WillC
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Chicago Bulls
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Post by WillC on Mar 16, 2009 10:45:18 GMT -8
I coach my school basketball team. We have a few decent players and we have pretty good depth. However, we don't have a 'star player' who we can rely on to score. At the moment, we have no game plan. The team just heads down the court and eventually someone jacks up a shot (which usually misses). Our best player is a stocky 5'8" point guard. He's a good dribbler but not a reliable scorer. We have a young 6'1" (i.e. a forward at this level) defensive expert who has a developing offensive game. He has a lot of potential. I won't bore you with the rest of our team. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Any drills we should be doing? Any simple game tactics that we could utilise? Any suggestions, please throw them my way Thanks folks.
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Post by AllHailManiac on Mar 16, 2009 10:52:25 GMT -8
What age are we talking? I coach a 5th-8th grade team and recently accepted a job as a Junior High Assistant Coach. Around the same age I'd guess?
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WillC
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Chicago Bulls
Posts: 46
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Post by WillC on Mar 16, 2009 10:55:45 GMT -8
No, much older.
Ages range from 15-17.
Remember, the standard of basketball in this country is very weak, and we don't have a big pool of players to choose from, hence all of our team is under 6'2".
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Post by Tigertecz on Mar 16, 2009 11:06:56 GMT -8
How old are they? I can offer some advice based on what I did when I played at secondary school level (11-18 years old). We only had a few plays but the very first we learned was "Motion" on offense. It's really simple and pretty decent if you can get the kids to run it effectively (I'm assuming opponents will be playing man rather than zone defense). I think at secondary school level the best thing to do is work on being able to use screens effectively because defenders usually aren't smart enough to get round it lol. If they're young then just get them setting screens first, then build up to motion.
We did a lot of conditioning work too, the usual basketball drills like suicides with and without the ball, 3 man weaves, etc etc. And we did drills like 3 man weave from baseline to half court, with two defenders at the end of the court resulting in a 3 on 2 halfcourt situation. It works the team both on offense and defense as you rotate the defenders too, and helps to practice fast breaks.
If you need to work on shooting then simple shooting drills will help, as well as free throw practices, such as making them lineup and taking one free throw each, for each miss the whole team runs one suicide. We had an evil coach at one point who made us do stuff like that.
For outside shooting stick to rebounders under the basket and shooters around the arc who shoot the threes, and then rebounders return the ball to them while they continue to shoot. Also practice layup drills as they're always useful. Simple two lines, balls with players on the right, they pass to the line on the left starting outside 3 point land, make the run to the hoop, get the return pass and lay-up without a dribble. The passer gets the rebound, takes the ball and joins the right hand queue while the original shooter goes to the passer line on the left. Mix it up a little and make them take jumpshots after the pass rather than layup, or switch it up so the balls are on the left side, forcing them to make left hand layups.
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Post by Marty on Mar 16, 2009 11:07:41 GMT -8
I coach my school basketball team. We have a few decent players and we have pretty good depth. However, we don't have a 'star player' who we can rely on to score. At the moment, we have no game plan. The team just heads down the court and eventually someone jacks up a shot (which usually misses). Our best player is a stocky 5'8" point guard. He's a good dribbler but not a reliable scorer. We have a young 6'1" (i.e. a forward at this level) defensive expert who has a developing offensive game. He has a lot of potential. I won't bore you with the rest of our team. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Any drills we should be doing? Any simple game tactics that we could utilise? Any suggestions, please throw them my way Thanks folks. In highschool we ran the Flex offense. It's probably the basic of all basic offensive plays and you can basically be as "creative" as you want with it. www.coachesclipboard.net/FlexOffense.htmlThat's an example of it. The flex play is probably one of the most common offensive plays and the easiest for kids to learn(from my own experience) Defense obviously you'll want to play zone and make the kids learn to talk to each other on the court that's probably the biggest key to a zone defense.
