Of all the dribbling drills I advocate, this one is far and beyond the best.
You can immediately see the dribbling strengths and weakness of each player.
Basically it’s a dribble suicide.
The following information was written by Ed Riley and posted by Steve Jordan on his website:
http://www.akcoach.com/index.htm
This is what Coach Riley writes:
There are several different types of suicides. This is a simple one.
A. player runs from baseline to closest free throw line and back
B. then player runs from baseline to half court and back
c. then player runs from baseline to furthest free throw line and back
d. then player runs from baseline to opposite baseline and back
Try running this yourself at full speed, and you’ll understand why it’s called a SUICIDE. Now the drill is to see who is fast, who is able to start and stop, and who has endurance. Have them all run a suicide, but they must slap the floor when they reach a free throw line, half court line, or a baseline. At the end, rate your players.
This is how the traditional suicide is run, but look what happens if you add dribbling.
Have them compete in groups, so you can pay more attention to each player. They do a suicide while dribbling a basketball. They still have to slap the floor at the given intervals. This will start to let you see who your ball handlers are.
A very simple drill where you can the dribbling skill level of your players.
Do this and you will have saved yourself a lot of time.
Enjoy and feel free to share and post comments
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
3 Simple Youth Basketball Offenses to Help Your Team Score More Points
Usually, I don’t write much about offenses at this level because it’s difficult enough trying to learn the fundamentals. Learning plays just takes away from the development of the player’s ability to master the basics.
With that said, my premise is before you teach offense, your players must learn how to play defense. Thus, your first basic offense is a solid defense. Play solid man-2-man defense and you will be able to steal the ball for easy layups. Maybe, I shouldn’t say easy, but it is a better shot than most shots in a set offense. Also, don’t forget rebounding as the final piece in the defensive puzzle.
What if you can’t fast break? How happens when your team has to slow down the ball?
If you are forced to run a set offense because of timeouts, turnovers, or other stoppages or slowdowns, here’s what you can do.
Each of these are very simple and require no extraordinary amount of time to learn; therefore, I don’t refer to them as plays.
Here’s what I mean:
1) Teach your players to pass and move/cut. The ultimate youth basketball give and go offense. The point guard is the player to start the offense, you can have almost any set up you wish, but I prefer to spread the floor and have the point pass to the wings and cut to the basket while facing the person to whom he/she passes.
The wing player passes the ball (if no open shot is available) to the next open player and performs the same cut towards the basket. If the wing player on the opposite site has not received the ball, they stay where there are until the ball is passed to them. Also, this creates floor balance against a fast break.
This keeps the players from staring at one player and being a spectator on the offensive end.
This offense will be covered in detail in an upcoming article written by Ed Riley.
2) Screen and roll aka pick and roll.
This takes a bit of practice, but will free up a player more open shots. Defenses at the youth level aren’t equipped to handle this just yet, primarily because they lack communication.
3) Spread offense.
This keeps the point guard from over dribbling and gets everyone involved. Works best against a zone defense where the ball is passed around the perimeter and moved til the player has and open drive to the lane for a layup.
I tried this offense a couple years ago when coaching a U-9 team. We were up by 20 points in the 4th quarter and didn’t want to run up the score. So we went to basically a “four corners” offense. Those of you who are old enough should remember the old University of North Carolina’s offense run by Phil Ford.
What I found is by passing the ball around the perimeter, the zone defense they were playing, couldn’t shift fast enough to keep up with the ball, and lanes were wide open. Actually, this is how a couple of players who hadn’t scored all year garnered their first points of the season.
Side note: What to see a confidence builder? Wait til you have a player to finally score their first points of the season. You will notice the increased enthusiasm and confidence.
This offense works well against teams who allows a defensive player to freelance or spy while the rest play zone. Eventually, the player gets tired of chasing the ball and result is open lanes.
Usually, teams allow their best offensive player to roam because most of their points scored are layups from steals.
My experience is these are the 3 simple offenses you can run without sacrificing time for fundamental drills.
Each of these will be covered in detail in subsequent articles.
Enjoy and share with a fellow coach.
