Take a second and imagine this scenario. Your team has played outstanding defense for 30 seconds. They are flying around the court, closing out, deflecting passes, calling out screens and helping when needed. Your players force a difficult shot with five seconds remaining on the shot clock. Sounds pretty good, right?
But this dream can quickly turn into a nightmare if your players let up once the ball is in the air. The play does not stop once you force a bad shot. You must complete the possession by securing the rebound. If you allow the other team to get an offensive rebound and put back, all your effort was wasted.
Rebounding is vital to success. Defensive rebounds limit possessions for the other team and can create fast break opportunities for your offense. Offensive rebounds create additional opportunities and often lead to easy baskets.
Most coaches know the ingredients that go into teaching successful rebounding: effort, position, boxing out and anticipation. But how do you get your team to practice those areas?
The following is called the Last Man Standing drill and is designed to teach your players the importance of rebounding by creating a need to fight for all missed shots.
Step 1: The drill begins will all players in the key waiting for the coach to take the initial shot.
But this dream can quickly turn into a nightmare if your players let up once the ball is in the air. The play does not stop once you force a bad shot. You must complete the possession by securing the rebound. If you allow the other team to get an offensive rebound and put back, all your effort was wasted.
Rebounding is vital to success. Defensive rebounds limit possessions for the other team and can create fast break opportunities for your offense. Offensive rebounds create additional opportunities and often lead to easy baskets.
Most coaches know the ingredients that go into teaching successful rebounding: effort, position, boxing out and anticipation. But how do you get your team to practice those areas?
The following is called the Last Man Standing drill and is designed to teach your players the importance of rebounding by creating a need to fight for all missed shots.
Any player who has been eliminated from the drill can now shoot from anywhere on the court. This creates multiple rebounding angles and makes the shot less predictable for your remaining rebounders.
Step 5: All rebounds off a missed shot becomes a live ball. Whichever player retrieves the ball and scores first, wins the drill. The players cannot pass the ball back to the shooters. They must score off of the miss by any means necessary. If a foul occurs, a free-throw takes place as shown in the diagram to the right. If the foul shot is made, the shooter wins. If he/she misses, the game is continued until one player scores.