Open Practice with Tobin Anderson: Improving Half Court Offense, Pressing Defense & Skills with Competitive, Game-Like Drills

with Tobin Anderson,
Tennessee Tech Head Basketball Coach;
University of South Florida - Special Assistant to the Head Coach from 2025 to 2026;
Iona University Head Basketball Coach from 2023 to 2025;
Fairleigh Dickinson University Head Coach from 2022 to 2023;
2023 Peter A Carlesimo Collegiate Coach of the Year;
Northeast Conference Championship Game Runner-up;
NCAA Qualifier (16 seed) to beat the #1 seed in the first round;
St. Thomas Aquinas College Head Coach from 2013 to 2022;
3x East Coast Conference (ECC) Coach of the Year;
5x ECC Regular Season Champions;
6x ECC Tournament Champions;
5x All-Met Coach of the Year;
2017 Elite Eight;
Siena College Assistant Coach from 2011 to 2013;
Hamilton College Head Coach from 2004 to 2011;
3x UCAA Regular Season Champions;
Clarkson University Head Coach from 1999 to 2004;
played collegiately at Wesleyan University

Up-tempo pace of play puts pressure on your opponent from the minute you score your first bucket to inbounding the ball after a score. Tobin Anderson took advantage of this style of play at Fairleigh-Dickinson University in 2023 when his #16 seeded team became only the second #16 in history to take down the #1 seed in the first round. As evidenced in the 2023 NCAA tournament and throughout his career, Coach Anderson is a master at making his opponents abandon their game plan to play your style of play. In this Open Practice series of 2 Iona practices, Coach Anderson shows you how to teach an up-tempo style of play using competitive game play and drills. 

Open Practice - Session 1

In practice session 1, Coach Anderson jumps right into competitive play. From competing in warmup drills to ending practice with 5v5 play in the half court, you will love the culture that pushes players to be their best.  

In 3v0 Coach Anderson breaks down the actions his players are looking to achieve in the half court.  Using flare and slip cuts, players can create a scoring opportunity for your best 3 point shooter or a slip for your strong post. Coming off of ball screen action, your players will learn to hit the shake player or play filling behind or get a post touch.  

In 3v2 with a chaser, the trail defender puts pressure on the offense to get a quick score and do so by throwing the ball ahead. This helps simulate fastbreak scenarios and puts an emphasis on transition offense with a quick score.  

In 5v4 disadvantage, players fly around the court looking to get a stop and transition into offense.  With the turnover and stop, your offense turns to full court pressure defense and learns to play at a high tempo. Being able to flip from offense to defense is a major point of emphasis in every practice!

Continuing to build up with game play, players learn to pressure right away in the full court in 5v5 Tip and Press.  This is a great drill to make players learn how to create a pressure mentality and up tempo style of play. This puts an emphasis on how to quickly make the switch from a score to getting right into your run and jump press. 

Open Practice - Session 2

Practice session 2 begins with 2v0 Action work.  In Zoom Action, players will learn how to master the dribble handoff scenario and read what to do when the defense stays and leaves you to throw out of the handoff or when to attack the rim.  With Grenade action - players attack the rim, look for the kickback or get a post touch.  In Flare action, players are working the slip and the throwback option.  

Building solid ball handlers starts with learning how to get a feel for the ball.  Coach Anderson has players do stationary ball handling work every practice.  These drills are simple and designed to help push your players out of their comfort zone as they use two basketballs.

1v1 Pivot and Sweep,  players are learning to create space and protect the ball at the same time; when the offense realizes they are in charge, they know anything is possible!

In 3v3 full court, players are using their actions and up-tempo style to help teach you spacing on the floor and how to create a competitive atmosphere. This is great for your smart, younger players to learn how to observe how quickly the game can move.  All of these drills are building up to 5v5 scenario play where Coach Anderson will showcase the intensity of his practices and style of play.  

In Iowa, the defense will have a fast Run and Jump full court pressure.  This forces teams to constantly be thinking about when you are going to trap and when you are going to just ride the defender out into the half court. 

Coach Anderson loves to train his teams to play fast. He loves to push the pace and be an up-tempo program. Players love this style of play as well, but it takes a toll.  You have to be prepared to play and to do this you have to constantly play this way in practice.  

In this video, Coach Tobin Anderson uses his Open Practice sessions to showcase how he is able to get the most out of his players in effort and emphasizes why this up-tempo style of play can create a formidable, relentless team in the season ahead!

Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars -

"The attention to detail and intensity make this an outstanding, if not one of the best, Open Practice videos I have ever seen!"

124 minutes.  2024.