Movement Off the Ball

When players get caught dribbling too much and lose the ball, they frequently are being blamed for something that really isn’t their fault!

In many cases, it is the players off the ball who aren’t doing a good enough job of putting themselves into a position to receive the ball. Every time the player with the ball moves even slightly AND every time the defense moves even slightly, the players off the ball will have to adjust accordingly. Even if the player with the ball moves only one yard, it might mean some players off the ball would have to adjust 10 yards or more in order to get into a good position to receive the ball.

Unfortunately, what seems to happen all too often, is one player has the ball, 3 players move to get open for her.  The player with the ball takes another touch on the ball which changes either her position or the position of the defense slightly and as a result of this, the player with the ball doesn’t have any options so ends up dribbling further into pressure.

The players off the ball were open until the extra touch (and this extra touch could have occurred for any number of reasons) and because they weren’t willing to readjust for this extra touch, they don’t have the opportunity to receive the ball.

The next thing that seems to happen is that the next time this player gets the ball, her teammates think “I worked hard to get the ball last time she had it and didn’t receive it so why bother this time” and it then gets worse and worse.

Not only do the players off the ball have to realize they have to make adjustments constantly, they also have to realize that while each of these players wants the ball passed to her, the player with the ball has the option of passing to any of 10 teammates OR dribbling OR shooting.  You can’t get discouraged because you don’t get the ball.  This will usually result in not getting the ball much in the future as well.

As a player, if one of your teammates has the ball, you must be thinking in terms of where should you be and what adjustments do you have to make to your positioning to put yourself in the best position possible for your team. This could mean giving a better angle to receive a pass for a teammate or it might mean making a run to try to create space for a teammate.

Every time any player on the field moves, you, as a player, have to figure out what you need to do to adjust your position accordingly.