M2M Videos

Hey Guys,

Do you have any recommendations on videos that help explain the defensive drills in your Man to Man Defense and the 67 Defensive Basketball Drills e-books? I used the books last year and struggled mainly because I learn better when I can see it first and then look at the drill on paper. This also means the girls struggled because of coach....Since I am vertically challenged I did not play beyond rec growing up, so being able to see what right looks like will be a big help to me. This will be my 4th year coaching and 2nd year as the Middle School head coach.

Thanks for all the advice you guys provide on this site.

Dave

Dave -

I personally have not seen this DVD or the info that goes with it, but I do know Don Kelbick and I have seen him in action at clinics. He pays close attention to details so I would think that this DVD would help you a lot.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/mandefense.html?id=1

I used to tell my Varsity boys this... "take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

Jeff & Joe might be able to give you some advice regarding this also. I know them personally and they are stand up guys and very knowledgeable.

Coach Sar,

The link took me back the M2M and Drill e-books that I already have.

Dave

Sorry about that Dave - I thought there was a DVD that went with that....

Dave -

I think you would like Dick Bennetts Pack Line Defnse (m2m) The only one I could find was his Pressure D and I think more coaches are going to the pack style.

I found this from a different coach who coached at Wisconsin... Brad Soderberg, he has a DVD for the Pack Line....

http://www.syskos.com/product/1399/mantomandefense

Let me know if htis helps you.

I haven't seen the Soderberg DVD so I can't comment on that. The best M2M DVD I have seen is still the one that Dick Bennett made about 15 or more years ago. I always fall asleep part way through it, but technically speaking it has the best stuff I have seen. We have a couple defense DVDs in production that I know will be really good. But it will be at least 2-6 months before they are released.

Bennets stuff is great but isn't that On the Line / Up the Line Pressure rather than Pack?

We ran that and were very happy with what it did for us, but we also had a match up zone to go along with it... so we could keep them off balance. Would you reccomend that for Middle School kids Jeff?

Not knowing what his talent level is, I'm not sure I would. JMO

Fortunately, I am in the spring time review mode and will not start real practices until October. We will do skill sessions later this summer, so I have time to wait on any DVD’s you guy’s produce. I use a lot of your stuff so I know it will be worth the wait. In the mean time I will re-read the M2M book from you guys.

The girls are not very experienced, but they want to be there so that helps a lot. I just want to teach then correctly

Thanks
Dave

In the meantime why don't you take a look at this page -

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/man.html#defensedrills

Hope this helps.

By the way, before you buy a DVD, think about your talent level and what style of m2m they can play, PRESSURE (On the line / Up the line) or Pack style... then get the DVD that fits your needs.

And you are right, anything that you get from Breakthrough Basketball will be a good product.

Coach Sar,

I am not ashamed to admit that I had to go back and look at the difference between Pressure and Wolf Pack. I read the book last year, but did not quite "get it." Based on the competition we will see I am probably going with a Wolf Pack style defense. I am fine with giving up the perimeter passes since this is middle school and the competition's shot threat from the perimeter is very low.

Most of our competition has one or two good ball handlers/shooters so the key will be to keeping them and the ball out without giving up the penetration pass.

I hope I understood the concept correctly

Thanks
Dave

Dave -

Sounds like you understand it very well. You see a lot of teams going to the Pack style because of the ability of some guards to break the defense down and allowing passes inside.

IF I were in your position I would use the Packl also.... force them to beat you with outside shots.

My teams ran on/up the line pressure defense along with the 1-3-1 match up... giving us the best of both worlds. I had a saying.... "we would pick our own poison" -- meaning that we would decide who we would want to shoot the ball and who we would put a lot of pressure on. Most kids in your age group do NOT shoot the ball well off the dribble, even at the high school level there weren't many that would hurt you that way. JMO