Thanks for the comments. I understand where you guys are coming from on being hesitant to use a press at this age.
My main goal of using a press would be to create some easier scoring from us in short bursts. We're only allowed to press in the second half, so it would already be used sparingly.
I used to be the guy that told himself he didn't care about winning and losing as a youth coach. I still believe strongly that the main priority is teaching fundamentals and getting the players to grow over the course of a season to be ready to advance to the next level. However, my experiences have shown that you keep more kids mentally involved in this process when you are not only winning, but winning the right way. (not just letting the studs run the show, but involving everybody) The trick is finding that balance of keeping things fun and easy going, but also putting some stress to it. I believe kids need the competition and deep down they want to know if they win or lose. If you go about things the right way, they respond to the losses positively, wanting to find out why they lost, how to get better and how to win next time. Isn't that what we want our kids to learn? Anyways, off my soap-box now! LOL
Back to hoops, we've only been pressed by two teams this year. Both were just heavy m2m ful court presses. When it happens, we just put our 3 strongest ballhandlers in the backcourt and usually one of them is able to break the press on her own. We do full court zig-zags everyday emphaszing both offense and defense, so the girls have become used to advancing the ball the length of the floor against that type of pressure.
Travel team - roster size
12/27/2013 18:37
1/20/2014 17:14
Latest updates: Our record stands at 4-6 overall. 2 losses to teams a grade older than us and 2 losses by a combined 5 points.
Our offense is getting better. We had a string of games where we couldn't crack double digits, but the past two games we've gotten higher scoring outputs. We've worked hard on knowing which shots are best for each player. One shorter girl kept driving to the hoop looking for a layup everytime, but she's starting to understand that she can also create a jumpshot well within her range. Our two best drivers are now starting to really attack and we've focused on going in strong off one leg. I believe this helps draw fouls as opposed to making a jumpstop and going off both feet. Yesterday we were at the free throw line a bunch but didn't convert many of them.
Defensively, we've still got a couple girls that struggle with help defense and seeing their girl and the ball. That hurt us yesterday and we gave up a few wide open layups. More shell drill to come! We've been working on switching ball screens and I think that's going to be our best way to approach that going forward.
We spent a lot of time working on a fullcourt m2m press and press break this past week. We got pressed yesterday and we didn't commit a single turnover in breaking the press. We have a very smart inbounder and two girls that do a great job getting open and turning it up the court. We also used our fullcourt press yesterday for the first time. The other team really struggled to advance the ball on us. We got a lot of deflections and steals. When they did get the ball in, we did a good job of defending the dribbler, playing 1-2 passes away and coming up with a couple more steals that way.
Offensively, I'm still not sure if we're better off in a 4 out motion or a 5 out motion. The girls seem to have the 4 out down pretty good, with spacing and movement. I'm going to revisit the 5 out this week and see how they respond to it.
We are entering tournament season. We've got 6 tournaments between now and March 16. Looking forward to more excitement and growth.
Our offense is getting better. We had a string of games where we couldn't crack double digits, but the past two games we've gotten higher scoring outputs. We've worked hard on knowing which shots are best for each player. One shorter girl kept driving to the hoop looking for a layup everytime, but she's starting to understand that she can also create a jumpshot well within her range. Our two best drivers are now starting to really attack and we've focused on going in strong off one leg. I believe this helps draw fouls as opposed to making a jumpstop and going off both feet. Yesterday we were at the free throw line a bunch but didn't convert many of them.
Defensively, we've still got a couple girls that struggle with help defense and seeing their girl and the ball. That hurt us yesterday and we gave up a few wide open layups. More shell drill to come! We've been working on switching ball screens and I think that's going to be our best way to approach that going forward.
We spent a lot of time working on a fullcourt m2m press and press break this past week. We got pressed yesterday and we didn't commit a single turnover in breaking the press. We have a very smart inbounder and two girls that do a great job getting open and turning it up the court. We also used our fullcourt press yesterday for the first time. The other team really struggled to advance the ball on us. We got a lot of deflections and steals. When they did get the ball in, we did a good job of defending the dribbler, playing 1-2 passes away and coming up with a couple more steals that way.
Offensively, I'm still not sure if we're better off in a 4 out motion or a 5 out motion. The girls seem to have the 4 out down pretty good, with spacing and movement. I'm going to revisit the 5 out this week and see how they respond to it.
We are entering tournament season. We've got 6 tournaments between now and March 16. Looking forward to more excitement and growth.
