Rebound in Basketball

The rebound is a fundamental part of the game in the same way as the shooting, the pass, the dribble, the footwork.

However, the rebound won or lost can have a huge impact on the game, as a rebound won is a sign of a new possession and ball. And who doesn’t like to have possession of the ball?

Importance of defensive rebound

The defensive rebound serves to recover the ball after the opposing team’s shot. It is extremely important to guarantee the defensive rebound so as not to give the opposing team the opportunity to shoot again.

To get a sense, few teams score 50% of their first shots. This means that if a team shots 20 times from 3 points and scores 50% (a situation that rarely happens, it is always lower than that) there is a possibility of 10 defensive rebounds.

Do not forget that each rebound is ball possession. If they regain possession of the ball, the team has the opportunity to score a basket on the other hand. The more ball possession a team has, the less efficient a team needs to be in attack.

Importance of offensive rebound

In the offensive rebound, the importance is huge. An offensive rebound has a very big mental impact on a team, causes instant confidence to increase in the team, and automatically has the opposite effect on the opponent, harming the team’s confidence.

Offensive rebound also increases defense, requiring players in training to be focused on boxing out and ensuring rebound.

It has an impact on ball possession, the game of basketball is a game of ball possession. Whoever has more balls possessions more opportunities may have to score basket soon more points can score.

On average, each European game will have 80 ball possession, an average of 20 ball possession per period. Possession of an extra ball can lead the team to score 3 or 2 more points, which can make a difference at the end of the game.

Mindset is key, more will than skill. For example, more limited players can have a big impact on the team’s offensive rebound.

What to do to ensure the rebound?

To guarantee the rebound there are 3 super important aspects :

Knowledge

Skills

Determination

Knowledge

Good rebounds understand the game and the players. It is often very difficult to study who shots, where they shoot from and when they shoot, but there are some trends. Great rebounds understand that depending on where they shoot there is a high probability that if they fail, the ball will fall.

For example, if the ball is shot below the free-throw line, there is a high probability that the bounce will fall in the corners.

If it is shot above the free-throw line there is a tendency for 40% of the ball to go to the middle, and 30% of the ball to go to the corners.

It is important to realize that long launches usually generate long rebounds. Not always, but it often happens, you have to play with the odds.

Skills

The rebound skills are quite simple, having your hands prepared, boxing out, grabbing the ball, and never lowering the ball.

The two skills that I emphasize most is the fact of boxing out, the first concern in the rebound must always be to keep the defender from the possibility of disputing the rebound without committing a fault and only then attacking the ball.

After catching the ball it is important to never lower the ball so that it is not easily removed by the defender, keep your elbows wide open to protect the ball.

Determination

The desire to gain possession of the ball has to be huge, here it is that it plays the role of wanting more than the opponent. Players have to show their determination and determination to win that ball, as it can make all the difference in the final result. I remember that a missed rebound is a possibility of 3 or 2 points for the opponent.

The role of statistics in the rebound

Statistics play a key role in rebounding. During the game, it is very important for the teams to control the number of rebounds, but mainly the percentage of rebounds they are getting.

So I leave here two important formulas to get the notion of the team’s performance in rebounds, whether offensive or defensive:

Defensive rebound% = Number of defensive rebounds / (Number of defensive rebounds + opponent’s offensive rebounds)

Offensive Rebounds% = Number of Offensive Rebounds / (Number of Offensive Rebounds + Opponent’s Defensive Rebounds)