Want your team playing with better pace? Looking to up your PPP (points per possession) this coming season?
Radius Athletics’ Randy Sherman and A Quick Timeout Podcast’s Tony Miller explain how playing like the pros can increase your pace of play on the offensive end.
Pick Up the Pace
One of the simplest ways to improve your team’s pace of play is to teach players to transition faster – mentally and physically – from defense to offense. Sounds simple enough, but how do you teach that to your players so that it actually happens?
#1: Five Seconds or Less
The goal is to get into scoring positions as quickly as possible. Don’t confuse this with shooting faster. It’s being in position to score faster. Whether it’s through an advance pass, a quick outlet and speed dribble up the court, or having whoever rebounds the ball be the one who dribbles up the court, we want the ball across half court in :03 and everyone into scoring position in :05 or less.
#2: Early Actions
We’d all love to score off a transition layup, but that’s obviously not realistic. What’s common among teams that play with great pace is that they get to their advantage-creating actions early in the possession. That could look like a drag ball screen in transition or a DHO between your PG and a wing – anything to make the defense guard an action between two or more players.
The Michigan Wolverines, coaches by long-time NBA player and coach, Juwan Howard, do a great job of playing with pace…
Drill: Quick Strike
Here’s a drill from Arkansas’ Mike Neighbors to help your team implement these two suggestions. It’s called Quick Strike, and as the name implies, the drill rewards those who play with pace.
Looking for more ideas for what to do in transition to create early advantages? Check out this Mike Neighbors resource from CoachTube.com: Actions to Make Any Defense Wrong
Additional Resources
