Observations from Sunday Nov. 4
During our Backyard Sports Plus Program we focused on the concepts of passing, cutting and spacing. Our players implemented these concepts in game play today. I was impressed on how our players were sharing the ball and executing these offensive concepts. Our Plus Players have improved immensely with their individual and team skills!
In our Prep Session today we continued our instructional station progression. Coach Henry led our rebounding station, emphasizing the importance of keeping our hands up at all times. His “blind catches” drill helped reinforce this skill. Coach Minotti and Coach Elon challenged our dribblers today by having them dribble with both their dominant and non-dominant hand. Players had to maintain their dribble today while navigating through multiple cone tasks. Coach Nesta and Coach Shayla had our players learn both the offensive and defensive concepts of 3 vs 1. Coach Hogans challenged our players today with a 3 vs. 2 drill but added a defensive trailer turning the half court drill into a 3 vs. 3 experience. Coach Spencer had our players compete in a shoot out. Teammates positioned themselves on the elbow and focused on their pre-shot technique. Today’s prep session ended with our traditional criterion games. Game #1 featured a three dribble maximum rule; forcing players to dribble attack more. Game #2 forced players to pass the ball to every teammate before a shot was allowed. Our prep players learned the importance of sharing the ball and the importance of attacking the basket with a “live” dribble. Our games today overall were solid. I have enjoyed watching our players implement our Prep Skill Stations into game play. For example, numerous times today, players were rebounding the ball and pivoting correctly. Today, players were passing and cutting to the basket extremely well. I also was impressed with our screen and roll offensive concepts. However, at times today I did see some players dominant shot attempts with limited passing. Remember, good offensive teams force the defense to defend multiple passes. Overall, today was a successful day at Backyard Sports. Our Plus Players are emerging to game concepts, our Prep session was energetic and productive and in our league play we are starting to see players implement our teaching strategies in high level game settings. We would like to thank all the players and their families for their continued support and we are looking forward to our final two weeks of our Fall Basketball Program!