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 of the skills we’ve learned in halfcourt and apply them to a full court transition situation.
Setup
Have five offensive players lineup on one baseline, and five defenders line up on the free throw line on that side of the court – facing AWAY from the offense so they can’t see them.
Execution
Now a coach will stand in front of the offensive players, and make a pass to whoever he chooses.
Once that pass is made, the coach will call out “go.”
The defenders will spin around, identify who has the ball, and immediately begin communicating as they hustle to get back to the key.
- Each defender should call out who he’s guarding the whole way down the court.
- “I got Chris!”
- “I got Brian!”
- “I got Jaden!”
And so on.
Once the offense gets over halfcourt, the defense will continue to chatter constantly, letting their teammates know where they are and what they’re doing.
- For example…
- “I got ball!”
- “Watch screen left!”
- “Back door! Back door!”
- “I got your help on the weakside!”
- “Deny! Deny!”
From there the offense tries to score, with the defense collecting a stop on a defensive rebound.
Variations
To make this drill even more challenging for the defense, move the offense players up to halfcourt.
This will force the defenders to communicate VERY quickly under pressure of an immediate score.
Scoring The Drill
After the defense has collected three stops in a row, they switch, with either a new team coming in on offense and offense going to defense
Or if you’ve only got 10, just an offense defense switch. If the defense fails to communicate, the stop does NOT count.
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