Jump to content
Y-coach.com - Forum
BIG HUSKY

Help With Low Scoring Team

Recommended Posts

I am a first year head coach coaching 9 and 10 yr old boys. My offense has scored 3 baskets or less in our 1st two games. We are getting lots of uncontested jumpshots from the foul line extended. Any suggestions?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I am a first year head coach coaching 9 and 10 yr old boys. My offense has scored 3 baskets or less in our 1st two games. We are getting lots of uncontested jumpshots from the foul line extended. Any suggestions?

Are most of your shots being taken from the outside? If you could fill in a few more details of what you think the problem is, that would help. Without really knowing much about your team and the overall skill set of your players (e.g. most of the kids can dribble with their heads up, can do basic layups, etc.), it's hard to give you specific suggestions for your team. Could be one, some or a combo of the stuff listed below (this assumes that most of the kids can dribble and pass moderately well):

1) Shooting from too far out

2) Just throwing it up in the general direction of the basket (incorrect form)

3) Lack of confidence - not taking the shot when open

4) Players just need practice time shooting

5) Need work on layups

6) Not driving to the basket when path is clear

7) Lack of ball movement to find the open player under the basket

8) Working on passing and cutting to the basket

9) Not putting the ball back up after a rebound

10) No picks or screens

CRob

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thx. I have 3 "b" players, no "a" players and 8 boys altogether. Offensively we are running a 5 Out Zone Offense where we swing the ball on the perimeter and the weak side wing cuts to the ball side foul line for a jump shot or drive or pass to the ball side corner who is cutting to the basket. The first game we just couldn't execute but game two we ran the offense to perfection, but couldn't hit a shot.

Last practice I introduced a play where we screen the defending guards and create a lane for the wing to penetrate the open space. Both corners cut to the basket to create two passsing options on the low block for the wing. Hopefully this play will help our layup opportunities, which so far have been limited to transistion shots.

I coach rec league so I get one hour of practice a week. Both my layup line and jumpshooting drill require quick accurate passing and quick shooting. I tried a drill last practice where we played 4 on 4 no dribbling no traveling to try to hone the pass to the open man and quick shot idea.

As you can tell, while new to coaching I have a fair understanding of the game...any further suggestions would be great.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Take a gander around some of the forums, you'll see lots of advice on drills and offense.

1. Switch to a 2-3 zone to force the other team to the outside.

2. Passing Drills.

4. More Passing Drills.

5. Offense sounds like it should work with some practice, make sure they are passing well around the perimeter and using passing to draw the defenders out of position.

6. Have them turn there backs to you, at whistle send a bounce pass and have them either immediately shoot or go for a layup, if they shoot make sure they follow the shot.

7. Having never coached boys I sometimes see 1 or 2 of them wanting to be Mike and will charge into traffic instead of passing and get stripped.

8. I had my teams run sidestep laps as part of the warm up every practice.

9. Blindfold them and have them dribble in place, once they master that have them kneel at whistle then sit and get up, takes some work but keeps the head up and builds confidence.

Chris

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm curious as to how many shots your guys are taking. If they are making 3 baskets, are they taking 6 or 36 shots in a game? If they are taking 36 your team needs to really improve its shooting skills. If you are only getting a low number of shots I wonder if you get many offense rebounds or maybe your team just turns the ball over a lot. Do you keep stats? How many shots does the other team take compared to yours? Whats your shooting percentage compared to other teams?

?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1st game we took less than 10 shots. 2nd game we took between 20-30. This is volunteer rec ball so we don't have a statistician. It may be worth looking into though, but my parents aren't the most outwardly helpful group. I think you are right, our problem is shooting. I hope I can get sone specific drill ideas to improve this part of our game. Remember I get one hour of practice a week.

Anyone have a statistic tracking sheet?

Thx.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

To track stats I had the scorekeeper add a 0 to the scorebook instead of a 1 if they missed a shot, allowed me very quickly determine the shot percentage.

Example

Jill Smith PG 1100011 / 000011

shows me 2 baskets and 3 bricks (2/5 for 40% completion) in the first period and 1 basket and 4 bricks (1/5 for a 20% comp rate) in the second

Free throws would be marked 11 or 0 with a 1 inside it if she only sank 1.

