Basketball drill: front the mid post

Goal: Defending the mid post in front if it threatens to get into the bucket

Organization:

• Forwards 1 and 2 may adjust a center. If they cannot do so within 2 seconds, they must pass to each other. They remain in place
• as soon as a center has the ball in or near the bucket, they play 2 against 2 and try to score (but passing is allowed)
• ball side defender plays denial defense
• weak side defender stands with 1 foot on the helpline
• as soon as the mid post on the ball side looks for a position on the edge of or in the bucket, defender 5 stands between attacker 3 and the ball
• at the moment of the lob pass, defender 6 should stand in the back of attacker 3 and try to force the attacking foul
• when attacker 3 passes to the high post, every defender looks for his own man
• every pass from forward to forward or a pass from a center back to the forward scores 1 point for the defenders
• a defensive rebound also scores 1 point
• for every score from the bucket you lose 2 points
• foul on a goalie = score
• On a swing, the hig post looks for a position on the block.
• Defender 6 stays between man and basket until the block.
• steps around attacker 4 along the top of the block (top foot first, then step around the block with the bottom foot).

Teaching Points:

• prevent the pass at the mid-post with 1 hand up
• with the other hand, feel which way the mid-post is moving.
• get as close to the attacker as possible (but make sure you can jump to intercept the pass)
• When switching from denial defense to frontal defense, first move the foot closest to the basket.
• then pull the other foot in

Variations:

put a defender at the forward to make the pass towards the mid post more difficult