I’m often asked for advice on [tag]basketball tips and drills[/tag]. Here’s a simple coaching tip sent in by Rob that will pay huge dividends with your team.
A [tag]drill[/tag] we ran in college (back in the 80s) that I like to run with my team is a lay-up drill with a chaser.
My 9-10 team can dribble by themselves in a drill and they can make a lay-up by themselves in a drill. But putting a chase defender in there shows you real quick who can get it done in a game situation. In college, we ran this [tag]basketball[/tag]“ drill the entire length of the court, but I run it from half court with my 9-10 year olds.
The dribbler gets about a 2 or 3 step lead ahead of the defender. On the whistle (or GO), the dribbler takes off for the basket with the defender trying to get back to stop the offensive player. The dribbler is forced to go fast and try to use his body to maintain an advantage over the defense.
The dribbler also has the challenge of “gearing down” at the end to make the lay-up. As I like to tell them, “You have to finish. Great speed and dribbling does not help us if you don’t finish.” Some of the ones that are not as fast or can’t dribble as well are encouraged to use a jump stop lay-up instead of a full speed lay-up.