Rebounding must be practiced daily in every drill! Anybody can rebound because that's the one stat that any player at any position can get if they choose to. Dennis Rodman made a career out of it and he was undersized.
We teach rebounding from the shell drill with 4 people out on the perimeter and 4 lines on the baseline. Start with no ball and just have players react in the whistle:
1. Contest - high hand on the ball with chopped feet! This is important for players to not jump into a close out because they will get beat by the pump fake and by the time they land, their box out chances are pretty much out the window.
2. Swim - turn to feel the player with your body and both hands need to be up in the air ready for rebounding. That is a huge point of emphasis that we develop is where their hands are. Players will want to hook and hold with their hands, but it's a foul and if you have to use your hands to hold a box out, what will you use to grab the rebound?
3. Box Out - Butt in Gut! This requires players to move their feet and feel their opponent. We like to do several drills emphasizing just this part with the ball on the ground and holding their opponent off for 5 seconds then advance to 10 seconds. Have offense go live and try to get the ball.
4. Pursue with 2 - force the issue with attacking rebounds with both hands. This decreases turnovers and jump balls.
5. Chin It & Pivot - Pretty self explanatory but maybe the least practiced technique that really makes a diffence in traffic especially once fatigue sets in.
These are fundamentals we use for rebounding daily. Now we break it down from the shell drill and we move on based on the team's attention to detail. As we practice with no balls just on the sound of the whistle, the players must say each technique as they are doing it. So they will yell "Shot, swim, box out, pursue with 2, chin it & pivot" this helps them with remembering each step.
After a few reps at about 50% speed, we crank up to about 75% speed. Then we add one ball for each group to close out based on the balls position (on ball, deny, help) the offense will catch and shoot. The players have to now box out from varies positions. Advance the drill to live offense, then disadvantage defense by dropping off a defender but the three offensive players still have to get the rebound. So many variations to improve rebounding.
Make sure these basic fundamentals are developed before going too advanced. The more you get excited about rebounding, the more your team will. We stat practice and our top two rebounders for the week will start in the game! It keeps players focused on it and anybody with double digit rebounds is getting a big time shout out after the game! We may even allow them to pic where the team will eat post game meal! Rebounding deserves a lot of attention and focus but with time and technique your team can get better! This is how to develop Relentless Rebounding!
