Regardless of what type of full court zone pressure you may be facing and how you choose to attack it, these rules and principles will help your players better understand how to be effective against the pressure. Move to areas away from the defenders. As the zone rotates, be aware and alert and move to a new open area. Always attack toward your basket. Don't pass sideways or backwards unless absolutely necessary for safety. Force the defense to attack the basketball where you want them to. … [Read more...]
10 Questions to Ask When Scouting Pressure Defenses
The chances are pretty solid that at some point during the course of your season you will go up against a team that will press you in the full court. As you scout any upcoming opponents who employ a pressing defense, the following questions should be asked. Once you can answer these questions, you can plan your attack accordingly. Is it a zone or man-to-man press defense? This is the most important thing to know. If it's a zone, study what type of zone so you'll know how to attack it. If it's … [Read more...]
End of Game Situations Practice Drill
Purpose: To practice offensive and defensive execution in a variety of competitive end-of-game situations. Prepare your players in practice so they will be ready and composed during last second situations in games. Drill: This is a 5-on-5 drill; one team on offense, one on defense. Start the drill with a 60-second timeout. If and when your players are capable, let them conduct the timeout on their own. For younger players or less experienced players, a coach should be conducting the timeout to … [Read more...]
Principles of an Effective Secondary Fast Break
Today's game is often dominated by the fast break. Players want to run, fans want to see an up-and-down game, and coaches know that the fast break can be an effective offensive weapon. Even if your offensive philosophy isn't to fast break at every opportunity, you probably know that there is a place for it. Certainly you will fast break off of a steal or turnover, right? You probably want your players to go when the break is to your obvious advantage. Well, what do you do when the break isn't … [Read more...]
How To Effectively Implement and Design Successful Baseline Inbounds Plays
Baseline out-of-bounds situations are very important. Good inbounds plays can win you games. Bad inbounds plays can lose games. At the very least, you need an inbounds play to be effective enough to get the ball back into play. You can, however, often get an easy basket from your inbounds set. I'm guessing the chances are pretty good that you don't spend a lot of quality time on your inbounds plays. Sure, you might spend some time early on teaching the plays but after they have been learned, … [Read more...]
How To Put Together a Skill Development Workout: Part 2
In my last post [read Part 1], I discussed 3 ways to put together a skill development workout. In this post I will go more in detail about conducting a skill development workout. When I first started putting players through workouts I had no idea of how to properly construct a skill workout. Through trial and error and picking up tips from other coaches, I have come up with a system that works for me. Every coach does things a little bit different, but the objective (teach and improve each … [Read more...]
How To Put Together a Skill Development Workout: Part 1
It's that time of the year where players are back in the gym trying to improve their skill set. The great players are always critiquing their game and trying to find ways to improve. Players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James are always trying to add something to their repertoire. It could be a post move, a dribble move, improved shooting, finishing around the basket, or anything that can make them a more complete player. As a skills coach I have the responsibility of making players better. Some … [Read more...]
3 C's for Improved Free Throw Shooting
It's the part of the season where coaches and teams prepare for the post season. You should have your eyes on the ultimate goal of making a run in the playoffs and winning that championship. If you are not in a position to make post season play, then you want to be able to finish the season strong and try to develop some momentum for next season. With teams battling for playoff position it becomes more and more important to limit turnovers, control the boards, play great defense, and make your … [Read more...]
Creating Consistency in Scouting
We place great emphasis on our scouting reports as we prepare for any upcoming game on our schedule. Whether it's the first game of the year or a familiar conference opponent we go through the same routine to prepare our players before every game so that they have the information necessary to understand our game plan – both the how and why of what we're going to try to accomplish on the court. We start with a 1-page overview of our opponent. We'll have their record and general notes about their … [Read more...]
Imitate, then Innovate to Create Effective Player Development Drills
One of my main responsibilities within our program is to coordinate player development workouts. I spend a lot of time watching video and reading about drills in an attempt to always keep these workouts fresh for our players. We spend 10-15 minutes every day working on one of six different fundamental areas that play into skills work: ball handling, screening, passing, defense (positioning and closeouts), footwork/explosion, and form shooting. During this time all of our players will work on the … [Read more...]