Middle School Girls & Passing/spacing/movement

I'm in my 2nd year coaching (now 7th grade girls). I understand the idea of spacing & movement & want to teach these concepts to the girls, but many aren't strong enough to pass the ball very far. How do I accomplish this?

12 - 15 feet is pretty good spacing.... they cant pass that far?

Coach Sar,
Thanks for your reply. I'm not sure what kind of answer I was looking for. Yes, the girls can make the pass that distance, but the defense can get there just as quick as the ball. Typically the defenders are much more aggressive than the offense because of the girls difficulty in creating separation. We had a very successful season last year (2nd in the league), but most of the offense was created by dribbling & driving - not through ball movement. It's just a limitation that I'm trying to figure out a way to overcome. If I can get them doing more backdoor cuts with some success that might get the defense to stop crowding the passing lanes, but I'll just have to see how that works out....

Have your passers use ballfakes. Practice these overhead ball fakes during practice. The defense will fall for the fakes and maybe you can go backdoor. As ball is being passed around perimeter, have your players do a "real-looking" overhead ball fake to one direction then reverse the ball to the other side.

Note: just like a shot fake, fake passes MUST look real to be effective.

Chest passes must be quick and sharp!! No floaters.

I've had success using a 4 lb. weighted basketball. I use this ball during passing drills with my girls (8th grade), 3 man weave(no shooting), perimeter passing drills, line passing drills. After you do any of these passing drills for 5-10 min. with a weighted ball, you then replace the weighted ball with a game ball and watch how quick the ball gets snapped around because the girls think it's light as a feather!!
Note: DO NOT let the girls dribble or shoot with this weighted ball!!

Lastly, if your passes are getting stolen, it is imperative that the receiver of the pass meets the pass or steps to the pass.


Out,

Coach A

Good advice from Coach A -

Do you do any screening? IF so, a very good way of alleviating pressure is to back screen and step out, if they don't give reverse help you will be getting a lot of back door lay ups... IF they do, that allows you to make the pass.

When teams are denying the next pass and are putting a lot of pressure on the ball.... take the ball to the basket, force them to help - you can make passes when they do that OR take it all the way to the hole.

I only coached girls one year and the first thing I found out was they couldn't PASS or CATCH the ball so we did a lot of passing drills, short crisp passes - stepping into the pass and if they were further apart we had the receivers meet the pass.

Thank you both for your input. I think I'm doing the right things, it will just take time. Mostly, I want the kids to enjoy the game that I love so much !!

#1 Goal - HAVE FUN