I've been reading the forum a lot this weekend and I have a few questions.

#1 Why are some user names black and some green? I think I've figured out that admin user names are red, but what about green and black?

#2 What is a shell drill?

#3 For Coach Sar. Can you explain what "M2M on the line/up the line" means? I think I know, but I want to be sure.

To me, the shell drill is the most important defensive drill that you can teach your players... I always say that the GOOD defensive teams play good on the ball defense... the BETTER defensive teams play really good defense one pass away - The GREAT DEFENSIVE teams play GREAT defense TWO passes away.

A SHELL drill teaches your players how to see man and ball at all times... how to jump to the help line (depending on the coach... the help line can be either one or both feet in the paint with your butt to the baseline ) and to always be ready to help to stop the ball - puts you in good rebounding position too. I couldn't find the drill on this site but I found it on a site where I have some stuff ......Coaches Clipboard
(sorry Jeff and Joe - I always hate doing this)

Take a look at this.... it explains it well. Go to Coaches Clipboard and click on DEFENSE on the left side and then SHELL DRILL. If you have any problems with this let me know....

Basketball Drill - Defense Shell Drill, Coach's Clipboard Playbook

Principles of Man to Man Defense

1. Keep the ball-handler out of the middle of the floor.

2. Always have vision of both your man and the ball.

3. When defending 1 pass away, deny your man in an “on the line, up the line” position.

4. When defending 2 or more passes away, position yourself in the middle of the lane in “pistols” position, pointing to both the ball and your man. You should be be one or two steps back from being in on-the-line, up-the-line position, so that you hasve vision of both the ball and man inside of your peripheral vision. At the same time, the head should be “on a swivel”, scanning back and forth between the ball and the man so that you will be ready to make adjustments.

5. Close out on all shooters a hand up on the ball.

6. “Line of the Ball” – discuss the option of denying reversal and using line of ball in backcourt.

7. Be the Aggressor. Force the offense to react.

8. Jump to the ball. When the offense makes a pass, adjust defensive positioning as the ball is in the air, not after the pass has been completed. Be quick!

9. Help early! If you need to help on the drive, do it early, putting your feet and shoulders directly in the ball handler’s path.

10. When you help, be prepared to recover to your man on a pass.

11. When your man cuts to the ball, position yourself between your man and the ball in denial position

12. Box out! If your man is 2 or more passes away from the ball, leave the key to box out.

13. If you get beat back door, open up to the ball, temporarily losing sight of your man.

14. Keep the ball out of the paint!

15. Hands up – ball and passing lane – palms up in backcourt

16. Establish a help side. By getting the ball out of the middle of the floor, the on-ball defense can play more aggressively, with the knowledge that help defenders are waiting in the event that they get beat off the dribble.

Here's the clickable link to the shell drill Coach Sars pointed out:
http://www.coachesclipboard.net/DefenseShellDrill.html

It's a good explanation of a basic shell drill. If you'd like more details about running shell drill and step by step explanation of how to build a man to man defense, you might want to consider this resource (there are reviews at the bottom of the page):
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/mandefense.html

I didn't even realize the names had different colors until you pointed it out. It appears that red users have admin privileges, green has moderator privileges and/or submitted a certain numbers of posts, and black is a standard user.

Thanks Jeff... my color should be GOLD LOL (or flashing neon)

To try and explain on the line / up the line m2m defense - this D was masterminded by Dick Bennet from the U of Wisconsin if my memory serves me right.... it is a whole system of playing man D!

I will try to give you a brief overview here.....

1- Pressure the ball and force sideline ( we were getting beat too many times because we were opened up to much so we gave them a frame of reference.... force to the sideline / free throw line extended.
2- Deny and try to deflect the next pass away by being up the line and on the line...... UP the line means that defender on the first pass away is off his man and more towards the ball.... helps the on the ball defender by preventing splits.... ON the line means that he can deflect that pass and possibly steal it... we looked to deflect as many passes as possible to disrupt the flow of their offense - so if you can picture 2 offensive players... one at the point and the other on the wing...the wing defender being maybe splitting the difference between them... IF you rolled a ball between the two offensive players THAT would be the LINE.
3- IF the Wing got the ball, we would then force him baseline without getting beat - which happens at times... so we came up with a frame of reference their too... which was the short corner.... 8-10 feet from the basket on the baseline.... thats where we tried to force the ball.

