Rebounding the Basketball

When a player shoots the basketball and it comes off the rim or backboard either team is allowed to go after the ball and try to rebound it. The person with the best position is usually going to come up with the rebound. Learning how to rebound is about technique and desire. The best rebounders in the game have the right technique, but they also want to get the rebound more then anyone else.

There are two different types of rebounds; defensive rebounds and offensive rebounds. If you are on defense you want to box your man out and then go release to get the ball. If you are on offense you are going to try and get around your man that is boxing you out and try to get the rebound. Here are some tips for both types of rebounding that you can use to become a better rebounder.

Defensive Rebounds

As soon as the shot goes up you want to turn and find your man. You are going to put your forearm on him/her about chest level and then you are going to turn and put your butt/hip on them to box out. If you don't first put your forearm on them they will be able to side step your box out. When you box out you want to keep your hands up.  This will make you wider and harder to get around on the box out. Also it will keep you from wrapg your arms around the offensive player, which is a foul.

After you box out you need to be ready to release and go get the rebound. Don't wait for the basketball to get to you but jump and go get it. If you wait for the basketball to come to you then someone else on the other team might get to it before you do for an offensive rebound. Locate the basketball off of the rim and then react to it as quickly as you can.

Offensive Rebounds

Most of the time as the offensive rebounder you aren't going to have the best position because the defender is naturally going to be between you and the basket already. That means that you need to use some different moves to get by them when they go to box you out. Here are 3 different moves that you can use to try and get the offensive rebound.

• Swim Move: The reason it is called the swim move is because you are making a downward swimming motion with your arm to get past the person boxing out. You are going to fake one way and then go the opposite and as you do you are going to bring your inside arm down and help propel yourself past the box out man.

• S Move: This is similar to the swim move but instead of bringing your inside arm down you are going to fake one way and then s off the box out and go the other way to get the rebound.

• Drive Under: Sometimes the person boxing out wont do a good enough job coming to you to box out and that puts them right next to the basket. When this happens you want to use your body to help drive them under the basket so that they don't have a good rebounding angle and the ball will come out over their head to you. Make sure that you use your body and not your hands to drive them under, because that is a foul.

Becoming good at rebounding takes hard work but it starts with first learning how to do it. Now that you have learned the basics of rebounding you need to start practicing. Make sure that you checkout all of our Rebounding Drills or view our 25 Newest Drills for Free.