Behind the back pass

Well, I´m a fan of showtime basketball, I grew up with Earvin "Magic" Johnson and showtime basketball at the forum like they always said. I have always liked players that do that little extra and as a coach does kind of players can give you lots of headaches but also so much more success if you can get them to use their showtime skills in the right time and in the right way.




Had two games with my kids boys98 this weekend and in a game which we won big there is one fastbreak that sticks to my mind. I have some players that I expect to do behind the back pass in some games, but this time is was a player that I never would have thought would do it.

It was a nice fastbreak, with 3 passes and 3 dribbles and finished off with a behind the back pass for the layup.

At the moment we have 3 focuses in the games and that is Rebounding, Fastbreak and Energy.
Starting with rebounding its so much easier to play  this game and even the old goats in coaching are changing their styles of play to adept to a defense in 5-5 that has developed into a wall and new ways is coming. You have use the speed and quickness of the players that are so athletic.

Well we try to play that way and its starting to look good. Rebounding is still a weakness, but will be a weakness for only a short while more.

Fastbreak is not just that we are trying to run like like crazy, but with a purpose and filling the 3 lanes and getting the ball up the court quickly to see what the defense gives us. If there aint a easy one, 1vs1 opertunity, 2-1,3-2 we get into motion offense and move the ball. If their is no quick pass up the court the PG can dribble the ball to side, middle or diagonaly to the other side.

Hard part about playing this way is at ealy ages and old ages making the right choices.


Energy is the third big part, my kids are so focused in doing the things right that they sometimes forget energy. I`m tlaking about givining energy to others and also I as a coach want players to play with a smile on their lips, not like robots that are programmed to do a certain thing. If they reach the higher levels they have lots of time beeing robots :-)

In pratises we have some other things we focus on
- Defense on ball, off ball
- Moving without the ball, backcut, frontcut, getting open, handoffs.(of course passing)
- Shooting technic
- Cordination, phsyical training, quickness

The third one shooting I see as a very important thing to learn early, I know some coaches dont think this way and thats fine, but we can see the problems with many american players, star players that first learn how to shoot when the reach the NBA or with personal coaches in the summers.

Being able to shoot the ball, opens up the game so much more and makes it so much easier doing all the things you practise. If you are a good team, many teams will just back off and play 2-3 meters away from the ball and stack up the 3 second area. A little bit older teams will eventuelllay go to zone and stand there.

Everyody agress that 1 vs 1 skills is very important and with a shoot at a early stage the players can reallt play one on one and the teams that dont try to play "real" defense not zagging all the time will be punished time and time.

Somebody said the behind back is used to little and I agree, but we need to teach WHEN and HOW it should be used or else, we get a whole other game.

Many of the nice things that we see on the court we have very few players to be thankful for starting with it.
Two of them is my favourite Magic Johnson and Pistol Pete

Here is a video of the great Pistol Pete


Showtime!