Boxing Out

It's been a while since my last post due to coaching, but after half a season now, I felt the need to blog about boxing out. Rebounding the basketball has a lot to do with effort, but having good position is much more important. As I watch not only my team's games, but other high school and college games, more and more players stand and watch the shot versus working to get good position for the rebound.

The first thing you have to train your players (or yourself if you are a player) is to not watch the ball on the shot and first find a person to box out. When playing a man defense, you usually box out the person you are guarding, in a zone you box out someone in your area. I have seen so many games where players simply watch the basketball and do not get the rebound because someone else was able to establish better position on the rebound. As a coach, you have to notice when players are doing this in the game and call them on it. As a player you have to get yourself into the habit of not watching and first looking for someone to box out.

Once you find the person that you are going to box out, you have to make sure that you position yourself such that the player is behind you and you can feel exactly where they are. This way, if they attempt move into a better position you can prevent them from going there by moving with them and keeping them behind you.

After you've established good position and maintain contact with the player then you can watch for the ball and attempt to go for it. This has a lot to do with timing and reading where the ball is going to come off the rim. This is where practice comes into play. Practice throwing the ball off the rim and seeing where it tends to bounce to. On flat shots, the ball tends to go long off the rim. On high arching shots, the ball tends to bounce off the rim nearby the basket.

Here is a good video that emphasizes the basics of boxing out:




Once you've gotten the rebound, be sure to secure it by holding it with two hands and having your elbows out. This way other players cannot come in and easily swipe the ball away. In the middle of this next video, Dwight Howard talks about securing the ball after rebounding it and turning the appropriate way for the outlet pass. In addition, he provides some nice offensive rebounding tips that most coaches do not teach: