Defensive Basketball Drills

Here’s a selection of my favorite defensive drills, including techniques for improving individual defense, team defense, and defensive communication. Give ’em a try – and make sure to leave a comment and let me know how they go!

Pick and Roll Defense – Fighting Over

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Purpose Teaching players how to fight over and properly defend the ball screen Drill Setup Split team into groups of four, two on offense, two on defense, with each group…

Transition Offense: The Hockey Drill

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In today’s video blog post, we are featuring a fantastic transition offense drill called “The Hockey Drill”. This is a 3-on-3 Full Court Transition Offense drill, and it’s purpose is…

Wing Denial Drill

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Play Type: Defensive Drill Purpose: This defensive drill demonsrates an aggressive, attack defense that will deny passes out to the wings. It explores the timing and execution – every detail…

Half-Court Half-Court Drill

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Play Type: Defensive Drill Purpose: Our next defensive segment starts with the ball and going hard, staying in the four quadrants. This drill is called half court-half court because we…

Defending the Dribble Drill

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Play Type: Defensive Drill Purpose: The offensive player’s goals here is to take the ball as hard as he can to the basket, while the defensive player’s try to defend…

The Bowl Drill

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Play Type: Defense Purpose: This is a grueling defense drill because each offensive player that comes in is going to push and get to the basket as hard as he…

The Shell Drill

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If there’s one defensive drill that every coach should know – it’s the Shell Drill. Having good help rotations is absolutely vital to a strong team defense. And this drill…

Super Drum Defense Drill

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Play Type: Defense & Scoring Drill Purpose: In this defense drill, you are playing a 3 on 3 defensive game. The only team that can score is the defense. Set…

Full Court 1 v 1

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Play Type: Defense Drill Purpose This defense drill works not only on your defenders ability, but also the offensive side as it gives players a chance to hone they’re ballhandling…

Hide and Seek Team Defense Drill

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Communicating in transition is especially important, with the margin for error shrinking due to the fact the defense is not set. This drill gives us a chance to practice all…

One of the great tragedies of basketball is that the most important jobs in the game often get the least credit. We’ve all heard that defense wins championships, but scoring sells shoes. And because of this, players who excel in certain areas – your great screeners, the dominant rebounders, and the lockdown defenders – rarely get their due in the media and with the fans.

That’s a mistake you can’t make as a coach. A lot of the time you’ll hear sports commentators talk about how being good at defense is just about effort. And while that’s true to a certain extent, it’s not just about trying hard. And frankly, saying so is an insult to the great individual defenders who spend all that extra time perfecting their craft.

If you’re interested in some more advanced training, make sure you check out the Team Defense Drillbook and Individual Defense Drillbook as well.

More Defensive Basketball Drills

Featured Product

The Team Defense Drillbook is jam-packed with 26 fun and effective defensive basketball drills to help you lock down your opponents and win more games this season.

You'll learn the best way to teach basic team defense principles, competitive practice ideas to help your kids take pride in their "D" - and advanced in-game strategies to shut down your competition. All explained with simple, step by step instructions and diagrams that any coach can understand.

Best of all, it’s delivered in PDF format, so you can get instant digital access… right over your computer screen, smartphone, tablet, or eReader… from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection!