re: Middle School Basketball Rec League Offense Coaching Tips

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This. Maybe I didn't explain it well enough but just not enough time to install a lot of the great ideas given.

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I was in the same boat. I couldn't get my 12 year olds to run a set play to save their life. i didn't have any really good kids, but they were decent enough. 6 of the 8 could dribble well enough to protect the ball from being stolen from a good player. 2 were pretty bad.

I wanted to run 5 out and have a few sets off of it, but i rarely had everyone at practice and even when we did, we'd practice the 2 sets i wanted to run and we were incapable of running them in the game.
Even just the simple pass and cut was too much. There was never any movement in man to man offense.

What i ended up doing which i think was very helpful was really just simplifyign practice and just worked on 1 on 1 getting to the basket.
I tried emphasizing to them the importance of penetration. penetrate and finish, penetrate and pop, penetrate and pass back out.
I'd have the boys lineup under the goal, put one on a wing and i'd pass it out to them and have a defender close out on them. I shouted a 5 second countdown for them to score, with the emphasis of getting to the rim. I wanted the defender to close out hard as well, so i said if the offensive guy makes a three, defense has to do 10 pushups. Missed 3 was 3 pushups for the offense b/c i didn't want them just jacking up 3's everytime. If they offense made the shot they stayed on offense. If they made 4 times in a row, then everyone else had to run a suicide. That was a fun competitive drill, and i took the time to stop and help after certain plays. Things like keeping a guy on your back hip once you get around him.
We ran that from each wing, and also from the top of the key. The 5 second timer helped a lot i think. Made them realize that they had to do somethign quick when the got the ball. Also got them to understand if you go to the pass, you've already got a running start at the defender and it's a lot easier to get around them when you're running at them and they are running at you.


We also did 3 on 3. We'd have a guy on each wing and one at the top of the key, each with a defender. pass the ball around while the defense plays help side, no stealing, until i say go. Then the countdown starts again and they had 7 seconds to score. No picks, had to penetrate and score or kick out. IF they didn't get a shot off (and i deemed prayer shots at the last second not a shot), then the offense had to do 5 pushups.
What i was trying to teach here was penetrating and kicking out. Teaching the wing to drift down the 3 point line with the penetration from the top of the key and the opposite wing to fill the top of the key spot. That helped our motion on offense in games a ton once they realized this. Also showed them how we are typcially a lot more successful at making threes off passes that come from the paint b/c we are already facing the goal with our feet set and shoulders squared. Emphasized making a good pass to the chest as well, and not some lazy no look pass to their feet or over their head. The location of the pass can be the difference in a make or miss, or even getting a shot off at all.


The other key thing i wanted to see happen with the 5 out was back door cuts.
Doing the shell drill, which is for man help defense, helped with that. We'd run the shell drill and i'd try to help the corner guy recognize when his defender wasn't looking at him and have him cut back door on him. This was a good way to get the guys in the corner on offense in the games to have somethign to do and not just stay there doing nothing.


Another drill was running dribble handoff at the top of the key. guy getting the handoff gets the ball and goes to the rim, guy handing it off has to go around me, as i stand at the top of the key where the handoff happens and defend. the point was to teach the boys to go into the cotact for the layup, not avoid it and veer off away from the goal for a layup. I really wanted to emphasize getting to the basket and finishing through contact, and not worryign about getting blocked.
We played 16 games and only 2 of them did we not shoot more free throws than our opponents. Now we only had a record of 6-10, but if we could have simply been 50% FT shooters instead of 20%, we would have easily won at least 4 more games. We'd routinely go 2-13 or 4-15. It was unbelievable.



And then the other thing we'd do is just working 2 on 2. Setting a good pick and making sure we are wiaitng for it so it's not a moving screen. And then also working on dribble handoffs. That was the only way i could really initiate offense. We had to have that first guy get the penetration, and after we did then we'd start moving the ball well and having some player movement. So calling plays was really just calling a pick or dribble handoff, and we got better so we could advance to a dribble handoff that had a pick waiting after it.
Worked a good bit with the 2 point guards on this, and then the other 2 guys who we used a lot recieving the dribble handoffs. The other 3 would work on catchign and shooting from certain spots while we did that, and they also worked on passing under pressure by simply playign monkey in the middle. You have to wait for the defender to get in your face, then use your pivot foot and protect teh ball until you can make a pass through the defender without him touching it. If defender even tips the pass, you go in the middle. No lob passes and can only bounce once if a bounce pass. If those boys can't dribble well, then they need to learn how to protect it. We can't throw them the ball and it end up in a jump ball turnover everytime.



Teaching the basic principle of penetrating a defense and the other 4 guys being in the right spot was easier than teaching guys to get open to pass to and then cutting to the basket after you pass. They rarely ever cut, and there was no movement anywhere else to make passes. And then they get so caught up in "runnign and offense" that they forget that we have to actually score the basketball.

This is simply basketball iq and will only come with playing. This might sound stupid but find some YouTube videos on cutting so the kids can watch and see what it’s supposed to look like. At least it would give them the overarching idea. Plus all them kids are all over social media so they’ll watch them.