In today’s video blog post, we are demonstrating the “Bowl” Defensive Drill. In this drill, we keep two players in, one on each side. They will go through 10 or 12 offensive opponents just so they get the repetition over and over and over again. It’s a grueling drill because each offensive player that comes in is going to push him hard and get to the basket as hard as he can. And that means the defensive player has to be able to be ready to defend not one, not two, not three, but four or five or six.
The “Bowl” Defensive Drill
The bowl comes from the term that you’re in a fishbowl; everybody sees you. The coaching staff sees you, your teammates see you. So there’s a lot of pressure on this particular drill.
The important point of this drill is that when the ball goes in the hoop, the defensive player didn’t do a good job; and if it doesn’t go in, then the defensive player did a good job.
On the contrary, we’re liable to criticize a person’s stance even if the person didn’t make the shot because they either didn’t challenge or they challenged with the wrong hand, or they didn’t screen out, or they played with too much of a cushion.
So, like any teaching program, we’re interested in the process first, the bottom line or the end result will take care of itself. But you can’t coach strictly on the basis of what happened at the end. Sometimes you get fool’s gold by thinking you did the job just because you stopped a shot; other times if something goes in the basket, it may have meant the defensive player did a great job. You just have to applaud the offensive player because he was able to make that score.
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