Basketball Post Play Practice Plan for 11 and 12 Year Olds

Four moves answering four pictures, screens set like a craftsman, boards pursued like property, and the short-roll brain of the modern big.

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Pivot series, quick-jump rebounds with claims, drop-steps and middle counters two each side, four seals of five seconds, and four outlet sequences at half effort. The 9-10 curriculum in eight minutes; crisp, then climb.

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The tree against your honest pictures, from a catch-and-chin at the block: you lean BASELINE (middle counter turnaround), lean MIDDLE (drop-step baseline), play OFF (face-up: front pivot, triple threat, one-dribble power finish or short shot), or CROWD tight (the up-and-under: show the shot fake high, step through low and finish). Twelve reps, pictures varied, the read named aloud mid-move. Four answers, four questions, zero scripts.

Every tree branch finished through distraction: you wave the noodle near the ball (never at the kid) and shout at release; the finish stays two-hand strong or one-hand off the square, landing balanced. Eight finishes across the branches. Traffic is a fact of the position's life; the strong-finish habit makes it noise instead of news.

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Screening as skill: sprint to the cone-defender, set with a WIDE low base a half-step to its side (the angle aimed so the imaginary guard's defender must go under or through), hold still through your "USE!" call, then the roll: open to the ball with a target hand, sliding to the short-roll spot. Ten screens alternating angles (down-screen shape, ball-screen shape). Screens are assists that never show in the box score; set them like they count, because coaches count them.

Boards with range: you toss deliberate long and weak-side caroms off the wall/rim; the kid reads the miss, PURSUES outside their cylinder (two hard steps then the two-hand claim at the peak), lands wide, chins, outlets or putbacks by your call. Ten pursuits. The stat truth stated aloud: most rebounds are taken by whoever moved first, not whoever stood tallest. Movement is the skill; drill the first step.

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The decision moment of modern bigball: catch at the imaginary free-throw-line area (the short roll) with you closing as the help defender; the read fires fast: "FINISH!" (you stay home: one-dribble power to the rim), "CORNER!" (you commit: the crisp pass to a corner target), or "DUNKER!" (you sag wide: the bounce pass to a baseline target). Ten catches, pictures honest. The big who solves the short roll plays in any system on earth.

The guard-skill deposit: catches at the elbow and short corner, facing up into triple threat, then your call: the jab-and-go (one hard dribble into the power finish), the shot-fake step-through, or the rise into the short jumper. Eight reps. The face-up game is the typecast antidote made flesh: a big who can face up cannot be hidden by the game's evolution, at any height fate assigns.

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What to watch today: script-running. The tree only teaches if your pictures are honest and varied, and kids will happily run their favorite branch against every look. Grade the READ (named aloud, matching your lean) over the finish, every rep. A big who answers the actual defender is unguardable at this age; a big running scripts is a scouting report waiting to be written.