Pass to the right spot

There is one thing that drives me nuts as a coach, it is when players don't lead their teammate when they are cutting to the basket or going on a fast break. The pass gets thrown behind them. It is a sure way to turn the ball over or at least miss an easy scoring opportunity. Here are a couple drills I like to use to get the players thinking about "Leading" the pass.

1. Bowling for basketballs- This drill might seem elementary but you will be amazed at how poorly players judge the speed at pass needs to be thrown at. The coach will be on the baseline and the team will be at 1/2 court. Each player has a ball and so does the coach. The coach will roll his or her ball along the baseline. The players must roll their ball and try to hit the coaches ball. The goal is to read the speed of the coaches ball and lead it with their ball. I constantly see players roll the ball way to late or way behind. They don't understand touch or assessing the speed. This is why when a teammate goes backdoor the pass ends up behind them.

2. The second drill is one of my favorite passing drills. Have 2 lay up lines. The line on the left will have the basketballs. They start the drill by dribbling toward the top of the key. The opposite line will make a quick out fake and then immediately go backdoor. The passer must make a quick hard bounce pass so the cutter has to hustle to make the catch. I want the pass hard and out in front. This teaches the cutter to use great hands but also teaches the passer to get the ball out in front and make the cutter catch up to it. The first couple times doing this drill the ball will get thrown out too far but eventually both the passer and cutter will adjust.

Obviously there are many drills to work on passing to cutters and you should use the ones that make the most sense to your situation. The goal is to teach players to get the ball in front by judging the speed of the cutter or player in front so they can run to the ball. Never pass behind unless it is a tactic and expected.

Play Hard

Lee