The Breakthrough Basketball Newsletter for Coaches -- Issue #12: March 27, 2008

Does any one have a blank practice plan sheet?
I know how to plan a practice I am looking for something to put it on other than a legal pad.

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Hi Joe, Jeff and Don, am a coach in Uganda of Nkumba Marines and Knight Riders. Am proud of what you guys do. I have used lots of your drills to improve my training sessions, especially on the side of not making them boring and monotonous. Just hope you guys pay us a visit in Uganda one day. i would be very happy and other people too.

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excellent site, THANKS

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Thanks Joe!

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Hey Dave,

To quote Don Kelbick, "There are not great offenses. There are only great players."

Everyone is looking for the magic offense, but there isn't one. Take a look at Memphis. Their offense is very basic, but they do GREAT with it. You know why they do so well. They have GREAT PLAYERS who understand the collegiate game. It doesn't hurt that they have Coach Calipari, either.

What I'm trying to say is that you need to teach your players the fundamentals of the game and everything else will fall into place. It doesn't matter what offense you teach them, they'll succeed. You need to teach them how to pass, dribble, shoot, read cuts, read screens, and so on. Remember not to get discouraged with the short-term, and try to keep the big picture in mind.

To learn more about offense and the theory behind it, check out this article: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/Offense/offensiveTheory.html

For a couple of simple youth offenses, check out these links: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/plays/1-3-1Cutters.html & http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/plays/youth-offense-2.html

Here is a link to more fundamentals on our website: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

Hope that helps!

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I CAOCH A HIGH SCHOOL TEAM BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS AND I REALLY ENJOYED ALL THE DRILLS YOU HAVE BEEN SENDING TO ME, I STILL FIND IT MOST DIFFICULT FOR MYB TEAM TO DRIVE TO THE HOOP THEY PREFER SHOOTING FROM PERIMETER THAN DRIVES. AND MY 1ON 1 GAME PLANS HAVE NOT BEEN WORKING FINE FOR ME, I WILL APPRECIATE IF YOU CAN SUGGEST AN EFFECTIVE AND VERY SIMPLE MAN TO MAN OFFENSIVE GAME AND HOW TO BRAKE IN A TIGHT DEFENCE.
CAOCH PEE

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I coach a 13U girls AAU team, and we just had our first tournament this past weekend. We looked really sharp in all of our practices before the tourney, but when we got to the tourney, our shots wouldn't fall (which is a whole other story), but mostly, we weren't getting good looks at the hoop. We run the "Valley" zone offense that you have, and it worked a little bit, but we are struggling with a man offense. Is there any suggestions for a very simple yet effective man offense to use?

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THANK YOU

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Carl,

In regards to your grand daughter, I have five suggestions for you:

1) Be careful. This is a touchy thing. All too often, young players are caught between what the parents (or grandparents) say and the coach tells them. Perhaps she coaches is urging her to pass before she shoots? She might have a role defined. Who should the youngster believe? Be careful about causing a difficult situation for your grandchild. The safest route is to encourage her to trust her coach and herself.

2) Be patient. Being just 14 years old on a varsity team can be very daunting. She wants to make her coach happy, she doesn’t want to let her teammates down, and she wants to impress you. She is experiencing SO many new things. New offense. New rules. Higher competition. So be patient. Experience will allow her to get into a comfort zone. It takes time and it’s not something you can force.

3) Continue to show unwavering love and support (win or lose). There are much more important things than winning or scoring points. The most important thing is for her to be happy and become a better person from this experience. When John Wooden was asked how would evaluate his season, he replied, “I’ll let you know in 10 years.”

4) Help improve confidence. Confidence comes from:

- experience
- practice
- success

You can’t force confidence. You can only nurture it and set players up for success. Ultimately they must make it happen.

Encourage her to be proactive. Successful people are proactive and realize they are in control of their life. Encourage her to talk with her coach and ask him/her what she can do to improve and help the team. (How can I reach my goals? How can I help the team?) Communication is important.

Show support. Encourage her to develop a practice plan in the off season. Encourage her to start charting her own shots. By charting shots from practice, you’ll see on paper you’re a good shooter. Charting is the BEST way to improve shooting confidence.

