I’m really enjoying our time with the two DreamTeam basketball teams. We normally practice with both teams, separately each Monday night for 45 minutes. This week I combined both teams into the first 45 minute session and then worked exclusively with one of the teams during their normal practice time.
I wanted to spend some time with the 2nd team laying the foundation for an offensive system. Once they understand a few key principles in this very simple offensive system they will find themselves getting easier shots during the games. We introduced a few positions on offense, right and left wings and post positions along with a simple back screen to get the players moving.
Now that the boys have a better feel for the spacing needed on offense we’ll begin to incorporate some pick and roll and dribble hand off techniques to make sharing the ball easier. This team (Bucks) had a tough game on Saturday going up against a group of boys who have played together for several years in soccer, basketball and baseball. This is one of the groups I referenced earlier that has clearly gotten selective with their roster. As a result of going up against this difficult team, we weren’t able to share the ball as much as we normally do. Our offense was relegated to dribble drive and we got few second chance opportunities.
The other team (Pacers) had an easier match up this week and was able to demonstrate good passing of the ball, even making the extra pass several times leading to easy baskets. My challenge will be making sure the boys understand exactly why they were getting these easier looks as a result of making the extra pass. At this age the boys struggle to understand the value of moving the ball with a pass vs. dribble.
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