Running Game-Like Practices, Flow Offense, Defensive Pressure Drills & Taking Away an Opponent's Best Scorer

with Pat Chambers,
Florida Gulf Coast University Head Men's Coach;
La Salle Assistant Coach from 2021 to 2022;
Penn State University Head Coach from 2011 to 2020;
2019 'Coaches vs. Cancer' Champion Award;
2018 NIT Champions;
Boston University Head Coach from 2009 to 2011;
Back to back 20 win seasons;
2011 American East Tournament Champions;
Villanova Assistant Coach (with Jay Wright) from 2004 to 2009;
2009 Final Four;
played for Hall of Fame coach Herb Magee at Philadelphia (point guard);

Looking for new ways to bring intensity, while fostering a learning environment to your practices? Pat Chambers, the head men’s coach at Florida Gulf Coast University, has always had a reputation of being a high energy/intense coach when it comes to both the offensive and defensive side of the game. In this highly valuable Open Practice instructional basketball coaching video, Coach Chambers lives up to his reputation and showcases all the secrets and teaching innovations that has earned him success over the years as one of the top coaches in the game.

In this Open Practice Video, Chambers brings the intensity that he’s famous for and outlines the innovative ways in which they shut down a team’s best player and how they use breakdown drills to build up their pressure defense. 

Game Setup

Setting up your practice is never easy especially when you are trying to mimic game-like situations. Coach Chambers begins this Open Practice video by laying out the way in which he sets up his practices by following a pattern of how a game would be structured - including timeouts – by segmenting the practices into quarters, and even building in foul situations.

Coach Chambers dives deep into explaining how this unique practice structure helps easily establish time-and-score scenarios, as well as shows players the best methods for controlling tempo and how to bring intensity and energy coming out of timeouts.  This outline will help you structure and improve your own practices and provides a wealth of fresh, innovative ideas that teach players how to control a game. 

Flow Offense 

Building your motion offense can be a challenge for most coaches. Installing actions and teaching reads are how most coaches teach motion offense. In this Open Practice video, however, Coach Chambers provides easy-to-follow examples for teaching the entire offense and all the actions together – as well as how to best break down those actions into simple reads that players will easily understand. 

Using a 5-on-5 setting, Chambers then provides in-depth examples of how to teach motion offense, while building in a simple 4-minute game into a practice with a predetermined score built in so players know when to push tempo, when to slow things down, and how to stay patient and look for easy buckets when things get tough.  

It's a versatile, refreshing way to format a team’s practice and fosters a competitive, yet attention-keeping environment that players will love.

Defensive Build Up 

Defensive intensity is the single, biggest team component that makes Chambers-coached teams different from other squads. With a heavy emphasis placed on taking charges, blitzing middle screens and locking down a dynamic scorer are all things that become a differentiator as intensity is brought to the forefront of practices.In a practice section he calls, ‘Stop-and-Attack,’ Chambers shows how to get your players ready to work and take on the challenge of guarding an opposing team’s best player through guard-to-guard switches and using a double-teams as they come off ball screens.

This practice segment that focuses on defense is sure to bring your team stops and limit your opponent’s best player to only a few touches. 

Coach Chambers is famous for ‘bringing the intensity’ in a way that players respond to. As showcased in this video, you will love his style of coaching and the way in which he preaches defensive intensity while getting total player buy-in to the concepts he’s teaching. 

The breakdown drills that Chambers showcases are sure to help you build your team’s defensive intensity in a way that takes your defense to the next level.  

If you are looking for new and innovative practice ideas that will help you raise your team’s overall intensity, while creating game-like, competitive practices, then this is a must-have video for your coaching library!

Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 Stars. ‘I LOVE the style of coaching Coach Chambers brings to the table. In this awesome video, he breaks down his practice and teaching concepts in a way that makes it easy to understand for coaches and players alike!’ 

81 minutes. 2023.