From Jerry…
I coach a girls middle school basketball team and kids ages 9 through 14 tend to get bored pretty easy doing fundamental basketball drills and just practicing in general.

So now for the last 20mins of practice we divide into two teams (blue & white) and play 4 five minute quarters running clock with assistant basketball coaches as refs. They work much harder during practice and some of the best games are the blue & white. Playing for bragging rights is very competitive. Hey the kids love it and our improvement is fantastic. Thanks for the opportunity to share.

From Sheryle…
I am coaching an elementary girls team. Don’t get into too many detailed plays at this level as learning the basics seems to be the way to go. I too love to have new basketball practice drills ideas to keep the girls from getting bored and learning new things.

I try to have a well organized practice which can be very time consuming. Anyways here is a basketball play that was passed on to me. Ball thrown in to point guard. PG brings ball up court to 3pt or foul line. Two post are at baseline, switching back and forth, waiting for the pass. PG passes to the one post, the other post continues the switch and is given a hand off. Takes a shot. Catches D off guard.

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From Bob…
I coach basketball at the grammar school level, and I’m a firm believer that out-of-bounds basketball plays are absolutely essential to winning at this age; so I employ a ton of them…It’s the idea of controlling the outcomes you are able to control.

There are virtually a ton of things to run out of a box set under the basket.  My favorite zone basketball play is one I saw years ago, used by the coach at Berkeley High (Berkeley, CA)…(Remember this adage, coach?  “You steal ONE play, it’s stealing, you steal TEN plays, it’s research!”)

Box set under the basket, let’s say the ball is on the right side as you look from the top of the key down to the baseline…#1 player, Low post right goes hard to the right corner–gets the pass; high post on the right side, the #2 player (at the same time as player #1) goes to the right wing–gets the”up” pass from player #1; player #2 from his now-wing position, returns the pass to the inbounder who has now received a down screen from player #1 on the right-low defensive zone player….The inbounder shoots a “3″…

Just for the sake of movement, I will sometimes “exchange” the low and high post players on the side OPPOSITE the ball during all the action on the other side (with the left high post player being the better rebounder) since, as Dennis Rodman has said 9 times out of 10, that “3 Ball” shot will go to the opposite side.  By showing some movement from high to low, that player may get himself in better position to rebound the miss.

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From John…
Out of Bounds Play

We taught the kids this basketball play back in 3rd grade but two years later it’s still working. It’s another version of the Stack play and the reason it works is because it plays right into the philosophy of youth rule #1 on defense “stay between your man and the basket”.

Out of bounds under your own basket, the players line up in a stack with the first man in the line starting on the box in front of the man taking the basketball out. Typically the 4 defenders of the stack will all line up on the basket side of the stack. On “break” the first man in line jumps out of the stack towards the corner and either puts his hand out looking for the pass or actually calls out the name of the man taking the ball out. If he feels the defender follow him out of the stack he immediately turns and runs around the stack and cuts hard to the basket.

You’ll be amazed how often he’ll be wide open for a lay up. The other 3 kids in the stack don’t move until the first guy has run around the back of the stack. Then the 2nd man cuts to the corner (ball side), the 3rd man takes one step forward looking for a lob pass and the 4th man steps backward so we have a man back on D. After you do this basketball drill a few times the defender of the first man in the stack will stop following him through and will wait on the other side of the stack for him to run around it. Now when the first man jumps out of the stack and doesn’t feel the defender following him he’ll be wide open for a short shot.

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From Dave…
I coach middle school tournament teams.
Here are a few basketball out-of-bound plays I like to use.
 
Underneath the basket
Here is a simple basketball play that works once or twice during a game.
I will refer to it as low stack.
Player 1 throws the ball in. Player 2 lines up on top of the box (low post box) and players 3,4 and 5 scrunch up behind him. Player 1 slaps the ball and player 3 jumps out side the free throw lane and players 2,4 and 5 turn 90 degrees to form a tight wall. Player 3 has an uncontested shot. Let me remind you it will only work once maybe twice in a basketball game and only if everyone lines up on the inside.

The next one I will call a high stack
Player 1 throws the ball in. Player 2 lines up about a yard from the free throw elbow and everyone else lines up behind him. Once the ball is slapped player 2 heads to the opposite low post block, player 3 jets out to the outside, player 4 turns and screens player 5 defensive player and player 5 head straight down the lane. Once you run this a few times everybody looks fro player 5, now player 2 is wide open.
These are all simple basketball plays and they still work.

And my favorite out-of-bounds play.
On the side at half court everyone uses the screen the first player as he rolls around and heads toward the free throw lane. Here is a twist to that stack.
This works best if it’s on the side of the benches and under pressure situation where everyone is playing pressure man-to-man. Player 1 throws the ball in, player 2 sets up in the backcourt and everyone else stacks up about 4 feet in front of player 1. When the referee hands player 1, who I will call John, the ball. I will yell at player 2, who I will call Jason,” Jason I want you to take the ball out” (you have to be convincing) as he runs up to John (staying in bounds) and there is confusion who takes the ball out.  As Jason runs by, John flips the ball to Jason who by now has at least a step on everybody for lay-up.

