That Basketball Life

Practice is a very important part of preparation.  As a coach it is important to expose your players to as many game like situations as possible in practice.  This way they know what to expect when they are in a game.  With a good practice plan, your players don't have to deal with the element of surprise. Have you ever noticed that many times, when your team loses a close game, you always think back to the layups missed.  I often catch myself saying, "if only we made a couple of the layups we missed the result would have been different." With this in mind, I believe in having competitive layups in your practice routine.  There are many to choose from and below is one that I like a lot because it is full court and allows us to cover multiple facets with one drill including passing, dribbling, conditioning and layups.  Enjoy.

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

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.

Two of the most ignored fundamentals to the game of basketball are passing and footwork.  Most coaches will make sure to find time for dribbling and shooting drills in practice and then figure that footwork and passing will be covered during drills that cover these other fundamentals or during scrimmage time. 

Cool video featuring Kirby Schepp on how to coach your players.  Don't have them be robotic, rather teach them the basics and let them use their creativity and passion for the game.

Good post play is becoming a lost art.  In today's game even big men prefer to shoot from the outside as opposed to taking advantage of their size in the paint.  In my eyes, as a coach, there is always room for post play in an offense regardless of how good an outside shooting team you may have.  As a player, it never hurts to add new dimensions to your game and learning how to play with your back to the basket can always come in handy. In essence, a drop step is the simplest and one of the most effective post moves a player could use. To properly play with your back to the basket a player needs to be able to feel what the defender is doing behind him.  Is he fronting him top side or from the baseline?  Is he playing off of him or fronting him completely.  What the defender does will determine what type of move you will make when you receive the ball with your back to the basket.

Form shooting is such an important part of shooting that it can't be ignored.  If you take a look at the pros when they are doing their pre-game warm-ups they almost always start with some sort of form shooting and build up to regular shots as they progress through their warm up period. For young kids who are just learning to shoot it is so important they grasp the fundamentals as early as possible.  In order to do this, you as a coach need to introduce form shooting as early as possible and encourage kids to do some sort of form shooting both at practice and at home.

Footwork Progressions for all ages.

This is a cool video showing how important footwork is to the game of basketball.

In the old days when I was playing at the end of practice my coach would have us all fill in the spots around the lane and take turns taking free throws.  Everyone had to make 5 to go home and we took them 2 at a time.  In hindsight this was not a bad way to practice free throws.  As in every other part of the game, it is important for a coach to try to simulate game conditions when your team shoots free throws.

The key to playing hard-nosed, in your face man to man defense is team work.   A man to man defense will only be as good as the rotations the team makes in order to cover the ball.   Whether you are double teaming the opposition’s best player or you are helping a teammate who has been beat, the strength of your defense will depend on the chain reaction of events that will take place behind the double team or the help that occurs at the front end of the play.   Specifically there are some general rules that should always be followed when double teams or help side defense takes place. One man should commit to helping on the ball or on a double team.  Any more than that and you leave way too many options open for the offense. On a drive to the paint the defense needs to collapse into the paint and protect the basket.  Again we want to make sure that only one additional person helps on the ball but the rest of the team needs to collapse into the paint but b...

Layer 6 of the Read and React

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