Coaching a small team

I'm coaching a 5th grade travel team. We are a good team with some very skilled players, but are very undersized. I only have one player who's taller than average for the age, and he is a very weak basketball player. I could use some new ideas for strategies as to how to best coach this team. The main area that we get killed on is defensive rebounding. When we play a team with taller boys (which is most of the teams we play), they get an inordinate number of baskets due to putbacks after their offensive rebounds., I'm sure you've seen it - big guy gets a rebound, misses a layup, rebounds it again, misses, rebounds, misses, ... makes. Welcome to my world. So to win games, we need to get an inordinate number of "normal" (non putback) baskets as compared to the other team.

I've tried the obvious things - spreading the floor on offense to "thin the trees" in the paint, and worked on boxing out up the wazoo. Regarding boxing out, they seem to be at the point where they have the sklil of boxing out, but when a ball goes up they still have the instinct of putting their hands up and forgetting about boxing out.

If anyone has any other ideas, as well as any good boxing out drills, I'd appreciate it!

- Dave

Blocking out is one of the hardest things to get kids to do on a consistent basis. Sounds like your team has some skilled players so emphasizing blocking out shouldn't interfere with the other core defensive fundamentals. I'd remind them every game, "If you do one thing and one thing only on defense, you're going to block out".

I've witnessed some smaller travel teams take it to a bigger team with quickness and finesse. They seem to do two things that work well 1) use their speed both ways on the court and 2)crash the boards. These teams just fly around the paint looking to get there first on rebounds and loose balls. And it's not just one kid, it's all of them.

Not sure there's a silver bullet when you play bigger teams. They'll take advantage of the mismatch, I would. I'd play to your strengths, so if you give up some rebounds, you make it up with getting down the court quicker on transition. Maybe more emphasis on ball pressure up front to keep it out of the paint.

On a side note: I have two guards that are pretty small for 8th graders. We run a one on one drill rolling the ball out to the FT line to a player, closing out and then it's on. I've been amazed to see some of my 5' guys block out our 6' guys and actually get the rebound because of it. Once they experience that, there's no going back because they see it works.

Great ideas Rob -

Before I got to the high school level, I coached 7/8th graders too..... and I had one team that was great at boxing out, it got to the point that they were pushing them out a little too far.... ( worried about fouls ) This one time was the best team I ever had boxing out.

They really have to buy into what you are selling... "That BOXING OUT wins games!" How about some sort of certificate to the player who does the best job of blocking out every game..... and you can set a goal for the number of offensive rebounds they allow... and if they achieve that goal.... you could give them some small treat?? I love bribery, works every time.

Here is one drill... there are several more on the net if you don't have some of your own.

http://www.coachesclipboard.net/ReboundingCircleDrill.html

Jeff/Joe - I couldn't find a drill on your site on the left here... did I miss them?

Thanks, guys!

I've actually used both the circle drill and the "roll it out and they play one on one" drill many times. They're good, and my boys can do them pretty well, but it doesn't seem to take in games as much as I'd like. I like the idea of a reward. I'll have to think about how to do that, it obviously depends on who we're playing as to how many offensive rebounds would be acceptable.

We run a simple close out drill with consequences (if defense doesn't end up with ball - 5 push-ups). It covers help side, moving on the pass, close out, boxing out, and getting the ball.

Two lines on each side of FT extended, one line has the ball and is passing, the other line is receiving. The player in the middle is help side and covering the player receiving the pass. Pass goes to receiving line, help side must move on ball and try to beat the pass. They close out, when shot goes up they must yell "Shot!" and block out. If the offense ends up with the ball, it's 5 push-ups for the defense. Whoever gets rebound makes a good pass to the receiving line, the next person in passing line becomes help-side and should move into place quickly after shot is taken. No dribbles or fakes, just one shot for shooting line.

We run this every practice for 10 minutes. We encourage the offensive player to make it hard on the person blocking them out. If the defender isn't blocking out properly, they'll end up doing push-ups.

Rob:

I think I like the sound of that, but I'm a little confused. You talk about the passing line and receving line, but where does the "player in the middle" stand, exactly? And who goes for the rebound on the "offense" - just the shooter? Or does the passer also go for the rebound (in case there must be another defender...)?

- Dave

dpt wrote:Rob:I think I like the sound of that, but I'm a little confused. You talk about the passing line and receving line, but where does the "player in the middle" stand, exactly? And who goes for the rebound on the "offense" - just the shooter? Or does the passer also go for the rebound (in case there must be another defender...)?- Dave

To start the drill you pick a player who is in help side defense or "pistols" . We don't have someone at the point on offense, so we're acting like the defender is two passes away. The first person in the passing line passes to receiver to start drill, that passer becomes the next defender. Once the shot is taken, just the shooter and defender are going for the rebound, no extras. It's a one on one type thing.

The reason go without a point is we're teaching help side in this also, so we add a dribble to this drill later on. A coach will stand under the basket behind the defender and give a signal to the passer to pass or dribble. The passer can only dribble towards the lane and the help side should be there to stop him.

Ok, I think I got it. So it's also working on help side close outs when the defender's man gets a pass from a passer who is two passes away. So is the defender ideally supposed to get there in time to close out and stop the shot?

My best defensive rebounding weapon is our defense. We usually do extremely well on the boards because about the only thing we give up are contested / hurried jump shots. We usually keep the ball out of the post, seal seams on the perimeter, and keep the ball about 15 ft from the basket.

It doesn't matter how many box out / rebounding drills you do, if the opponent is able to get the ball close to the basket via drive or post up, your defensive players will be out of position and have trouble getting the defensive rebounds. Sealing seams and keeping the ball out keeps our guys in good rebounding position.

Just wanted to throw that out there as something to keep in mind. You have to decide what things will give you a return. Sometimes you'll find that you can spend your entire season working on something and get little result. If it were me I'd focus on good defense (keeping the ball away from the basket) which I think will help with the rebounding problems and spend a lot of time on offensive fundamentals (shooting, passing, dribbling, footwork, etc). You might not win a lot of games but you'll be developing the kids to have a chance in the future, which is what this is all about.

Jeff -

Funny you point this out.... one year we spent time on boxing out.... 4 different segments at 5 minutes !! Guess what we got out of that? ZIP / Zilch..... so I decided to spend more time on defense and shooting.... cant win if you cant socre. JMO

One thing I would stress to your players is that positioning beats height. Right now I guarantee that they look at the other team and think "geeze those guys are tall, good luck rebounding." Convince them that by proper positioning, they can minimize the height advantage. And like was said above, pressure the permitier to keep the ball away from the bigs. They are going to get their points, just don't let them dominate. Good luck.

JeffHaefner wrote:My best defensive rebounding weapon is our defense....

Sounds lke a great strategy, but I think it would be tough for us to stop all driving to the basket, given the restrictive defense rules we have in our league. Mandatory man to man, no trapping or double teaming, defenders must stay within 3 feet of their man on the strong side, one foot in the paint on the weak side (it's unclear what the strong and weak side is if the ball is at the top of the key...)

If you have similar rules in your league and can still manage to keep players out of the paint, I'd love to hear how!

In any case, it doesn't prevent them from getting an automatic basket on putbacks, if we can't get most of the defensive rebounds - wherever the shot came from.

Coach -

Get the ball off the center line and your helpside will be dictated.... when its in the middle of the floor, there isn't any help side... That should help you a lot. And... have your kids move on what we call AIR TIME... meaning. move to the ball when its in the air.

dpt wrote:Ok, I think I got it. So it's also working on help side close outs when the defender's man gets a pass from a passer who is two passes away. So is the defender ideally supposed to get there in time to close out and stop the shot?

Yes. The defender should move on the pass and try to beat the pass (he normally won’t, but it gets him there quickly).

dpt wrote:…given the restrictive defense rules we have in our league. Mandatory man to man, no trapping or double teaming, defenders must stay within 3 feet of their man on the strong side, one foot in the paint on the weak side (it's unclear what the strong and weak side is if the ball is at the top of the key...)

When we’re playing M2M and the ball is a top of key, our help-side guards sag to prevent penetration and our big guys are in full denial. Assuming they allow one pass away up top to sag a bit, no? There really isn't a weak side if the ball is in the middle, so I’d ask for clarification from someone (ref or AD) if you’re not sure how they view it.

If you have similar rules in your league and can still manage to keep players out of the paint, I'd love to hear how!

If it were me, I’d customize drills based on the rules in your league and what’s been happening in games. For example, if your guards are getting beat off the dribble, I’d set up scenarios that are game-like to your specific situation. How do other teams stop the dribble penetration in your league? How do other teams stop the ball from getting into the paint? Seems the strategy for you will be to force shots from the outside which means more pressure on the ball and stopping dribble penetration and passes into the paint.

In any case, it doesn't prevent them from getting an automatic basket on putbacks, if we can't get most of the defensive rebounds - wherever the shot came from.

Are you consistently running into teams with several players taller than yours or just a couple of bigs? It’s water under the bridge at this point, but if you’re a travel team, did you have any input on who was on your team?

It's confusing because the rules are quite clear about what a violation is on the mandatory man to man defense. Other teams violate these rules and usually get away with it, but I'm hesitant to tell the boys to do the same thing, because if they ever get called on it, the ref is telling them that they can't do what coach told them they could do.

Regarding the size of my boys, we're pretty consistently smaller across the board. I picked the team - they're the best players in the grade in our town. It's just a small grade. Maybe there's something in the water.

dpt wrote:It's confusing because the rules are quite clear about what a violation is on the mandatory man to man defense. Other teams violate these rules and usually get away with it, but I'm hesitant to tell the boys to do the same thing, because if they ever get called on it, the ref is telling them that they can't do what coach told them they could do.

Before the game starts, you can clarify (with the refs) the "special defensive rules" which would keep it fresh in their minds. I think this would help if the other team starts to violate the rules. At least you have a reference point when talking to the ref during a game.

If the refs aren't calling it tight in a game and seem to be letting the players play, I call time out and let my guys know what's up. My players know I'm not suggesting they start throwing elbows, but they know to play more aggressive. If they start tightening up, we adjust.

If the other team is killing you because they're violating the "special rules", you can either ask for clarification from the ref during the game or adjust your players to fix the problem. If the refs don't seem to care, then I'm not sure it's a huge deal if your players adjust in a game even if it's against the "letter of the law".