Hi all, I coach a 7th and 8th grade boys team. I can still hear coaches yelling BOX OUT from when I played in Junior High and High School years ago. All the skills books and DVDs I have seen emphasize boxing out and I have been dutifully teaching this to my teams. However, I have been questioning this over the last couple years. Last year about mid way through the season I stopped with box out drills, put some tape on the floor, which I called the rebound line, and told the defensive team to sprint to the rebound line every time a shot went up. My perception was that we became a much more effective rebounding team because my guys got position rather than worrying about boxing out. It also gave them one simple thing to focus on. Of course, I was also wondering whether I was hurting their long term development by de-emphasizing the box out. Where does boxing out fit in the teaching progression for rebounding? If you listen to coaches yelling from the benches or read the books you would think it is the most important thing. I'm not so sure. Any thoughts are appreciated. Dave

Dave -

You are right... coaches are always yelling BOX OUT. Does it get done... not as often as we would like. I had one varsity team that was really bad it. So, I ran box out drills 4x a practice for several weeks with NO improvement. I finally decided to use that time for shooting and get something out of it.

I like your idea of putting down the tape.... maybe you could add this... get to the line and try and put a body on someone... that might help and they will still understand that boxing out is a big part of the game.

Bottom line is this.... DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. JMO

I teach boxing out but don't "require it". More specifically I tell the "hit (box), find, and fetch the ball". I think you quickly find the offense, check them, locate the ball, then GO GET IT!

We run this drill every day and make it competitive (keep score and reward the winner or punish the losing team):
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/reactionrebounding.html

We do box out in games but not always. I think we do the drill often enough that players have just learned how to rebound and have somewhat of a habit of boxing out, but not always.

We do pretty well on the boards (we track the stats closely and share them with players -- we use % of opportunities - not actual quantity). So it seems to be working for us.

Position
Anticipation
Toughness
All are qualities of a good rebounder. But the #1 quality is DESIRE. A player has to WANT to rebound. A player has to understand the VALUE of every rebound. I tell my players this all the time. During our post-game team talk I never mention points or who scored the most. But I will mention who pulled down 6 rebounds or who ripped down 11 rebounds, etc. Those players get recognized right after the game for their efforts.
Side Note; I also point out who lead with steals and deflections.

Sure..the actual boxing out is important but you don't have to stress it every game or every practice. Talk to your players about the value of each and every rebound.

Sometimes to stress this during a practice, when we scrimmage fullcourt. I change the rules: (1) point for every basket, (2) points for every rebound. Winning team gets ice cold Gatorade.

Good Luck

Have Fun!!

Coach A