With that said, my premise is before you teach offense, your players must learn how to play defense. Thus, your first basic offense is a solid defense. Play solid man-2-man defense and you will be able to steal the ball for easy layups. Maybe, I shouldn’t say easy, but it is a better shot than most shots in a set offense. Also, don’t forget rebounding as the final piece in the defensive puzzle.
What if you can’t fast break? How happens when your team has to slow down the ball?
If you are forced to run a set offense because of timeouts, turnovers, or other stoppages or slowdowns, here’s what you can do.
Each of these are very simple and require no extraordinary amount of time to learn; therefore, I don’t refer to them as plays.
Here’s what I mean:
1) Teach your players to pass and move/cut. The ultimate youth basketball give and go offense. The point guard is the player to start the offense, you can have almost any set up you wish, but I prefer to spread the floor and have the point pass to the wings and cut to the basket while facing the person to whom he/she passes.
The wing player passes the ball (if no open shot is available) to the next open player and performs the same cut towards the basket. If the wing player on the opposite site has not received the ball, they stay where there are until the ball is passed to them. Also, this creates floor balance against a fast break.
This keeps the players from staring at one player and being a spectator on the offensive end.
This offense will be covered in detail in an upcoming article written by Ed Riley.
2) Screen and roll aka pick and roll.
This takes a bit of practice, but will free up a player more open shots. Defenses at the youth level aren’t equipped to handle this just yet, primarily because they lack communication.
3) Spread offense.
This keeps the point guard from over dribbling and gets everyone involved. Works best against a zone defense where the ball is passed around the perimeter and moved til the player has and open drive to the lane for a layup.
I tried this offense a couple years ago when coaching a U-9 team. We were up by 20 points in the 4th quarter and didn’t want to run up the score. So we went to basically a “four corners” offense. Those of you who are old enough should remember the old University of North Carolina’s offense run by Phil Ford.
What I found is by passing the ball around the perimeter, the zone defense they were playing, couldn’t shift fast enough to keep up with the ball, and lanes were wide open. Actually, this is how a couple of players who hadn’t scored all year garnered their first points of the season.
Side note: What to see a confidence builder? Wait til you have a player to finally score their first points of the season. You will notice the increased enthusiasm and confidence.
This offense works well against teams who allows a defensive player to freelance or spy while the rest play zone. Eventually, the player gets tired of chasing the ball and result is open lanes.
Usually, teams allow their best offensive player to roam because most of their points scored are layups from steals.
My experience is these are the 3 simple offenses you can run without sacrificing time for fundamental drills.
Each of these will be covered in detail in subsequent articles.
Enjoy and share with a fellow coach.
Friday, November 27, 2009
What to Look For When Selecting Your Team
There are generally 2 ways of selecting your youth basketball team.
1) You have tryouts and choose a set number of players from those either invited to the tryouts or from an open tryout. This is mainly the select/travel teams choose their players.
2) You have an open evaluation where you normally have coaches ranking players based upon such skills as dribbling and shooting, and in some cases how they perform in a scrimmage. This method is primarily used for selecting players in a draft for house or rec leagues.
Regardless, what type of tryout you are holding, there skills you are looking for are basically the same.
When I drafted my team recently for a house league, the keys I looked for were:
1) Dribbling capabilities
This probably the most important attribute to have at the youth (13 and under) level. It allows you select who will be your guards. For me, the guards aren't necessarily the shortest players.
To me, this is more significant than shooting. If I have a player who can dribble well, especially if they a good defender, then layups or 10 foot shots will comprise most of their scoring.
Watch any youth game, most of the points are scored from a short distance.
2) Height
You can't teach height. Tall players are at a premium, and tall players who can dribble is even better.
Just remember, you can always teach an athletic tall player how to dribble.
3) How well they played during the scrimmage
Here you can review lots of skills at once. You can see whether the player can dribble against pressure defense, if they can pass, shoot, and most importantly, play defense.
Thankfully, the scrimmages are usually 3 x 3 where you can get a better feel for the basic skills, and they should play man-to-man defense.
4) Energy/Attitude
Does the player seem to enjoy playing? Are they coachable? Do they keep playing when things don't go their way or do they sulk?
