Hit the Floor Rebounding

I think this is a great drill. I think depending on the level at which you are coaching this drill may or may not help. I coach 5th graders and find that I they are learning the fundamentals and the procedures from a lot of drills I have got off of this site. You can't teach kids aggression, you can only condition them to be in a position to WANT to chase down the ball after they have blocked out. I have also noticed a carryover affect from the rebounding drills to low post positioning.

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Coached at varsity level (boys and girls) for 18 years and I can say I have never found a drill that has produced the results this drill has. We have only done the drill for about one week and the difference was so noticeable even our fans commented on how much better we were at rebounding. Our smalls got 9 offensive boards in our last game alone. You have to remember the drill rewards the offense for beating the screen for just touching the ball to get a point. The biggest thing the drill does is teach toughness. All our girls have become screening out animals and offensive rebounding machines. As far as over screening too long, I think any coach would love to have that problem. That's almost like saying I wish we didn't shoot so well. Believe me, if the ball is loose in front of one of your players they we go and get it. It is in my opinion, the most productive drill I have come across in all my years of coaching. I can't believe it's was that easy all this time.

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Great drill. I am coaching 7th grade girls--half have never played -- great way to really get them to understand "boxing out" on the court. As a middle school teacher, I know that their brains really need to break the game down into component parts before they can put the parts together...otherwise they spend too much time being confused. This also helps them understand WHY they are supposed to do the things we are asking. Thanks!

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It's a breakdown drill. You take the game and break it down into all the little skills necessary to be successful at this game. The objective of the drill is to improve at one skill. That skill is boxing out. That's why there is an overemphasis on boxing out. I love it.

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To those asking for a follow-up drill to use with this great progression rebounding drill, I may have something that has helped with my 7th grade boys.

Use the same basic setup, except the defense lines up in a stack in the paint, facing the baseline. Coach stands at baseline with the ball. Coach passes to any perimeter offensive player, who takes the jumpshot. On the pass, the defense must scramble and find a man to close-out / box-out for a live rebound.

After running through this drill, you can then do a third drill where you do the same, but this time it''''s open game for the offense to do what they want. This progression helps them work on the rebounding skills, then apply them in this third drill where they have to actually play D and then "remember" to box out.

Hope that helps. Thanks for this great drill which I will now add to our arsenal.

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What is so hard about this? If you don't like the drill don't use it.

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Dirk Nowitzki shoots 100 shots before every game by picking the ball up off the floor. Reason he does it is it over emphasizes the use of his legs and gets him thinking about the importance of using them. During a game clearly he does not place the ball on the floor, bend deep and come up for a shot. Point is as Jeff has stated over emphasizing has it's place to asssit in teaching and muscle memory. "Game slippage."

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Great drill as a starter to get the kids to first box out on defense.

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Many drills are building blocks. For example, to try to teach young kids to shoot correctly with one hand while using the other for balance only, you may have kids stand in front of the hoop and shoot one handed. In a game, this is not how they'll shoot, but you then build upon that and have them begin shooting using that balance hand. This is merely a building block to getting young players to box out - something that many have trouble understanding.

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Agree with many of the comments here. This is a good drill, but it would be great to see a drill to pair it with to ensure the kids rebound. Either that, or a progression step -- this drill, then the requested rebound drill -- then combine them (box out for a moment, then get the ball.)
Any ideas on which of the rebounding drills would be a good pair for this?

btw - love the site!

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Josh - You don't have to say anything to them. Have you heard the term "game slippage"? If I want a player to rip the ball low when they are attacking the defense from triple threat, I have them rip the ball so it rubs the floor. Do I want them ripping and hitting the floor? No. But I know there will be game slippage. It's often helpful to overemphasize/overload certain skills, so once players get in games and slippage occurs, they end up doing it exactly the way you want. Hopefully that makes more sense. In any case, this might not be the drill for you. If the coach doesn't buy into it, your players certainly won't. Just something to consider for your arsenal. Good luck.

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Why would I drill something into kids that I dont want them to do in the game? Why should I have to preface this drill with "dont do this in the game, go for the ball, but this works on blocking out"

If you want to work on creating contact and holding someone back, thats fine, but get away from the goal, dont use a basketball (maybe a flag or something), and dont call it a basketball drill.

Someone will always miss a blockout in a game, and while youre holding youre man out, the free offensive player will swoop in and take it.

Anecdote time: Our local HS coach preaches this type of rebounding to his players and I've seen numerous times when good blockouts where performed, only no one actually got the ball, it hit the floor, and the offense got it back...1 point for the D!

//love most everything else on the site btw

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Watching the Penn/Kentucky game a couple of days ago, I saw a handful of situations where the Penn defender simply bodied up their man and moved them away from where the rebound was going, effectively clearing out a part of the floor. The ball hit the floor, and the defender was then able to easily collect the ball, having sealed anyone else from getting to it.
Great drill, especially for younger kids who don't understand how to jump. It's almost humorous as a coach of 5th and 6th graders to see them try to "sky for air" and generate 4" of vertical leap.

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I wonder if this can be combined with a specific, secondary rebounding drill to focus on the "arms up" for the defense to get the rebound. Maybe after this drill gets the point about boxing out and they REALLY get that component, then move on to the next step---getting the rebound in the air. Is there a good drill for that next step, other than the obvious (wanting it more and having arms up)? I have 5th grade girls and we always defer on D rebounds. Very polite!

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All the comments about getting the ball are very true. I think the solution is to make sure you work on both.

The drill above teaches players to do the first aspect of getting a defensive rebound. Once you develop the habit and technique to block out (the whole purpose is to impede your opponent from getting the ball). Then you do another drill that teaches them to go after the ball.

In reality, you want players to quickly make contact to impede their opponent, then get the ball in a hurry. But unless you break things down and really focus on both aspects, they won't do both consistently.

Also, some coaches have the philosophy that they block out as a team and they want players blocking out no matter what. They want the ball to almost hit the floor. That works for some coaches.

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Mark & Jason, I agree that players should go and get the ball.

However, the purpose of this drill is to reinforce that players create contact and box out. Some teams have problems with players who go and get it without creating contact and boxing out. This causes them to lose possessions.

It's rare to have an athlete that doesn't need to box out to be successful consistently.

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I agree with Bill. I think this is a great drill for boxing out, but I don't like the idea of my players letting the ball hit the floor. They need to make sure that they are going after the rebound hard!

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Thanks for the drill, we have been getting killed on the boards not staying with the block outs, this should fix the problem.

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It may be agood drill to help with boxing out , but I hate to see any rebound hit the floor, they should all be caught above the head if possible.

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I do this drill with my 7th graders, and also use it as a transition drill. If the defense gives up a rebound to the offense, the defense does push-ups. But if they box out and get the rebound, they find an outlet man and run a fast break to the other end. Works great!

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My travel team is starting to use this drill, it has done wonders. Thanks for drill.

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