Basketball drill: slides from helpline
Suitable for the following techniques: defense
Slides from helpline
Goal: learn or improve side slides + condition
Organization:
- all players on the helpline, facing the coach
- when coach bounces the ball all players jump into defensive position
- coach moves to the left or to the right, parallel to the backline
- players must stay with their face right in front of the ball
- increase the level of difficulty by changing direction and/or speed at random
Teaching Points:
- feet at least shoulder width
- knees at about 100 degrees (= sitting down deeply)
- shoulders above the heels (= back straight)
- Head upright (overlook the field)
- Hand closest to the ball is low (to be able to tap the ball away on the dribble)
- Other hand is above the shoulder (to intercept a pass)
- push hard on the push-off leg to gain speed
- Feet stay low to the ground (= slide, shuffle)
- feet do not connect after a slide, but remain at shoulder width
Variations:
- let the defender keep his hands on his back if you want to accentuate the feet and stance.
- 1 slide and back to the sideline, 2 slides and back etc. until you reach the sideline; followed by a short fierce sprint back to the sideline
- first a drop step and then slides backwards to the sideline + sprint back
- idem, but first a little tap (quickly transfer weight from one foot to the other)