Two Rebounding Drills to Win Your Basketball Team Championships

• By Grant Young

Not Rebounding? Not winning. It's that simple.

History shows that teams who can consistently perform well on the glass have better chances of winning and a higher win average. It’s no surprise that rebounding is one of the most important aspects when it comes to winning basketball games. There are three ways rebounding can impact your result.

A team's offensive rebounding ability gives them possession of the basketball, giving them a second opportunity to score. Each possession helps both the offense and the defense, as opposing teams become frustrated. As an offensive player, rebounding allows your team to score more points and potentially go back to the free-throw line. Every coach loves a monster on the glass. 

And a good defense relies on defensive rebounding, which limits the offense to a single shot. When the game is closing down and it matters most, rebounding on the defensive end can seal the win for your team. Defensively you can put an end to any potential momentum the opposing team could gain from retrieving their free throw. As we know, momentum can change the course of the game very quickly.

Rebounding is a noble skill that demands persistence to understand and master. If executed properly, rebounding can (and will) help you to gain vital positioning under the rim, allowing you to out-rebound taller and stronger opponents effortlessly. And Jamy Bechler has the perfect basketball rebounding drills to improve your team’s skillset beneath the basket. 

Jamy Bechler had worked with teams ranging from the NBA to the Big Ten to the high school ranks.  Before he became one of the top experts in the field of team leadership and the author of The Leadership Playbook: Become Your Team's Most Valuable Leader, Bechler was a successful college basketball coach and high school athletic director.  As the Director of Athletics at Marion High School in Indiana, he oversaw the Marion Giants winning their 8th boys' basketball State Championship. 

In his ‘Championship Rebounding’ course, Coach Bechler shares how his teams have achieved tremendous rebound success with the philosophies and practices he shares. He explains how to improve your rebounding offensively, defensively, and at the free-throw line by developing a toughness ethic. Learn how to make your players constantly compete at their best by developing an aggressive mentality in them. 

Gaining an Edge

Before getting into the specific drills he uses to improve a team’s rebounding, Coach Bechler discusses the mentality that comes with prioritizing rebounds — and why adopting that alone will help your team win championships. 

“Rebounding can be a great neutralizer. It can give a team an edge,” Coach Bechler said. He also adds that rebounding is a skill that anybody can master and that you don’t have to be overly athletic or tall to be a great rebounder. But what you do need is a lot of heart and willpower. 

He also adds that a coach and team emphasizing rebounding leads to a mentality of toughness and aggressiveness, which are great traits for any team to employ. 

Coach Bechler says that the best statistic used to track individual rebounding is rebounds per minute played. With this, he believes 1 rebound every 4 minutes of playing time makes for a good rebounder. A good offensive rebounder is going to grab an offensive rebound every 10 minutes of playing time. 

When cultivating a good rebounding team, it’s important to emphasize the importance of rebounding day in and day out. It has to be an aspect of every practice, and every drill should incorporate some rebounding into it.

Halfcourt Hustle 

One of Coach Bechler’s favorite offensive rebounding drills is what he calls the Halfcourt Hustle drill. 

This drill starts with one player positioned along the wing or the top of the key with a ball in their hands, while the team’s primary offensive rebounders are positioned at halfcourt. From there, the rebounder at the front of the line will wait until the player on the wing takes their three-point shot. Once they do so, the rebounder will take off from halfcourt to secure the board.

From there, the rebounder will go and get the rebound wherever it ends up and finish the play with a layup, regardless of whether the initial shot was made or missed. It’s important for all of the players waiting in line to practice yelling “Rebound!” each time a shot goes up because that’s what a bench should be doing during games. 

While this drill is obviously great for reading and securing offensive rebounds and getting a put-back shot up quickly. But because it also requires hustle so that the rebound is collected before it hits the floor, this drill emphasizes playing hard and with aggression, which will benefit your team in many ways. 

Hit and Get

One of Coach Bechler’s favorite defensive rebounding drills is what he calls the Hit and Get drill. 

This drill will require three players standing inside the post with three of four players positioned along the three-point line, ideally holding some sort of padding. When a shot goes up, the players in the post will hit each of the bump holders with their forearm before going up and simulating grabbing a rebound. 

This drill simulates blocking out offensive players when a shot goes up. Since the players along the three-point line aren’t serious threats to get the rebound, all a player needs to do is bump them and then get the rebound themself.