. You make a valid point in saying how important it is to never give your team the impression losing is OK. As far as my team knows, it's a regular season game. I just won't lose any sleep at night when we drop one in the summer! Summer leagues are for fun and learning, so I play to win (you have to learn how to win) but split playing time evenly and run the offense/defense I'm trying to teach even if another offense/defense might work better in a given situation. We play hard and watch the score and will spread out and slow it down if we have a lead late in the game, press if behind, etc. Kids are competitive and they want to win and so do I. I think it helps them develop as players to play it that way. I've stopped participating in summer leagues & instead go to 2-3 tournaments, set up some scrimmages, & go to a week of team camp. I did not like the inconsistency of availability of personel(other camps, family vacations, work, etc.). I now try to get committments for camp & tourneys and "try" to win those games. I just took my team to camp and during most of the games most of the teams were just playing and not paying attention to the score, the score being kept by players on the sidelines not in the game. I found it a better opportunity to make my players aware of the score and time, and to work on situational plays that many of the players may need to know during the season. One coach was upset that I chose to work on a 4-corners offense with 2:00 left, but with a 5 point lead I thought it a great opportunity, they were trying to run a zone defense which just wasn't the proper thing for them to be running in that situation, and they had to change their game to match ours. I coach the Summer and Fall ball for the Varsity Girls at our HS when the coaches can not have contact. We use this opportunity to reinforce offense and defense they will use in the winter. We also try out some new things because the W-L record doesn't matter. Summer is much less structured than fall where I am - I don't have consistent numbers of players in summer ball. We emphasize good habits on the court, and learning to win is one of them. The biggest difference with summer/fall ball however, is that I don't sacrifice equal PT for the win. We try to get those on the floor to execute what we want done, and it may not always be the starters. Thinking here is that everyone needs to learn how to "battle back" when behind or "protect" when ahead. For me, trying to stick to this is no easy task - I find myself wanting to fall back on the starters to nail down a W. I keep trying to tell myself that this is not the purpose of summer ball and try to keep my rather large ego in check. In the past, summer ball was only for Varsity players and realistic candidates for Varsity. We are trying to expand it to accomodate two teams, so we can get our JV and incoming more time to play together as well. We used our league as a coaching tool and work on sereveral different things. we try to win but it really doesnt matter( to the coaches ). my asst. coach the summer league and I watch only ( yes it is difficult ). this gives me a chance to see from a spectator view of what the teams are or are not doing.

Pulling up a Freshman

I think it depends on the kid. Let's assume that if you don't pull him up and he shines as a fresh., that he WILL NOT get the big head and still be a team player. If you assume this, then let's use pro baseball as an example. The better mgrs. in baseball will not bring a player up from the minors until the player is ready and will see playing time. Their attitude is that the more a player plays, i.e. in the minors, the better chance this player will have, when he does make it in the big show. If your player is going to seriously contribute to the jv's, see enough playing time, and still be taught the fundamentals on a regular basis, pull him up. If you are not sure, play him as a fresh.
Potential playing time is the key factor, IMHO. I've seen too many cases where a talented youngster is rostered and practices with a varsity team, but rarely gets to play because he's not ready. The lack of PT hinders full development. Freshmen, especially, need to learn the school's offensive and defensive systems, make game decisions and learn from the consequences. It's very unusual that a freshman will be an impact player in a varsity program.
Will this kid help your j.v. team? How is he fundamentally? If he is ready, then I'd move him up. But if I move a kid up HE'S GOING TO PLAY!!! Don't move him up & sit him. If you feel that he is mature enough and ready for an advancement, then I'd move him up. Remember, you can always move him up later into the year. See how he does in practice, if he's really ready--your going to know it!
If your freshman group is really talented and you expect alot of things out of them over the next few years, it might be a good idea to pull the player up. This will allow some other guys at the Freshman level to be the go to guys and step it up. Then when these guys are Juniors and Seniors, you have 2 or 3 guys who can be go to guys.
Just another thought... some programs up here have recently expressed regret about moving talented freshmen up in their program. The thinking was that the star should've stayed with his peers so that they would have maintained a solid, successful team that moved up together each season. What they got instead was a older team that was marginally improved with the younger player, and a younger team that was weakened by his absence.
i am speaking from the standpoint that the objective of a hs program is to place the best varsity squad on the floor as possible. the fact that his leaving the 9th grade team this year will weaken that team is of no importance. you said it is best for him which will improve your varsity in years to come. it may be bad for the 9th grade record this year, but my opinion is "so what". it will put the ball in other 9th graders hands more often and push those remaining in 9th...hopefully causing them to get better and again ultimately improving your varsity in years to come. you say, what about the time it takes away from the others on jv, i say it becomes a motivator for them. if they do not become more motivated or mope then they are probably guys you wont be able to depend on at the varsity level. just my opinion.

