That Basketball Life

I have been coaching youth basketball for a very long time and I like to tell my team what I expect from them at the beginning of the year.  One of the things I like to tell them on the first day of practice are what my 4 keys to success are.  These 4 items are what I look for from my team during a game.  If they excel in these 4 areas then we are in good shape.  If not then we will be in trouble. The 4 areas for success are: Take more shots in the paint than the opposition. Force more turnovers than you commit. Contest every shot. Rebound the ball. As mentioned earlier, I like to introduce the 4 points during the very first practice and then reinforce the topic each and every practice.  We do this by repeating it at every practice and by making sure that we cover the 4 topics every day in practice also.  So how do we incorporate the 4 areas into practice?  We do it by including the following into our scheme: Aggressive offense that has an i...

I've been coaching youth basketball for many years and the one thing that I've seen is that some kids naturally know how to run while others are so inefficient in their running style that you can't help but wonder how much better they would be if they simply worked on their running form.  The purpose of this post is to help kids improve their running form and thus help increase their foot speed. Problems with Inefficient Runners Relax - The main problem that I see with most kids who seem to run slower than they should is that they tense up.  The main key to running is that you stay relaxed.  You need to stay relaxed in the face, the shoulders, the arms, the hands, and you hips.  Tightness in any of these areas can cause you to run slower than you are capable of. Foot Strike - Many kids are plodders.  They run by slamming their feet on the ground instead of focusing on being light on their feet.  Their heels make great contact with the ground and this serves as a brake...

I've been coaching kids for many years and one of the things that always amazes me is the difference in confidence from one kid to the next.  On the same team you will have kids who no matter what they do wrong they can bounce back immediately and others who can get shattered by making one simple mistake.  Confidence is a very fragile thing and can be lost even in the best of players.  Take a look at sports on TV.  How many times have you seen an extremely confident player at the beginning of the year turn to be just a shell of himself by the end.  Along with confidence comes aggressiveness.  A player will not be aggressive if he is not confident.  This is why I think that some of these drills that you see on the internet as drills that help your team become aggressive are questionable.  I'm all for having kids get comfortable chasing loose balls on the floor but to have these kids beat up on each other in practice so they can "build aggressiveness" is somewhat suspec...

When playing against a man to man defense it is important that the offense you are running doesn't get bogged down.  There are some tendencies that keep occurring over and over again when facing a tough man to man which denies passes to the wings and ruins offensive flow.  The first one is that the wing player is forced to catch the ball too far up the floor.  This ruins angles for effective entry passes into the post, and it takes you out of triple threat position.  The next thing a good defense can do is ruin your timing.  A good offense is about rhythm and timing and a good denial of the first pass can destroy it.  To combat a good deny defense there are 3 ways your players can use to get the offense started.  The first is running your wings through screens, the second is have your point guard dribble to the spot he/she would ideally want to pass to, and the third one is having the wings run one of 3 perimeter cuts to get open.  The 3 cuts we a...

This is a nice video explaining 3 ways you can have your perimeter players get open.

Below are 2 nice drills that Bob Higgins uses to train his teams in the different phases of a man to man. These drills cover everything from on ball defense, to how to defend one pass away, to how to defend 2 passes away, to how the defense collapses on a dribble drive.

In basketball the rip is one of the moves that all players should get into the habit of using.  This move allows the person with the ball an opportunity to create space when being guarded closely and can also allow that person to begin a drive by the defender who is covering them.  The are 3 types of rip moves and all 3 can be effective when properly used.

Here is another video.  This one shows how Villanova practices wing catch, rip, and drive under pressure.

Nice video on how to get open on the wing when you are being overplayed. Video includes some nice drills to run in practice.

Nice video by Shot Mechanics on shooting release.

Here at TBL we're all about the details.  This video shows how to work the basics of a good low rip move.

