Youth Basketball Development Blog

Teaching 2 on 1 Principles

6/26/2022

1 Comment

Key principles for 2 on 1:

Spacing. Stay wider than the lane initially.
Score first mentality with ball to engage defender and get a lay up.
Find passing window if read full front of defender.

John Chekouras 2 on 1:

Stay on offense for 90 sec and then rotate to defense for 90 sec.
1 point for each score.

1 Comment

Should your child play AAU basketball?

4/12/2022

0 Comments

End of Year Review Sample Form

3/26/2022

0 Comments

End of Year Sample Form PDF

0 Comments

Everybody knows turnovers are huge offensive efficiency killers and live turnovers put your defense at a big time disadvantage. Turnovers for lay ups or the pick six can be really tough to overcome and are demoralizing for your team. These issues can be easy to chart and recognize but the key becomes in identifying, diagnosing, and improving the situation.

If turnovers are an issue for your team it can be helpful to have an assistant coach or trusted parent identify and chart the type of turnovers occurring and by whom. Common turnovers include traveling, passing, footwork, post entry, or driving single gap errors. If a trend is found this can then be addressed in your upcoming practice sessions.

As an example, our team’s most common turnovers are: 1. Driving the ball into a single gap and turning the ball over off a deflection or steal by the other team. 2. Being soft with ball against ball pressure and making poor passes versus pressure. To address this we have a 10-15 minute practice segment working on decision making and ball toughness when driving the ball and overloading the passer versus pressure. Sample drills and rules to correct are noted below of which could change pending the specific concerns with your team.

Penetration and decision making drills and rules for correction:

2 v 2 on a side: Offensive player with ball is shoulder to shoulder with defender and has advantage going down hill. The second defender has the option to attack the dribbler in the gap, try and take a charge, or stunt at the ball and get back to their offensive player. The offensive player has to make the read and correct decision. We tell the offensive player if you see chest make the pass and if see daylight or arms and legs go through.
3 v 3, 4 v 4, or 5 v 5 Chaser: This is a great drill to work on dribble penetration and drive and kick reads as well as help the helper defensive rotations. Click here to view video link for further description.
Make rules of no single gap penetration and don’t drive it where the ball came from.

Passing versus pressure decision making drills and rules for correction:

Teammate in the middle passing with progression to trap passing and two defenders in the middle for 30 seconds. The defenders are counting deflections over the 30 second time frame.
Box passing 4 v 4. Play first team to 20 or 30 completed passes. Click here for video description.
3 v 3 ball toughness and progression to 3 v 4 ball toughness. Each team gets three possessions on offense with a point for each pass. The max points in a round is 10. Game is played in the half court.
3 v 3 full court lane passing. Click here for video link.
Game of 60. Each team runs motion offense and only the initial player with the ball can start with a dribble. After the initial first pass no offensive player can dribble and the offense gets a point for each pass. A score is worth 5 points and the team that scored gets the ball back. The first team to 60 points wins. This drill would not fit you if you were a dribble drive motion or ball screen oriented team.
Make rules on post entry pass of have to see numbers and no sideline to sideline passes on top. Against trap need to run to pass and fill middle, sideline, and behind areas.
When getting trapped with the ball bring the trap low, get ball to back shoulder, and punch your passes.

At the youth level playing through mistakes and not looking over your shoulder are very important. The bench can be a great teacher to correct a player who is having significant turnover issues, however, this would be a last resort. It is important to follow your association playing time guidelines. For ages 13 and above it would probably be the time to let the bench teach for certain players.

Lastly, another way to bring value to taking care of the ball is to scrimmage to 3 points but if a team turns the ball over that is instantly a loss for that team. You will hear your players coaching themselves in these situations by saying things like make sure passes, value the ball, and make the simple play. We hope this article has given you one or two things to help your team take care of the ball better this year and be a more efficient team.

-YBD Staff

0 Comments

Sample Core Youth Basketball Games

11/13/2021

1 Comment

Simple 5 Out Motion Teaching Progression

10/7/2021

0 Comments

4th Grade Spacing and Cutting
When choosing to teach 5 Out Motion we typically initiate this around the 9 to 10 year old range or 4th grade. Below is a numbered pathway to introduce the offense influenced by Harry Perretta, retired women’s coach from Villanova University.

