Getting Back to Basketball

During our school vacation, many of us had to take a vacation from basketball, as none of the rec teams were able to practice. And the same way that you have to train your brain to write "2014" on your papers for school - or even train your hands to write, if you haven't done that in two weeks - you probably have to retrain your fingers to handle a basketball.

Some of the ballhandling drills in this video don't even require you to bounce a basketball, but they will still be useful in building some of the hand-eye coordination we have worked on in our first few practices.

While we will not be practicing on New Year's Day, we will have a practice and scrimmage at Post Road School on Saturday, from 2-4 pm. Our practice will not be as focused on skill development as the last two we have had at Highlands. Instead, we will be working on how to play together on offense, and how to play together on defense.

Here are some things to try to remember about offense from the drills we have done. Of course, everything begins with remembering to catch the ball and get into triple-threat position:

• give-and-go on the pass from the point to the wing
• pick and roll
• 1-4 set up, with a point guard and four players along the "foul-line extended," meaning, wing-elbow-elbow-wing

On defense, we will play man-to-man (or more appropriately, girl-to-girl). Before our practice on Saturday, try to remember about "keeping your head on a swivel" and these three things:

• on-ball
• deny position (one pass away)
• help position (two passes away)

See you on Saturday at Post Road.

First Practice (sort of) Recap

Maybe it would be better to call Friday night's practice a pre-practice. Not only were the players given short notice, but there was a conflict with another team's practice. Fortunately for us, Coach Ferguson made room for us in one half of the gym; unfortunately, this was after Carolena had left.
In our limited time, here's what we were able to do:

1. learn about balance and triple threat position with the ball
2. spend a short time doing stationary dribbling
3. practice taking a balanced layup off one foot (right, left, up, with the right knee on a string to the right elbow - see video below for a reminder)
4. work on chest pass and bounce pass
5. learn a drill that combined passing, catching and balanced layups
6. do a shooting drill that involved three parts
1. catching a pass with our bodies squared up to the passer
2. pivoting to make our bodies squared up to the basket
3. using good shooting technique
7. watch Zoey make a couple of 20-foot shots in a game of knockout

Beginning Wednesday, December 11, we will begin our regular Wednesday practices at Highlands, in the North gym (the big one), from 7 to 8:30. With more girls and a full gym all to ourselves, we will be able to do a lot more running to get the blood flowing so we can practice with energy. Between then and now, try to practice on your own the skills we started developing last night.
If you have your own basketball (size 28.5), bring it to practice. If every girl has a basketball, every girl will be more actively involved in each moment of practice. I look forward to seeing you all there, and don't forget to check out the Triple Threat video in the post below.

Basketball Begins With Balance

This website will provide information about the skills we work on in practice, and links to basketball drills you can do on your own. As we move through the season, we'll also use it to share tips and favorite basketball-related videos with each other.
One thing you'll hear Coach say over and over again is that you have to be balanced to play basketball, whether you're dribbling the ball, shooting it, passing it or playing defense.
We will begin each practice with drills that help us focus on staying balanced. This video is a good reminder of what you can get out of playing Red Light Green Light on a basketball court.