Driving to the Rim

Hi all, I'm a 13 year old basketball player of an AAU team. I can honestly say that I am a great shooter, but I need advice on getting to the rim. Are there any "tips" to get better at driving? Thank you

How tall are you? Do you see m2m defenses or zones?

Develop a good crossover so you can beat the man defending you..... then you need either go strong to the basket and finish....... or jump stop and dump to a post player, kick it out to a wing or shoot the J. Take a look at some of the better point guards in the NBA - like Derrick Rose (yes, I'm a Bulls fan) - he is getting better with every game he plays. Use your speed and quickness to get by that defender.... then read what the D is doing and react from there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjKeIL5Omw4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90Zt91zbdw&feature=fvst

Oh yea, glad to see that you have so much confidence in your shot. :-)

By the way, think about what a point guard is supposed to do - Be a leader on the floor, Initiate the offense, distribute the ball and make other players better.
Handle the ball without turning it over too much.... you will have turnovers because you will be handling the ball every time down the floor. These are just a few of the things that are important.

I had one point guard that no ONE player could defend..... but until I convinced him that he had to kick the ball out to our wing or dump it to the post player he had a lot of difficulty scoring while he was taking the ball to the basket...... people were collapsing on him. Once he figured that out, he became a lot tougher and better player. Just some thoughts for you to think about.

Thanks coach- I'm 5'6'' (shooting guard), and i mostly see man to man defenses. The videos were very useful.

One more thing, do you know any "finishing moves" at the rim? For example, a spin move, hopstep, etc? Once again, thanks

The less dribbling you do in the paint the better off you are... the last thing you want to do is to get in close and have someone tip the ball... so I'm not sure a spin move would be good... I have seen a few kids do that ... they were jet quick... but to get away with not dribbling they got called for travelling....

I've seen a lot of jump stops in the lane and then take a step and a half to the basket with a lot of success.... now at your level, you have to think about the refs... will they call that a travel? 8th grade?

I still like the killer crossover and then split the D going all the way to the hole! At 5'6", you are a pretty big kid (for 13) so you should be strong enough to get all the way there. Are you pretty quick?

If you watched Derrick Rose you saw that he utilizes all of the court... meaning he can take it to the hole, shoot the three ball and shoot from where a lot of people don't shoot any more... the mid range jumper.... THAT makes him a heck of a lot TOUGHER to GUARD. Think about that... as they are trying to defend you..... is he going to shoot the three - take it to the hole - or is his favorite shot the mid range J?

As a coach I look at a kid we are going to play and say = "what are his strengths?" "What do I have to take away from him in order to beat that team?"

I always say... I am going to pick my poison... meaning, what am I going to allow in order to give me the best chance for the W! So, make yoiurself a good all around player ...... and don't forget about the defensive end. :-) GOOD LUCK I HOPE THIS HELPS.... Anything else?

Talking about that middle game -

The 'middle game' covers 60% of the shooting area!

As usual, I have a different point of view.

Often times, things that happen in a game are not skill based, they are perception based. You're 13-years old and you have not played a lot of basketball. Perception is the way you see the game, based on past experience and allows you to interpret the things that you can see happening around you. Relax and just play more.

There is a mentality that I teach that has helped most of the players I have worked with. For me, your triple threat position options are shot, shot, shot. That should fit your game. You say you are a great shooter, anytime you are not thinking about your shot, you are hurting your game. More than that, when you catch and think shot, you can see everything that is happening in the game. Your perceptions will become much clearer for you.

Next, when you put the ball on the floor, the only thing you should be thinking is "layup." For the same reason, if you have the ball on the floor thinking "layup" your perceptions will become much clearer.

By thinking shot on the catch and layup on the dribble will make you more aggressive and the game will slow down for you. Once that happens, you will see what opportunities there are and make good decisions.

It is hard to finish if you can't get to the rim. Don't concern yourself with finish moves, those are ability based and if you have the ability to finish, they will show up on their own. Everything else is window dressing.

You ALWAYS come up with some good thoughts Don ......

CC -

I don't know if you can get any of the Bulls games but if you watch Derrick Rose, the guy has no concience -- he has become a GREAT shooter and like I was saying, he uses the entire court.

AND, as Coach Don pointed out.... you should have that same confidence in your shooting abilities... heck - YOU told me you were a great shooter.... so go out there and shoot it when you have the shot... don't force it ... just take good shots. What I am suggesting is that you work on every part of your shooting aresenal...... from 3s to mid range jumpers and drives to the basket.