1/20/2014 18:12
Maybe you're already doing this defensive drill... but I really like Cut Throat. Here is an explanation of how I had success with some middle school teams that I coach.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/ultimate-defense-drill.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/ultimate-defense-drill.html
1/20/2014 21:55
coachmt wrote:Defensively, we've still got a couple girls that struggle with help defense and seeing their girl and the ball. That hurt us yesterday and we gave up a few wide open layups. More shell drill to come! We've been working on switching ball screens and I think that's going to be our best way to approach that going forward.
Have you ever talked to them about "PISTOLS?" Point at man and ball.... that might solve your help defense.
1/21/2014 15:57
We've definitely done the Pistol thing. We're just going to have to keep at it.
A couple of the girls, have short attention spans...........to put it nicely. So focus is constantly an issue with them.
A couple of the girls, have short attention spans...........to put it nicely. So focus is constantly an issue with them.
1/21/2014 16:09
Trust me, you are not alone on the focus thing.... varsity boys have the same problem unless you keep them very busy.
Coach talks... ball is on the floor between your feet MAKE EYE CONTACT.
Coach talks... ball is on the floor between your feet MAKE EYE CONTACT.
1/27/2014 16:08
Just got another 2nd place finish. Lost the title game in a weekend tournament by 3 points. That's two tournaments and two 3 point championship losses.
Our biggest issue right now is playing effective offense against tough, physical defenders. We're going to have to toughen up if we're going to continue to compete.
We lost our first pool game 2-9. Then went on to win 10-0 and 22-5 to finish pool play.
Trailed at halftime in the semifinals but came back to win an exciting one 10-8.
Championship game we trailed 5-6 with about 3 minutes to play, but couldn't get another shot to fall and we lost 5-8.
I know a lot of teams play together for a long time and never even make one championship appearance, so I'm very proud of these girls in their first year of travel ball making two championship appearances in their first two tournaments.
Our biggest issue right now is playing effective offense against tough, physical defenders. We're going to have to toughen up if we're going to continue to compete.
We lost our first pool game 2-9. Then went on to win 10-0 and 22-5 to finish pool play.
Trailed at halftime in the semifinals but came back to win an exciting one 10-8.
Championship game we trailed 5-6 with about 3 minutes to play, but couldn't get another shot to fall and we lost 5-8.
I know a lot of teams play together for a long time and never even make one championship appearance, so I'm very proud of these girls in their first year of travel ball making two championship appearances in their first two tournaments.
1/27/2014 16:21
Congratulations ... you have to be doing something right... one of these days they will win the big one.... but the important thing is... ARE THEY HAVING FUN?
1/27/2014 16:37
They are definitely having fun.
After Saturday's pool play the entire team stopped at a pub right around the corner from the gym for lunch. We got an entire room to ourselves. Players and siblings at one table, mothers at another table, dads at their own table. The place had a couple tv's with different college basketball games on and at one point all of the girls were watching and they start calling out things we'll say at practice......."sag off of him!".........."help defense!"..........."pass and cut!"
It was quite funny.
They've also had one big sleepover at the beginning of the season at a player's house and 1-2 player birthday parties with the whole team there.
When we do partner work at practice I tell them they can't have the same partner as last time. So they've all worked together throughout the year. Every now and then I'll also give them assignments for water break with their partner. I'll think of a couple topics like favorite song or tv show. They have to find out what their partner's is and we'll take some time later in practice for them to reveal their partner's favorite things to the rest of the team.
I'm also trying to find a weekend when we're not in a tournament to take them someplace local to do some volunteer work together.
After Saturday's pool play the entire team stopped at a pub right around the corner from the gym for lunch. We got an entire room to ourselves. Players and siblings at one table, mothers at another table, dads at their own table. The place had a couple tv's with different college basketball games on and at one point all of the girls were watching and they start calling out things we'll say at practice......."sag off of him!".........."help defense!"..........."pass and cut!"
It was quite funny.
They've also had one big sleepover at the beginning of the season at a player's house and 1-2 player birthday parties with the whole team there.
When we do partner work at practice I tell them they can't have the same partner as last time. So they've all worked together throughout the year. Every now and then I'll also give them assignments for water break with their partner. I'll think of a couple topics like favorite song or tv show. They have to find out what their partner's is and we'll take some time later in practice for them to reveal their partner's favorite things to the rest of the team.
I'm also trying to find a weekend when we're not in a tournament to take them someplace local to do some volunteer work together.