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Post by Tigertecz on Mar 16, 2009 11:08:55 GMT -8
I coach my school basketball team. We have a few decent players and we have pretty good depth. However, we don't have a 'star player' who we can rely on to score. At the moment, we have no game plan. The team just heads down the court and eventually someone jacks up a shot (which usually misses). Our best player is a stocky 5'8" point guard. He's a good dribbler but not a reliable scorer. We have a young 6'1" (i.e. a forward at this level) defensive expert who has a developing offensive game. He has a lot of potential. I won't bore you with the rest of our team. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Any drills we should be doing? Any simple game tactics that we could utilise? Any suggestions, please throw them my way Thanks folks. In highschool we ran the Flex offense. It's probably the basic of all basic offensive plays and you can basically be as "creative" as you want with it. www.coachesclipboard.net/FlexOffense.htmlThat's an example of it. The flex play is probably one of the most common offensive plays and the easiest for kids to learn(from my own experience) Defense obviously you'll want to play zone and make the kids learn to talk to each other on the court that's probably the biggest key to a zone defense. From my experience of basketball at this level, everyone plays man on D, and only switch to zone when they get tired lol.
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WillC
New Member
Chicago Bulls
Posts: 46
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Post by WillC on Mar 16, 2009 11:11:11 GMT -8
Thanks Tiger, that's really useful. We've just about mastered the art of the layup drill, you'll be pleased to hear I really like the sound of running suicides for missed free throws. I think I'll incorporate that into our next training session. We're pretty good at setting screens but the next step is to make better use of those screens. Motion offense is exactly what we need to be doing. I'll have to spend some time teaching the kids how to do it. I used to find 3 man weave pretty pointless when I was a player at school, but maybe it's more useful than I'm giving it credit for.
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Post by Dash on Mar 16, 2009 11:12:13 GMT -8
I coach my school basketball team. We have a few decent players and we have pretty good depth. However, we don't have a 'star player' who we can rely on to score. At the moment, we have no game plan. The team just heads down the court and eventually someone jacks up a shot (which usually misses). Our best player is a stocky 5'8" point guard. He's a good dribbler but not a reliable scorer. We have a young 6'1" (i.e. a forward at this level) defensive expert who has a developing offensive game. He has a lot of potential. I won't bore you with the rest of our team. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Any drills we should be doing? Any simple game tactics that we could utilise? Any suggestions, please throw them my way Thanks folks. In highschool we ran the Flex offense. It's probably the basic of all basic offensive plays and you can basically be as "creative" as you want with it. www.coachesclipboard.net/FlexOffense.htmlThat's an example of it. The flex play is probably one of the most common offensive plays and the easiest for kids to learn(from my own experience) Defense obviously you'll want to play zone and make the kids learn to talk to each other on the court that's probably the biggest key to a zone defense. Honestly, I dislike the flex offense. Its a good thing to use I guess to transition into actual motion offense, but it gets a little stale. Teams eventually figure out what you're doing, and most players that age aren't smart enough to start slipping screens or making the defense pay for "guarding the play".
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Post by Dash on Mar 16, 2009 11:13:46 GMT -8
Thanks Tiger, that's really useful. We've just about mastered the art of the layup drill, you'll be pleased to hear I really like the sound of running suicides for missed free throws. I think I'll incorporate that into our next training session. We're pretty good at setting screens but the next step is to make better use of those screens. Motion offense is exactly what we need to be doing. I'll have to spend some time teaching the kids how to do it. I used to find 3 man weave pretty pointless when I was a player at school, but maybe it's more useful than I'm giving it credit for. Suicides is probably a little too much. A down and back should be more than sufficient. I'd also do that at the end of practice.
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Post by Dash on Mar 16, 2009 11:16:29 GMT -8
A fun little drill to do is where you have 5 lines across the court. Then the two outside guys go down and touch the wall on the opposite end and get back on defense. The three middle guys do a 3 man weave on the middle of the court, then it becomes a 3 on 2 on the way back. Make sure you get the guys on defense to communicate on who has ball and who has basket. This is a very important concept. Make sure you tell them that this is a fast break, so take the first good shot. They shouldn't slow it down and make 10 passes before getting a shot off. Simulate it like a real fast break. After the shot is taken, the guy who took the shot should get back on defense and it becomes a 2 on 1 the other way. On this, make sure you tell them to give up the ball early once they pass halfcourt. Make the defender commit and don't overpass.
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Post by Tigertecz on Mar 16, 2009 11:17:59 GMT -8
I dunno how useful 3 man weave it to be honest, but it was always incorporated into our drills lol. Like I said, at that level, screens and making use of them are the key on offense. You also need to figure out a backup during Motion if it fucks up btw. When we first tried to implement it into games, if it went wrong we never really knew how to react lol as everyone was so hung up on moving to the right places etc.
