Basketball Drills

This post is an older blog post  on Hoop Thoughts  The blog is written by Texas A & M Women’s Assistant Bob Starkey .

This past July, I spent as much time as possible picking the minds of coaches on the road in regard to defensive play. We are always looking to refine what we do — find ways to improve. One of the things I was asked a couple of times from some younger coaches are what considerations do you make in forming your defensive philosophy?

And it’s a great question.

First let me say that I think it is important that you do have a system of play defensively.  You need to have a philosophy that says “this is how we are going to defend.”  It needs to be surrounded by rules, principles and teaching but you must have a system as a centerpiece.

Let me state that I firmly believe that are a lot of different ways to play the game successfully — especially on the defensive side. If you look at the men’s game, you can look at three of the best teams in the nation and see three different systems of play.

Syracuse – great zone team

Duke – primary man to man team

Florida – excellent pressing team

During my younger days, two of the best teams in the country were Indiana and North Carolina. It was Bob Knight who played exclusively man to man defense, and Dean Smith who utilized a multiple defensive system. Coach Knight would say that it was “simplicity and execution” vs. “surprise and change,” though I believe execution is a big part of both.

So while it is important to know that the game can be played in a variety of ways, there are still some considerations I think coaches should give thought to.

Here are a few things that I think any good defensive systems would have:

1. A good defensive system needs a consistent set of guidelines and principles that govern it and certainly some set rules. I believe that defense is more “rule” oriented than offense.

2. A good defensive system needs to fit the players you have available. If you are on the high school level, you inherit the players that play for you. If you are on the collegiate level, you sometimes have a certainly type of player that you can recruit. Does your defensive system fit those players?  Too often, coaches see a particular coach be successful and want to adapt his/her system of play and this can often time be a mistake.  Do you have the make-up of a team that can play the way you want to play?  If not, you must adjust your system.  On the collegiate level you can attempted to adjust your recruiting.

3. A good defensive systems needs to be flexible. I believe this even if you primarily play one set defense. The programs I have been involved with have been man-to-man defensive teams. Yet I think it is imperative that you can defend ball screens more than one way. I think it makes a major difference if you can defend the low post more than one way. I really believe that good defenses have a Plan A and a Plan B.

4. A good defensive system needs allow you to beat/compete with the best teams in your league. I see teams that play a certain way (offensively and defensively) and they are successful to an extend but are unable to beat the best in their league or advance in the post-season. Give thought to what it takes to compete with those elite schools in your conference and make sure you defense gives you a chance to do just that.

5. A good defensive system needs to have a means in which it can allow a team to comeback from a deficit. All teams fall behind and must play catch-up at some point and it is even more critical in the post-season. What can your system of play do to get you back in a game?

6. A good defensive system should have a transition defense philosophy. Again, it doesn’t matter if you are man-to-man, zone or multiple, what are the guidelines for your team getting back and being ready to defend?

7. A good defensive system is backed up by good, formulated practice plans on a daily basis. Regardless of what defense you play, it is the teaching that allows it to be successful.

8. A good defensive system is given the amount of importance and relevance from the coaching staff that helps a team understand why it is necessary for success. As Don Meyer would say, “It’s not what you teach, it’s what you emphasize.”

9. A good defensive system should have a system of communication. Regardless of the type of defense you play, all good defenses communicate. Coach Krzyzewski has three phases of basketball: offense, defense, and communication. It much more than just “talking.” You communicate with your voice, your ears, your eyes, and your body.

A couple of quick thoughts in regard to a good defensive system of play, especially as it relates to man to man defense in the half-court is that I think in today’s game you have to have a plan that:

…has a strategy to defend the low post

…has a strategy to defend dribble penetration

…has a strategy to defend ball screens

Now certainly there are other things involved in good defense, but these three areas to me seem like where offensive teams are scoring from the most.

Within our defense, we have our “daily to-do list” of areas we want to cover in some form — whether it be in a part-method drill or through the emphasis of a whole-method drill. For us, things that our important daily include:

1. Transition Defense

2. Defending the Dribble

3. Post Defense

4. Closeouts

5. Contesting Shots

6. Help and Recover

7. Blockout

I could include communication in this list but it is a part of each one. But the point is, communication is taught and stressed each day.

