Having a big man with the stamina and presence of mind to make a strong rim run to start each offensive possession is invaluable to any team. Here’s a fast break drill for your big men.

In the best case scenario, the big man will beat his defender down the floor and get an easy two points. In the worst, he’ll force the opposing big man to run more than he wants to, and establish early low post position.

This is especially important if you want to run an uptempo, fastbreaking style team, otherwise you’ll end up with far more 2 on 2s and 1 on 1s on the fast break, instead of 3 on 2s and 2 on 1s.

Rim Runs

To set up the drill, have four players line up, each on the sidelines, standing on the hash marks. Your two big men will start in the key, and either an assistant coach or another player can be the shooter.

Once the shot is up, the two players will fight for position and one will grab the rebound. Then, they’ll make the outlet pass to the player on the closest hash mark, and they’ll both sprint downcourt, and the player who got the rebound will be looking to score, whether by flat out beating his man down the court for a layup or establishing position and using a post move to get the basket.

The two rebounders will then move out to the hash marks to become passers, with the other passers sliding to the hash marks on the other side of the court, and the passers closest to the side of the court the drill started on will get ready to run the drill again.

Or if you’ve got lots of time and space, and you really want to push your players, make it a competition, with the first player to score two points winning the drill. But if you are low on gym space, or you just want to get the whole team running this drill, you can shrink it to the halfcourt by having the players sprint out and slap the halfcourt line before running back to the same hoop they rebounded from.

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