Man to Man offense

Hi, my name's Mike. I play small forward on my school team. I'm gonna be a bit blunt here, but my shooting and layups are perfect. Unfortunately, when playing against a man to man defense i get really stuck. My one on one offense is terrible.I really cant get past an offender. Basically my only moves are a pump fake, quick cross-over, roll off and pivoting beside the defender for a layup. Not a great selection of moves.

Any tips on what new moves i should use, and any drills i should do to get better.

Thanks a lot.

Hi Mike,

IF you have the shooting skills you say you have, let the shot come to you more... be patient..... they will come. Don't try to force the issue, sometimes when we do that it only makes it worse. We look bad and we don't score.

Work on taking the ball to the basket.... that can get you to the free throw line. Do you utilize coming off a screen and being ready to shoot? Read the defense and take what they give you. Curl - fade etc.

As far as drills go, do something that you would use out of your offense.. it wont do you any good doing something that you wont use in games right now. This is your season, work within the confines of your team philosophy.

Ken

Mike,

You don't need a lot of moves. Kevin McHale made a living in the NBA and became one of the best low post scorers in history with two primary moves... Jump Hook and Step Through.

If you can get really good at a primary move and counter move you can become a dominant player. Sometimes learning too many different moves just causes you to second guess yourself in the game and you end up thinking instead of reacting.

If playing in the post is your strength and where you'll be in the future, maybe you can have your parents buy you this book for Christmas.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/post-play.html

It teaches you how to use your feet to get past the defender. The key is getting your hip past the defender and using your feet to create space. Anyway if the book is something you can afford I'm sure it would help you.

It's good that you can shoot. That is very important. Talk with your coach to better learn your offense so you can learn how to get open. If you ask, I'm sure your coach will help you.

Good luck.

Thanks a lot guys. I like to get inside and do my scoring from there. I'm good at shooting from a distance because I find it hard to get inside. TO make it worse, i'm like half the size of all the other players(i'm 5'8"). So i'd like to get inside to do my shooting, but I am not much of a power player. As for my team's usual playing style; we always have differant lineups(due to certain problems) and also do not run many plays, just basic zonal D, man-to-man offense pick-and-roll etc. Our left side is stronger than right as we have a whole bunch of left handed players who usually play left positions. So because of this, the gaurd on the left passes off to me if he's not open, then he either cuts and gets a pass from me, or i pull up and shoot(after some fakes) but i would like the option of going in myself.

PS: This is not so important, but i'm playing in Sri Lanka now, and most players are tall but really thin and i can easily overpower them. Like taking charges is nothing cause they're so light.

Any other tips???

Study the game and play to your strengths! Start here for learning the game:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/players/players.html