Again, regardless of your style or system of play, you should have a list of daily things to cover in order to build or grow your defense. They don’t have to be the things I listed above but there should be a list of your systems defensive priorities.

This Special Situations Checklist was put together by Delta High School (Ohio) Boys Coach Derek Sheridan.

I have a link posted at the bottom of the post to the entire pdf that he put together.

I hope you get some ideas that will help you be more prepared for the special situations that you face during games.

DELTA BOYS’ BASKETBALL SPECIAL SITUATION CHECKLIST

LATE GAME CHECKLIST: Assistant Coach

OUR TOP 3 FT SHOOTERS
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________

1. KNOW THE SCORE AND THE TIME LEFT ON THE CLOCK.

2. KNOW THE TIME OUT SITUATION FOR BOTH TEAMS.

3. TELL PLAYERS:

• DO WE HAVE FOULS TO GIVE? HOW MANY?
• ARE WE IN THE BONUS/DOUBLE BONUS?
• ARE THEY IN THE BONUS/DOUBLE BONUS?

4. WE DO NOT CALL TIMEOUTS TO SAVE POSSESSION UNTIL THE LAST 2 MINUTES OF THE 4TH QUARTER, OR LAST 2 MIN. OF OVERTIME. BALL HANDLER CALLS TIMEOUT POSSESSION IS IN DOUBT.

5. NEVER SAVE THE BALL UNDER THEIR BASKET OR TIP A LOOSE BALL TOWARDS THEIR BASKET.

6. CANNOT GRAB AN O’ REBOUND (FT OR FG) = TIP TO HALF COURT. TOP PLAYER GETTING BACK ON D’ CAN GET IT.

7. STOP THEIR FASTBREAK AFTER MADE F.T. = HAVE A SUB READY AT THE SCORER’S TABLE.

8. IF WE NEED TO SET UP A PRESS AFTER THEY MAKE A FT = HAVE A SUB READY AT THE SCORER’S TABLE.

9. 5 PLAYERS RUN TO REFS; CALLING TIMEOUT AFTER WE SCORE TO STOP THE CLOCK.

10. COMEBACK OR CATCH-UP MODE:

Round time up to the next minute
Double the number of minutes & turn minutes into points
Add one point.
Add 1 point = 5 pts

For example:
1:22 left in game
Rounds-up to: 2:00 min.
Doubled = 4:00 & change to pts = 4pts

11. If we’re up in the last 2:00 of the game & we’re being pressed. Tell the official that we’ll call timeout at the 8 count.

12. Have in-bounder ask the ref to count his 5 count out-loud & tell him that we’ll call timeout on the 4 count.

13. Tell players to let the other team score if we’re up by more than 3 points, inside of 5 seconds.

• Do not take the ball out if there are 4 seconds or less on the clock, especially if they’re out of timeouts.

14. Down 2, we are shooting 2 Free Throws with 3 or less seconds left: (No one w/ 4 fouls is in a rebounding spot)

• • Scenario #1:

o We make both FTs to tie the game.
o Have a sub ready to go to table, AFTER THE OFFICIAL HAS GIVEN THE BALL TO OUR SHOOTER.
o Players get matched-up in “Prevent 40” & defend for remaining seconds.

• • Scenario #2:

o We make the first & miss the second
o Players foul by going over-the-back on the rebound off the miss to save as much time as possible.

• • Scenario #3:

o Misses the first & now we have to miss the second intentionally & run “Vannett-2”

15. Down 2 points, going the length of the court inbounds, 3- seconds on the clock, clock stopped with 1+ timeout(s).

• Run “Royal” & throw to half court & call timeout. TELL OFFICIALS WHAT WE’RE DOING BEFOREHAND.
• We’ll run “Denver-2” from the sideline out-of-bounds.

16. Down 2 points, going the length of the court inbounds, 3- seconds on the clock, clock stopped, NO TIMEOUTS.

• Run “Royal-Back.”

