The Value of Rebounding

" The team that controls the backboard usually controls the game." --Wooden

Rebounding is a fundamental skill that depends more on discipline, aggressiveness and determination than on the overemphasized factors of jumping ability and height.

The importance of rebounding lies in its value:
1. It has been estimated that 80% of possessions come from defensive rebounding and made baskets (about equally divided) with the remaining possessions coming from opponents errors, steals and offensive rebounds (repossessions). Thus, rebounding is the most important method of gaining ball possession.

2. Research findings indicate that teams who are national leaders in rebounding win a higher percentage of their games than national free throw or field goal percentage leaders. One study over a ten year period found that in games won, the opponents were outrebounded eighty percent of the time (and vice versa).

3. Defensive rebounding (i.e. the ability to allow the opponent only once contested shot) is one of the most important aspects of defense.

4. One of the essential elements of a fast break is the beginning which is commonly started by a defensive rebound.

5. An offensive rebound is a "second life" for the offense, since it is a repossession of something already lost.

6. Individually, an effective rebounder is often highly respected by teammates because rebounding is an unpublicized team play that is seldom valued by anyone other than coaches and players.

--From Jerry Krause's, "Before the X's & O's"