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Coaches rarely give thought to what your players do when they drive the ball into the paint. Are they producing positive results for the team or turnovers? Do you analyze the efficiency of penetration to the paint on a game by game basis? Chances are you have not given it much thought. This article can open your eyes to this topic and stimulate your thinking along these lines. The teaching tool presented here is an offensive technique known as the stride stop.

The stride stop is a teaching term for a player who drives into the paint on penetration. Driving the ball from the top of the floor or the wings he gets by his defender and gets to the paint. This is where big decisions are made. The foot closest to the basket becomes the anchor, your pivot foot. Balance is key at this point and will keep you from traveling or charging. As we all know, many things can happen at this point, some good, some bad. I hope you can teach the stride stop to help your players make good, sound decisions when they are in this situation. It is important to incorporate this into your offensive game because of the amount of times this actually happens in a game. For some teams it occurs every other possession; 30 times in a 60 possession game. What you come away with, positive or negative, from those 30 possessions will spell victory or defeat.

The fact is that you have beaten the offense to the paint and have them in a difficult situation. The ODDS are that something positive will come out of this situation for your team. In high school, most coaches do not have a shot clock, so the idea of extending the possession is always there. In other words, don’t FORCE a bad play when you don’t have to.

The Stride Stop drastically reduces the chances of making a bad play. WHY?

1. By anchoring the foot closest to the basket, you will maintain balance, a pivot foot, and you will be under control.

2. All options are available to the player; pull up jump shot from 10-12 feet, use pivoting skills to create a shot (shot fake, step through), and many possible passes. Both post players are passing options as are the other two perimeter players.

3. You have good passing angles and options once you stride stop. Post players will learn to react to your penetration and seal his defender at the right time, allowing him to drop you a pass in prime scoring areas.

3. Once all of these options are explored, the worst you can do is make a pass to the perimeter and continue the possession.

4. Caution–Just because the ball is penetrated close to the basket does not mean that a play MUST be made. This is where turnovers come from. Unless you are at the end of the shot clock, there is no need to make a bad decision.

COACHING CHALLENGE–What specifically do you teach your players about driving into the paint? Do you emphasize this part of the offensive game?

Consider developing this part of the game and decide how your will teach it.

I have always seen it an an “Offense within an Offense,” meaning that when players get to the paint and anchor that pivot foot, that player and all four other players know exactly what the goal is and what the options are. All 5 players are on the same page!

This is exactly why I believe that the Stride Stop is a must within any offense.

To check this out for yourself, chart your “PENETRATION EFFICIENCY” from last years games. The results may make you do some more thinking about making your penetration to the paint an organized, systematic teaching tool instead of a crap shoot!

Let me know if you have further questions and let me know how this works out for you if you give it a try! If you do, you will fall in love with it and wonder why you haven’t been doing this all along……….I know, I did!

Randy Brown has passion for the game of basketball. He works as a basketball consultant and mentor for coaches. Visit him at http://www.coachrb.com for free resources, Q & A, newsletter, and coaching programs. A speaker and writer, he has authored 75 articles on coaching and is nationally published. His 18 years in college basketball highlights a successful 23-year career. Mentored by Basketball Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson at Arizona. Resume includes positions at Arizona, Iowa State, Marquette, Drake, and Miami of Ohio, 5 Conference Championships and 5 NCAA appearances. His efforts have helped develop 12 NBA players including Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, and Jaamal Tinsley. To contact Randy, email him at rb@coachrb.com

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