17. Up 1-3 points, 30 seconds or less left. Inbounding full court:

• Run “Dunbar” with two best FT shooters in the 1 & 2 positions.
• If we have timeouts left – In-bounder & coaches tell ref’s that we’ll call TO on the count of 4.

18. Up 1-3 points inside of 5 seconds – full court inbounds: run “GO”

OPPOSITION: ____________________________________ LATE GAME INFO

1. PLAYERS TO FOUL:

#
#
#
#
#

2. PLAYERS NOT TO FOUL:

#
#
#
#
#

3. WHO ARE THEIR WORST FOUL SHOOTERS THAT ARE NOT IN THE GAME IN CASE OF AN INJURY SITUATION, AND WE CAN CHOOSE THE NEW FT SHOOTER?

#
#
#
#

4. LIST THEIR “21s”:

#
#
#
#

5. LIST THEIR BEST O’ REBOUNDERS:

#
#
#
#

6. TELL THE PLAYERS HOW TO GUARD BALL SCREENS:

• HARD HEDGE
• FLAT HEDGE
• TRAP
• JAM
• SWITCH

Click here to download the entire checklist

Some thoughts to consider as you work to update your drills book over the summer in preparing for next year.

Submitted by Coach John Kimble
CoachJohnKimble.com

Retired high school and college coach

Follow him on Twitter @CoachJohnKimble

This article was originally written for Winning Hoops

 PHILOSOPHY on DRILLS

by Coach John Kimble

Introduction

Every athletic team has practice to prepare for their games. What takes place in practice can and will make the difference in whether that team will succeed in the game or fail. It is very likely that a large portion of each of these daily practices will be the fundamental drills that I would like to discuss with you. Drills and the way the drills are taught and how they are incorporated in the daily practices will determine whether a coach is a good coach or not and whether the team has a chance to succeed in actual competition or not.

The following is a short composite of a philosophy of drills that has grown from 25 years of not only coaching basketball at the high school and junior college level, but also many years of coaching baseball as well as football. The philosophy has grown from observing college and NBA practices. This is in addition to watching and learning from NBA, college and other high school coaches.

• Make your practices as “game-realistic” as possible. Have fundamental drills and breakdown drills incorporated in all phases of the game you are coaching. TEACH at your practices.

• Get excited as a coach. Be enthusiastic. You must love to come to practice for the players to love to come. Players must be able to see you love to teach the game. Be thorough in your teaching. Assume that your players know nothing. Be a “stickler” for the smallest of details (in a positive manner). Do not ask for, but demand full efforts from yourself, your coaching staff, and your players.

• A good coach is a GREAT teacher and motivator.

• Have a detailed practice plan and follow it. “PLAN YOUR WORK–WORK YOUR PLAN!” Still, there are times when you must be flexible with your practice plan.

• Incorporate the “whole-part-whole” method in your teaching of the game.

• Do NOT  ask for–DEMAND your players’ attention. They must give you their “eyes and ears” at all times.

• Make your practices more demanding and tougher (both physically and mentally) than the games will demand.

• Establish your drills so that your players must concentrate as they perform them. This will prepare them so that they will be able to concentrate more in their games.

• Do NOT allow any players to stand around in practice, doing nothing.

• Assume that your players know nothing and that they have no basic fundamental skills. Start with the basics both intellectually and skill-wise. Stress fundamentals and proper technique. Stress mental and physical effort ALL of the time by EVERY player.

• Stress teamwork both on offense and on defense. Stress communication with teammates and the coaching staff.

• Give positive credit to players with more enthusiasm than others, especially when they have shown extra effort–physically or mentally.

• When a player does something positive a couple of times, send that player for a water break. Have the other players shoot “one and one” free throws. If that player misses the front end of   the “1 & 1,” have them run a full court sprint. If that player makes the front end of the “1 & 1,” but misses the second free throw, have that player run a half-court sprint. If that player makes both ends of a “1 & 1,” send them to water also.

• Often, reward the player or players that do something correct or well, instead of punishing the player or players that do not perform as successfully.

