Guard Play Workout

The workout below is known as the Pitino Drill be some people. I just call it Guard Play. It works on attacking the basket, individual ball moves, shooting and conditioning. It should be part of your regular workout - whether you are a guard or a post player - as it is basic basketball at its best.

Instructions:

1. Start at a wing and drive toward the basket.
2. When you reach the cone, make the first move and go to the basket and shoot a lay-up.
3. Rebound the basketball and make the same move out to the cone at the top of the key.
4. Repeat the step and move on to the next cone.
5. When you have made the move at all three cones start again with the next move.
6. After you use all moves at all 3 cones, repeat the drill using power lay-ups off of two feet and jump shots.

Notes:

1. When using the jump shots, make one or two dribbles by the cones before shooting.
2. Be aggressive and make the moves with game intensity.
3. Use your right hand when making your move at the right cone and your left hand at the left cone.
4. As you become more skilled, begin to combine the moves to get buy the defender.

Inside Out

When dribbling with the right hand, fake to left with left foot and fake the dribble to the left, then explode to the basket. Ball doesn’t leave the hand.

Hesitation

The move is made about 3’ away from the defender. Dribble up, stop, but keep the dribble alive. Your weight is on the left foot, rock back to the right foot and blow by the defender. Vice versa when using left hand.

Crossover

Dribble up to defender, when you are about 3’ away, crossover dribble low to the other hand, pulling the ball backwards. When crossing over your left foot should drop while your right foot goes with the ball across your body. By this time, you should be by the defender. Opposite with the left hand.

Turn Around

When making this move with the right hand, your left foot should be straight in front of the defender’s right foot. Pivot on your left foot and rub against the defender’s right shoulder and drive to the basket. Opposite with the left hand.

Behind-the-Back

When you begin to dribble behind the back you should be stepping with your left foot around the defender. Pull the ball behind you “bounce-passing” it to your left hand. Your arm should slap the top of your butt. Opposite with left hand.

Between-the-Legs

When you start your dribble between the legs, the left foot should be in front. After the ball goes through the legs, the right foot drives by or around the defender.

Gettin' On Your Toes

Below is a workout that I provided to a couple of my young players that struggle getting up on the balls of their feet when they are playing basketball. It seems that they spend a lot of time on their heels, which makes them slow to respond and really hurts their ability to play defense. These simple activities are designed to improve your quickness and agility by getting you playing on the balls of your feet - up on your toes - so that you are ready to move to make something happen. Spend 20 minutes a day on these simple drills and you will see a difference.

1. Jump rope. You can go to YouTube and find some good workouts. The trick is to work on staying on your toes, gradually improving the speed of the rope while your toes only slightly leave the ground.

2. Line jumps. Start on your toes and jump back and forth over a "line" which can be a rope, tape or a mark on the sidewalk. You than can jump side to side as well as front to back. Always on the toes!

3. Spot jumps. Similar to the line jumps but make patterns when you jump. Such as 4 pts on a square or 4 pts on a cross. You can then change up the pattern and the sequence. For instance on the square you can start by going clockwise. Then go counter clockwise and finish jump at the diagonal.

4. Tap-Tap. Remember Flashdance? In a defensive position with knees bent, rapidly tap your toes. While you continue to tap your toes (or called chop your feet) twist your lower body in a jump type maneuver where your left foot is in front and your right foot is in back (Your head should be facing forward but your lower body turns to the right) and then turn back facing forward while continuing to tap your toes. Now do the same thing but turn to your left.

5. Defensive slide drills. Stay on the balls of your feet and work on going short distances side-to-side as well as at angles and moving forward.

6. Finally, you can do some basic form running and stretching. 1) You can "skip," exploding straight up in the air throwing your knee at your chest. 2) Run with high knees. 3)Bounding from the toes where you explode from a squatted position and jump off both feet like you are doing a standing broad jump. Land on the balls of your feet and keep jumping. You don't stop, keep bounding forward like in leap frog.

Tight Spaces Drill

This is a quick ball-handling drill designed to make you work on your handles while in tight spaces such as splitting a defender or working out of a trap. Micah Lancaster, of Ganon Baker Basketball, demonstrates.

Micah Lancaster Ball Handling

I have included a video from Ganon Baker Basketball introducing Micah Lancaster. It is a quick synopsis of some innovative ball-handling drills that can improve your ball speed, hand strength and coordination plus Micah narrates a nice message in this short video. You can go to the website (http://ganonbakerbasketball.com/) or do video searches on YouTube or Google to see more.

3-on-3

There is not a better way to learn the nuances of basketball than through playing 3-on-3. You can not hide your flaws offensively or defensively in this setting and you are going to be part of the action. Besides being a lot of fun, it is a great learning and evaluation tool.