EARLY SEASON & NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULING

I just wanted to get some other viewpoints on scheduling. Do you play the hardest possible schedule and hope your team can learn from the losses, or do you schedule with a little more carefulness. When I initially started coaching I would not go to preseason tournaments. My team is always weak early on and I felt losses in these tournaments would only hurt us. Like I said, I was just starting. Nowadays I go to 2 preseason tournaments, and schedule as many tough non-conference opponents as possible. Gotta play the best to be the best. Our record usually suffers during the season, 22-10, 19-12,etc..., but it pays off come crunch time. I find nothing more rewarding than beating a team in the playoffs that has a much better record than you have. What are some of your guys views? I am interested to know what other peoples reasons are for the way they schedule.
I do like to play a tough non conference schedule. I does make you better if you go in and give it all you got. Toward the end of the season I don't like to have a lot of tough non conference teams though. I like to have a lot of momentum going into post season. But a tough early schedule in my opinion is the way to go.
Coach: We played a very tough non-district schedule last season, and took our lumps. I felt that this year, I would try to balance it out a little more. We'll play in 3 tournaments, and at least 2 games in each will be against quality opponents, and probably more. So for the balance of our non-district schedule, I tried to get teams that I felt we could play tough, or beat. I believe in playing top teams to get ready for district, but I also think there's something to be said for winning, and the confidence that it inspires. I hope our schedule will provide this type of balance. We'll see if my theory has any merit in a few months.
Being the head varsity boys' basketball coach and the Sr. High Dirctor of Athletics, I have both a good & challenging situation. The good part is that I can do my own scheduling, w/ out worrying about haggling w/ the A.D. The challenging part is taking care of all of the other coaches needs while trying to concentrate on my own teams needs--at the same time. This creates a lot of 70+ hour weeks for me. But, back to your question. I like to schedule teams that I know will be tough (everyone on my schedule is tough), but not a 3 or 4A school in the first 5 games of the season. I like to play the first part of my season vs. teams that are in our class (1A). This does not mean that we win the first 5 games of the season, but we certainly could. With high school kids, I like to get their confidence built up and keep it that way. If we were to play a 4A team very early, I feel like we would be doing the program a diservice. Don't get me wrong, I love playing bigger opponents, and so do the kids, but we seem to play w/ them a lot more competitivley after christmas break. Going towards the state tourney (in Indiana this is in the begining of March) we play mostly larger opponents (2, 3, and 4A schools). This is just how I feel, and it has worked for me.

Coach to Win or Develop in 8th grade?

Just wondering what the philosophies are in other programs...by the time your players are in 8th grade is the emphasis in your program still development or does it lean more towards establishing a winning attitude. In other words, do you forsake wins to develop your entire roster or by that time do you have a core of 6-8 who share the PT. Obviously players in 8th grade are still far from reaching thier potential, but do play your best throughout the majority of the game? I have my thoughts, just wondering what's happening in other programs. Thanks for sharing...Coach Gary
Develop. Two reasons: 1. Many 8th graders won't blossom for a couple years yet. An 8th grade sub may still be a 10th grade star. 2. Its rare to see (at least here anyway) a 9th grader that is fundamentally sound and ready for advanced high school play. We need to spend the whole season on fundamentals for the 9th grade players.
I coach a 7th grade girls team and they already understand this scenario: You have 3 seconds left in the game, you're down by 1 point. You're right handed guard has the ball on the left side of the court and that lane is open. She can do a right handed lay up from the left side and win it. Or, she can do a left handed lay up from the left side and only maybe make it. What do you do? My kids know to go left handed. I would rather lose the game left handed than win it right handed. Let's worry about total wins when you make it to the varsity.
In our program, which I would say is very advanced, our 8th grade teams play not to win, but to develop the top players. I know this may sound like the same thing, but I dont think so. Our 8th grade still runs all man to man and only runs team oriented offenses, no clear-outs for easy buckets for one player. By 8th grade, you can tell which players have put their time in on their own. They stand out. These are the players we try to develop. Now my team is the 7th grade team. I play equal minutes in the first half and then play to win in the second. Every player gets at least 4 minutes of a 24 minute game, but then I can work with my top 8 in the second half. Now I rotate the subs in quickly if we have a game under control. I had a team 2 years ago that went 15 and 1, they were great, and we never beat a team by more than 15 because I rotated everyone in.
Play to win and teach fundamentals! I teach my team to win. Why? Because the league keeps score, keeps won-loss records and they give trophys for first and second place. What is the since of competing if you are not competing to win? That mindset goes against the very nature of man. Life is competition and winning or losing, and if a team is going to win it might as well be mine. I teach fundamental man 2 man, but if can't beat a team playing man, why play it? I teach fundamental half court basketball, but if I can fastbreak I will. I play to my strengths not my weaknesses. I rotate all my kids in and out every quarter. We pressure on offense, defense and transition. All my kids have learned basic fundamentals over the past 10 years on my rec teams. After getting cut fromthe school team, I have at least one kid make it the next year. One year I think 6 made the school team. This school won the state last year with some of my rec players! Kids need fundamentals at all levels, even college and pro. What do those coaches do? Teach fundamentals and try to win.

How many players you need (not carry) for your system?

I'm a varsity boys basketball coach and except for practices the perfect number for us would be eight. 5 starters, 1 big man off the bench, 1 point guard off the bench and 1 tweener (guard/forward) off the bench.
9, 10, 11, 12 only get in so I can get them in (if that makes sense) - I don't really need to play them. And sometimes they don't get in. So when 9, 10, 11, 12 get a lot of minutes it is a blow-out one way or the other. Then EXAMPLE: they score 10 points - now the next game is close so they don't touch the floor - what happens mom, dad, arm-chair coach all say why isn't Johnny getting in "he scored 10 points in the last game."
Ideally I'd like to go with an 8 man rotation as well, no more than 9 though because it messes up the cohesiveness of the unit. I have seen a team in our league play about 10-11 guys because they press the entire game so they just keep rotating in fresh legs. This season I feel confident going abo

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