Man to Man Defensive Principles - Rotations/Double Teams

The key to playing hard-nosed, in your face man to man defense is team work.  A man to man defense will only be as good as the rotations the team makes in order to cover the ball.  Whether you are double teaming the opposition’s best player or you are helping a teammate who has been beat, the strength of your defense will depend on the chain reaction of events that will take place behind the double team or the help that occurs at the front end of the play.  Specifically there are some general rules that should always be followed when double teams or help side defense takes place.
  1. One man should commit to helping on the ball or on a double team.  Any more than that and you leave way too many options open for the offense.
  2. On a drive to the paint the defense needs to collapse into the paint and protect the basket.  Again we want to make sure that only one additional person helps on the ball but the rest of the team needs to collapse into the paint but be close enough to their player where they can effectively close out on them on a kick out.
  3. Unless specified by the coach there will be no double teams off of the ball.
  4. When a rotation is required due to a double team or a help situation, everyone but the high post defender will rotate one man closer to the ball.  The goal is to leave the man furthest from the basket and the ball open.
  5. Help in the post or on a drive should come from the weak side.  A strong side player should not leave his man uncovered.
Examples:
  • Rotation when defender gets beat from the point.


  •  Rotation when defender gets beat from the wing.
  • Rotation when defender get beat from the baseline.

Double teams can come in multiple ways and should be varied when playing in a game in order to keep the offense guessing.
  1. Leading a player into the double team

  2. Double team the dribbler from behind

  3. Double team after the first pass

  4. Double team the post  
Rotations and double teams are very important parts of a successful defense.  When playing man to man, individual players will get beat.  What happens after they get beat will determine how good the defense will be.  In addition, a good double team can also be important as a change of pace or when you are playing against a very good player.

 In closing, there are 2 rules that you should always keep in mind.
  1. Never send more than 2 players to cover one opponent.
  2. Always make sure there is a player on the ball at all times.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drill: 5v5v5 Fast Break

Image
This is a nice drill that emphasizes a whole bunch of game like situations.  Here is the list:  Fast Break Secondary Break Offensive sets Transition Defense Transition to standard defense Recognizing and attacking odd man opportunities.
Read more

Burpees (HIIT) Bakers Dozen

 Below is a great burpee workout that you can use to challenge yourself.  This challenge is called the baker's dozen.  Below is the rep range for each set and rest intervals between each set. 13 burpees 1 minute rest 12 burpees 1 minute rest 11 burpees 1 minute rest 10 burpees 1 minute rest  9 burpees 1 minute rest 8 burpees 1 minute rest 7 burpees 1 minute rest 6 burpees 1 minute rest 5 burpees 1 minute rest 4 burpees 1 minute rest  3 burpees 1 minute rest 2 burpees 1 minute rest 1 burpee 1 minute rest During the rest period you should be walking and getting yourself ready for the next set.  Don't sit down. Once completed you will have done a total of  91 burpees in about 20 minutes. It should be noted that the balers dozen method to HIIT training can be used doing different types of exercises including mountain climbers, push ups, pull ups, squats, lunges, 20 yard sprints and others. If you are in outstanding shape then you can decrease your rest periods to 45 seconds, 30 sec
Read more

Layups, Layups, Layups

Image
 When we go to youth games we like watching how the kids warm up.  To us youth basketball is an easy game to coach.  As a youth coach you need to teach your kids how to play good aggressive man to man defense and on the offensive end teach them how to pass and move towards the basket.  In a pass an move offense, layups are so important.  This goes back to our opening statement about watching youth level warm ups.  Most of the teams warming up spend a lot of time shooting shots, but the good ones are always working around the basket.  We've always found it entertaining that youth teams spend so much time working on jumpers and so little time on layups.  In addition, the little time they do spend on layups is spent doing basic layups using the right hand on the right side and the left hand on the left side.  There is so much more to it than this however and kids should be exposed to different types of layups in practice.  No one can predict what kind of layup opportunity will present
Read more