M2M Defense - Some weaknesses for my team

First off, I apologize that this post is going ot ramble on a bit, but I figure the more info I give, the better the advice Ican receive.

I finally agreed to step up and be a head coach for my 3rd grade son's team this year. It is a mix of 2nd and 3rd graders (7-9 year olds) with varying experience levels. I have 3 kids that have never played basketball before, at least not organized, and 3-4 boys that have played for several years and are pretty good for this age range, with another 2 that played last year but that may be the limit of their experience, for a total of 9 players on the team. 3 of the boys were on the team that I assisted for last year.

I am committed to going man to man (using more of a sagging man to man to protect the middle a bit more), even though the league allows zone (what's frustrating is that as the age divisions get older, they require man to man for at least half of the game, but not in the youngest age group). Last year our head coach had us doing a 2-2-1 trapping zone which was very effective, but didn't really teach the kids defense. While I know this would be very effective with the squad I have this year, I am going to stay with man to man.

We've had 4 practices so far, but with the overlap of other sports, last night was the first time I've had my whole team at the same practice. I've done a number of the shell drills, have tried to teach them "pistols" to keep track of the ball and their man and tape off an area under the basket (about 7 foot diameter or so) that we call the "danger zone" and swarm to if the offense gets the ball there, but in our 3 on 3 drills and our full court scrimmage last night, some of the kids were so focused on watching the ball that their man was left completely unguarded under the basket. Even after pausing the scrimmage to explain to them the importance of knowing where their man was, it was repeated over and over again. For a couple of the kids, they would see a kid with the ball and try to take it and trap, for others, it was just simply losing their man and just essentially standing around lost on the court. This was mostly with my inexperienced kids, so I know repetition is the key here for them to "get it".

Are there any drills that I can work on to really stress how to keep focus on your man and not run after the ball wherever it is on the court when it isn't your man with the ball? During the shell drill, I really stress sinking to the middle when on help side with pistols out, and when doing that in a more structured manner, they are able to do it. Perhaps I need to add in more cutters during the drill rather than focusing primarily on their rotations.

In addition to the help side defense, any thoughts on drills that the kids can do at home if they don't have a hoop? I've encouraged them to spend a lot of time working on dribbling and have tried to get them to see the importance of proper shooting form, explaining that they don;t need a hoop to work on form. Are there any other drills I can encourage them to do or that I can email to the parents so they can encourage their kids to work on their skills outside of practice?


Again, sorry so long, just really enjoying head coaching, but with only one week to go until the first games I'm hoping to come up with some ways to help address the main weakness I'm seeing out there.

Help side defense is tough for younger kids, breaking it down to more of a one on one type thing helped us out in the younger days.

Might be a bit sophisticated, but I use this drill a lot in practice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7q3knM4zug

Another one we use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqgJuX5l-wg

I also instituted a "I see it" drill that happened anytime during practice. Used 1/2 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" paper and wrote in big letters "I SEE IT". Gave a few to my assistant and I had some stuffed away. During a water break or even a drill, one of us would hold up a paper and see which kids would see it. Winner would have to arrive at coach first. We wrote the names of the kids who got it first on the sheets and the overall winner received a candy bar or pack of gum. Afterwards we used it as a brief teaching moment for things like seeing your man and the ball, loose balls, seeing the open man, etc. Sometimes, I'd even bring some to games and throw one up before warm-ups or after the game. Seems goofy, but they sure paid attention.

With regards to drills kids can do at home, any kind of ball handling drills: around the waste, around the head, around one leg, two legs, figure eights. Any kind of dribbling drills in driveway, working on the weak hand. Two ball dribbling drills. Hold ball behind neck, let go and catch behind back. Add claps before catching it. Assign homework, maybe two drills for 10 min every day. Then run that drill first thing in practice to see who's been practicing.

You'll find some parents just won't be into the homework side of things. They won't see this whole basketball thing through the eyes of a coach. Something to keep in mind as you go along.

I know it is tough teaching defense to young kids. I'm currently coaching my daughters 3rd grade team. So I know what you're going through.

There are a wide range of skills, experiences, and attention spans. Some players get it pretty quick and others can't figure out if they're on offense or defense.

You are doing the right thing by teaching M2M. Doing a 2-2-1 is like taking calculus before you learn to add. You are skipping a whole bunch of fundamental steps.

We are doing 3on3 only. We do some 4on4 shell and at some point will probably play 4on4/5on5. But so far it's 3on3 only, so I'm only speaking from that experience.

We play a lot of full court 1on1. That's great for ballhandling skills and learning on ball defense.

We do the mirror drill on occasion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZXmTLUwTDM

Beyond on ball defense, I am only focusing on the following:

- unless you're guarding the ball, get half way between your girl and the ball. Constantly saying, are you half way between your girl and the ball?

- see your girl and the ball. Can you see the both?

- keep the ball out of the paint

- pressure the ball. grab the ball if it's in front of you

- hands up on shots

That's about it. Constantly harping on those things and trying to get them to do those things. When they "help" and stop the ball... it's lots of high 5s and praise!!

