Mark Sarale is the Max Muscle regional director of Northern California and the owner of a Max Muscle location in Stockton. He is also a Nekter Juice Bar franchisee, with one location in Stockton and eight more planned to open within the next five years. Beyond his various professional responsibilities, Mark Sarale enjoys coaching his children’s basketball teams.
Youth basketball coaches, like youth coaches in every sport, are tasked with striking a balance between maintaining a fun, safe environment and teaching children about the fundamentals of the game. One of the most basic and versatile plays a youth basketball coach can introduce to players is the pick and roll.
At more competitive levels, pick and rolls generally involve a guard handling the ball and a power forward or center setting a screen, or pick. For youth players, however, the play can be run between any two individuals. The play begins once a screen has been set directly in front of the ball handler. As the ball handler passes by his or her teammate’s pick, opposing defenses are faced with a choice -- the defender can either fight over the top of the pick, risking a foul or allowing the ball handler to escape, which compromises the entire defense, or the ball hander’s defender can stay with the screener.
In the latter scenario, the player originally guarding the screener must quickly switch onto the ball handler. During this moment of transition, the screener can take advantage of any lapse in defense and roll to the basket, ready to receive a pass from the ball handler. Should the screener’s defender move to the basket too early, the screener can simply stay put and shoot a wide-open jump shot, a move known as the pick and pop.
There are a number of additional offensive opportunities that can develop as a result of the simple pick and roll play, such as the roller passing the ball outside to an open jump shooter or the ball handler quickly doubling back, immediately creating a second pick and roll opportunity.