1/27/2014 17:46
It sounds like you are doing a great job with them.... keep up the good work, I cant imagine anyone NOT wanting to play for you and be in your program.
2/24/2014 15:42
Make it three tournaments and three 2nd place finishes. These girls play their tails off. But it's like we get to these championship games and there is a mental hurdle that our girls cannot clear. I get the feeling that they are trying to play the perfect game and then once they make one tiny mistake, things start to crumble. They are almost playing afraid to lose, instead of playing to win.
We cruised through pool play in the last tournament, going 3-0. Each game we controlled the tempo and I'm not even sure we trailed in any of the games. We played fast, we played through mistakes, we didn't let things bother us. But in the championship game, things just weren't meant to be once again. The other team amped up their defense a little and once we turned it over a few times, it was tough to get the girls' minds right.
Either way, I'm extremely proud of these girls. What a season they are having. The skills and IQ progressions that have been made this season have been fantastic. Thursday night we played a team that switched between a 1-3-1 zone and a 2-1-2 zone. We only spent about an hour of practice time working on a 23 zone offense and then 2 minutes pregame talking about how to play against the 131. In the game, we seamlessly switched in and out of the two looks when they changed their defense.
Our defense was pretty good all tournament. Our four games were final scores of 27-4, 15-13, 15-9 and 4-9.
We cruised through pool play in the last tournament, going 3-0. Each game we controlled the tempo and I'm not even sure we trailed in any of the games. We played fast, we played through mistakes, we didn't let things bother us. But in the championship game, things just weren't meant to be once again. The other team amped up their defense a little and once we turned it over a few times, it was tough to get the girls' minds right.
Either way, I'm extremely proud of these girls. What a season they are having. The skills and IQ progressions that have been made this season have been fantastic. Thursday night we played a team that switched between a 1-3-1 zone and a 2-1-2 zone. We only spent about an hour of practice time working on a 23 zone offense and then 2 minutes pregame talking about how to play against the 131. In the game, we seamlessly switched in and out of the two looks when they changed their defense.
Our defense was pretty good all tournament. Our four games were final scores of 27-4, 15-13, 15-9 and 4-9.
3/3/2014 16:17
Finally did it! Won our own tournament on our homecourt.
We lost the first game of pool play and knew we'd have to win the next two to make the tournament. First was an easy 21-0 shutout of an all star team from our town's rec league. After that, our biggest, most aggressive player had to leave for a softball tournament. We trailed the next game by 5 with about 8 minutes to go and then something flipped a switch and we turned things around. Our full court pressure was unreal. A girl that does not get much playing time was cutting open and beating their press. Shots started falling and we held on for a 1 point win. Easily our most impressive win of the season because we had to come back from things when we would typically start to crumble.
Semifinals we start out giving up two easy baskets and we're down 0-4. We ended up winning 14-5 and their only other point was a free throw with about a minute left in the game.
Championship game was a rematch from last week's championship loss. It was a tight game in the first half until we scored twice in the final minute to take a 6 point lead at halftime. They made a little run in the second half, but we were able to convert a late steal and layup and then hang on for a 3 point win. They played a halfcourt trapping zone against us last week and we never countered it. So yesterday we came out in a Box and 1, with the 1 always chasing the ball. We call that position "the fox". This time they couldn't answer our defensive adjustment and we took home the trophy! It's the 7th time we had played them this season and I felt we needed to throw something at them that they hadn't seen us do yet.
Our word of the weekend was BELIEVE. Things will go bad, the other team will score, they will have the lead, we'll make mistakes. But you have to BELIEVE that you are able to overcome those things. BELIEVE in yourself and BELIEVE in your teammates.
We are 14-10 on the year and we've got two more tournaments to go. I can't believe it's all over in two weeks.
We lost the first game of pool play and knew we'd have to win the next two to make the tournament. First was an easy 21-0 shutout of an all star team from our town's rec league. After that, our biggest, most aggressive player had to leave for a softball tournament. We trailed the next game by 5 with about 8 minutes to go and then something flipped a switch and we turned things around. Our full court pressure was unreal. A girl that does not get much playing time was cutting open and beating their press. Shots started falling and we held on for a 1 point win. Easily our most impressive win of the season because we had to come back from things when we would typically start to crumble.
Semifinals we start out giving up two easy baskets and we're down 0-4. We ended up winning 14-5 and their only other point was a free throw with about a minute left in the game.
