‘Rebound, Dribble and Clear Drill’ reinforces fundamentals From Don Martindale, head girls coach, Spencer High School, Iowa

Our team has had a lot of success over the last few years. In the past five seasons, our team has played in four regional sub state finals and competed in two state tournament games.

A lot of our team’s success can be attributed to the solid fundamentals displayed by our players. A good portion of our practice time is spent on fundamentals, and we run drills specifically geared toward improving the skills needed for superior execution.

One of our favorite team drills that stresses fundamentals is called the Rebound Dribble and Clear Drill. This drill reinforces the following critical fundamental skills.

• Jump stops
• Making layups under pressure
• Taking a proper scoring angle toward the basket
• Pressure defense
• Rebounding
• Dribbling against pressure defense
• Making good decisions with the basketball
• Throwing good outlet passes
• Receiving and securing the outlet pass
• Advancing the ball upcourt after receiving an outlet pass

DIAGRAM: Rebound Dribble And Clear Drill. Divide your team equally into four lines of players at the following areas on the floor:

• Line 1 sets up at the top of the key
• Line 2 sets up at the right wing area at the free-throw line extended
• Line 3 sets up behind the 3-point line at the left free-throw line extended
• Line 4 sets up near the sideline.

The first player in each line begins the drill. The player in Line 4 serves as the outlet-pass receiver and must have his or her back to the sideline.

To start the drill, 1 dribbles up the floor, executes a jump stop, and throws a pass to 2 cutting to the basket on a 45-degree angle. 2 secures the pass and tries to make a layup. As soon as 1 jump stops, 3 breaks from the left wing-area extended and plays pressure defense on 2, trying to stop 2 from making the layup.

3 grabs the rebound, takes a few dribbles and clears the ball to 4 as the outlet. After shooting the layup, 2 immediately plays pressure defense on 3 and tries to stop him or her from making the outlet pass.

Set a goal of making 12 layups in a row (run the drill from both the right and left sides of the floor). Include a penalty, such as having the team run one set of sprints for every missed layup and restart of the count.

The players rotate to a new line after each turn in the drill. The rotation is as follows: Line 1 goes to Line 2, Line 2 goes to Line 3, Line 3 goes to Line 4, and Line 4 goes to Line 1.