4- We DEAD FRONTED the post because we didn't want to put all that pressure on the ball and then allow them to just dump it into the post

5- Of course then the HELP SIDE part of the defense became very important because with the type of pressure you will get beat at times... so your help D HAS to be there.

If you do a search on line for Dick Bennets on the line up the line defense you should find it...... let me add this.... IF you have some quick kids or kids that are basketball intelligent... this is a great D........ your kids have to buy into this.... ours did... we weren't perfect by any means but we played this pretty well....

A lot of teams are playing more of a PACK STYLE man D today because of the athleticism of the players.... their quickness is amazing...... we also played a match up which gave us the best of both worlds.... pressure and / or pack. I would NOT recommend you playing ANY ZONE at this age..... you will be doing them a bigger favor by teaching man D.

NOW, with all this being said.... remember at this age - the #! GOAL is to make sure that they are having FUN.

Thanks for the links Jeff.

Coach Sar, that's exactly what I thought on the line/up the line meant. I guess I played on the line in a denial position, but we never played up the line. We always stayed in contact with our man.

In your example of a line between the point and the wing, how far would the wing defender be from the wing if he was up the line? Would he be half-way between them? Two steps up the line? How do you determine how far up the line you should be? What if the wing goes backdoor?

I think how far UP the line depends on the coach... we were almost 1/2 way up, we were geared to stop penetration. As for back door cuts... first of all, just teach your kids to swing their head and change denial hands.... and thats the reason we DEAD FRONTED the post..... that defender is supposed to be reading that pass... and pick it off.... We wanted them to back door... we wanted that steal. Write it down on paper and you will see that IF and WHEN you are playing this properly... you can put a lot of pressure on the offensive players.

By the way..... IF the ball is at the point... he had the post defender UP the line also... amazing how open that post player looks and they throw the ball right into his hands.... as the ball gets to the wing the post defender steps in front of the post player.

Very interesting. I've never seen M2M played this way, but I can see how it forces the offense to make difficult plays. How much success did you have with it?

Coach Biggs,

Coach Sar knows how valuable the defensive shell is to a coach during practice. It is a drill that should be used at the youth level in a very basic form and it is a drill to be used at the high school and college levels as you customize and intensify it to meet the needs of your team.

Just wish I knew where they came up with the name "Shell" drill? Coach Sar? I guess moving walnut shells on a table during a magic trick (rotating players)...dunno...

anyway...

I coach 8th grade girls so I start with a basic 4 vs 4 set up then work my way to 5 vs 5 spread. With 5v5 I'll space them apart with a point at top, 2 wings and 2 forwards in short corners. I start simple by having the offense just pass the ball around and watch the defense react. No driving or shooting at this time. Each defensive player should be in one of three defensive modes, 1) On-ball 2) Denial 3) Help
As the ball is moved the defenders react. If your man has ball then you would be On-ball defense. If your man is one pass away you would be Denial defense. If your man is 2 passes away you step one foot into key and you are now in Help defense.

As Coach Sar states, always seeing man and always seeing ball. This statement can NOT be over-emphasized!!

Make sure you switch teams so offense also plays defense.

As you progress with the Shell Drill you can add simulations. Simulate a blow-by move where a defender gets beat and show how a nearby defender helps while other defenders rotate and fill.
Then add shots focusing on help defense and also boxing out.
Move your bigs inside to work on post defense.
Show your young players what happens when you turn your back to the ball.

Best of Luck

Coach A


As a moderator I requested my color to be "clear" but I was denied by Jeff and Joe....JK!!!