The ball screen is such an effective play in basketball that it can't be ignored.  As a matter of fact, at the upper levels of basketball this basic play is so prevalent that one would have to try hard to avoid seeing it.  It is a misconception, however, that this move is simple.  The ball screen and subsequent roll the screener makes requires both physical execution by two teammates and an effective read of what the defense is doing in reaction to the move.  There is so much detail involved in the screen and roll that we at TBL will have multiple posts on the topic.  In this post we will cover the basics of the screen and roll.  Some of the topics covered will be: Areas of the court where the screens should take place. Areas of the court where the screens should not take place. Rules for the screener. Rules for the ball handler. Options for the ball handler. Options for the screener after the screen.

Here at TBL we're all about the details involved in making this game beautiful.  Another important topic which may not be glamorous at first glance but is very important to the game of basketball is screening.  As a matter of fact, the farther you move up the basketball ladder the more exposure you will get to screens. There are 4 types of basic screens in basketball.  Everything else that is done in an offensive sequence builds off of these 4 screens. The 4 basic basketball screens: Down Screen Back Screen Side Screen Ball Screen

Here is a nice video on some basic layups. Aside from these I would also add practicing making layups from each baseline off the backboard on the strong side.

One of our mottoes here at That Basket Life is to take nothing for granted.  This is why we spend a lot of time covering topics like pivots, and close-outs and all sorts of topics related to footwork and screening.  They may be boring on the surface but if you master the details you will become a better more efficient basketball player.  In this post's discussion we are covering another one of these boring yet important topics.  Specifically, we will be discussing some of the more popular cuts involved in basketball.  Cuts are very important in basketball.  So important that in order to stand a chance to challenge a defense, any offense should have at least some sort of cutting action in it. Some of the cuts we'll be covering below are: Basic Cut V-Cut L-Cut Flash Cut Backdoor Cut Curl Cut Loop Cut UCLA Cut Flare Cut Laker Cut

When coaching basketball the fundamentals are critical.  Here at TBL, there is nothing more important than teaching the fundamentals.  One of the most basic yet most important skills that kids need to learn quickly when they begin playing the game of basketball is how to make a basic layup.  Layups are one of the basic building blocks that scoring is built off of and without a proper grasp on how to make a basic layup, building to more complicated shots such as layups in traffic or shooting floaters in the paint cannot be accomplished. As with almost everything in basketball, a proper layup comes down to footwork.  Proper footwork is so important when attempting a layup that I like to concentrate on the footwork part of the layup without a ball before we progress to making layups.

Here at TBL we are all about the fundamentals.  Nothing is more fundamental and nothing is more important than layups.  At the end of a close game, the difference between a win or a loss can usually come down to which team made more of their layups.  It's not enough to have a play drawn up that will get your team an easy layup.  It's not enough to spend time in practice just practicing uncontested layups.  You need to simulate game conditions. Below is a nice layup drill which can be used to put your players in a situation where they are not just dealing with the basket but with an opponent chasing them.

Continuing on our recent posts about various pieces of footwork, today we will discuss the topic of defensive slides.  Defensive slides are a bit of a misnomer because you don't really want to slide your feet when you are doing this piece of footwork.  As a matter of fact, if you slide your feet while doing this it will make you slower not faster.  The main goal when sliding is to try to stay in front of the man you are covering.

Here is another post on one of the most important but often neglected parts of the game.  As I've mentioned before, footwork is so important yet so often neglected by coaches.  It should be a part of every practice especially early in the season and often reinforced during the year. In an effort to cover all of the important elements of footwork, I am prepared to discuss another of the essentials.  Closeouts are a very important part of the game.  Closeouts are the moves a defender tries to make to cover a man who generally has the ball.  The quicker you close out the better off you will be.  There are different steps to a good closeout: Dig deep and sprint to the man you are closing out on as quickly as possible. Once you are about 2/3 of the way there begin chopping your feet.  This serves 2 purposes: It helps you slow down and prevents you from over running the offensive player. It keeps you in balance and your feet close to the ground in an...

Below is a nice video featuring Kirby Schepp explaining various drills that he uses to develop his big men.  This video has great drills and coach Shepp does a nice job adding layers to the drills.  To me this is a must watch.