The Most Important Skills to Teach
(part 2 of 3)
After learning some basic sheilding/receiving skills, the next thing to learn is some basic dribbling skills. Different coaches have different philosophies on how to teach dribbling. Many coaches spend a lot of time trying to teach young players a lot of fancy moves which were made famous by noted international stars (who, incidentally, only perfected these fancy moves after years and years of hard work on the basics). This approach works for some kids who are naturally graceful and quick. However, it can have the unfortunate result of convincing an awful lot of kids that "I can't dribble" when they simply are still growing; are a bit clumsy; and cannot get their big feet and/or unwiedly bodies to do all of the ballerina stuff.
What these coaches don't realize is that a player only needs to know about 3 basic moves to be able to dribble very successfully--and that virtually all top-notch players use these 3 moves 90% of the time when they are dribbling the ball. ANYBODY CAN LEARN THESE 3 MOVES (and this includes the coach)!
The moves are the check (a/k/a "magic hop" in some Vogelsinger videos); the simple cut/explosion using the outside of the dribble foot; and the chop (cut with the inside of the foot). If they can master these three moves, and learn the standard, straight-ahead dribbling technique (i.e. knee over the ball; front of dribble foot pulls the ball along so it stays on/near the foot at all times), they can learn to beat a reasonable number of defenders especially if those defenders are coming in at speed.
The key to take-on skills is getting the head up to watch the defender which is dependent on having enough ball-control that you know where the ball is and what it is going to do without needing to look at it. Then, as soon as the defender tries to stab at the ball, you can take advantage of his "dead leg" (weight mainly on one leg) by attacking the outside of the dead leg and going around him. Piece of cake!!
Of course, once your players become convinced that they can dribble, they probably will want to work on "cool moves". This is a great warm-up. In fact, it can be great homework (Coach at end of practice: "Johnny needs to learn a new move and teach it to us at next practice; anyone who uses it in the scrimmage gets a lollipop"). But don't put the cart before the horse. Convince them that they can dribble and the fancy moves will take care of themselves.