Championship game was a rematch from last week's championship loss. It was a tight game in the first half until we scored twice in the final minute to take a 6 point lead at halftime. They made a little run in the second half, but we were able to convert a late steal and layup and then hang on for a 3 point win. They played a halfcourt trapping zone against us last week and we never countered it. So yesterday we came out in a Box and 1, with the 1 always chasing the ball. We call that position "the fox". This time they couldn't answer our defensive adjustment and we took home the trophy! It's the 7th time we had played them this season and I felt we needed to throw something at them that they hadn't seen us do yet.
Our word of the weekend was BELIEVE. Things will go bad, the other team will score, they will have the lead, we'll make mistakes. But you have to BELIEVE that you are able to overcome those things. BELIEVE in yourself and BELIEVE in your teammates.
We are 14-10 on the year and we've got two more tournaments to go. I can't believe it's all over in two weeks.
3/26/2014 21:53
The season wrapped up about a week and a half ago with a loss in the semifinals. We played in two tournaments to finish the season after winning our own hometown tournament and we finished in 3rd place in both of them. Both tournaments were made up of several teams we hadn't seen before and were of a higher caliber than our typical competition. But we hung right with them. One semifinal loss was by 5 points and the other was by 7 points. I'd venture to say that if we played each of those teams 10 times each, we'd probably be able to win at least half of them.
One thing that hurt us was not facing that tough of competition on a regular basis. Our program director failed to get us into an actual league where we would have faced some very top notch teams. Instead we hosted several "glorified scrimmages" in the early part of the winter before tournament season took off.
We finished our season with an overall record of 18-13. We played in six tournaments with the follwoing results: One (1) Championsip, Three (3) Runner-ups and Two (2) Third places. It was our first season playing together and my first season involved in travel basketball. I'd rate it an overall success. In our last tournament, family obligations took a girl away from us that many would perceive to be our top player (leads team in points, rebound and blocks). We had lost our opening matchup with her in the lineup and had to win our remaning two pool games to get to the semifinals. Our girls stepped up in a huge way and we won twice, both times in a very decisive manner. I think this showed how truly deep our team was. I think 5 girls shared the leading scorer role at different times during the season. And we eventually had 3-4 girls we could consistently and confidently rely on to handle the ball when the other team showed full court pressure.
One sequence I'll never forget is our final victory was us getting a defensive rebound, making an outlet pass, that girl throwing the ball to center court to our PG and our PG taking two dribbles, throwing over the top of the defense to a teammate. That girl bobbled the ball out of bounds, but she would have ahd a wide open layup. It just showed the growth of the team in being able to advance the ball the length of the floor with basically two dribbles.
Hopefully all 8 girls will return to tryout next season and there might be 1-2 other girls we try to get to tryout as well. An independent organization conducts tryouts and does evaluations to determine the roster, but I believe I can have a final say on things. I think we layed an outstanding foundation with these girls and I feel like we can make a serious run at being one of the top teams in our area for the next two years before they move onto middle school ball.
One thing that hurt us was not facing that tough of competition on a regular basis. Our program director failed to get us into an actual league where we would have faced some very top notch teams. Instead we hosted several "glorified scrimmages" in the early part of the winter before tournament season took off.
We finished our season with an overall record of 18-13. We played in six tournaments with the follwoing results: One (1) Championsip, Three (3) Runner-ups and Two (2) Third places. It was our first season playing together and my first season involved in travel basketball. I'd rate it an overall success. In our last tournament, family obligations took a girl away from us that many would perceive to be our top player (leads team in points, rebound and blocks). We had lost our opening matchup with her in the lineup and had to win our remaning two pool games to get to the semifinals. Our girls stepped up in a huge way and we won twice, both times in a very decisive manner. I think this showed how truly deep our team was. I think 5 girls shared the leading scorer role at different times during the season. And we eventually had 3-4 girls we could consistently and confidently rely on to handle the ball when the other team showed full court pressure.
One sequence I'll never forget is our final victory was us getting a defensive rebound, making an outlet pass, that girl throwing the ball to center court to our PG and our PG taking two dribbles, throwing over the top of the defense to a teammate. That girl bobbled the ball out of bounds, but she would have ahd a wide open layup. It just showed the growth of the team in being able to advance the ball the length of the floor with basically two dribbles.
Hopefully all 8 girls will return to tryout next season and there might be 1-2 other girls we try to get to tryout as well. An independent organization conducts tryouts and does evaluations to determine the roster, but I believe I can have a final say on things. I think we layed an outstanding foundation with these girls and I feel like we can make a serious run at being one of the top teams in our area for the next two years before they move onto middle school ball.
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