Check D Rose out some more and let me know what you think. I know there are some great players in the NBA but D R has been on fire lately.... so he might be someone you want to check out.

Are you in high school or middle school right now?

Hey guys, thanks for the advice! This is ALOT more than what i was looking for.
@Coach Don, thanks, i havent really thought about perceptions like that.

@Coach Sar, yes im quick, most probably the fastest one on my team.. and yes, i've been watching Rose (hes on my fantasy basketball team! hahaha). Im in middle school now, we actually had our first school team game today (i scored 12 points, all off jumpers and foul shots :/)

Hey CC

When you talk to Coach Don and I you will get a lot for your money! :-) He and I seem to look at things from a different perspective which is a good thing.....
You picked a good player for you F-bball Team - he's pretty tough, gets knocked around a lot..... but comes right back at them. He got a T the other night and the sports talk show guys here said he was going to get one because he felt he wasn't getting the calls he deserved.

Its nice getting that first game under your belt.... you did well.... keep up the good work. Did your team win? AND, IF you are telling me that you are the fastest/quickest kid on the team you must be a pretty good defender... don't forget that part of the game.

I was talking to one of my X players yesterday... great shooter but a pain... lol..... his offense fueled his defense and it should be the other way around.... we were laughing about this one game where he had a breakaway.... 1 on zero, pulled up from the arc and drained a three..... next time he was 1 on 1 and did the same thing..... the other coach looked at me and said, whats up with that... told him.... I don't have a clue, ask him.

Anyway, let us know how things are progressing for you and the team. Hope you have a great year.

Hey coach, unfortunately we lost our school game by 8... and yes, I'm a acceptable defender. On my AAU team, we played Ashton Gibbs' (Pittsburgh leading scorer) brother, who is one of the top for our age group. I had the pleasure of guarding him.. Even though he scored around 20, my coach said I was a pest and did a good job :). I'm a good shooter but I don't think I'd pull up for a three on a fastbreak.. Hahaha.
Talking about fastbreaks, do you know any moves I can use on the fastbreak? Recently, I was on a 2-1 break and I didn't know what to do. Confused, I just took a hopstep and got called for a travel. I've been searching the web for moves on the fastbreak/drive... I noticed that D-Wade tends to use the "euro-step" alot and D-Rose does this nice hopstep-ish move ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8SLUyBmlr8 ). Do you have any other moves in mind? Thank you.

p.s- Happy Holidays!!

Sorry to hear about your loss CC ... but you can learn from Ws or Ls - lets talk about your defense for a minute.... go to school on the guy you are guarding - try to take away his strengths - that should help you control those great/good players - you will never completely shut them down.... but hopefully you can control him a little bit and hold him below his average. So, hang in there and keep working on that part of your game.

Here is something that I learned from Hubie Brown - a pro coach and announcer ............ when you are coming down on the 2 on 1 - get wide so its hard for the defender to cover both of you...... as you get to the L area... give a hesistation dribble... read the defender - IF he comes out at you, dump the ball to the other player... IF He stays back, explode and go to the hole.

I think the problem with the hop step at your level is the refs that are calling your game.... its a legal move and you shouldn't have been called for the travel.... keep perfecting that one... but - did you come to a jump stop with BOTH FEET? Thats the key to that move. Then you can take a step and a half to the hole... or just jump forward off of both feet. I hope this helps.

I hope you have a Very Merry Christmas yourself and IF you were a good boy, Santa will be good to you too. :-)

I believe the rule is if you catch on a jump stop you can pivot off either foot. But, if you jump stop off the dribble you can only jump to shoot. If you pivot it will be a travel.

You have all the makings of an classic over-thinker which will severely limit your game. From your description, you are developing the disease of "analysis paralysis," which is a known killer of promising basketball players.

First, you should stop studying NBA players like Wade and Rose. What they do is innate (look it up) and is based in their ability to process information at inhuman speed. Secondly, the rules in the NBA are different (especially traveling) rules than you play with. Trying to emulate them at your age will frustrate you. You can't see what they see. You are not in their head. You can't have the perceptions they have that went into their making those decisions. Many of the things they do, they don't practice, they just to them. Make your own way, come up with your own game. Evaluate what happens to you in your game and come up with a play for that situation.That is not meant to contradict Coach Sar but just my feeling. We all teach differently.

