Foundations for Successful Basketball Half-Court Defenses

Excellent on the basics of half court man and zone defenses by a legendary teacher and coach. A highly recommended addition to the libraries of all high school, junior high, and youth coaches. 5 stars

In youth sports today, the man-to-man defense is neglected and you mostly see a 2-3 zone playing. Coaches rarely take the time to teach the fundamentals of good defense. This is why I love this video. I love simple but yet effective steps that I can translate to my 6th and 7th grade. Most of the kids I coach are new to basketball and this is super impactful.

I also love the fact that this video shows the relationship between man-to-man and zone defense in which they share some of the same principles.

All his videos have value and usually some really interesting points I think, and this is no different. This one is better as Coach Wootten uses DeMatha players, so there is no lag time for the players to understand what he is after.

Coach builds up the defense a player at a time, from 1v1 to 2v2 and so on. This builds into the horseshoe drill, a lighter shell drill for defensive positioning against low and high post while ball rotates. Coach does double down on the low post.

He then builds into half-court pressure, trapping,1-3-1 zone trapping and 2-3 zone. Downsides are that nothing is run at full spread until the last 2 minutes, and there are no true drills to take away from this video.

Despite what it is lacking, what it covers I think would be excellent for beginning coaches.
There are also some good fundamentals and reminders for experienced coaches from one of the best. 5/5 stars.

Wooten's teams get up in the passing lanes and create havoc. "There is no glory in defense, just victory." More than 1,000 victories in fact.