Also change the name as everyone knows it as motion. For example, we just called it "blue" to make it different and had other colours for other plays. I can't remember too many be we used to make two man screens for corner threes. I remember this because it was made for players like me who shoot threes and rarely go inside lol. You can do what you like at the start of the play, but it ends with two players standing say a foot apart a couple of feet away from the corner of the 3 point area, then the shooter runs through the middle of them to catch the ball from a passer. As soon as he runs through the two players, they step together to block off the defender trying to follow the shooter.
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Post by Dash on Mar 16, 2009 11:18:39 GMT -8
How athletic is your team? Honestly, if you don't have a star scorer, the easiest way to score is to get into transition. The easiest way to get into transition is to force turnovers, and you do that through pressure defense (Whether you play a full court press, half court press, trapping half court defense, overaggressive in the passing lanes, etc). However, if your team is slow you might have some problems.
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Post by Tigertecz on Mar 16, 2009 11:19:50 GMT -8
A fun little drill to do is where you have 5 lines across the court. Then the two outside guys go down and touch the wall on the opposite end and get back on defense. The three middle guys do a 3 man weave on the middle of the court, then it becomes a 3 on 2 on the way back. Make sure you get the guys on defense to communicate on who has ball and who has basket. This is a very important concept. Make sure you tell them that this is a fast break, so take the first good shot. They shouldn't slow it down and make 10 passes before getting a shot off. Simulate it like a real fast break. After the shot is taken, the guy who took the shot should get back on defense and it becomes a 2 on 1 the other way. On this, make sure you tell them to give up the ball early once they pass halfcourt. Make the defender commit and don't overpass. Yeah we used to do this exact drill too.
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Post by Dash on Mar 16, 2009 11:21:26 GMT -8
I dunno how useful 3 man weave it to be honest, but it was always incorporated into our drills lol. Like I said, at that level, screens and making use of them are the key on offense. You also need to figure out a backup during Motion if it fucks up btw. When we first tried to implement it into games, if it went wrong we never really knew how to react lol as everyone was so hung up on moving to the right places etc. Also change the name as everyone knows it as motion. For example, we just called it "blue" to make it different and had other colours for other plays. I can't remember too many be we used to make two man screens for corner threes. I remember this because it was made for players like me who shoot threes and rarely go inside lol. You can do what you like at the start of the play, but it ends with two players standing say a foot apart a couple of feet away from the corner of the 3 point area, then the shooter runs through the middle of them to catch the ball from a passer. As soon as he runs through the two players, they step together to block off the defender trying to follow the shooter. With motion though there really isn't a designated play. Its just pass and screen away. Pass and screen away. Constantly moving. Make sure your spacing is good. That can really screw up motion. I guess your coach probably designated spots where everyone should be at one time. Thats a good tool to use when you are starting out, but unfortunately kids tend to run to those "spots" instead of finding the true open spot in the defense which is around that area. If you watch the pros their spacing is tremendous.
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Post by AllHailManiac on Mar 16, 2009 11:25:10 GMT -8
I always set out to establish the respect of my players. Be harsh and stick to your guns. Make your players responsible for their actions. Don't be afraid to discipline your players when necessary. If you threaten a punishment make sure you go through with it. Also, I try to keep my practices very competitive even regarding the simplest of things. For example, a lot of players like to take 'one more shot' after you blow the whistle to gain their attention. I make it know to my players that if they take that 'one more shot' and miss they will run for it. Little things like that help keep your practices much more sharp.
I always focus on defense initially. If a player is a weak on-ball defender then they simply will not cut it on my teams. At this level, defense can often be your best offense. Preach good, technically-sound defense and your team will be in every game. I spend probably the majority of my practices working on defense. Playing solid man defense will make any zone you decide to run even that much more effective. Preach defense. My team this past season was excellent defensively and thus the fast break became one of our main means of offense.
At this level, you're probably best running a simple motion offense in the halfcourt. It's easy to teach and easy to learn.
Think back. The coaches that you liked and remember from your childhood were probably those that were the hardest on you. You can still establish a bond with your players no matter how tough of a coach you prove to be. Don't be afraid to blow the whistle and line them up on the baseline.
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