Hi,

I am a new coach in this field, and I am trying to improve my teenage boys basketball team in anticipating the movement of the opposing team. Another area I am concerned with my boys is in improving their deception, such as successfully cause deception in their opponent, and how my boys can prevent deception caused by the opposing team. What books or drills would you recommend?

Thanks!

My suggestion is to make sure that your players are well drilled in the fundamentals of m2m defense..... there is an old saying - Offense wins games but DEFENSE wins championships...... I know you have to put the ball in the basket to win..... but a good defensive team can keep themselves in games when the shots aren't dropping.
Look on the left here... there is a multitude of information on defense, offense and a lot of other things. There is more on the net....
As for anticipating... where are you going to get hurt.... players cutting to the basket mostly...... passes into the post too... and good shooters.... I'd rather get beat from the outside than on lay ups or post touches.... the more you coach this game you will know the strenghts of the other team and their players. then you defend them to take that away.

Here's a good article about defensive anticipation:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/quickness.html

Great article Jeff.

Thanks, I will try it out!

I would specifically recommend drill where you have five players standing on offence spreading the floor. Swing the ball around and have the defense practice and focus on their defensive shifts. Obviously don't allow the defense to intercept passes.

Have the offense pass,
- into the post
- quick swing passes
- cross court

The focus here is on the defense shifting and working on their weak side defense, playing passing lanes and communication.
Simple and effective.
More drills here if you're interested. Good luck!
http://www.basketballshootingdrills.org

thank you

IF you mean what do you want to be known for? I would say a GREAT defensive team.. its hard to be good at a lot of things... but I would start on D. I know you have to score to win... but there are going to be games where the ball doesn't drop for you.... so your D better be great.

NOt sure what you mean by "ballistic faking" ?? If you mean to get the defense to react to your shot fake or pass fake... the player with the ball has to sell the fake.

I taught this in my summer camps for younger kids.... started on the sideline... teach the various dribble moves and when they get to the other side... they come to a jump stop and BACKPIVOT..... (they already know how to front pivot so this gives them another move) They would end up in a Triple Threat positon..... I would say shot fake and they would give a good head and ball fake coming back to the T threat position... then I would say pass fake and they would execute that coming back to the T threat... I would do that several times.

Then you can play Monkey in the middle... one chaser on D with 2 offensive players 12 to 15' apart...... the idea is to pass back and forth without the man in the middle touching the ball.... shot fake will bring his hands up (if you do this near a basket and allow a shot) but they must utilize pass fakes to pass to the other player without the D touching it. Do this for 20 seconds and rotate players. I'm not so sure how excited they will get... but you will be able to teach it this way.