Offensively, it begins with the triple threat from which you can pass, shoot or dribble. In a 3-0n-3 situation - fundamentals are the key. 1) You can take your player off the drive using your 1-on-1 skills, 2) You can run a pick-n-roll with a teammate allowing either you to get to the basket or for you to pass to your teammate rolling after the screen or 3) you can have teammates screen for each other and pass to the open man. Plus, if you can execute the dribble drive, a defender will be forced to help leaving one of your teammates open for a shot. Beautiful!

Defensively, you are on an island. You need to be able to move your feet, provide help defense, close out on the recover and you must be able to talk! All of the things a good coach teaches in practice have to be executed in a 3-on-3 scenario or the opposing team will get plenty of opportunities to score.

The problem with 3-on-3 is that one tremendous athlete can dominate the game where in 5-on-5 you can get more help and allow for special defenses to slow the player down. So, as a teacher, how do you address this problem?

You take away the advantage that the offense has...you take away the dribble! So now you play 3-on-3, No Dribble. The offensive players must learn to move without the ball. They must either pass and cut or pass and screen away. Setting up the defender becomes more important since the you now are limited to two of the three threats. I guarantee that you will begin to see positive results by implementing this in practice. Players will learn how to play without the ball and as a team.

Next step is 3-on-3 full court! Talk about conditioning! Play a game to 3 or 5. No long snow bird passes. The players need to cut to to the ball and work their way down the court. Make it progressive where in one game they can only use bounce passes, another two hand overhead and another only chest passes.

Work this into your next practice session and let me know how it works!

S.i.R. Tryouts

The S.i.R. tryouts were held this past Monday and Tuesday for boys and girls in Rolla, MO and I was very pleased with the turnout. Around 140 boys and girls showed up over the two days to go through a quick workout to evaluate the skill level of the kids. I was impressed with the potential of the kids as there was a good mix of raw talent and skilled players.

The boys program will have two teams in 4th & 6th grades and one team in 3rd & 5th. The 7th grade boys will participate in an intramural program that will be starting in November and we are anticipating 40 or so boys coming out to play. A team or teams will be selected from the intramural program to represent Rolla as a traveling team in January and February.

The girls teams have not yet been determined as the 7th grade girls will be going through another round of tryouts. It was determined that we will combine the 3rd and 4th grade girls and focus on skill development and playing 3-on-3 among themselves instead of entering a League or playing in tournaments. We will also encourage them to participate in Optimist or Upward as well. Later in the season, we will schedule some games with neighboring towns as a climax to their training.

Gearing up for basketball season is a lot of fun, but can also be stressful for the administrators, coaches, kids and parents. Good luck to everyone on keeping things in perspective, keeping things positive and keeping the kids interested in the wonderful game of basketball!

Travel vs Recreational Basketball

What to do, what to do? Little Johnny is pretty good and is definitely better than Marcus. Yep, Travel Basketball is the right place for Little Johnny! Maybe....maybe not.

The decision to place your child into a competitive, travel sport situation is not one to take likely. There are several factors that you need to consider other than you want your child to be on a competitive team.

Does your child have a competitive personality?
Is your child's coordination behind or ahead of others his age?
Are you committed to the time and effort required for a travel team?
Can your child focus and learn or does he struggle with instruction?
Am I doing this because my child wants to or because I want them to?

These are just a few questions you need to ask yourself - honestly ask yourself - before deciding to either let your child tryout or be placed in a competitive environment. In some situations, you can get better instruction and face better competition in a Travel program. These two ingredients are key to an athletes growth. However, if a child is not ready to face that level of competition, you could be doing a disservice to your child and actually have them experience a regression in their development.

Recreational programs are great for some kids and can serve as a confidence builder and an opportunity for them to have success. The key is the quality of instruction. In our community we have two great recreational programs in basketball - Optimist and Upward. Our competitive organization, S.i.R., is good for the kids ready to travel and compete and in theory, serves as the "feeder" program for our high school. If you don't play S.i.R. can you still play in high school? Yes. Does it help to play S.i.R.? I would say yes, but it depends. Again, the key is instruction. You can get solid teaching in a recreational program and poor teaching in a competitive program. It depends on the coach, their experience and the connection that may or may not occur between a player and a coach.

So, in the question on Travel vs Recreational, my answer is simple...it never hurts to try. You will know during tryouts how you measure up against the other kids. Don't forget, you don't have to be the best player. There typically is only one kid who is the best, right? Will you work hard? Will you learn? Will you practice at home? If you are not selected, don't hang your head. Continue to work on your game and have fun playing in a recreational program the next season. Remember that Michael Jordon was cut from his high school team!

As the saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you never take. Why not take a shot?