Don't Dog it On Fast Breaks, Never Give up On Defense

I watched a little Euroleague, ULEB Cup action today between Dynamo Moscow and another team (Serbian club I believe). I believe Dynamo won the game but I highlighted this play just because as a coach it reminds me of why we ask our players to give it all they can in practices, so that in games they go all out. You can clearly see in this play, that the Serbian club team player dogs it on the last steps of the fast break, while the Dynamo player doesn't give up and hustles down to get the big block. Kind of reminiscent of the playoff game a few years ago when the Pistons' Tayshaun Prince came back and blocked the Pacers Reggie Miller. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,



One of the reasons why we as coaches always push our players hard in practices is so that when it comes to game time, they expect to play hard. Especially on fast breaks, we always tell our players to go all out.

One drill we like to do is a full-court 3 minutes - 3 man fast break drill.
- 3 man full court fast break, no dribbles
- have a coach or defender back at foul-line to force decisions
- break down into lay-ups with the weak-side player inbounding, centre player breaks to sideline
- the outlet is thrown to side-line, ball is thrown overhead down the sideline

In 3 minutes we set a goal of 20 baskets made, that's slightly more than 1 basket made every 10 seconds. Every basket less than 20 is another set of lines, pushups, stairs, etc..

If you're looking for a great DVD that is chalk full of great basketball and conditioning drills, check out Bruce Weber's DVD on 20 Competitive Drills. Lots of great discussions going on at the X's and O's of Basketball Forum so be sure to check it out.