It was great seeing everyone after Thanksgiving Break! Every team came back ready to play, and we accomplished a lot during practice this week!

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Main Focuses:

Defense

Stance

Slides

Close Outs

Ball/Gap/Help

Ball Handling

 Defense: 

This weeks primary focus was on Defense. We want to implement good habits such as staying low on close outs and slides, proper footwork, and team defense reads.

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We want to be able to put heavy pressure on the ball and trust our teammates in order to force our opponents into bad decisions. In order to do this, we have to make sure we are in proper defensive alignment.

 

When the ball is 1 pass away, we must be in gap defense. If you point to the person with the ball and your matchup your arms should be making a V.

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When the ball is 2 or more passes away you should be in help defense. You should be around the mid line ready to step up to help/take a charge. If the ball gets passed to our matchup we will still have plenty of time to recover.

 

Most importantly, we must communicate. Everyone should be talking throughout the entire possession.

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If you have not already done so please watch this amazing video of Marcus Smart teaching defense.

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Here is another great defensive videos from one of the best trainers in basketball, Drew Hanlen:

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Ball Handling:

Ball handling will be something we practice every single practice. This is also something you can practice at home when we do not have practice. Some moves we focused on this week are:

• Crossovers

• Between The Legs

• Behind The Back

• Escape Dribble

• Double Crossovers

• in and out

• progressions

 

Remember to practice all of these at full speed with both hands. There is no such thing as too much ball handling practice. This is a critical skill for all positions and ages.

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Stay tuned for weekly practice updates in addition to some workouts that can be completed at home.

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