The Defensive Shell Drill Sucks?

I would never put 3 players on the ball.( baseline drive) Easy way to give up a 3 ball. I use different terms. Deny( bring him my way) Help help( Skip it skip it) beat him beat him( "drive", I have help side defender take a charge then we pass to helper and pass to the player who took charge and have him shoot the ball and make everyone box out or we start the drill over). Any time someone messes up we start over. Everyone goes through the drill once. We do it everyday. I think the shell drill is very important to teaching man to man D. There are several progression we do to keep players thinking about how to play man to man Defense. That is what works for us and we have gotten great results

Like

I have used shell for 40+ years. One thing I do is have defensive players in a fist and finger set. Fist at you man, point finger to ball. This helps in rotation to passes and in the ball-you-man principle. I also use the no face cuts idea. With the fist and finger the offensive man hits fist, no grab by defense, and causes cutter to stop or change direction. Causing a timing problem. I taught this from the very young thru college. I also teach "football is a collision sport, basketball is a contact sport". Mke your man do what you want him to do, not what he wants. I also put a post man in so it is 5 on 4, call out post, pass in, outside collapse, pass out and recover. I love this drill and have used it, modified it, used at all levels.

Like

I've always felt shell drill is a must for youth basketball. The progression aspect of it is unmatched with any other defensive drill. It has always allowed my kids to get a better understanding of the team defensive concept.

Like

I love the shell drill BUT I do understand why some people don''t. You have to use it as a progression. You have to let kids play live out of it. You can even start in the shell and work on transition. What I don''t understand from this video is the number of times he seems to WANT his players to turn their backs to the ball and/or their man. That, in my opinion, is a NEVER. You can guard and be aggressive without losing sight of one or the other.

Like

If one uses their imagination they can come up with a variety of variations for the shell drill, cutters, exchanges, closing out, flashing... Often I will finish with 8 - 10 minutes of 4-4 live, do what ever you want, winners out , must get a stop to get on O.

Like

we use the shell drill every practice for what we call the "chatter drill" usually 5 on 4 or 4 on 3 b/c if they don't talk they fail !!!!!! THEY WORK HARD.

Like

I like the shell drill but over the past few months have gone to use the Cutthroat drill alot more as I feel I get more out of this.

http://youtu.be/RmeRyIL3YAI

Like

Coach Culley, I'm a big fan of the cut throat drill as well. I wrote this article about it awhile back.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/ultimate-defense-drill.html

Like

We uesd the shell drill a lot.. at times we played 5/0 vs 4/D...this makes you talk a lot and move your feet.
When we went to straight 4 on 4 and allowed cutters all the way through that was more like game situations and made our match up that much better.

Along with our m2m D, we played a 1-3-1 match up zone... our 5 played their 5 m2m and everyone rotated around him. Our match up was pretty good and what was amazing was.... they talked all the time... not so much in our m2m, go figure.

Like

Great Drill! I would remind players to keep their arms and hands up when on ball defending, making passes be tall and out when off the ball, closing down passing lanes

Like

GREAT DRILL!!!! Can't wait to use it tomorrow at practice, will let you know how we do.....

Like

This is a good teaching drill. I am nt sure why it would "suck" to anyone. Definitely goes over good defensive position and help side. I like it.

Like

I think it was Joe's way or creating some good conversation. It's a great article Joe.

Like

All the coaches have given good comments, as I am new/fresher as a coach. It is interesting to know all the facts, thank you. During all my coaching, I have always used shell drill and i find it effective and will keep in mind the comments of other coaches too.

Like

Coach Hart, I don't Coach Huber's intention is to put 3 players on the ball. Here is his explanation for having the wing defender dropping low...

"I usually work on emphasize sinking to the level of the ball, which sometimes will be the block area. We over emphasize this initially at practice. Players will usually not play at the same levels demanded in practice on every possession in games. It is like exaggerating kids being low in stances. The players will usually not be that low in games. In youth basketball most teams are not good shooting 3 pointers. They are better getting in the lane or to the basket. When I work with high school teams or college teams we will adjust and not sink as low because of shooters, but we still do not want the ball in the lane or house. We might have a player barely sink or not sink to stay with a great shooter on the other team (it is usually adjusted on scouting reports of each team). Every team and game is different on the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent. You need to know what the offensive goal of another team. Are they drive first with limited shooters, big team attempting to get the ball inside, 3 point shooting team, etc."

Like

This is what I called - " Picking my poison "

If I am going to get beat, I want it to be by your worst scorer.... it doesn't always work out that way.... but thats what we attempted to do. Sometimes they surprise you.

Like

I coach Girls High School and I have used
the shell drill for years and its been the best
coaching drill for me. I've used it even with
younger kids to help them understand what
we are trying to tech them. If you feel that its a waste of time then maybe your not spending
enough time on it

Like

Elias -

. "If you feel that its a waste of time then maybe your not spending
enough time on it"

I might add this too.... or you are not explaining it to them properly.

GOOD TEAMS pressure the ball well.

