Breakthrough Basketball Rebounding:

How to Build a Great Rebounding Team!

www.BreakthroughBasketball.com

Written By Jeff Haefner

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT US ......................................................................................................................................4

WHY IS REBOUNDING SO IMPORTANT? ............................................................................................5

8 KEYS TO GREAT REBOUNDING ....................................................................................................7

Key #1: Develop the Right Mentality .........................................................................................8
Key #2: Build Aggression ........................................................................................................10
Key #3: Teach Anticipation .....................................................................................................11
Key #4: Emphasize Every Day................................................................................................16
Key #5: Using Stats (And Why Most People do it Wrong!)......................................................17
Key #6: Conditioning ...............................................................................................................22
Key #7: Teach the Fundamentals ...........................................................................................25
Key #8: Practice and Repetitions ............................................................................................27

THE FUNDAMENTAL TECHNIQUES OF REBOUNDING .........................................................................28

Teaching Fundamentals..........................................................................................................29
Prepare Your Hands ...............................................................................................................30
Boxing Out & Boxing In ...........................................................................................................31
Beating the Box Out ................................................................................................................32
Catching & Securing the Ball ..................................................................................................34
Outlet Pass .............................................................................................................................35
Foul Shot Rebounding ............................................................................................................36

10 COMMON REBOUNDING MISTAKES ............................................................................................39

YOUR OFFENSE AFFECTS REBOUNDING .........................................................................................41

YOUR DEFENSE AFFECTS REBOUNDING .........................................................................................42

18 MORE KILLER REBOUNDING TIPS ..............................................................................................43

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR COACHES: HOW TO DEVELOP A TEAM OF GREAT REBOUNDERS ..............49

WARNING FOR YOUTH COACHES....................................................................................................54

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About Us
For years Breakthrough Basketball, LLC has provided players, parents, and coaches alike with valuable
tips and advice on the sport of basketball, helping to produce highly skilled athletes at all levels.

With a strong emphasis on the FUNDAMENTALS, our site contains information on virtually EVERY
aspect of the sport available in a variety of formats, including ebooks, newsletters, audio, and video.

œ Want to improve your shot?

œ Looking for new ideas for fun drills to motivate your players?

œ In need of an effective conditioning regimen?

œ Have a pressing question on putting together your Motion offense?

Breakthrough Basketball has you covered on all of this and MORE!

With the help of our talented team of coaches and consultants, whose experiences range from youth
leagues all the way up to the NBA, we’ve compiled HUNDREDS of FREE basketball articles, drills and
other training resources, making us your one-stop source for all things BASKETBALL.

To put it simply, Breakthrough Basketball offers you EVERYTHING you need to become a better coach
or player.

And because of our unparalleled commitment to quality and total customer satisfaction, we promise that if
we don’t have what you need, we’ll point you in the right direction—GUARANTEED!

For more information on Breakthrough Basketball or to find more REBOUNDING resources, visit us
online any time at www.breakthroughbasketball.com.
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Why is Rebounding SO Important?

Most coaches know that rebounding is pretty important, but unless you really stop to think about it, you
probably don't realize how incredibly important rebounding really is!

Simply put, great rebounding wins games! There is a direct correlation between rebounding and winning.

Take a moment to consider these 5 surprising and profound impacts that great rebounding will
have on your team:

1) Excellent rebounding will give your team more chances to score and give your opponent fewer
chances to score. Just one offensive rebound could literally give your team as much as a 6 point
swing! This is because you get an extra shot (could be up to 3 points) and you take one
opportunity away from your opponent (could be up to 3 points). That’s a 6 point swing in your
favor.

Bottom line, good rebounding teams usually get more possessions than their opponents. Which
means you have more opportunities to score, while your opponents have less.

2) Excellent rebounding will improve your teams shooting percentage. Many times, offensive
rebounds are put-backs from close in. These are high percentage shots that usually go in. Plus, a
defensive rebound ending in a good outlet pass can allow for a fast break score before the
opposing team can even set up their defense. Many times, these are easy high percentage shots.

Every great play often starts with a REBOUND. If you’re good at rebounding, your team’s
shooting percentage will go up.

3) Excellent rebounding will lower your opponents shooting percentage. By cleaning up the
boards, you stop the other team from getting out and running consistently. You also take away
easy put backs on the offensive end.

4) Excellent rebounding will get you to the free throw line more often and can get your opponent in
foul trouble. How many times do you see a fouling situation occur on an offensive rebound put
back?

5) Excellent rebounding usually means your team has more heart -- and better defense. If your
team has more heart, then it is probably going to spill over to the defensive end of the court.

It’s no wonder that most great coaches constantly talk about rebounding.

Of all the uncertainties that exist in the game of basketball, there is one thing that you can always be sure
of; no matter how talented of a player you are, or how great your coaching is SHOTS WILL BE MISSED.
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Gaining possession of those missed shots makes a HUGE impact on the effectiveness of your team on
BOTH ends of the court.

And though most coaches agree that rebounding is an important element of the game, few devote the time
that’s needed to improve their players’ performance on the boards. More practice time is spent on setting
up offenses and practicing foul shots than creating strong rebounders.

Teams that stress great rebounding play STRONGER, SMARTER, and MORE AGGRESSIVELY than
the competition, which translates into WINNING MORE GAMES. Now, who can argue with that?

There’s no doubt about it, making rebounding a key component in your team’s strategy REALLY pays
off!
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8 KEYS TO GREAT REBOUNDING

Below you will find the 8 things you must do to develop a great rebounding team. Your goal is to out
rebound every team that you play and get more possessions! Here’s what you must do…
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Key #3: Teach Anticipation

Anticipation plays a large role in virtually every sport.

