Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Fastbreak (II): Big Men Running


Another thing I wanted, having in mind the kind of big players we had last season (not too big, not big presence inside) was to make our disadvantage in size become one of our strengths through their ability to run faster than the other teams' bigs.

Not only we had to change our minds looking for many efforts (and understanding that sometimes those efforts would be unrewarded) but also make specific work with them on keeping the right spacing, and finishing the fastbreak avoiding to travel or turn the ball over (individual work was of paramount importance, we did it often before practice or in specific sessions) 

We were able to link this work with the ideas we talked about in the last post (basically, the use of the lateral lane) to create the space for our bigs to run.

We gave our big men three easy rules to follow:

- Wait until we get the rebound.

- Once we get it, run. Middle lane, straight to the basket (not to mid post - low post area, go straight to the hole) Do not ask for the ball until you're in a "finishing area". 

- If you receive it, finish. If not, go to ball side low post and then you will try to receive with your back to the basket.

Our smalls had to understand the different skills of our bigs, mostly to know what kind of pass they wanted to give to each one of them (some of them needed the lob pass, some of them were able to catch bounce passes...) Again, we put work in practice and video sessions so it would be easy for them to decide.

Over all, what's most important to me is to create the habit of running in the big men, and in the small guys, of giving them the ball whenever they're in a good position. Through practice, feedback, and letting them see the reward they get (easy buckets) they get used to run almost every time.



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