VERY GOOD TEAMS play good defense ONE pass away

GREAT DEFESIVE TEAMS play GREAT defense 2 passes away. JMO

Like

we have implemented shell drill to our practices and it has improved our man to man defense .It has also help players with weak defensive skills and to counter any boredom during the drill we play 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 at the end of the drill. It has always been a staple drill for our team and we play pressure man to man. WE HAVE WON A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP 2012 AND I BELIEVE IT WAS OUR WORK ON DEFENSE AND SHELL DRILL WAS A PART OF IT !!!!!!!!

Like

Best defensive drill we do. We start with no movement, just positioning. Then we move to ball screens on any player and how do we defend with help principles. Then we allow anyone to drive to the basket, making sure we cut off driving lanes. Then we move to running our own plays and how do we stop them. If I blow the whistle everyone must freeze (to fix positioning,or make a coaching point. We call this an "everyday drill". Even if just 5 minutes to review. Do it until it becomes second nature.

Like

Thanks for the video clip of this. I will be incorporating this drill into training next session onwards.

Like

Follow up from previous message.

I started doing this drill at training after my first comment. The first couple sessions I can say comfortably were an unmittigated disaster. However I have kept at it, tinkered a little, and can say after 5 or 6 training sessions, I now have a shell drill that I am really pleased with, and I believe is definitely providing results.

Funnily enough, its actually proving to be an excellent teaching aide for attacking also, moving the ball around the 3 point line, and teaching players to cut and move together as a unit, rather than just having them stand like bottles. Also very good for encouraging talking.

ps. Prior season - team was in Div 4 (lowest out of 4), this season top of Div 3 (of 5) and moving into Div 2 next season. Enjoying the improvements. Thanks.

Like

Something else that is missing here in the progression. Getting into your shell in transition. Any RUSH drill works great. We also use it to help explain our full court m2m positioning/principles. Another good half court drill we use is the CHANGE drill.

Like

Glad to hear about your success, David! Thanks for the update.

PK, I agree. You definitely need to work on transition. Coach Huber covers that as one of his progressions in his video.

Like

I love this defense. I still use it when I play. The deny and skip work great. I am able to keep an eye on my man and know where the ball is.

I plan on using man to man defense with my youth team. Would this defense be too difficult for a group ages 9 & 10?

Like

Rhea -

Everything is relative.... 9&10 year olds vs 9&10 year olds... as long as you work at it, you should be ableto handle it. My last year as a Jr High coach , we scrimmaged a Fr B team and did very well. One of their kids came to me and asked me what defense we were running.... told him m2m with a lot of help on the back side.

He said it was great, we couildn't run any of our stuff. You will be doing those boys a b ig favor playing m2m..... getting them ready to play at the next level. Teach them a lot of fundamentals and let them have some fun.

Good luck

Like

I agree with Coach Stew. Early, he had teh defender on the right wing facing the baseline, back mostly to the ball instead of opening up , dropping back and being in a good position to help on the drive. I love the drill, not sure I agree with the basics he is teaching out of it.

Like

Jeff says: 11/20/2015 at 2:52:10 PM Coach - Thanks for the comments. I'm trying to figure out which part you're questioning. Is it at the 45 second point in the video when the defender is one pass away denying with the hand in the passing lane? If so, even though the player was relaxed at that point, not really in a defensive stance, he was generally speaking in a good 1-pass away denial position. If that's the style you want to play, which many coaches do. He should be able to see both his man and the ball. I have taught this way and have had a lot of success. If you drill it, players can both deny the pass and seal seams to help. The other style is to use an open stance when one pass away and sag a little more in help position... more of a packline type of defense. Coach Huber covers that method in a different part of the DVD. Ultimately it's up to the coach on what method to use... personal preference type of thing but they both work. Is that what you were referencing or am I way off on that? Thanks. Like     login   register

My position is to have the defensive player moving his feet with every movement of the ball or the player he is guarding. All players defend the basket and any movement to gain position by offensive team. Teach happy feet, always moving, knees bent ready to move or jump. The shell teaches the defender to deny any movement the offense wants to do. Also nobody but you and your teammates access to the basket. I teach aggressive action all the time. I coached a 7th boys travel team for my sons middle school and practiced the shell for 45 minutes at each practice. They beat 80 % of the teams they played and were smaller and not as talented. Now as soph in high school they have only lost one game since the 7th grade season. It works

Like

Curious about defending the slot to slot pass in the shell drill. Let's assume we're doing a 4 on 4 shell drill and the offensive is set up in a 4 out. (guys in both slots and wing areas).

The player in one of the slots has the ball. I believe in the Huber DVD the player guarding the other slot player was actually sagged into the lane and his hand wasn't on the line of the ball. What would be the reasoning for not denying the slot to slot pass or would you?

Like

Coach says: 6/9/2019 at 5:43:25 PM Still haven't come across a good answer for this. We play a little of both ways one pass away (deny and gap) and have just told my guys to go to an open stance across the top (slot to slot) because I wanted to help avoid penetration down the middle of the floor but I can also see the argument for getting the ball on one side of the floor and keeping it there. Curious on your general philosophy on trying to pin the ball to one side or hang back and plug up the middle on a slot to slot pass. Like     login   register