The Offense/Skills Drills Formula

In this newsletter, you’re going to find… - Special News About 2021 Basketball Camps! - The Offense/Skills Drills Formula - Mailbag: More on “Being Tough on Players”... High Praise for Don Kelbick’s Zone Offense… Feedback on What Makes the Shooting & Scoring System Stand Out  --------------------------------------------------------------- Special News About 2021 Basketball Camps! Before we get into the content below, we have some exciting news for you. In case you didn’t see yesterday’s email, we’re almost done finalizing the 2021 camp schedule for the spring and summer! It should be finished by the end of December and we’ll notify you once it’s completed. And on January 5th, we will begin to accept payments, so you can reserve your spot. We’ve already received hundreds of emails asking about the 2021 camps because people want to… - Plan ahead of time - Take advantage of the early-bird discount - Reserve a spot before camps sold out (One year, a camp sold out in 1 day!) There are some new things with camps that we’ll let you know about as they approach. We’re pretty excited about them as they should be very beneficial for you.  --------------------------------------------------------------- The Offense/Skills Drills Formula Ages: Youth, High School, College/Pro Audience: Coaches, Parents, Players Previously, we showed you a great way to be super efficient and effective with your practices and drills. You simply teach your offensive cuts and concepts while meshing it with skill development. Now, next I want to show you a simplified formula, so you can easily create hundreds of your own drills that are best for your situation. It’s super simple! And it follows the principles... - Practice what happens most in the game. - Practice the most efficient shots.  Step 1: Use a Game-Like Cut You should analyze what offensive cuts and concepts happen most often within your offense. Then you start the drill with that cut and concept. We covered this idea in more depth [here](. As a player development coach, I couldn’t replicate all of the offensive cuts and concepts out there. So here is what I did... I simplified things into these five categories for game-like cuts. - Cuts towards the basket. Generally, this would be fast break situations, basket cuts, or stepping into a shot off dribble penetration. - Cuts away from the basket. Typically, this is any cut from the post area to the perimeter area. - Cuts towards the ball. Examples would be a curl cut or blast cut (corner to wing). - Cuts away from the ball. Examples would be a fade or flare cut. - Ball screens and dribble handoffs. Since ball screens are so prevalent in the game today, I believe this is an important thing to include as well. You can practice the actions by the ball handler and the screener. Of course, how often you practice this depends on your future and whether your programs use many ball screens or dribble handoffs. I would always start with cuts towards the ball or towards the basket. Those tend to be easier to learn and execute. I think it’s because you can carry momentum towards the basket. You can still practice cuts away from the basket and cuts away from the ball. However, for beginners, I would stay close to the basket. Don Kelbick’s chair drills are perfect for this.  Step 2: Practice Shooting off the Catch Shooting off the catch is still the [most common and the most effective shot](. Make sure this is a foundation of your skill development. In many situations, you should allocate 50% to 75% of your practice time to shooting off the catch until that has been mastered. This opens up all aspects of your game. It makes it easier to beat the defense for open shots around the basket and even opens up opportunities for your teammates. This is why coaches love shooters! Players like Ray Allen and Kyle Korver had amazing careers by just being able to shoot off the catch and shooting off 1 dribble. Youth coaches and players: Of course, you’re the exception to this approach. [Ball handling is an easier skill to master](. Once players get stronger and hit puberty, you should allocate more time to shooting off the catch.  Step 3: Add Dribble Attacks - 1 Dribble Attacks Since I prefer the [Attack & Counter mentality and counter moves]( I always start with attacking the rim with one dribble. As you master foundational lay ups, you can practice variations of finishing moves like Rondos and Euro Steps. After that, I practiced 1 dribble pull up jump shots. The mid-range game! This is also a great time to focus on straight line drives, triple threat moves, and footwork. - Dribble Move Attacks I take the same philosophy here as with 1 dribble attacks. After the dribble move, I like to practice attacking the rim first to build an attack mentality. Once again, you can work on different finishing moves here as well. After that, you can work on pull up jump shots off the dribble move. You shouldn’t be spending more than half of your practice time here if you don’t have an effective jump shot off the catch, a pull up off of 1 dribble, and highly effective finishing skills around the basket. If players spent 75% of their time mastering the first 3 steps before allocating more time to dribble move attacks, you’d have a lot more success. When I [trained a Gatorade Missouri Player of the Year,]( that’s precisely what we did. For videos and diagrams of progressions, check this out >> [Shooting Drills with Game-Like Cuts]( One more thing, it’s beneficial to mix in block, variable, and random practice into your workouts and practices as well.  