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From David…
 This year, I coached a team of 5th graders in a 5th and 6th grade basketball league. The league allowed a full time full court press which was giving our team a lot of trouble. Our lack of athleticism and team speed prevented us from returning the favor. We worked and worked but every time we tried a full court press we ended up giving up too many easy lay-ups.
 
What did work for us was a 3/2 half court trap. I had one kid who was fast enough to cover sideline to sideline, so as soon as the other team crossed mid court we would force them to one of the half court corners and trap. We kept one kid under to protect the basket and used the two who were not trapping to fill the most likely passing lanes. If they beat the trap we immediately fell back into our 2/3 zone.
 
My kids were not as spread out, so we did not give up the easy lay-ups. This was a new look to the other teams we played (everyone else in our league used a full court press) so it was confusing. Best of all, we tripled our fast breaks and points off turnovers.
 
We lost our first 4 games by large margins, but when we went to the half court trap we won 4 of our last 6 and our other two losses were by very slim margins.

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From Terry…
A basketball drill that we do is 3 man weave to 3 on 3.

The purpose of this drill is to defensively work to get into transitional defense. Offensively this basketball drill works on fast break situations.

Set up lines of 3 on each end of the floor. The group on one end of the floor is in one color, the group on the other end is in another. The team on one end of the floor will do a 3 man weave down to the other end. As soon as the ball goes through the basket off of the layup from the 3 man weave the group of 3 on that end will begin attacking the basket on the other end of the court. The team that did the 3 man weave will now be on defense. They need to work their transition defense to stop the ball.

Players need to switch ends of the floor they are on when they complete the drill.

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From Bob…
I coach 3rd and 4th grade girls and keep things pretty simple for the kids.  One basketball play that worked great for my girls is explained below.  What it taught them was the importance of setting a good pick/screen, and how what one does on the floor (the person setting the pick) can affect others ability/opportunity to get open for a clean shot.  It worked well for this developmental league, but may a be a bit simple for the more advanced teams.

1) Point guard brings the ball up the center of the court and calls the play

2) The rest of the players 2,3,4 & 5 line up across the free throw line…the 3 and 4 stand at the outer edge of the circle and the 2 & 5 extend 1/2 way out towards the out of bounds line.

3) When the players are set up, the 1 will call the play again and the girls on the inside (the 3 & 4) run out and set the pick for the 2 & 5.  They set the pick in a way that the 2 & 5 spin towards the out of bounds line and both sprint towards the basket.  Most times, both girls were wide open for an easy lay-up.  The hardest decision is which one of the wide open girls gets the pass from the point guard.  Because the players are spread from the beginning and the girls guarding the 3 & 4 also go way out towards the line, the lane is WIDE OPEN for the easy bounce pass or chest pass.

I hope you agree, this can be a great basketball play for the right age bracket…it worked great for us!

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From Marty…
An inbound play underneath your basket:

This is the first option:
Your 5 player stands one step below the foul line in the paint.
#1 And #2 are on the elbows.
#3 Player is in the box in front of the #4 player who is taking the ball out of bounds.
#4 Calls break and #1 and #2 crisscross past the #5’s shoulder (#1 goes first so there is no collision) on either side for layups.

Second Option:
#3 jab steps to the paint and goes to the corner for the outlet pass and possible jumpshot.

Third Option:
#5 turns around for a quick hit to the rim.

Works great of man to man defense and will also work with zone at times.

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From Shane…
Here is my play (idea).
1.  This is a baseline out of bounds play versus man to man
2.  We put a three person stack starting on the ball side block (2 guards and 1 post). We have our best passer take the ball out. Our best post player is in the middle of the foul line or on the opposite elbow.
3.  In the stack one of the guards (usually the first in line closest to ball) will go to ball side corner (outside three point line)
4.  The second person in the stack is a post- they will go to the opposite block
5.  The third person in line in usually my shortest guard, they will go and screen for the post on the foul line.
6.  The post receiving the screen will cut to the ball side block or any open area for a shot. The guard who screened the post at the foul line will roll back to the ball side elbow.

I’ve been running this baseline out of bounds play for years and we score 2-3 times a game on it.

Another point that we do on all out of bounds plays is we don’t slap the ball to start the play. The play starts when the ref hands us the ball. When you slap the ball it tells the defense that you are starting the play.

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From Huey…
How about some ideas for basketball inbound plays, sideline or baseline.

First, I don’t know if this is any big revelation but using an easy trigger for beginning your inbound plays–Instead of using the ball slap, begin your inbound plays when the official hands your inbounder the ball. This will save you a second or two and could mean the difference in a turnover or two in a game.

Secondly, my players really struggle remembering different inbound sets in particular at the beginning of the season. So what we do is give our inbound plays a letter that closely resembles the formation they will start the play with.

For example, instead of using the traditional stack call, we will use “I” call instead (players line up in line).We use “C” for a staggered curl with our guards coming through our big screens from with our players basically ending up in a “C” pattern.

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