Open Practice: Man-to-Man Defense

Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Put your team in championship mode with these defensive strategies and skills from Bob Hoffman. In 2014, Coach Hoffman led Mercer to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. In addition, the 14 seed Bears knocked off a 3 seed to advance to the third round.

In this presentation, Coach Hoffman emphasizes and builds on the fundamentals of closeouts, footwork and communication in every drill - in a live practice setting. His overall defensive philosophy can be summarized in one word: flexibility. Throughout a season, he teaches many different defensive principles to counter the most common offensive approaches. You'll see how he balances the importance of defensive fundamentals while teaching different shell drill variations, as well as different ways to defend on-ball screens.

Coach Hoffman begins his practice with small-group defensive stations. His assistant coaches take charge of teaching as the team hustles through a series of drills focused on improving defensive tactics. The Single/Double drill will help your players learn to coordinate the way they handle single or double off-ball screens. The Closeout/Contain/Chest Up drill helps players improve their on-ball defense by recovering to the ball and stopping the offense from scoring. The Show drill focuses on hedges when defending a side ball screen.

In this segment, you will pick up numerous strategies for handling on-ball and off-ball screens. Nearly every coach uses a variation of shell drill to practice team defense. Using several progressive layers of the shell drill, Coach Hoffman teaches players how to work together to defend basket cuts, staggered weak side screens, staggered screens and baseline drives.

The Box Screening drill is a great tool to work on both setting and defending screens. In a small area, 4-on-4 setting, offensive players work on timing and spacing while the defense fights through and/or around down screens and back screens.

In a 5-on-5 scrimmage segment that ends the practice session, you'll see how to mix up your strategies for defending on-ball screens with switches, jamming the roller, showing and more.

This segment from Bob Hoffman's Open Practice series will inspire you to examine your defensive approach. Coach Hoffman is a great communicator and his emphasis on fundamental defensive skills and communication will resonate with any coach.

65 minutes. 2015.