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Originally posted by Rick Vietti
I did 2 MS girls games yesterday and they were horrible games.
I go back to my earlier post that backcourt guarding and pressing should be disallowed at this level. We had between 25 and 30 jump balls each game and I would bet 98% of them were off of the defensive rebound. I tend to call jump balls quickly at this level because they tend to lead to 2 people ending up on the floor and rough play further on. If this was higher level ball I would not be so quick on the whistle.
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Defensive rebound jump balls and presses are totally different issues. I think that you will do players no good whatsover if they don't learn that they have no right to the ball just because they rebounded it. Many of the rec league no press rules also mean that defensive rebounds are immediate backcourt possessions, and therefore non-contestable. This leads to bad habits for both offensive and defensive players - offensive players get gunshy about challenging, and defensive players do not learn to protect the ball.
My thought is that these players will need to learn how to chin, pivot and outlet, and any decent coach at that level will work on it. If this is their first experience out of the rec league protective formats, they will make these mistakes for the first half of the season. In a month or two, the teams that are better coached will learn soon to avoid these problems. Protecting them with a no-press rule will not cure this, it will just defer the learning process.
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We called 35 fouls the first game and 40 fouls the second game(In which a parent yelled at us when her daughter went down that we were letting the game get out of hand). Why so many fouls, because the kids do not have the skills to break the press or guard on a press. Girls sticking their knee out to try and stop the advancing dribbler, guarding people like they wanted to hug them, etc...
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I am not clear how a kid not knowing how to break the press on offense contributes to defensive fouls. Call the game, call all the press fouls, and teams will 1) learn how to defend full court (requires a lot more commitment to moving your feet), 2) quit pressing the whole game, or 3) watch their starters sit on the bench in foul trouble. Again, if this is their first experience bringing and handling pressure, it will be ugly, but that is true at any age.
At some point, serious players need to be allowed to play the game. We went through all of these pains with my team nearly 2-3 years ago, and now even my worst pressers know how to play D right - and they will be starting for their MS teams. We went from them not understanding why they were getting blocks/hacks/holds, to knowing but still doing it far too frequently, to ultimately avoiding most fouls and pressing effectively. And at the same time, they have learned how to beat most pressure defenses.
Finally, I am not clear why a parent's beef is any concern to you. Deal with the coaches, and ignore the parents. Take it from one who gets most of the issue - most parents have no clue what is happening on that court and should be barred from any comentary whatsoever!