In baseball, a player must anticipate the speed and curve of the ball as it’s pitched. In football, receivers
have to anticipate the distance of the quarterback’s pass.

Basketball is no exception…

When rebounding the ball, players must assume that EVERY SHOT WILL MISS and anticipate the ball
coming off the rim.

If you automatically assume that all shots will be missed, your mind is already in ‘REBOUND MODE’
and your body will soon follow.

It generally takes three seconds from the time a shot is taken until it can be rebounded, so players need to
have an idea of where the ball will rebound and try to GET THERE FAST.

Skilled rebounders are good at ‘playing the angles’. By knowing the angle at which the shot was made,
they are able to predict how and where the ball will come off of the rim and be there for the rebound.

This isn’t a mystic art form, but merely the result of YEARS of statistical data.

The following diagrams illustrate the likelihood of the ball landing in various areas of the court,
depending on the angle from which it was shot.

Shots taken from the corners or along the baseline will often
bounce to the opposite corner as shown in Figure 1a.

If a player takes a shot from the left corner of the court, the ball
will likely land in the right corner of the court.

Figure 1a
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Shots taken from the wings will often bounce to the opposite
wing as shown in Figure 1b.

If a player takes a shot from the left wing, the ball will likely
land in the right wing of the court.

Figure 1b

Shots taken from the top of the key and the perimeter are a lot
more difficult to predict; as they can be short, long, or deflect
to the left or right.

Generally, if a shot is taken from the middle of the court, it will

often bounce to the middle of the court as shown in Figure 1c.

Figure 1c
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No matter where the shot is taken from, players should not stand directly under the basket to try to get a
rebound. If you’re standing directly underneath the basket, the only rebound that you’re going to get is the
one that goes through the hoop!

As a rule of thumb, players should look for the rebound at the weak side of the basket, or the side
OPPOSITE from where the shot was made.

In addition to the angle from which the shot was taken, there are a number of other factors that a player
must consider when anticipating the rebound:

THE DISTANCE OF THE SHOT - Generally

speaking, the farther the shooter is from the
basket, the longer the ball will bounce off of
the rim or backboard.

THE ARC OF THE SHOT - Shots with a HIGH

arc are more apt to bouncing high off the
rim and staying in or near the lane.

Shots with a LOW or FLAT arc bounce low

off the rim and deflect farther away from the
basket as shown in the diagram to the right.

SHORT SHOTS -Sensing short shots is

another important factor in anticipating the
rebound.

These shots usually touch the rim and drop

straight down or bounce right back to the area from which they were taken.

œ Coaching Tip: Instruct your team members to get into the habit of yelling, “Short!” when they sense
a short shot in order to alert the other players on the court.

Education

You should teach your players about anticipation and where the ball will usually go. This knowledge will
help them grow and buy into your system.

Show your players these charts. Give them chalk talks. Teach them these simple concepts and it will pay
off.

Positioning

Now that you know more about where the ball will go after a missed shot, you have to get there!
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On both ends of the court, a player has to fight for his or her position to get to the ball first.

A player that’s close to the NBA charge/block line is considered to have the “good position”, and
whoever has the good position has a greater chance of getting the rebound.

To prevent an opponent from gaining the good position, players will box out, or block, their path to the
basket.

Though it’s not a mistake for a player to find himself boxed out by his opponent, it is a mistake to STAY
boxed out. A player MUST be able to break the contact and go after the ball.

There are several methods to beat the box out. We’ll go over those methods in the Fundamentals chapter
of this book.

Regardless of which method a player uses to out-maneuver his or her opponent, the most important thing
is to KEEP MOVING.

Developing Anticipation

In addition to teaching your players about anticipation and positioning, you also need to train them to
anticipate. In other words, you need to get them in the habit of anticipating.

Have you ever ran a block out rebounding drill? What happens when you do this?

Things seem to change during these drills. The coach shoots the ball off the back of the rim, and it’s a
frenzy to get the ball. The defense can barely block out the offense and then get the ball. That’s NOT
how things happen in a game.

So what’s the point?

The point is that when you run these block out drills, all the players are anticipating. They know that
you’re going to shoot. They know WHEN you are going to shoot and they also know they are supposed
to get the ball.

Just imagine for a moment that all your players anticipated like this during a game, on every single
possession.

If you could get your players to anticipate like this, your team would truly dominate the boards!!

In all reality, you’ll never get that level of anticipation during a game, but you can make big strides
towards this level.

In a game, players are thinking about lots of things. They are thinking about screens, passing, playing
defense, communicating, and so on. In addition, your players don’t know when the shot will go up.
Because of these things, there is always a delay before players go after the rebound.
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However, with enough practice, you can teach players to react quicker and get a step ahead of your
competition.

With emphasis and lots of game simulation drills, you can get your players in the habit of anticipating the
rebound and going after the ball quickly. It’s all about developing habits and mentality, so your players
quickly react in the game without thinking.

That’s why “mentality” is our Number 1 key to rebounding. Almost everything goes back to mentality.
Your players need to develop a “rebounding mentality” so they anticipate and go after the ball quicker
and more aggressive than the competition.

Role Players

Players that are given the role as the “rebounder” generally become the best at anticipation. Since their
role is to rebound, that’s almost the only thing they think about.

They’re constantly waiting for their opportunity for the shot to go up so they can get the rebound. They
are usually able to anticipate quicker than everyone else and that’s why they usually get so many
rebounds.

By clearly defining your players’ roles and communicating those roles with your players, you can create
some real rebounding monsters. If some of your players know their sole purpose is to rebound, there’s a
good chance they will become phenomenal rebounders.

Final Point

Anticipation alone can turn your group into a team of excellent rebounders. We highly recommend you
spend considerable time developing anticipation. It pays off huge dividends.