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...]
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...]
Giving Your Post Options to Enhance Your Side Ball Screen Action
Introduction The side ball screen has become a very popular action in today's game (for me, it's even over used). Many teams are doing the side ball screen in the swing, motion, secondary, sets, and every other imaginable offense. As more and more teams use this, you need to have some wrinkles to use when teams wise up and start to defend it by using defensive looks such at Coach Tony Barone's “Blue” where the post drops to the block and the player on the ball pushes the dribble back to the … [Read more...]
Using the Dribble-Drive to Enhance Your Offense
Introduction Why Coaches Hate the Dribble but Need to Embrace It I've seen a lot of coaches who absolutely HATE the dribble and I don't disagree that over dribbling is an issue. The problem, however, isn't the dribble itself but how the dribble is used. The problem is that many players don't know how to use the dribble correctly. They dribble the ball east and west, put it between their legs 45 times, and really don't go anywhere. Or they take the dreaded one dribble pick up. These uses of … [Read more...]
5 Keys to Playing Fast Effectively
Every player I meet or talk to wants to play fast. They want to get out, push the ball up the court and try to score as quick as possible -- which is great! However, the vast majority of these players do not understand what it means to play fast effectively. Getting out and pushing the ball is an excellent way to play because it creates the ability to attack offensively before the defense gets a chance to set up which can create easy scoring opportunities. Yet, before you can really commit to … [Read more...]
30 Offensive Rules for Championship Basketball
We love to play up-tempo basketball. Our style of play is to run and attack! We push the ball up the court at every opportunity. As we push the ball up the court, we look to score - primary break to secondary break, secondary break to one of our set offenses. Our primary goal on offense is to play "Team Basketball." To us, team basketball is about not forcing shots, making the extra pass, and attacking the basket to pass, not shoot. When five athletes are playing as one on the court, basketball … [Read more...]
Choosing Your Basketball Offense
Many basketball coaches will say that you should select your offense and stick with it from season to season. Is that correct? Are there nuances and strategies to consider? How do you choose which offense to run? When do you choose which offense to run? We'll attempt to answer those questions and more in this article. The majority of basketball coaches do not have the luxury of "selecting" their players. What I mean is that most of us are not big-time college and professional coaches who can … [Read more...]
13 Offensive Concepts to Consider
The 13 offensive concepts below came from some clinic notes by Mike Fratello. These are things you may want to consider as you develop your offensive philosophy. Don't just focus on the big things ... remember to consider all areas of offense and how you will handle certain situations. If you can gain a couple of points here and there during the course of a game, it may make a big difference! Below are Coach Fratello's 13 Offensive Concepts to Consider: Power Offense: An offense designed to … [Read more...]
9 Principles for Attacking Pressure Defenses
Expect pressure. At one point or another, your offense can expect pressure. It may be from an opponent that pressures the entire game or simply a team that employs pressure to help them get back in the game. Regardless of how teams pressure and when they choose to do so, expect it to come. Now that you can expect it to come, make sure you prepare for it. Pressure will kill you if you're not prepared for it. Therefore, drill against pressure in practice and teach your players concepts that will … [Read more...]
Stop the Opposing Star Player with Your Offense
Many of your opponents will have one player who is considered their star player. This is THE player that does the bulk of the scoring and/or dictates their offense. How do you defend him or her? There are many methods you can utilize to defend the star player but that isn't the point of this article. It certainly is important to devise a defensive game plan to stop or minimize the damage that one player will do against your team. However, you can also attack their star player with your … [Read more...]