This post was submitted by Coach Tom Kelsey. Coach Kelsey has been a Head Coach at Belhaven University, Faulkner University, and Greater Atlanta Christian High School. He has also been an assistant at LSU, Alabama, Murray State, and Lipscomb. He played at Lipscomb under Coach Don Meyer.
Coaching Post Players can be frustrating and a challenge.
You are trying all the drills.
You try all the motivation techniques.
You try easy drills and hard drills.
Still not seeing improvement as you hoped?
Learning how to teach certain skills is also important for a coach.
The most important thing is to keep it simple for your Post Players.
Getting them to do a few things well will pay off more than trying to have them do a large variety of skills.
So what are the most important things to teach and how to teach them?
1. Footwork.
Having the proper footwork is the foundation to good post play.
Emphasize footwork during every workout, practice, and game.
Everything starts with running the floor. A Post Player who can run the floor is a tremendous asset to the team. The ability to get back and protect the paint gives a defense the right foundation.
Running the floor on offense and beating the defender down the floor puts them into position to get easy baskets.
2. Positioning
How well a Post Player establishes position on both ends will determine their effectiveness.
On defense getting around to front in the post, showing on ball screens, giving help on drives, blocking out all involve being in the right position.
Offensively understanding angles and how to post and seal the defender are critical to success in the paint.
Because of the physical nature of posting up, players need to understand how to use their body.
That means holding the defense off by using their rear end, hips, and quick feet.
3. Hands
One of the most significant areas to help your Post Players is in their hands. They have to keep their hands up constantly.
For rebounding, I tell our players all the time what John Wooden said, “When the shot goes up, hands go up.”
If you want to rebound your hands, have to be up.
On defense I want our players to have their hands up especially in the paint. I want the referee to see both hands of our players.
Both hands up allow there to be much less chance of a foul. If an official who can only see one hand the likelihood of a foul increases.
On offense the reason we want hands up is to be ready for the pass, but also to be a threat to catch. If a Post Player stands with hands down two things happen:
- Their teammates are less likely to throw then the ball. We want our players to be available receivers at all times.
- They are not a threat to the defense. We feel having hands up puts more pressure on the defense because that is one more player the defense must give attention.
Emphasize these areas each day. If you get them to play with good footwork, proper position and active hands you will see tremendous improvement.
Here are some great drills to put in right away to your workouts and practices.
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Pitch Aheads
Drill teaches your players to run the floor, make the catch and finish with a made basket.
Players will gain confidence in running the floor full speed and being able to make the play.
Pitch ball ahead to player running to the basket.
Coach can make the pass hard to catch or easy to catch.
Throw it out in front of the player each time so they have to make an effort to go after the basketball.
Player has to catch the ball clean and lay the ball up at the rim.
Pitch Aheads Continued
You can also have players make pass first then pass the ball back.
Catching off the Drive
Post players working on the catch and finish. Coach has the ball at FT line. Each player goes three times. Coach makes pass difficult to catch (up high, down low, off the bounce, too fast).
After catch post player makes quick move to basket without dribbling the ball.
Power Lay in drill.
Coach throws ball to hit the opposite side of the backboard. Do not want ball to hit the rim. Players must have hands up and knees bent so they are ready for the ball. On the rebound go up as high as possible and chin the basketball so they are strong with the ball.
- Pogo. Keep the ball high on the rebound with arms extended and immediately go back up with the shot.
- Quick put back into the basket. Come down with rebound with wide base and chin the ball go back up with the shot.
- Shot fake and shot. Rebound and shot fake before going back up with shot. On the shot fake make sure to keep knees bent and the ball chinned. Teaching players to stay in basketball ready position.
- Shot fake come to the other side of the rim on one dribble. Keep shoulders parallel to the backboard.
- Catch in the air and put in back in (dunk or tip) Two hands.
Sprint to Block for Post Up
Sprint to the block post move. Use blocking dummy, coach or player to increase pressure defense. Post player works on position, sealing out the defender, catching the ball clean and making a move to the basket.
Put back any miss. Get the ball out quickly and make a good outlet pass. Sprint to half court.
