My daughter is 12. Her AAU team is pretty solid. They have 9 girls. Everyone of them is at least an above average player.

And yet, they haven’t performed to the level of their ability. The whole is not equalling up to the sum of the parts.

You might think this is a coaching rant. It’s not. In fact, I don’t think it has anything to do with their coach.

So what’s the issue? Allow me to tell you about a recent game. . .

The Difference Between Winning & Losing . . .

Last month, we played in the championship game of a local tournament. The team they played was solid. They had a couple good players and a bunch of decent girls around them.

It was the second time we (I am not a fan of using we to describe my kids’ teams but I will for simplicity's sake in this instance) played them in this tournament.

In pool play, they beat us by 10.

In the championship, they beat us by 8.

The games were almost identical. If you lined the girls up 1 by 1, we had the better roster. However, we all know the game’s not played that way.

So what made the difference? Much of it came down to the quality of shots that each team took. While they shot mostly open shots, many of our shots were contested.

Was that attributable to defense? Not really. I thought both teams defended at about the same level.

So what was it. . . PASSING!

Their passing was so much better than ours. They were consistently finding open girls in rhythm. We weren’t.

If passing was the problem, why was that so? Were our girls selfish and unwilling to pass? No, they weren’t. They genuinely like and support each other. They don’t hog the ball.

They know how to throw fundamental passes, sohat wasn’t it. . . 

At first, I was stumped as to what the root cause was. About 5 minutes into the 2nd half, it hit me.

The reason our team passed so poorly is because almost every girl dribbles with her head down!

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to pass. It was that they couldn’t pass because they couldn’t see the floor!

As a result, open girls either never received the ball or got it too late. Shots that should have been uncontested were now defended.

Ultimately, that was the difference between winning & losing. Because their girls were better at dribbling with their head up, they got better shots. And the team that gets better shots almost always wins!

As I watched other youth games this weekend, I noticed the same thing. So few youth players can handle the ball with their eyes up. 

What results is missed opportunities, or even worse, turnovers from passes thrown too late.

Why You Should Practice Dribbling To Pass Better

All that said, what’s the takeaway? That teaching dribbling needs to be a primary focus of your player development.

Because it’s not just passing that suffers. Layups win youth basketball games. Why do many players miss layups? Their eyes are down until the last second.

If you want to improve every aspect of your offense, teach your players to dribble with their head up. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll see!

If you’re looking for a great resource to do this, check out our Ballhandling and Footwork Workouts app.

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