Ready To Shoot?

Wow! Is March Madness awesome or what!

There have been so many fantastic games already. I love it. What about Siena and Cleveland State. How about the Lady Vols going down early. Does the Uconn basketball factory look unbeatable? These games are great to watch.

You know what I like to do? This is the coach in me. I like to watch what goes on away from the ball. It is fun to watch how defenders are playing off the ball and how offensive players move without the ball. My tip this week is about just that- moving without the ball and being ready to pull the trigger and shoot when receiving the ball.

If you watch good players at any level, they are always prepared to catch and shoot. That is what makes them a threat. But what you have to take note of is how a good off the ball offensive player moves and gets set to receive a pass- especially off penetration.

A great drill to work on it to have a ball handler penetrate to the hoop and kick out to open wing, key, and corner players. The purpose of the off the ball player is to make an open lane for the ball handler to kick to. So as the penetration occurs the off player need to slide to an open lane so his or her help defender can't recover as easy. Once the ball is in the air on the pass the player needs to have the feet set and hands ready to catch and shoot. Obviously it needs to be a good shot but that is why they are sliding to open space....to get a good shot.

Here is the set up of a drill: Have a 3 on 3 situation. A point guard and right and left wing. The point guard trys to beat the defender to the hoop. the wing defenders must help and recover. The offensive wings must slide to the open spot to receive a kick out pass. The wing players can start in the deep corner and slide up or start higher on the wing and slide down as penetration occurs. The goal is to get open by creating an open passing lane.

To advance the drill have the first wing to catch a pass shot fake and penetrate drawing the defense from the weak side wing. The offensive second offensive wing now must slide to the open spot and catch and shoot. The coach must really push the defenders to hustle otherwise the offensive player will get lazy and not be prepared to shoot early on. The defenders must always close out and challenge.

This drill is great for the off players to learn how to find open space but still make great passing angles, it is a good drill for you players penetrating to learn to pass accurately on a kick out, and it makes your defenders learn to help and recover and use proper close-out technique.

Give this drill a try and see how well your players spot up and fire.

Play Hard,

Lee

PS: To learn more about some great drills and skills to improve your basketball players check out www.BasketballSpeedInsiders.com