Show 5 Out spacing and name areas in a way that fit your entire program (i.e. top, wings, and corners or top, flats, and stretches, etc…).
Show and practice 5-0 full court transition offense off missed shots with dribble penetration in transition with spacing reads off dribble penetration. You can utilize pushers and fillers or a numbered break and outlet to designated point guard. At the youth level we prefer pushers and fillers as allows greater diversity to your offense and the opportunity for a greater number of your players to handle the ball. If a pusher gets the rebound they are their own outlet and look to advance the ball up the floor.
Show and practice 5-0 made shot full court transition offense with designated point guard and in-bounder with one to two entries 5-0 (can build up to three entries) such as down screen entry, dribble at entry, or v-cut entries.
Demonstrate and practice 5-0 cutting (this can be called option 1) with 2nd cuts out away from ball to balance floor along with dribble at back cuts.
Play 5 on 5 half or full court with entries and cutting.
Demonstrate and practice 5-0 cutting with addition of slice cuts (cutting towards ball to create double gap).
Play 5 on 5 half or full court with entries and slice cut actions (this can be called option 1-slice).

5th Grade Screen Away with Curl Cut

Review 5-0 and 5-5 cutting with entries in full and half court setting.
Add in screen away actions with curl cut (this can be called option 2) when team can perform cutting and spacing actions as initially reviewed with 70 to 80% accuracy.
Player screening away can screen away from top and wing areas but not from corner. Screener raises fist to pair up with cutter and sprints to screen with wide and balanced base.
Cutter’s rule is an automatic curl when first learning this offense to remove any indecision and keep simple. Cutter is patient and takes defender one to two steps away and then comes off screener shoulder to hip setting match on fire.
Normal entries can be used to initiate offense after made buckets or on dead balls.

5th Grade Screen Away with Slip

Add in screen away with screener slipping to rim when your team can perform screen away with curl cut with 70-80% accuracy (this can also be a called action on a dead ball such as 2-slip).
In this action the screener sprints to screen away and then when within arms distance of cutter quickly cuts or slips to rim. The cutter cuts opposite the screener and cuts high to the ball on the perimeter.

6th Grade Pass and Ball Screen

Two players are designated ball screeners with the other three players being cutters (this can be called option 3). When the ball screeners receive the ball on the perimeter and make a perimeter pass to a cutter they follow their pass and set a ball screen.
After setting a ball screen the screener can roll hard to the rim.
Cutters, after making a perimeter pass, cut to the rim and second cut out as in option 1.
Normal entries can be used to initiate offense.

6th Grade Slip the Ball Screen

This is the same as pass and ball screen (option 3) but instead of the ball screener setting a screen on the defender guarding the ball they quickly slip to the rim when within arms distance of the defender (this can be called option 3-slip).
The person with the ball can pass it to the ball screener slipping to the rim, drive the gap vacated by the ball screener, or pass to another teammate on the perimeter and then cut to the rim.

There are a lot of ways to teach 5 Out Motion and various options can be emphasized based on your personnel. We have found that this numbered teaching progression and working on one aspect at a time has simplified the teaching process for youth coaches and players. Email us at info@youthbasketballdevelopment.com with any questions and as always feel free to share our content.

0 Comments

Solutions to Common Youth Basketball Situations

9/1/2021

0 Comments

Coach's Welcome Packet (Ages 5-8)

8/13/2021

0 Comments

A welcome packet. is a great way for your youth association to make a good first impression and let your volunteer youth coaches know that they will be supported.

If you are interested in having this welcome packet, designed for coaching ages 5-8, customized with your school logo and contact information just email info@youthbasketballdevelopment.com with the title Free Welcome Packet.

-YBD Staff

0 Comments

Finishing at the Rim

7/1/2021

0 Comments

These are some great edits to show your youth players various finishing techniques at the rim. The edits include two foot finishes (power lay-up, air'em, and donut all off the stride stop footwork) and one foot finishes (speed lay-up, inside hand finish, and reverse lay-up).

We tell our players to play off two feet in the paint when there is going to be contact and to go off one if there is daylight. The vast majority of the time in the half court situation we are emphasizing playing off two feet as we believe it gives players a stronger base to absorb contact and it slows them down to make better decisions.

One way we teach to play off two feet is with the stride stop footwork.

Have a great 4th of July week!

-YBD Staff

0 Comments

Protection Plan Edits

6/2/2021

0 Comments

Having a protection plan when there has been no advantage created or against pressure can help improve decision making and offensive efficiency. The below video shows edits of the Nash dribble, Barkley move, stride stop, and protect-attack dribble. These can be great to show your kids (10 years old and up) a visual of what poise and patience with the ball look like.

0 Comments

<<Previous

LEARN

Teaching 2 on 1 Principles

Should your child play AAU basketball?

End of Year Review Sample Form

Reducing Turnovers

Sample Core Youth Basketball Games

Simple 5 Out Motion Teaching Progression

Solutions to Common Youth Basketball Situations

Coach's Welcome Packet (Ages 5-8)

Finishing at the Rim

Protection Plan Edits

Archives

Categories