These tips hopefully give you some idea of what you to look for when selecting your team. The next article which ties into this one will discuss the purpose of coaching.
1) You have tryouts and choose a set number of players from those either invited to the tryouts or from an open tryout. This is mainly the select/travel teams choose their players.
2) You have an open evaluation where you normally have coaches ranking players based upon such skills as dribbling and shooting, and in some cases how they perform in a scrimmage. This method is primarily used for selecting players in a draft for house or rec leagues.
Regardless, what type of tryout you are holding, there skills you are looking for are basically the same.
When I drafted my team recently for a house league, the keys I looked for were:
1) Dribbling capabilities
This probably the most important attribute to have at the youth (13 and under) level. It allows you select who will be your guards. For me, the guards aren't necessarily the shortest players.
To me, this is more significant than shooting. If I have a player who can dribble well, especially if they a good defender, then layups or 10 foot shots will comprise most of their scoring.
Watch any youth game, most of the points are scored from a short distance.
2) Height
You can't teach height. Tall players are at a premium, and tall players who can dribble is even better.
Just remember, you can always teach an athletic tall player how to dribble.
3) How well they played during the scrimmage
Here you can review lots of skills at once. You can see whether the player can dribble against pressure defense, if they can pass, shoot, and most importantly, play defense.
Thankfully, the scrimmages are usually 3 x 3 where you can get a better feel for the basic skills, and they should play man-to-man defense.
4) Energy/Attitude
Does the player seem to enjoy playing? Are they coachable? Do they keep playing when things don't go their way or do they sulk?
These tips hopefully give you some idea of what you to look for when selecting your team. The next article which ties into this one will discuss the purpose of coaching.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Coaching Surprises, What I Learned From My U-11 Team
Last year I was coached a U-11 girls basketball team for rec league. Our games were once a week and we had one practice a week for 90 minutes.
There were 8 players on my team with 4 of them playing organized basketball for the first time. Thus, you understand how much fundamentals were a large part of practice sessions. I actually held back on what I taught them beyond the basics of dribbling, passing, defense, and shooting layups.
What I held back on was defense. Figuring it was easier to teach zone for our limited practice time, we actually became a very passive team. The reasoning being it was easier for them play an area rather than playing a man or girl even though were doing slide and other man-to-man drills.
After 4 weeks of getting blown out in a few games, and watching the girls stand around as if they were spectators, it became evident something had to change. Luckily, the girls were like a sponge when we started implementing man-to-man defense.
Wow! What a revelation! The girls, especially the new players, understood sticking your man and guarded them with fervor. We actually started winning games, which wasn't the main focus, but they added another aspect to their game that will carry them a long way in the future.
Guess what?
No matter the level of play or the limited practice time, my teams will never ( I know never say never) play zone again.
So what I really learned is that our youth can learn whatever thrown at them as long as they understand and see themselves getting better. All of our m2m drills were competitive and rewards were given to the winners of the drills.
What we actually did was make it fun! Remember, when you coach teams under 13 years of age, learning must be fun for them.
Yes, this article is primarily advertisement for m2m defense. They can learn zone in high school, but their m2m skills will allow them to play any type of defense.
There were 8 players on my team with 4 of them playing organized basketball for the first time. Thus, you understand how much fundamentals were a large part of practice sessions. I actually held back on what I taught them beyond the basics of dribbling, passing, defense, and shooting layups.
What I held back on was defense. Figuring it was easier to teach zone for our limited practice time, we actually became a very passive team. The reasoning being it was easier for them play an area rather than playing a man or girl even though were doing slide and other man-to-man drills.
After 4 weeks of getting blown out in a few games, and watching the girls stand around as if they were spectators, it became evident something had to change. Luckily, the girls were like a sponge when we started implementing man-to-man defense.
Wow! What a revelation! The girls, especially the new players, understood sticking your man and guarded them with fervor. We actually started winning games, which wasn't the main focus, but they added another aspect to their game that will carry them a long way in the future.
Guess what?
No matter the level of play or the limited practice time, my teams will never ( I know never say never) play zone again.
