Two-Man and Three-Man Offensive and Defensive Drills

"The game of basketball is over coached and under taught; too few coaches are minding the gym at the entry level of the game as the instruction of fundamentals has slipped badly. There has been a premium put on athleticism over skill development which is reflected at the youth level and the high school level. Kids play games. They don't work at the game." -- Hall of Fame Coach Pete Newell Coaches have to decide what they think is important and what they want their athletes to learn in order to be successful on the court. Once coaches decide what they want to teach their athletes, they have to decide how they will teach this material or concepts so their athletes are prepared to perform well under game pressure. In order to teach these chosen concepts, the athletes will need clear explanations with drills giving them frequent repetition so they can master the performance of these concepts. I use small group drills with two or three athletes so they get frequent repetitions and they cannot hide while they are on the court; they will have to perform or their mistakes will be obvious to everybody as there are fewer people to help cover for their mistakes. We have drills involving two or three athletes which we use every practice, every other practice or only the occasional practice. Once the athletes become familiar with the drill, we focus on what we want to get out of the drill and repeat that drill throughout the season. Remember, as former UCLA hall-of-fame coach John Wooden said, One drill done 100 times well is far better than 100 drills done once. In addition to the drills described here, we also have taken our offensive and defensive systems and broken them into smaller drills with two or three athletes which we will repeat throughout the season as mini-refresher courses when we believe we are struggling with some part of a particular system. Drills you create yourself will often be your best drills because they will emphasize what you want to teach your athletes.

Two-Man Offensive Drills:

1) Pairs Shooting:
-start one player on the perimeter and the other under the basket with the ball, you can vary the distance -the person with the ball passes to the other person who must be in a stance ready to catch the ball and shoot; passer will closeout to defend the against the shooter -person catching the pass shoots the ball and follows their shot; if they miss, they must rebound the ball and score a lay in before continuing the drill; if they make the shot, the retrieve the ball and pass to their partner who will then become the shooter -we use eight spots for the drill: junction extended, foul line extended, deep corner and short corner on both sides

2) Circle Drill:
-start with one person near the basket in the key with the ball and the other person in an outlet spot near the foul line extended -throw the ball off the backboard, rebound the ball and make an outlet pass -the person in the outlet line curls to receive the pass and then will dribble down court to attack the junction where they will come to a jump stop and make a bounce pass -the person who makes the outlet pass will follow down court wide toward the sideline before she will cut in near foul-line extended for a pass to a lay in -passer rebounds the ball and repeat the drill coming back the other direction -add a defender later to work on the decision-making process of the passer

3) Shooting Sprints:
-you have a shooter and a rebounder / passer -the shooter starts in the corner and must spring to the elbow, catch a pass and shoot -they repeat the same cut/shot twice and then they run to foul line extended at the sideline to the elbow twice and then to the center line area and back to the elbow twice before crossing the court and repeating the same spots on the other side -shooter takes 12 shots in one minute; can challenge the shooter by setting a target for the number of shots they must make in the one minute

4) Sunny Drill:
-you have a shooter and a rebounder / passer -shooter starts at the elbow slides to the sideline and sprints to the elbow to receive a pass for a shot; then the shooter backpedals to the center line and sprints to the elbow for a shot; then they slide to the opposite sideline and sprint to the elbow for a shot; then they backpedal to center and sprint to the elbow for a fourth shot; this shot completes one rotation or cycle in the drill -repeat the cycle for one minute and then they exchange positions

5) Put Two Ball Two Man Passing

-a passing drill where both athletes have a ball and they stand about 15 feet apart -the two athletes throw push passes to each other -each athlete will catch the pass and quickly make a proper pass back to the partner -the goal is to have one athlete end up with both balls at the same time

6) Aggression Lay ins:

-two lines along the baseline area with a third athlete or coach standing under the basket with a ball -the coach will roll the ball out on the ground; the two athletes must sprint to a predetermined spot on the court and turn to pursue the basketball; whoever gets the ball is on offense and the other athlete is on defense -play 1-on-1 until the offense scores or the defense rebounds the ball

7) Pressure Pair Lay ins:

-start at center line; one athlete has the basketball while the other person who will be defender lines up with her front foot against the back foot of the offensive player -when offense breaks contact to try to score, the defender must chase the dribbler and attempt to stop her from scoring 8) 2-on-2 Continuous: -you will need eight players organized into teams of two athletes -one team plays 2-on-2 against another team; after a score/miss/turnover, the defense will make an outlet pass to another team standing at opposite ends of the foul line near the sideline; the team receiving the pass will attack the opposite end of the court -the team which started on offense must run back in transition to play defense against the next team coming on the court just like they would have to do in a game -the rotation is offense to defense to out of the drill -play until one team reaches a specific target; we usually play to three hoops -you can add pressing to the drill and you can emphasize all your defensive concepts as they defenders are easily exposed if they make mistakes

