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PostPosted: 20 Nov 2016, 16:22 

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I'm in the second year of coaching my 10 y/o sons 10U team. We are a home school team that plays against private Christian schools and other home school teams, so we don't have an organized league w/ rules. That means we are pretty much the only team that runs M2M. Early on the M2M is a struggle because they don't know how to help, but that improves as the season goes along. After 5 games it's already getting better. What's not improving is the players picking up their man or even knowing who they are guarding half the time. We are losing games we should be winning because we give up too many easy baskets to wide open players. I know my focus needs to be more on player development rather than W-L. Believe me it is, otherwise we'd be playing zone like everyone else. But the players know we are 1-5 and are starting to get discouraged.

Our philosophy thus far has been for the defender who is defending the ball handler to pick his man up at half court. Everyone else is supposed to sprint back to the paint, turn and find their man, then call out the number of the player they are guarding. I help get them organized any time I see substitutions or there is a dead ball. Perhaps thats too much hand holding and I just need to let them figure it out. We do several help defense drills that have improved that aspect, but I need some drills to help the players locate who they are supposed to be guarding.

Thanks for the help.


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PostPosted: 21 Nov 2016, 09:24 
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This is something you just have to emphasize constantly in practice and games. It gets better with experience. Hold them accountable as often as you can.

Every full court drill you do is a transition defense drill. We make sure kids communicate and point every time down the court. Get the ball stopped early and take away threats.

Also, in our shell drill we work on this. We put defenders on baseline. Then I bounce the ball off the floor to an offensive player. Defense closes out and runs shell drill.

On every reset, players are back to baseline. I often say... "you have to guard someone different" and bounce the ball. It creates some chaos. You always end up without the ball unguarded at some point. Get on them... you have to stop the ball. #1 priority. This really helps with communication and transition defense... even though it's juts half court.

Again we emphasize every second possible because it's a tough thing for kids to pick up.

Also, a couple other ideas here.
https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/get-players-sprinting.html

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PostPosted: 21 Nov 2016, 11:30 

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We go with the first two players closest to the opposite end sprinting back calling "high" and "low". If player #1 is further back, he calls "I've got low!", the other player takes high. By low we mean player #1 is getting to the FT line, player #2 is top of key. The object is to stop ball, period. It doesn't mean the other players aren't sprinting back also, it just means those two players happen to be the first two headed back down the court. You can use a shell drill on this. Getting back is a big chunk of this, but your players must understand that "stop ball" is the objective here, even if that's not your guy.

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PostPosted: 21 Nov 2016, 14:32 

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I noticed you said, "everyone else sprints back to the paint". The reason we have one person at the top of the key and one at the FT line is to prevent the offense from getting in the paint. In theory, the player at the top of the key should pick up anyone trying to dribble past, the FT player is the last resort and must keep them out of the paint.

Another shell drill is using a 3 on 2 half court situation. Let the 3 bring it down on offense, have one D at top of key and the other one at FT line. The two on D must do whatever it takes to stop ball and definitely keep the ball out of the paint.

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PostPosted: 15 Mar 2017, 19:35 

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In my second year with 4th graders. I still have to emphasize this from time to time. Usually it isn't all the boys, but someone blows an assignment and it messes everyone else up.

Case in point: I was at a local high school regional final in front of a sellout crowd of 7500 people. At one point, an 18 year old kid(likely JUCO/D2 level player) checked in, didn't know who he was guarding and his team gave up an easy layup.

M2M is hard and requires constant reinforcement. Also, try to empower the kids to communicate with each other. If they own it, the leaders will make sure it gets done. But M2M is hard. There is a reason why many results oriented folks just play zones and traps.

But solid M2M wins the long game, hands down. Good luck.


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