Still wondering what kind of defense, one quick fix is to make boxing out on offensive and defensive rebounds mandatory, first few times someone doesn't box out sub them sit them down beside you and tell the athlete that you took them out to explain how important boxing out is, then send them back in quickly, you'll speed up rotation and get their attention

C

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1st game we took less than 10 shots. 2nd game we took between 20-30. This is volunteer rec ball so we don't have a statistician. It may be worth looking into though, but my parents aren't the most outwardly helpful group. I think you are right, our problem is shooting. I hope I can get sone specific drill ideas to improve this part of our game. Remember I get one hour of practice a week. Anyone have a statistic tracking sheet? Thx.
I've attached a basic stat sheet. We have a couple of parents split up the stuff we're tracking for each game. For shots taken/made, we use a circle then draw a line through it if they make the shot. The stats provide us with what we need to work on as a team and specifics for each player so we can see who needs extra work in certain areas.

With regards to shooting and shooting drills, cgh's drill mentioned above sounds great. I also agree with blocking out drills, we teach them every practice.

We have a competition pretty close to the basket, one kid on each side. Upon whistle the kids start shooting, each time rebounding their own ball and moving back to the spot you designated to shoot from. Most baskets wins in 1 min.

Another good drill is knockout.

You can also have the kids lay on their backs with a ball. They shoot straight up in the air having the ball come down around their nose. Looking for proper form with hand position, elbow in and snapping/flicking the wrist. Looking for that ball to come down in the same spot each time. Something they can do at home.

I get the 1 hour practice, have been dealing with that for several yrs now. Have to set a few key concepts, go over them and build from there. We try to keep our practice drills to maybe 2-3 concepts, then scrimmage and use the scrimmage to stop and point out what they're doing right/wrong with those 2-3 concepts.

Probably just going to take some patience, time and practice.

CRob

bballstats2.PDF

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We run a 2-3 zone. Defense isn't a big concern. We've allowed 30 pts in two games. 20 in the first 10 in the second. We can't defend outside of the the Three Pt Line, but we are aggressiive and don't commit too many fouls. Some may say that means we could be more aggressiive but I'm happy with it. I like the box out coaching idea but our league doesn't allow for free substitution. I've run 2 different box out drills at practice, but again with the limited time we practice, I can't get to it all.

I start each practice with a shooting and layup drill that requires the non-shooter to rebound. I know it's not a pure box out drilll but it does help with rebounding and a quick pass after the rebound.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One thing I stress on the 2-3 zone is do not get drawn out of position, I had my team move no more than 2-3 steps out of their position before they go back, the primary strength of the zone is to force the shooter to the outside and force a rushed shot by move fast towards them but not over committing and leaving an open lane. Work PASSING into everything, it's huge and will open up all sorts of opportunities.

Ladder Drill:

1. Line everyone up facing each other on each side of the key.

2. Start with one ball passing back and forth up and down the line.

3. As they get faster add another ball, work your way upto 3 balls at the same time.

4. Go back down to 1 ball with a defender in the middle, if the defender gets a hand on the ball he trades with the passer.

C

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One simple thing you can do to try and score more is to push the transition game and try to get some easy layups by playing good defense and trapping a little more in the corners.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
One simple thing you can do to try and score more is to push the transition game and try to get some easy layups by playing good defense and trapping a little more in the corners.

Another simple thing is to teach them to box out, offensively and defensively. If they box out on offense, they will get more rebounds, which means more shots which should mean more points. At that age level, the junk points add up quickly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
One simple thing you can do to try and score more is to push the transition game and try to get some easy layups by playing good defense and trapping a little more in the corners.

Another simple thing is to teach them to box out, offensively and defensively. If they box out on offense, they will get more rebounds, which means more shots which should mean more points. At that age level, the junk points add up quickly.

This was going to be my suggestion as well and it might be the quickest way to get more baskets. At that age level it doesn't matter who has the size for rebounds as much as it's about who gets into the right position.

Work a couple of drills in that teach the kids to rebound the basketball above their head and then to go straight back up with the ball instead of being scared that someone will block there shot.

One drill that I always run is to have the kids start in a line at one of the elbows facing the basket. The lead man runs at the basket, jumps (like a layup) and throws the ball off the backboard. Each player in line then continues behind him doing the same thing until one person (usually the last person) catches and makes a layup. Once you run it a couple of times you can see the speed of the drill pick up. It is designed to teach them to attack the basket after a shot + catch the ball above their heads + dont let the ball hit the ground + do not bring the ball below your shoulders when you get the rebound.

The second drill would be the old "Mikan" drill where the player stands under the basket and makes shots left and right for 60 seconds.

---

As for your offense, I have found that my best shooters will get their shots off, but the lesser ones have problems obviously. Something I am experimenting now is running an offense that allows the lesser players to always receive the pass from the baseline so that they are facing the basket when catching the ball and all they have to do is shoot. Too many times the kids are catching with their back to the basket and cannot get into proper shooting stance before a defender is on them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...