Two-Man Defensive Drills:

1) 2 on 2 Closeouts:
-for our team, this drill is an all-purpose way to teach our defensive concepts -start two athletes under the basket with one ball and two athletes on the perimeter foul-line extended at the three-point line -the defenders throw the ball out and closeout to play defense -the offense receives the ball and then we dictate certain conditions in the drill: they must skip first pass; catch and shoot; they must drive the middle gap -we will teach the following concepts out of this drill: a) deny cutters from making ball cuts b) closeout and block out on a perimeter shot c) defending the pick and roll high hedge, trapping or go under the screener d) controlling a dribbler, helping on a drive before recovering to own check -you can make whatever emphasis you want when running these drills so you get out of them what you want your athletes to know and to do in a competitive situation

Three-Man Offensive Drills:

1) 50 in 3:
-this drill is a high-volume warm up shooting drill for the start of your practice -groups of three athletes with two basketballs at one basket starting at the elbows -people with the balls shoot and follow their own shots, rebound the balls and pass back to the lines at the elbows -goal is to make 50 shots in three minutes; you can modify the goals -in our drill, any group under 50 made shots or the lowest total have to run so we try to make our drills competitive with winners and losers, just like a game

2) 3-Man Shooting:
- we use the same eight shooting spots: junction extended, foul line extended, short corner and deep corner on both sides -start one athlete under the basket with the ball and the other two athletes on opposite sides of the key at the junctions extended -pass the ball out, closeout; the receiver catches the ball and shoots, follows their shot and then passes to the other side of the key for the second shooter -we run each spot for one minute -remember if the outside shot is missed the ball must be rebounded and then scored on a lay in before continuing the drill

3) Speed Lay ins:

-start with groups of three athletes and two balls placed at the elbows -you will have one shooter, one rebounder/passer and one ball placer -shooter will pickup the ball from the elbow, take one dribble and then execute a lay in -the shooter then runs to the next ball and repeats the drill -rebounder passes the ball to the placer who puts the ball at the elbows after each shot -we run the drill for 20 seconds at each spot used -spots we use are the elbows, junction extended at the three-point line and foul line extended at the three-point line; you may have to modify your starting points

Three Man Defensive Drills:

1) 3-Man Rotating Rebounding Triangle:
-start with three offensive athletes and three defensive athletes along with two coaches/managers/other players on the perimeter as passers -set the opposing teams into a triangle formation around the key -the three defenders must get into a stance with their hands high and then they must defensive slide in a clockwise direction as if they were closing out against a shooter -as they slide, the perimeter coaches will either shoot the ball or pass to an offensive team athlete who must then shoot the ball -the three defenders must then block out the offensive team, pursue the ball and make an outlet pass back to one of the coaches before they can get out of the drill

2) 3-Athlete Defensive Triangle:

-we have used this drill as a competitive way to reinforce all of our defensive concepts and talking while playing defense in the half court -start the same way as the previous drill: three offensive and three defensive athletes positioned in a triangle with two perimeter passers to load the drill against the defense -defensive must defend until they rebound the basketball and outlet to the perimeter -rest of the team is on the baseline ready to step into the drill -new groups always come in to play defense; rotate defense to offense to out of drill -we will teach our post defense, weak side help, stopping penetrating dribblers and help and recover out of this drill

3) 3 vs. 4 Triangle Defense Drill:

-we try to load the drill against the defensive team which starts in a triangle -defensive goals are they must stop the offensive team from scoring in the paint while allowing only a contested perimeter shot -defensive rules are: man to man on the strong side, 1 on 2 on the weak side guarding from the basket to the perimeter, play side-straddle on the post and double down and you will always account for the basketball -the offense can do whatever it wants to do to try to score -we play three possessions and then we rotate the offense and the defense -we find the drill really makes the defense work hard and communicate to each other

4) 4 vs. 5 Diamond Defense Drill:

-this drill is the extension of the previous drill -defense starts in a diamond formation and follows the same rules as in the triangle -Triangle and Diamond drills can be used as stand-alone drills or they can be used as progressions in the development of zone or combination defenses

5) 3 vs. 3 Defending a Baseline Cutter:

-start with an offensive player in the corner with the ball, two post players on the low or the mid block on opposite sides of the key and a coach in the middle of the court at the three-point line with three defensive players -the offensive player in the corner will pass the basketball to the coach and then try to get open off the post screens; if the defenders cheat too much, the post players can slip the screen and look for the direct pass from the top -defender should get on the outside hip of the cutter when coming off the screens if the cutter is heading into the key and go over the screen if the cutter is heading out of the key on the cut-run the drill for 24 or 30 seconds which is the length of the shot clock in games