This weekend, I coached my son's 4th grade basketball game and my daughter's 2nd grade basketball game. I also played on a Grace basketball team. Here are some things that I think I think:
- I love basketball.
- In my game, I found I can get up & down the floor with anyone (even
at the ripe old age of 40). But my shooting absolutely stinks. (My love of basketball is not helping.) - I've GOT to find some time to practice my shooting at some point. Or I need to change my name to "The Bricklayer." 🙂
- I've found that, in elementary school, the more aggressive team almost always wins.
- I think my daughter's 2nd grade team might be more aggressive than my son's 4th grade team.
- That last point makes me want to scream.
- Here was my pre-game speech to my daughter's 2nd grade team today:
- "Girls? You can be all nice & sweet out THERE!" I said pointing outside the building. "But in HERE, you are to be mean & nasty & aggressive!" 🙂
- My boys team played well. They are the nicest kids. That's too bad on the court.
- My girls team absolutely dominated.
Girls are RUTHLESS!!
A good way to encourage aggressiveness is to make all/some of your drills competitive. A great example is to do a rebounding drill as follows. Have 2 guys on one team, 2 on the other, and have them setup for a rebound. You take the shot and miss it (it sounds like this should be an easy task for you 🙂 ). Whichever team gets the rebound now takes it and tries to drive to the other end and tries to score. Give the offensive team 7 seconds to score. The team that did not get the rebound is on defense. The drill is complete when the offense scores, the defense gets the ball, or the offense runs out of time.
The team that did not get the initial rebound owes 5 pushups or a suicide or whatever.
In addition:
If the offense scores, the defense gets another 5 pushups/suicide/whatever.
If the defense stops the offense, the offense gets 5 pushups/suicide/whatever.
You can do lots of derivations of this drill. All in Jesus’s name! 🙂
The other all time aggression drill is the IBA drill (The all time leading cause of floor burns for jr high basketball players). Have 2 guys pair up with similar skill/aggression levels. You throw the ball somewhere on the court (or somewhere in the gym). Whoever gets the ball wins. Loser does 5 pushups/etc. You can also expand this drill to whoever gets the ball is now on offense and has 7 seconds to score… etc…
Anyway… the biggest thing to encourage aggressive play is to make practice competitive and reward aggression!
Signed,
Wayne (Currently in rehab for aggressive tendencies) Krause
Have a great day!
Wayne-O, thanks for the ideas. I love ’em. I’ll start using them immediately!