Open Practice: Building a Defensive Mindset

At the beginning of every season, high school coaches understand the struggle of trying to install enough of their defensive system to be successful by the first game. With limited time, decisions must be made on which defensive fundamentals get prioritized and how they can be efficiently taught.

Bruce Weber demonstrates how he approaches this same challenge with shell drills that will develop the team concept of his man-to-man defensive system. With modern basketball, stopping dribble penetration must be a collective effort. In this video, you will learn how to help through defensive rotations in addition to shutting down a variety of on-ball and off-ball screens.

Breakdown

The strategies behind coordinating the rotations of all five defenders are diagrammed in a lecture segment where Coach Weber explains the most important concepts of his man-to-man defense. He describes how they build on basic defensive concepts - closeouts and positioning - using the shell drill. From there, his teams build up into help side defense, rotations off of a drive and kick, jumping to the ball, and being on the line of the ball.

As his teams progress and get better each day, he continues to use the shell drill to build his team defense philosophy. By using 3v3 and 4v4 shell drill, players have to concentrate on guarding more ground and getting into the right position to help each other.

Coach Weber builds all the way up to 5v5 shell defense and is able to teach schemes and defending different actions and situations players will see during the season. You'll see how to help on "alley" drives down the lane and how to stop dribble penetration along the baseline. Beyond stopping the ball, you will learn how teammates take away the next pass by sinking to the line of the ball.

Individual Build-Up Drills

To help build his shell defense, Coach Weber focuses on individual defensive segments within practice. Players progress from working on maintaining proper position against ball and player movement all the way up to guarding complex offensive actions. From 2v2 and 3v3 guarding the ball screen, to individual post defense, Coach Weber is able to teach detail and technique his players need to become a force on the defensive end of the floor. Each drill is designed to be competitive with a winner and a loser to help reinforce the idea that defense wins championships.

Full Court

Coach Weber outlines a variety of full court drills to help build his team's pressure. In 4v4 full court shell, players are forced to contain in the open court and work to stunt. This helps slow the offensive player down and force them to give the ball up, allowing his team to get set in the half court.

The rotations for stopping alley drives are demonstrated in addition to how Kansas State defends high ball screens and dribble hand-offs. Your players will learn how to chase cutters off wide pin downs and flare screens. The techniques and team concepts for defending common screening plays such as Floppy or single-double screens, Horns and the New York screen-the-screener action are also included.

Coach Weber also shows how you can apply these concepts at game-speed with several competitive drill formats. These competitive drills develop defensive toughness, get players to go hard, and allow you to emphasize important teaching points with your scoring system. It also gives you a chance to evaluate if your team is game-ready with the additional tempo and chaos created with full-court play.

Even teams with less athletic players can limit their opponents' shots at the rim. This video from Coach Weber will give you the tools your team need to limit dribble penetration.

70 minutes + Bonus material. 2017.