I've written many times before, good M2M defense isn't any kind of secret. It's just hard work. You can always tell the teams that work hard in practice, just by the way they play defense. The ones that are working the ball, helping, switching, communicating, those are the teams you know that are working it. And I'm not talking about pressing or trapping teams, I'm talking about good half-court M2M teams. I've seen great athletic teams play poor defense and get beat by weaker teams that executed well on offense and out-worked their better skilled opponents defensively.
2 on 2 Closeout Drill:
I've run variations of this drill 3-on-3 and even 4-on-4. It's similar to a shell drill but you want to just emphasize the points that are important to you (force baseline or middle).
Coach passes to offensive wing. Defender closes out, here I'm emphasizing force baseline so you want to make sure your players are in a closed stance. The help defender has to shift over. There is a skip pass to opposite wing and again you want to closeout and help needs to shift.
The offensive wing with the ball then drives baseline. The opposite wing drags down to the corner. You want the help side defender to come down and close out the penetration. Force the skip pass. The trail defender then has to switch and closeout on the skip pass.
A great DVD that breaks down the man-to-man fundamentals is Geno Auriemma's 8 Essential Defensive Drills DVD. Coach Auriemma is the head coach of multiple national championship winning lady Huskies of UConn.
Head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss.
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