{"id":1181,"date":"2016-11-05T06:34:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T11:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breakthroughbasketball.com\/haefner\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2016-11-07T17:08:41","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T23:08:41","slug":"how-to-teach-transition-offense-at-the-beginning-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.breakthroughbasketball.com\/haefner\/how-to-teach-transition-offense-at-the-beginning-of-the-season","title":{"rendered":"How to Teach Transition Offense at the Beginning of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is my first official week of basketball practices — this week I have practices with 4th grade boys, 6th grade girls, and high school varsity boys…<\/p>\n

That’s a wide range of ages! \u00a0Yet I teach them all our transition offense the exact same way. \u00a0I start teaching our 4th graders the same way I teach high school players. \u00a0And they all run the same transition offense.<\/p>\n

In fact, I worked with our 4th graders on Monday, 6th graders on Wednesday, and varsity players\u00a0on Friday — and they picked up the transition really quickly. \u00a0It’s going really good so far!<\/p>\n

Here’s How We Teach Transition Offense at the Beginning of the Season<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"transition-2-trips\"<\/a> We use the 2 Trips Drill <\/a>to teach positions, spacing, and the basic components of our transition.<\/p>\n

When first running the drill, we always have players pass ahead to a wing (could be either wing) and then the wing passes to the rim runner for a lay up.<\/p>\n

MANY excellent teaching opportunities came from this simple drill!<\/p>\n

Here are the steps we took to teach transition offense with our youth teams:<\/p>\n

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  1. Have 5 players get in the lane area. \u00a0Other 5 players stand under the basket listening. (Keep in mind all the players already know what “transition offense” means.) \u00a0I toss the ball to a player and say “You just got a defensive rebound and\u00a0it’s time to run your transition offense. \u00a0What is the goal when running transition offense?”<\/li>\n
  2. A few players respond. \u00a0The answer comes out… “We want to beat the other team down the court and get a lay up. \u00a0That is the goal.” \u00a0And then I ask… “How do we do that?”<\/li>\n
  3. Again players respond with a variety of answers. \u00a0I\/we lead them to the correct answers… “We need to sprint! \u00a0Turn our heads and look for the ball. \u00a0And we need great spacing.”<\/li>\n
  4. I ask… \u00a0“How do we keep great spacing?” \u00a0The answer is…. “We fill positions and keep great spacing going down the court.”.<\/li>\n
  5. Next I go through each position and explain what the wings, rim runner, PG, and trailer do.<\/li>\n
  6. Finally, we run the 2 Trips Drill<\/a> and teach.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    At the beginning of the season, we yell freeze and do a good amount of teaching so players learn the basic offense concepts. \u00a0In every case with youth players, many great teaching opportunities come from this drill.<\/p>\n

    Youth Player Positions – Closest Player Fills<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Since I don’t want to pigeonhole our young players, and I want our kids playing and learning all positions, we do not assign players to certain positions. \u00a0Instead, when we get possession of the ball, whoever is closest to each position fills that role.<\/p>\n

    Varsity Player Positions – Assigned<\/strong><\/p>\n

    For the high school varsity team, players are assigned positions:<\/p>\n