• Make sure that there is plenty of running and movement immediately before you send your players to shoot free throws. Make sure you have your players shoot 2 free throws at a time, as the players would do in a game.

• A drill is not a GREAT drill, unless the coach TEACHES the drill in a GREAT manner with GREAT enthusiasm and energy.

• Make sure that you constructively correct a player when he/she does something wrong and try not to criticize that player. Make sure that all criticisms are constructive and not personal.

• Set standards for your players in your shooting drills. Set time limits for your players to hurry (but under control) and get off as many shots as possible. Set accuracy limits for your players to attempt to make a specific number of shots in each different shooting drill.

• Utilize many of your shooting drills after some type of strenuous drills, so that your players can get accustomed to shooting when they are winded and fatigued.

• Make sure you can combine some drills with other drills, so that there are frequent opportunities to work on “offense-to-defense” transition, as well as “defense-to-offense” transition.

• Have managers record statistics from your practice, such as many of   the various shooting drills that you utilize. Post those statistics, so that players can see that their results are important to you and the team.

• Spend time thinking of ways to make as many of your drills as possible into competitions. To provide variety, there can be individual competition, small group competition, and team competition. Have a winner and a loser in the majority of the competitive drills, with the losers having some form of a light penalty.   The light penalty could be in the form of small sprints, pushups, or sit-ups.

• When you are about to criticize a player, first ask him or her: “What did you just do correctly?” Then ask him, “What did you do incorrectly?”

• Do not allow yourself to omit the physical conditioning of your players, because you ran out of time and some part of the practice had to be sacrificed. This can become an easy bad habit to fall into.

• “Practice does not make perfect,” but “Perfect practice does make perfect!” Perfect practice comes from well-planned practice plans by the coaching staff. The practice plan is the coach’s lesson plan.

• Implement a great deal of structure into your practice plans and practice routines, so that your players can have an idea of what to expect. Keep the practice lengths at about an equal length of time for each practice, with shorter practices and lighter physical activity the night before games and often the night after games.

• Occasionally, during the long hard grueling part of the season about 2/3 or so through the schedule, call off a scheduled practice. Or have practice, and do something completely different. Play wiffle ball or watch a movie or have pizza for the team. It can be a tremendously positive “breath of fresh air.”

• Remember to teach the following phrase by preaching it as well as by example, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

• Do not finish practice on a negative note-not a poorly performed drill, or a missed shot, or a turnover. Do not finish your practice with conditioning work. Conditioning is extremely important, but it does not have to conclude a practice. The last drill or activity should be a positive, rewarding, and fun type of activity to give them the motivation for the next day’s practice. Make players eager for tomorrow’s practice.

Summary

These are a few thoughts and ideas that I have learned from other coaches or have discovered over the many years that I have participated either in the many types of practice as either a player or as a coach in the various sports I have coached at the different levels that I have coached. Utilize them into your philosophy and constantly work on improving your practice sessions.

About the Author

Coach Kimble was the Head Basketball Coaching position at Deland-Weldon (IL) High School for five years (91-43) that included 2 Regional Championships, 2 Regional Runner-Ups and 1 Sectional Tournament Runner-up. He then moved to Dunlap (IL) High School (90-45) with 2 Regional Runners-up, 1 Regional, 1 Sectional and 1 Super-Sectional Championship and a final 2nd Place Finish in the Illinois Class A State Tournament. He was an Assistant Basketball Coach at Central Florida Community College in Ocala, FL for 1 year before becoming Offensive Coordinator and then Associate Head Coach for 3 additional years He then was the Head Basketball Coach at Crestview (FL) High School for 10 years, averaging over 16 wins per season.

He has had articles published in the following publications such as: The Basketball Bulletin of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the Scholastic Coach and Athletic Journal, Winning Hoops, Basketball Sense, and American Basketball Quarterly. He has also written and has had five books published along with over 25 different DVDs by Coaches Choice and Fever River Sports Production.

See him on Twitter @CoachJohnKimble and his Web Page “www.CoachJohnKimble.com”