So what I really learned is that our youth can learn whatever thrown at them as long as they understand and see themselves getting better. All of our m2m drills were competitive and rewards were given to the winners of the drills.
What we actually did was make it fun! Remember, when you coach teams under 13 years of age, learning must be fun for them.
Yes, this article is primarily advertisement for m2m defense. They can learn zone in high school, but their m2m skills will allow them to play any type of defense.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Why Coach Youth Basketball
If some of you are like me, you probably got started or will start to coach because you wanted to coach your child's team. A good enough reason.
Fair enough and very logical.
Then the practices begin and you realize you have to command the attention of not just one individual player, but many others as well. Upwards to 12 kids on a team. I know rec teams usually have smaller roster, probably around 6-8 on a team, but you get the idea.
To answer the question, why coach youth basketball? It boils down to a few reasons.
1) There is a need for youth coaches across the country. Every year, some leagues have to beg, plead, bribe, etc. to find adults to coach teams. Every time you assist in coaching, you are helping the community. In reality, it's an awesome way to give back to your community.
By the way, we had teenagers in one of the leagues coaching 2 teams. In some school districts, community service is a requirement for graduation. What a fun way to enjoy fulfilling a graduation requirement.
2) Because it's a fun sport to teach. Here's where you may think it's too complicated and over encompassing; however, nothing can be further from the truth. If you keep it simple and to the basics of defense, passing, shooting layups, and dribbling (not necessarily in that order), you can easily field a team.
My experience is coach equals teacher. Every level of basketball from the youth leagues, high school, college, NBA, Olympics, the coach is imparting his knowledge to his players to achieve a desired result. The results or ends differ upon the level and expectations of the coach.
Thus, the number one reason kids play this sport at is to have fun. If you make it fun, they will learn and get better, and they will want to continue playing! Wins and losses won't matter because who will remember this 10 years later?
3) An opportunity to be closer to your child. Most youth coaches are coaching teams because they have a child who is player. We all work long hours and would love to spend more time with our children. This a great opportunity to do so while also helping other kids learn in the process.
For intent and purposes, we will mainly discuss youth basketball coaching from ages 7 to 13.
You will receive a mixture of articles written by myself, guest coaches from varying levels, and also special invites to FREE teleseminars.
Hope all you get something out of the information provided and have an enjoyable experience.
Fair enough and very logical.
Then the practices begin and you realize you have to command the attention of not just one individual player, but many others as well. Upwards to 12 kids on a team. I know rec teams usually have smaller roster, probably around 6-8 on a team, but you get the idea.
To answer the question, why coach youth basketball? It boils down to a few reasons.
1) There is a need for youth coaches across the country. Every year, some leagues have to beg, plead, bribe, etc. to find adults to coach teams. Every time you assist in coaching, you are helping the community. In reality, it's an awesome way to give back to your community.
By the way, we had teenagers in one of the leagues coaching 2 teams. In some school districts, community service is a requirement for graduation. What a fun way to enjoy fulfilling a graduation requirement.
2) Because it's a fun sport to teach. Here's where you may think it's too complicated and over encompassing; however, nothing can be further from the truth. If you keep it simple and to the basics of defense, passing, shooting layups, and dribbling (not necessarily in that order), you can easily field a team.
My experience is coach equals teacher. Every level of basketball from the youth leagues, high school, college, NBA, Olympics, the coach is imparting his knowledge to his players to achieve a desired result. The results or ends differ upon the level and expectations of the coach.
Thus, the number one reason kids play this sport at is to have fun. If you make it fun, they will learn and get better, and they will want to continue playing! Wins and losses won't matter because who will remember this 10 years later?
3) An opportunity to be closer to your child. Most youth coaches are coaching teams because they have a child who is player. We all work long hours and would love to spend more time with our children. This a great opportunity to do so while also helping other kids learn in the process.
For intent and purposes, we will mainly discuss youth basketball coaching from ages 7 to 13.
You will receive a mixture of articles written by myself, guest coaches from varying levels, and also special invites to FREE teleseminars.
Hope all you get something out of the information provided and have an enjoyable experience.
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