As the basketball season gets underway, there is one part of the game that continues to separate successful teams from the rest: rebounding.
Shooting may get the headlines, ball handling may create the highlights, and defense may earn the praise, but rebounding is often what determines who controls a basketball game.
Rebounding is about much more than simply jumping up and grabbing the ball. It is about effort, toughness, positioning, anticipation and, most importantly, having the mindset that every missed shot belongs to me.
At every level of basketball, coaches will preach the same message: finish the possession.
A team can play great defense for 20 seconds, force a difficult shot and feel like it has accomplished its job — but if it gives up an offensive rebound, all that hard work can disappear in an instant. One extra possession can lead to points, momentum and a completely different game.
The same is true offensively.
An offensive rebound can turn a missed shot into another scoring opportunity. It can lead to a putback, a kick-out three, a foul or simply another possession for your team. Those extra opportunities add up over the course of a game and, eventually, over the course of a season.
For young players especially, rebounding should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a chore.
You don’t have to be the team’s leading scorer to have a major impact on a game. A player who consistently crashes the boards, boxes out and makes winning plays can change the outcome without scoring 20 points.
One of the biggest misconceptions about rebounding is that it belongs only to the big men.
Everyone has to rebound.
Guards must crack back and help. Wings have to find bodies and pursue the ball. Big men have to protect the paint and finish possessions. When all five players rebound, a team becomes much tougher to play against.
There is also a physical component to rebounding that cannot be ignored. Players have to be willing to make contact, establish position and pursue the ball with two hands. Watching the ball is not enough. Great rebounders anticipate where the ball is going and attack that area before the ball even comes off the rim.
The best rebounders don’t wait for the ball to come to them.
They go get it.
That mindset is something young athletes can carry with them throughout their basketball careers. Whether it’s a CYO game, a high school matchup, an AAU tournament or a college game, the value of a rebound never changes.
As Rockaway’s young athletes continue through another basketball season, remember that some of the most important plays won’t always show up in the scoring column.
A box-out.
A loose ball.
A defensive rebound with the game on the line.
An offensive rebound that creates one more chance.
Those are winning plays.
And when the final buzzer sounds, the team that consistently wins those battles on the boards will often be the team that has given itself the best opportunity to win the game.
Rebound. Run. Defend. Compete.
That’s basketball.
