Coach you have to convince them that defensively, all you want to do is to deflect the ball with their near hand. It is not about making a steal and getting out of position on D!! They should have their near hand in the passing lane. Defense is moving your feet.... And Shuffling.... NOT lunging and getting out of position. You might want to run a breakdown drill just for this. If you need more information just ask me I will be glad to help you.

This is one of the reasons I switched to a sagging M2M defense; I was tired of giving up easy lay-ups. Still a work in process, but we've been able to force a lot more outside shots.

It's tough to break that lunging/wanting to steal the ball habit. You don't get high fives and cheers from the crowd if you keep your guy out of the paint by beating him to the spot. Sound fundamental defense is hard work and not very exciting at times.

A few thoughts:

1) We tape a lot of our games, then throw it up on google or youtube. You'd be amazed how much is in a 30 min video. If you have someone on your team that can video tape/upload to a site, maybe having some pizza and reviewing a game one night will help your kids "see the light".

2) Have someone on your team track the points given up by attempted steals or just plain letting someone by their man. I've laid out the facts for my "stealers" that one steal for 2 pts doesn't work if they give up 10pts from being out of position.

3) Pick your poison on defense. Kids only can handle two (maybe three) points of emphasis while in a game. We choose "make your man give up the ball" by beating him to the spot (anticipate) and everyone blocks out. I make a huge deal out of a player who can keep their man out of the paint by using quick feet and their body (no hands).

4) We modify the 1 v 1 roll the ball out drill. The whole emphasis is keeping the guy out of the paint. You're still allowing shots and rebounds, but really stressing the importance of good defensive posture, quick movement and beating the dribbler to the spot.

5) Mirror drill. Two guys face each other along the half court line. Let them run from center court to sideline. One offense, one defense. Defense has to keep up with offensive player, O player can stop, stutter, change direction.

6) Out of all of them I'd say teaching "one big step" is one of the most important. Getting your players used to taking one big step in the direction of the dribble. From watching tons of footage, we'd see that our players were not taking an initial big enough step to cut off the dribbler. They would be standing up too straight or just not pushing off strong enough which resulted in the dribbler gaining the advantage. Our players would stick out a hand or hip and get the block call.

We use a simple progression drill with cones around the perimeter spaced enough for a big step. The idea is for the player to end up with the cone in the center of their body (simulating the dribbler) by taking one big step . We emphasize a low well-balanced defensive stance and pushing off with the proper foot. You control when they take the step by yelling "dribble left or dribble right".

Once each player has gone through the cones, we'll add a dribbler at the top of the key and put two cones behind and off to either side of the defender. The dribbler gets two dribbles to make it to one of the cones. The defender has to anticipate and beat the dribbler using their body to prevent them from getting to the cone. The goal is to stay as the King of the Cones, the more stops you make; you stay in as the king. We’ll add more cones and another player on each team (2 v 2). Btw, the cones aren't very deep in, we're trying to get the kids to see it only takes one step to get beat or stop someone.

Hope this helps!

Good points Rob ..... here is a thouight for you... when you run the man maker drill... give them points for the number of DEFLECTIONS - Remind them that they are too play the passing lanes and IF they deflect the ball it should/could go to another player or themselves for the steal.... the idea of ON/UP the line is to push the offense out further than they are comfortable with OR where they practice initiating their offense.

There are two goals for running the man maker drill....
1- First and formost.... MAKE THE OFFENSIVE PLAYERS STRONGER WITH THE BALL

2- Teach the defensive players how to play the passing lanes, utiilizing the correct hand (near hand) to dflect the ball WITHOUT taking themselves out of position.

Hope this helps too.

Thanks guys both good suggestions. I think making it points for deflections and maybe i will take points away for unnecessary lunges. And I like the emphasis being to just keep your player out of the paint-I'll try more mirror drills. It just reminds me how of how easy it was to coach when I had teams with good basketball IQ-we're always tempted to think we are great coaches with talented teams but of course the real coaching starts not with a talented team but with one with less basketball experience/IQ.

Why not try this.... every time they lunge, make them do 1 or 2 push ups.... just a gentle reminder? :-)

A less talented team is w here you earn the big bucks.LOL

Like I said with the water story, keep them loose ....... and don't forget, GREAT shooters makes us GREAT coaches.