Prioritizing limited Practice Time By focusing on shots in the paint
One of the most important statistics in basketball is also one of the simplest: The team that scores more layups will usually win the game. The idea is so simple that it is often overlooked. But...if you can keep making more layups a priority as a coach, you have a powerful tool that can help in effective practice planning. Maximizing practice time is important at all levels, but it can become a critical issue for some grade school and middle school teams. The coaches time and resources are so limited that team success really does depend on proper practice planning
I should start by defining what is meant by the term layup. Every year, for every team, I define layups as any shot taken in the basket area. Some coaches use other terms like shots in the paint. I use those terms sometimes, but think it is important for coaches to Paint the Big Picture in Simple Terms. Why? Because Confused teams usually lose.
If we want to win, we want more layups - this does not mean that we should stop looking for the jump shot, or that we should spend all day doing layup drills; those approaches would be wasted time. We might be great at making layups but we would not know how to find them in a game.
But, if we focus some time in Each Practice covering every way that we can score layups, then we will always have the Big Picture covered.
Ways to get layups (shots in the paint), include:
1. Fast break
2. Dribble Penetration
3. Feeding the Post.
4. Offensive Rebounding
To prevent these thing from happening to us on the defensive end, we must do the following things well:
1. Transition Defense
2. Defensive Rebounding
3. Not allowing good players to catch the ball in the post
4. Contain the ball
5. Helping on dribble penetration.
These elements all provide a great practice framework, and together they provide a flexible basis for effective practice planning at any point in a teams season. They don't cover every important area of the game like ball handling, shooting or closing out on the shooter, but they provide a solid starting point, especially for coaches and teams with limited facilities.
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