5) Reduce the fear of failure. As you mentioned, she is worried about messing up. You can’t blame her. However, simply by realizing that it’s ok to fail and the best NBA players in the world fail 50% of the time can help. The best NBA shooters usually miss about half of their shots. You can’t worry about missing.

Hope this helps.

Jeff Haefner

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Hi Rocky,

For some offenses against zone defenses, you should read our offensive theory article at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/Offense/offensiveTheory.html

The article will give you a better understanding of how to play against zone defenses. There is a zone offense example displayed all the way at the bottom as well.

Here is another simple offense for 2-3 zones: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/plays/yo-yo.html

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I would like some offences for zone defences,2-3 2-1-2,3-2 for u11 to learn.

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Hi Julio,

We have some End of Game plays in our free Breakthrough Basketball Plays ebook. You can sign up here: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/freebooks.html

You can also look at more plays on our website: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/plays.html

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sir:
i want to know some inbounding plays from the base line or side line.throw-in with lesser time remaining or in a dieng seconds situation ,i will apreciate it much if u send some set plays like that.

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Question: My Granddaughter is 14 years old and made the varsity squad on her High School Team..Fundamentally , she is sound...I believe she lacks a free-wheeling attitude about her role as an offensive player.I believe she should play without the concern for consequences ( making mistakes , or looking at the Coach everytime she turns aroun...) How can I help her believe she is a threat when she has the ball , versus just another player on the floor

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Dear Jeff and Joe Haefner,
Breakthrough Basketball, LLC.

I really appreciate your all efforts to enhance the quality of Magic Game of basketball.

All the Best Gentlemen,

Coach Tharindu
Sri Lanka

www.coachtharindu.net

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Charlie

We used it on our FIBA Liga de Americas team and was very successful.

Actually, if you come over mid-court with 16 seconds to shoot it is the worst of times. We emphasized using our break as a primary entry. Our objective was to either have the ball to the corner in 4 seconds or we used a point guard penetration as the next option if we could not get it up.

All you have to do is force 1 defensive rotation off penetration and the whole court opens up.

Don Kelbick
www.DonKelbickBasketball.com

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Hi Davut,

Here are a couple of drills on our site that are fastbreak drills: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/3on2FullCourtDrill.html & http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/PassandReplace.html

We also have some transition drills in our free drills ebook. If you have not downloaded this, you can sign up at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/freebooks.html

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This is nice thank u so much ..
do u have any 2x1 - 3x2 - 4x3 - 5x4 fastbreak drill and man to man sets for number 5 position and for women

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I think I''m a lucky person who were able to access your very fruitful web site which will keep me posted! it help a lot for a beginning coach to have read articles coming from different views. thanks a lot

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I second that!

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I like Menphis motion offenses, but what happens with shot clock.In Argentine we have 24 seconds shot clock rule,Could you tell me something about this, in the best of times you comes to the front court with 16 seconds and find a good shot,sometimes,takes more time.Thank u

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You guys are AWESOME!!!!!

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For ballhandling and dribbling drills, you can visit our fundamentals page here: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/ballhandling.html

You can also look in our Free Drills eBook which has a section specifically for ballhandling/ dribbling. Sign up here if you have not done so already: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/freebooks.html

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You can find Nike Coaches Clinics for this spring here: http://www.basketballcoach.com/cgi-bin/basketball/clinics/basketballclinics.html?mv_session_id=A7CuQnRh&id=A7CuQnRh

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I would love to have some information on the scramble defense if anyone could help
. Thjanks

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There is a mjor coaches clinic in Vegas May 9-11..info on the www.championshipproductions.com site.

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Every time i go throw your items , i imagine how much coaches around the world are profiting from the valuable information you are publishing . Thank you for your effort .

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Do you know of any training camps for coaches...I see all these sports camps for players but where can i get trained to be a better coach

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Do you have any drills that you recomend for dribbling both right and left handed. 11 yeargirls group.

Thanks,


Eddie

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thanks guys....this is very helpful to us.....havent tried yet...will let u know after i hve tried....its positives and negatives that has costs us while using this...

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amo muito o basquete mas falta algo para meus alunos renderem mais o que é que eu faço para eles botar em pratica obrigado Elder

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Do you have anything on the scramble Defense

thanks

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