Doug Bruno: Defensive Conditioning Without the Ball

Renowned within the women's game for his work with USA basketball, Doug Bruno is best known for his ability to mold and develop talent.

The drills and exercises in this video are tremendous for developing positive defensive habits while doubling as terrific conditioning drills.

Defensive concepts include:

• individual on-ball defense
• team half court defense
• full court defense
• stopping your opponent's best player

Individual On-Ball Defense

Discover drills for establishing an athletic defensive stance, developing explosive slides, and for training players to stay in front of the ball. All of these drills will improve your team defense by minimizing breakdowns that are so often created when players get beat off the dribble.

Half Court Defense

Learn four drills to establish your half court team defense. The Close-Out and Sprint to Help Line drills will improve players' close out technique and positioning relative to the ball. This drill can also progress to a 2-on-2 version that forces players to help with dribble penetration before closing out to recover on the skip pass.

You will also see how to develop a "take out defender" with two different drills that emphasize denial defense. The Continuous Denial Drill has 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 progressions that demand players deny the wing and then cut off the baseline while defending the ball. Another denial drill challenges players to fight through multiple screens will trying to prevent a player from receiving the ball.

Transition and Full Court Defense

Coach Bruno showcases four drills for improving transition and full court pressure defense. The 5-on-5 Across the Free Throw Line Drill will task your transition defense with communicating and scrambling while in a temporary disadvantage situation.

The Jump and Run Actions series breaks down your full court defense into 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 drills that train players to apply maximum on-ball pressure and works on how to rotate when switches occur.

These drills will help your team turn up the pressure while minimizing easy baskets with great communication and coordinated player movements.

This presentation is filled with creative drills that will work both basketball skills and your team's conditioning at the same time.

Produced at the Spring 2015 Myrtle Beach (SC) clinic.

74 minutes. 2015.