If you want to read something (like a defense) go to the library. While you are on the court, play! You seem to be having enough trouble figuring out what is in your own head, how are you going to figure out what is in someone else's head? If you have the ball, play offense, make them play you. Maybe they will have trouble reading you.

For the record, when I teach 2 on 1, the ballhandler has 1 job, take a layup! Not read. Not fake. Not pass. Take a layup! If you can't do that, you can't have the ball! You might run over a few people, but that's not bad. There is not enough room here to go into the whole philosophy but anything else good on a 2 on 1 break will show up when you are going to the rim.

Keep this in mind, if you want to work on new moves, it will take at least a couple of months to be comfortable enough to use it in competition, if you practice it a lot. It may take a year before you are good at it. So, you have to make a commitment to it. You have to accept short term failures for long term successes.

Like I said CC ... you will get another point of view from Don........... question Don - IF a player is dribbling and comes to a jump stop planting both feet, doesn't he have either foot available as a pivot foot?

Yes, the Pros play by their own set of rules.... and have amazing abilities.

I was just giving him an option other than just taking it to the hole ala the pros or best college players. We taught the hesistation dribble all the time, even at our camps to the younger kids.... they might not use it in games but they did know what it was all about.... amazing what they will do if they have a little knowledge.

I checked on that rule for High School players (which is what you play under CC)

Here is what I found off a site where I have some of my stuff -

There is often confusion on what is or is not traveling and when do you still have a pivot allowable after a jump stop. I have quoted the rules below. My interpretation is this... it depends on whether you already have possession of the ball or not (as in receiving a pass), and whether or not you have already used up the one-step that you are entitled to. When receiving a pass with a jump-stop, you can pivot after the jump-stop and either foot can become the pivot foot. This is especially helpful for post players. A perimeter player can catch the ball with a jump-stop, and the pivot into triple-threat position if necessary and use the non-pivot foot for executing jab-step fakes or a drive step.

Now let's take a player who already has possession of the ball on the outside. He/she makes a dribble move into the lane, picks up the dribble, takes one step, and then lands a two-footed jump-stop. So far, so good. But after landing the jump-stop, he/she cannot move either foot and has no pivot foot since the one step was already used up prior to the jump-stop. He/she could jump upward, but must either shoot or pass the ball before either foot touches the floor again.

So, not being able to see how you took that shot... IF you use the jump stop you could jump upward, but must either shoot or pass the ball before either foot touches the floor again... so I stand corrected .... see, you can teach an old dog new tricks... no wonder we were always yelling for a travel call when someone did that to us. :-)

When you look at a dribble situation, it is virtually impossible to be on the move with a dribble and not take a step before making a jump stop. There used to be a move called the "Texas Hop." It would allow a player to make a second jump stop after making an initial jump stop. At the time, the jump stop allowed the player to make another pivot. It became too difficult for officials to call as to whether it was a travel or not.

As the trickle down theory goes, it was made a violation in the NBA about 6 or 7 years ago and eventually made its way down. It is definitely a violation now in College and in FIBA. I am pretty sure in HS as well.

As we watch what pros do, they do present things for us to emulate. However, reasons they are able to do the things they do is because they are so superior physically but also the speed they are able to process and react to the information they receive when they play the game. I don't know how they measure these things but people who are supposed to be experts in fields say that people such as Michael Jordan process the information so quickly that they effectively see the game in slow motion. From the outside, it looks to us that the decisions he makes happen in an instant ( and the do) but from the inside, he has much more time to make those decisions than we can perceive.

The moves that pros make are grounded in simple fundamentals but augmented by reacting to what they see. I could practice what they do 24 hours a day, everyday ,for the rest of my life, and it may be effective in a workout. But if I can't recognize and react to the situation fast enough (and I can't), it doesn't matter. I won't be able to perform it in a game. My time would have been better spent just working on my jumpshot. That is why I prefer to stay with basic fundamentals and allow players to figure out the extras on their own, when they play. Those who can, perform those extras without me. Those who can't can still be pretty good without them.

In regards to the jump stop, I had the same confusion a few years ago. I always taught the kids to jump stop, then pivot. They never got called for a travel during a game when they did this. However, I saw it called a travel during a high school girls' game. I asked my friend who was a referee and he told me that it was a travel, but few referees (in Iowa at the HS level) call it a travel for some reason.

However, if you come to a quick stop, you can pivot. A quick stop is where you do not JUMP UP in the air. You just quickly plant both feet at the same time.