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Pass and Chop Defensive Drill (zigzag drill)Coaching Youth Basketball

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Purpose: To apply intense, intelligent pressure on the ball-

handler, turning him as many times as possible. Every tripup the floor should be one that the offense wont. soon

forget.

Organization: Players form 2 lines. Line 1 is in the

baseline corner. Line 2 is on the elbow. Each player in line2 has a ball.

Procedure:

1. X1 passes to O1

2. O1 dribbles straight down the sideline as X1 sprints tothe sideline in defensive position, cutting off O1.

3. O1 has 1/3 of the court and dribbles up-court.

4. X1 plays good defense, trying to turn the ball handler asmany times as possible for the length of the court.

5. Players switch positions and repeat the procedure backdown-court on the other side of the floor.

6. X2 and O2 begin when X1 and O1 reach half-court.

Coaching Points:

1. To turn the dribbler, X1 must hustle to a spot in O1spath and cut him off.

2. If X1 gets beat, he comes out of his stance andSPRINTS ahead of the ball rather than shuffling his feet.

3. After players have a feel for how to execute, the offenseshould try to go past the defense, rather than simply

zigzagging back and forth. This helps simulate a gamesituation and keeps things competitive.

4. Offense and defense continue the drill for the FULL

length of the floor and do NOT stop before reaching theend line.

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Ask The Coach: Running the Shell Drill with BigMenCoaching Youth Basketball

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These questions came from Coach Chris in early July:

1. What variations of shell drill do coaches run (i.e. what do you do with big men? Do coaches

do something other than 4 out, etc.)?2. On M2M defense, do you turn a man baseline or middle and why?

Ill talk about involving post players in the shell drill today, and tackle the rest of thesequestions over the next 2 newsletters.

Re: Big Men in the shell drill.

I think you should absolutely include your big man in the shell drill, and play him from thepost position:

**I will add a disclaimer here to state that at the youth levels it is especially important thatyou involve your big men in your perimeter drills and scrimmages, at least to some extent.

Everybody, including big men, should be able to catch the ball on the perimeter and make agood passing decision, or step out to the perimeter to defend. In 99% of cases, the coach who

banishes a big kid to the post and never lets him or her touch the ball or defend outside of thepaint is doing that player a huge disservice**

That being said, you can start out having an offensive post player stand stationary on one

block and have the defensive post work on footwork and positioning as the ball gets reversedaround the perimeter.

Next, you can have the offensive post flash across the lane to either block as the ball gets

reversed. The defensive post should work on bumping the cutter (by making an arm bar) and

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riding the cutter up the lane, as well as working on fronting or denial of the offensiveplayer on the strong side post

Placing the offensive player back in a stationary position at either low post, you can start to

work on defending penetration. On a drive from the ball-side wing the post should stop thedrive. How the mechanics of it work depends on whether youre fronting the post, plaiting

denial, or playing behind.

On a drive from the opposite wing, the post player must meet the ball-handleroutside of thelane with quick help. Post defense is a matter of positioning and angles. I tell my teams we

dont have any shot blockers we have quick, active, defenders who understand positioningand angles.

(Do I really believe there is no such thing as shot blockers)? No. Of course there are shot

blockers. The reason I send the message in that way is because, very often, players will gofor a spectacular block spiking the ball out of bounds , in defensive version of an And-1

commercial and pick up a stupid foul when it would have been easier to just establishposition.)

A few more key areas to work on with post defenders in a shell:

y y Defending a cut across the lane with the ball at the top of the key we swing open to the ball with our hands up

and the defender on our back, and then re-establish position on the other side of the lane

y yDefensive positioning when defending a player on the weak side low post (i.e. the ball is on the right wing; player

being defended is on the left block). At the younger levels, the post defender can often step off of the weak-side

post into the middle of the lane to better support to strong-side drive. As players develop, post defenders cant

step so far away off of good post-players without getting pinned in the key on ball reversal.

y If you front the post, you should spend some time on the footwork involved with stepping around the offensivepost player on the pass from the point to the ball-side wing.

y If you play denial on the post, you should also work on executing an x-step to shift from high side to low-side

denial as the ball moves from the wing to the corner.y Whatever you teach, defensively, it should be aligned with your teams strengths as much as possible. Whatever

those strengths happen to be, the shell drill is a great tool to give any teams natural strengths the discipline

needed to be successful.