Step 4: Add Defenders for Live Play Players need to learn how to make decisions and attack defenses. This is how the game is played! For this, you simply replicate the same cut and you add a defender to the situation. You can adjust the start of the defender by changing positions, sitting in chairs, etc. to give the offense different looks. You can also start with reference defense to build confidence then continue to live play. I like to progress from - 1v1 - 2v2 - 3v3 If you’re short on time, you can progress from 1v1 to 3v3. The following drill shows you how to replicate a game-like cut and turn it into a 1v1 drill. Look at this too >> ["Out on an Island" - 1v1 Corner to Wing Shooting Drill]( What do you think of this formula for creating offense and skill development drills? REPLY to this email and let me know!  --------------------------------------------------------------- Mailbag: More on “Being Tough on Players”... High Praise for Don Kelbick’s Zone Offense… Feedback on What Makes the Shooting & Scoring System Stand Out Over the last couple of weeks, the responses have piled in for our discussion in the mailbag on “being tough on players.” I was even accused of inadvertently becoming part of the quasi-thought police. You can read [part 1]( and [part 2](. Reader Comment: Good afternoon, I agree. You were not way off. As a college coach, I remind student athletes when necessary, how actions/choices can affect their team, so they can understand that they are held accountable for their actions/choices and the outcomes from it. I value my role as a coach, this is why it is essential for me to coach athletes with wisdom. Every student male/female athlete on the varsity teams to me, is a person first, and a player second. Based on your form of communication with your athletes, I can tell you treat them with respect, and hopefully they give you the same treatment in return. Joe’s Response: I appreciate the kind words. I’m certainly not perfect. I’ve reflected on situations where I let my ego get in the way of helping athletes. As coaches, it’s something we always have to be mindful of. [In a previous email]( I shared some information on developing a better zone offense and what to do if you have no shooters. I mentioned [Don Kelbick’s Zone Offense video]( as a great resource to use. And some praise followed from a reader: Reader Comment: Don Kelbick, in my opinion, understands the game at a very high level. Every part of the game he discusses is teachable, repeatable, and applies to all players, everywhere on the court. I have, through Don and others, been able to apply basketball concepts that build player habits that are successful, personally and for the team. I have over the years seen – and tried – so many zone offense strategies. Don’s continuity zone offense has provided us a foundation for success, over and over again, regardless of our player group. It also allows transition teams like ours to flow seamlessly into offense, something many zone offenses struggle with. I highly recommend [the continuity zone offense](. I totally agree with putting your best passer/ high IQ player in the high post. That, for 2 years running, (had same group for 2 years ) was our 5’ point guard. Teams, I’m sure, were laughing until we got down to business. That girl could see the floor, pass with purpose, and attack ( under ) any post ‘D’ she met. Our entire team was better when we put our best passer/ best thinker/ best ‘see the floor ‘ girl in the high post. Zones are a common site from midget on up so we all need to figure out how to get better. I love that challenge! Thanks, Gord Joe’s Response: Love to hear that, Gord! Appreciate you sharing as I know many people have thought the same things about Don Kelbick’s approaches to teaching and coaching basketball. Don has had a tremendous positive impact on me as well! We’re closing up today’s mailbag with a comment on the [Breakthrough Shooting and Scoring System]( with Jim Huber and about how the Progressive Shooting Workouts make this product stand out. Reader Comment: I have been interested in basketball shooting since I was a teen & I still have Bill Sharman's book on basketball shooting(1965)! In recent years, I have studied several authors/experts from Hopla to Kelbick to Norland & others! Coach Huber explains the fundamentals very well but what distinguishes this product are the graded workouts for each part of the jump shot technique & following this system should allow the player/s who follows it, success in jump shooting a basketball! I don't totally agree with everything presented here, however, my differences are minor & may only apply to different individuals, as some players have minor differences with the technique presented by Coach Huber. - Michael As always, reply back to the emails with any feedback, questions, or thoughts.  All the Best, - Joe Haefner Breakthrough Basketball  This email was sent to {EMAIL} [Manage Subscriptions]( or [Unsubscribe All]( Copyright © 2020 Breakthrough Basketball, LLC. All rights reserved. Breakthrough Basketball, LLC. | 5001 1st Ave. SE, Ste 105 #254 | Cedar Rapids | IA | 52402 [email.gif] .