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PostPosted: 19 Apr 2015, 22:45 

Posts: 59
I coach a 9th grade girls AAU team and we played our first tournament this weekend. We lost an exciting championship game against a really nice team. I wouldn't present it to my players this way, but one of the main reasons we lost was our two point guards inability to handle fullcourt ball pressure effectively. We didn't turn it over as much as we allowed the ball defender to get us into a zig zag drill and therefore had a hard time getting into our offense. We play again this weekend, but are unable to hold any practices this week. I want to give my guards something to work on this week to relieve ball pressure, get into our offense and give them some confidence going into the weekend. They are talented, but coming from small rural schools, they haven't experienced true ball pressure in a game situation. Sean Miller has a really good video on YouTube, but it stops at a critical point in his teaching. I realize I'm limited, but do you have any suggestions for me to help my players before the weekend?

Thank you


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PostPosted: 20 Apr 2015, 07:32 
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Handling pressure is an important skill to develop and takes time. Some players just need experience. But I have found that few coaches teach point guards how to handle pressure. I'm not sure why that is.

There are some basic fundamental concepts players need to learn through drills, practice and game experience...

- change speeds to keep defender off balance
- change of direction moves and the fundamental teaching points that go along with it
- keep eyes up
- dribbling skill with left and right hand while keeping eyes up
- protecting the ball by using the control dribble
- using the retreat dribble to get out of bad spots, improve passing angles, beat defenders, and to buy time
- beat a defender in open court (simple cross or behind the back and in/out moves are effective... usually the in/out coupled with change of speed is best but just required drilling and practice in 1v1 situations
- beat a defender while being tightly guarded (often times a simple retreat and reattack applying your previously learned open court skills is the way to go)
- keeping the ball in the middle of the court as you advance the ball so you can stay out of traps and have option to pass left or right (changing speeds, retreating, and simple cross / in out / hesitation moves are the key)
- ability to pass off the dribble all in one smooth motion

I think that's pretty much it for fundamentals.

Here are a few drills that have worked really well for me....

- Lots of variations of 1v1 that challenge the ballhandlers. Adjust the rules and constraints to emphasis different skills and challenge them appropriately. This is one of my favorites.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/play.asp?id=66
Then I live this for open court.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/high-five-one-on-one.html
Then then this for full court close space situation.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/1on1-grid-drill.html

- Simple drills so players get better at passing off the dribble. You can use almost any passing drill. You can run a box passing drill, two dribbles and pass to next player. Then after a few minutes go the other direction so it's two dribbles with your left and pass to the next player.

- 3on3 full court no dribble, except the point guard can dribble to initiate the play (after the inbounds). But once they pick it up, no dribble. PG should be pressured full court.

- Use cones, chairs, etc to work on the basic skills too... retreat dribble, comfort with the ball, changing speeds to keep defenders off balance, and change of direction moves.

- I am biased because this is my own, but I think this DVD has a bunch of good drills for developing guards too.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/30-competitive-drills.html

Hope this helps.

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Jeff Haefner
http://www.BreakthroughBasketball.com


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PostPosted: 20 Apr 2015, 11:45 

Posts: 900
Great info from Jeff up there ^

Regarding this weekend, I would remind your players what full court pressure is designed to do, which is basically force the offense into making a bad decision. They need to remain calm. I'd also explain that full court press is the defense taking a chance they could be beaten, so your girls need to feel confident this is an opportunity to "make the other team pay" for taking that risk. Do you have any standard press breakers or are you clearing out and just letting your guards bring it up?

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CRob


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PostPosted: 21 Apr 2015, 19:13 

Posts: 59
Hi Guys!

Really useful information. We do utilize a pressbreaker, but clear out if it's m2m with no trapping. The good news is we are now able to practice tomorrow night!

Thanks!


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