I'm coaching 8th grade boys. We seem to pass a cut like wildmen, very fast and frantic. I need suggestions on how to get more inside touches. In addition how much of a roll is dribble penetration playing in your offenses? We have emphasized baskets cuts and screen aways but struggle at times to get much out of it.

When it gets too frantic, you have to get them to slow down.

Literally count out the 1-1,000, 2-1,000 to make them realize how much better tempo they get when they get the ball and look.

You can make them check high post or low post on every catch (you can modify that too, if you don't want a certain post feed from a certain position.)

Bob Hurley had a great drill called the CBA drill (which was taken from the coach at Christian Brothers Academy).

Offense gets 5 possessions going live against defense.

1 point for a change of sides.
1 point for every 3 passes.
1 point for a high post pass.
2 points for a low post pass.
2 points for a lay-up.
Lose 2 points on any turnover.

Any offensive player only gets one dribble anytime they catch the ball.

After 5 possessions, switch offense to defense and defense to offense. Go 5 more possessions. Calculate points to declare a winner. You can have managers keep track or keep track yourself (can be difficult to do if you are also trying to teach the offense at the same time. This is a better drill if you are going to run it as a way to let the players "find their way" on offense. Just enforce the rules).

As far as dribble penetration, it is a huge part of today's game and is necessary to put pressure on the defense. You must be able to attack gaps, make the help come to you, and force defenses to rotate in order to force mistakes and missed rotations. It is also a necessary way to draw fouls.

The danger in the dribble penetration and what you start to see in high school and see too much of in college and the NBA is when teams. Players become so obsessed with dribble penetrating that they stay out on the perimeter, over-dribbling, waiting for that gap to appear, waiting to take advantage. It stagnates ball movement and really kills offense.

We try to remind our players to check position, look for open pass. We don't want to kill any instinctual immediate drive. But we want them to be smart and we don't want them to dribble the Spalding off the ball trying to wait for a driving lane. If it isn't there in two seconds, then it isn't your turn. Pass the ball and move for your next chance.

Make sure, whether it is a point drive or a wing baseline or wing middle drive, that your players know where to rotate to in open areas so they can take advantage of defensive rotations.

Just some thoughts.

Coach,
Thank you for your well thought out and detailed reply. I will give the counting out loud a try. I appreciate all suggestions as I just learned motion from playing lots of pick up ball, but it seems to be another level to be able to teach it. I find myself struggling with the words to help them or maybe more so the patience and time that is required for the boys to get it.

Break the actions down into parts, 2 and 3 man drills. Work on the actions you want them to perform in a game, and help them to recognize opportunities to perform those actions while in practice and scrimmage situations.

The other key part with 8th graders is not to introduce too much. Jeff Haefner has some great stuff on another post on the motion offense he teaches, and one of the things that makes it effective is simplicity. He doesn't give them a lot of rules to follow, and that allows players to react more freely.

When you are in scrimmage situations, try not to "tell" the players what to do, but pose the question to them: "what are your options here?"

Set up a 3 on 3 situation and have players in set spots on a court. Then ask each player: "The ball is here. What is something you can do to help us score?"

This allows the player to supply the answer and sometimes they can come up with things that we as coaches never think of. We want to bring out that creativity in our players, because I think in the end it makes them more effective.

Sorry if I don't read this entire thread. My schedule is crazy but I at least wanted to respond. I'm sure Brian has great ideas.

I run 5 out motion with our 3rd grade, 5th, and 10th graders. It works fantastic at all levels. We start with cutting. Then add screen away. Then add post ups or ball screens (only players I designate are allowed to set ball screens and/or post up -- this gives you better flow, structure, and at the higher levels gets your bigs setting screens for guards).

Our 5th graders use screen away and cuts. Not really using post ups or ball screens. But we practice it some so they start learning.

We keep it real simple giving players freedom... the only requirement we have is.... "We want great spacing and ball movement until we get a good shot. Get all the rebounds".

That is our entire offense explained in two sentences. The rest is just fundamental development.

They have to screen properly... with screen away we only allow players to curl or reject the screen (read the defense). Then the screener always pops back to the ball. We get lots of ball reversals out of this and our sophomores get lots of open 3 pt shots.

Dribble penetration is a huge role in our offense. But it's only situational. If you have an open lane for a possible lay up, get to the rim. And sometimes players dribble to draw help and kick out. But if the defense is in good position, pass the ball!!! So again, it's all situational.

When we have a problem, it aways comes down to spacing, ball movement, or basic fundamentals. My guess is your problem biggest is spacing. Constantly emphasize spacing. If they are frantically cutting, my guess is spacing is not good. They are probably cutting on top of each other, filling too late or too soon, etc. Maintain good spacing!

Then to get ball movement, players that are one pass away must read the defense. If you are covered, either pop out, basket cut, or screen away. Preferably read the defense and pop out if they sag. Use hand signals so the passer knows what you are doing.

For post ups, we specify which guys can post. They can either post when they receive an away screen, passing from the top, or passing from the corner. I give them a 3-8 seconds to post. Then clear out or back screen out.

Brian and Jeff had some excellent suggestions.

Establishing some simple rules for the person receiving the pass helps a lot. If a player always receives the pass and then immediately turns to pass, it takes aways several possible options.

For the person receiving the pass:

1) Always set up in triple threat when you receive the pass with the purpose of looking at your options. Can I take an open shot? Drive? Pass to the cutter? Use the onball screen? If the player receiving the pass has it drilled into their heads they have options, waiting before acting right away begins to make sense. Some of their "options" have to develop first (e.g. screens being set)

2) If the player passing the ball cuts, pass to cutter if you can see their #s on front of jersey

3) If passer sets off ball screen, look for that cutter.

Dribble penetration can get funky in a motion if you don't wait for the cutters to clear, which is another reason for the player receiving the pass to wait. If your spacing is nice and wide, after a cutter goes through, your point can use a shot fake or jab step to set up a dribble drive.

Sometimes slowing it down in practice and going through the options with half speed defense helps.

I'll end with this, the motion offense seems relatively simple (which it is in theory), but executing it the right way forces teams to look at their fundamentals. What started to happen with my team is we found that: we didn't have a target out to receive passes, our passes weren't crisp and in the right place, we weren't setting up in triple threat, we weren't setting up proper screens, we didn't sprint cuts all the way to the basket, our jab steps and shot fakes weren't convincing enough.

The good news is you're on the right track to make your player's better all around basketball players by teaching them some good solid fundamentals that can be used in any offensive set.

Coaches, tremendous feedback here, thank you. Your responses have given me a good sense on what we need to do improve our timing, post feeds, and dribble penetration. I will continue to lean on you guys as situations arise. Ty