SCHOOL TEAM COMPETENCE CONFIDENCE CHARACTER WWW.SPLITSECONDBASKETBALL.COM
In a short season with time for only a handful of practices, determining your goals and priorities is arguably your most important job as a coach. Your priorities depend on your goals. If your primary objective is to help individuals to develop fundamental basketball skills (shooting, passing, dribbling), you will have really different priorities than the following ones we use during a VSB elementary basketball season. Our primary objectives are to help players: Develop confidence- knowing where and when to move on the court Have fun Win games Become part of a true TEAM where the sum is greater than the parts We best do this by focusing on our TEAM systems. My experience is that the impact of focussing primarily on TEAM development has about 10x the impact (in terms of win/loss, fun for players etc) that focussing on INDIVIDUAL skill development does. We believe that individual skill development is best done during the off-season with your team or with programs like Split Second Basketball. Priorities for TEAM development comes from the following fact. Your team will win 100% of it s games every time it is able to: (1) Shoot more shots + (2) Shoot a higher percentage (than your opponent) YOUR players should understand this formula and what it means. Once they do, they will understand the most important question - WHY we are doing what we are doing. GOALS PRIORITIES FOR TEAM DEVELOPMENT 2
1. Shooting more shots 2. Shooting higher % Offence Defence Offence Defence Limit turnovers Create turnovers Getting easy shots Limiting easy shots Pass fakes Dribble head up Stay out of the corners Ball pressure Force left Hands in passing lanes Aggressive helpside D vv Odd man situations Spacing Player movement Ball movement No odd man situations Help defence Offensive rebound Defensive rebound 3 players to the glass Block out 5 players rebound 1. Shooting more shots We don t have time to go in-depth on this topic, so I included a few specific suggestions (eg. pass fakes ) that you should cover if you have time with your team. 2. Shooting Higher % Ideally, with each team we will cover all 4 areas of the game that can help us win the shooting % battle: A. Full court (transition) defence B. Half court defence C. Full court (transition/fast break) offence D. Half court defence 3
What level your players are at will determine how quickly you can get through these 4 areas. We strongly recommend you start with 1 and 2, the defensive strategies because they will make a bigger impact on your team and your players will be able to pick them up more quickly than the offensive concepts, which require more skill to develop. Every coach here, regardless of the level of talent of your players, can significantly improve your team defence by coaching the following things: A. Full-court transition defence Explain our goal = always sprint back so we don t give up easy shots. No 1 vs 0, 2 vs 1, 3 vs 2 etc 1. Floor balance 2. Long safety and short safety 3. 3 other players- stay out of no man s land 4. Build the house 5. Match up with nearest player B. Half-court defence Explain our goal= properly position yourself in relation to the basketball, your check and the hoop so that every opponent has to play against all 5 defenders. 1. On-ball defence a) Force to baseline or weak hand b) Lots of ball pressure 2. Off-ball defence a) 1 pass away (10-15 feet away) i) 1 step towards hoop, 2 steps towards ball ii) Back to the basket iii) Point hips and hands at both check and ball b) 2 passes away (more than 15 feet away) i) 2 feet in the key ii) Back to the basket iii) Point at both check and ball 3. Switch all screens 4
C. Full-court transition offence Explain our goal= orderly, spaced way to move up the court so that we get easy shot opportunities Note: You will need to decide if you want to designate bigs and a ball handle/point guard 1. First out = rim runner 2. Next 2 = wings 3. Outlet = ball handler 4. Trail D. Half-court offence Explain our goal = have proper spacing and movement to create easy shots by allowing the ball to be passed or dribbled into the key Note: It is very counterintuitive that, while we want the ball to go to the key, we need to space out to the 3 point line to make this happen. YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS POINT CLEAR TO THE PLAYERS! 1. 4 or 5 out pass-cut-fill motion offence 2. Back courts and ball cuts 3. Back screens 4. Dribble at- Dribble Hand Offs or back cuts 5. Ball screens 5
SAMPLE PRACTICE PLAN Session 1 (For complete beginners, this may take 2 practices to get through) Zig-zags on between the free lane and sideline in the back court. 1-on-1 from half court Teach and practice POWER LAYUPS (jump off inside foot and land with 2 foot jump stop) Show players basics of pass-cut-fill offence a) 5-10 minutes practicing pass-cut-fill 5 vs 0 Show players defensive transition a) 10 minutes of pass-cut-fill offence shoot transition defence b) Consider having the coach push the ball up the floor to test defence Play 5 vs 5 Session 2 (For complete beginners, this may take 2 practices to get through) Review and practice POWER LAYUPS Zig-zags on between the free lane and sideline. 1-on-1 from half court Show players half court defence a) 15 minutes practicing shell drill i) Start vs cones with coach walking the ball between them ii) Progress to playing against 5 stationary players who only pass the ball when the coach tells them too Show players offensive transition a) 10 minutes of pass-cut-fill offence shoot transition defence b) Consider having the coach push the ball up the floor to test defence Play 5 vs 5 In subsequent practices, add the following: (continue on the next page) 6
Team Concepts: Half court defence - Shell drill Dribble penetration help and recover Cutters Finish defence with a blockout and rebound Half court offence Ball screens- pick-and-roll Away screens- down and back picks Transition offence Practice against 2, then 3, then 4 defenders Fundamental Skills Concepts: Ball toughness and preparation i) Cobra Perfect ii) Athletic Position Passing i) Bounce vs chest pass ii) Pass fakes Dribbling i) Dribble keys (low, hard, head up, arm-bar, athletic stance) Shooting i) Cobra + Perfect Athletic Position ii) Set position iii) Release Blocking out i) Step and meet at 90 degrees ii) Pivot or reverse pivot We want to eventually build on this until we can get the All-Purpose Drill (use 5 cones on each end) 7
Start in half-court offence, the Pass-cut-fill motion i) coach yells shot grabs rebound and dribbles quickly up court Transition defence (long, short safety and build the house) Match up in half court defence i) coach moving the ball between cones shoot or drop ball Transition offence (rim runner, wings, ball handler, trail) i) Finish with a lay-up 8