We teach those things during scrimmage, when teach offense, 3on3 half court, 4on4 shell drill, etc.

We have also done 1 pass away drill a few times. Not sure if you're familiar with that? Its in one of our ebooks if you have that.

For shell drill, we actually taught the offense first. And we use it as a combo drill (passing, triple threat, and defense). Start 4 on 0 so offense learns to pass on command (pass or skip or drive). Then add the defense. Enforce good passes by the offense and facing basket in triple threat. Coach just calls out.. pass, skip, or drive. We use all overhead passes.

The defense just takes lots of repetition and the coach correcting a few thousand times before they get it. And you just come up with different ways to teach the same thing. We play lots of half court 3on3. Sometimes we play the first to score wins and rotate a new group. Winner stays. Our defense improves a lot during half court 3on3. If you need standard 3on3 rules, let me know.

For practicing at home, I have a couple emails I have sent to parents. Contact me (attn: Jeff) and I'll forward them to you.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/contact-us.asp

Thanks for the replies guys, very helpful. I'll start instituting a few of those drills into my practice plan this week. First game is in a week, so time for the kids to get the crash course in man to man defense.

I'm really trying to come up with ways to motivate the kids to be defensive minded, especially those that have not played before. I want them to see that they can be strong contributors t the team by playing strong defense and rebounding, and not to be focused on whether or not they score. One of the 3 kids that is very new to the game will be fine with this, as he is naturally a defensive player (I've coached him in flag football and soccer), the other two may take a bit more encouragement from me and I have to make a definite effort to show them that I really do mean it when I tell them that I don't care if they make or miss their shot, so long as they use good form (as good as they have as it is something we are working on).

Thanks again

Andy -

Maybe you can come up with some goals for them? Anything that would get them motivated to play tough D!

I was always defensive minded and one year I got an assistant that was like me.... keep them from scoring. So, between the two of us everyone knew they wouldn't get any looks. Several teams would say stuff to our kids like...
" What;s with this 32 minute goal line defense you guys play? "

That became our goal. Make sure your kids are having FUN and they will do what you ask of them.

Come up with some competitive drills that emphasize defense. We played 4 v 4, two teams competing against each other with only points for the defense. In other words, the only way to get points was on defense. In order for the offense to get on defense, they had to score or get an offensive rebound after a shot. You could add if the offense completes X amount of passes, they can get on defense. The defense receives 2 points for every steal, 2 points for loose balls and 3 points for every rebound. The defense stays on defense by doing one of those 3 items. We added a full court piece when the kids got older and gave 5 points for a defense that could run a fast break and make the lay-up. We'd go to 10. Losers have consequences (3 push-ups barking like dogs).

For the more developing players, maybe go more 3 v 3 so they can't hide. It will force them to get more aggressive and do their part on defense.

Whatever the concept is I'm trying to emphasize, it helps if I reward it through a competitive drill. If my kids weren't passing enough, we modify a shell drill and give points for passes.

First of all, thank you all for the advice, and thank you Jeff for the e-mails. It's been raining here today so I had to cancel our practice that is scheduled for this evening... bummed as it is our last one before our first game this Sunday. I've also cancelled our practices next week so the kids can enjoy their Thanksgiving week and the parents don;t have to worry about getting them to practice, so I will be sending out some "homework" this weekend.


Last night we scrimmaged another team for about 45 minutes of our practice. On the plus side, our defense was better than I expected it to be. To be fair, the other team did not have any real strong ball handlers, so I think it was a little easier than it will be most of the time for my kids to get steals. Our help side defense was a little weak (kids not remembering to drop into help position, but on the plus side, they hardly ever lost their man and looked completely lost out there). The kids that have played for a few seasons were good about jumping the passing lanes and getting steals, while my newer players were mush less aggressive (which I am okay with right now) but were not getting beat regularly. Definitely some work to be done as we are one of the few teams doing man to man (in fact, the team we scrimmaged last night may well be the only other team that will be doing 100% man to man defense).

Offensively was interesting. Well, it was what I expected, as I have spent about a whopping 15 minutes explaining the whole idea of the pass and cut motion. We've only had two and a half weeks with the teams, getting maybe 3 hours of total practice time per week, so working on the fundamentals of dribbling, passing and layups (as well as a lot of time on defense) have been the priority. I have done a lot of drills of passing and cutting to the hoop (both point to wing pass and wing to point pass), but once the scrimmage started, that went out the window. Because the other team was in man to man we did spread them out (when the kids remembered where to go to start the motion offense), but I have 3 ball handlers that were basically having their way with the defense and were making 1-2 dribble moves and were past their defender, so we did not get many pass and cut chances in the "live" setting.

One thing that I need to work on, mainly with the newer kids, though all of them could use the reminders, is that they need to catch the ball, look at the basket and see what is going on and then make a decision. I have a few kids that catch the ball and immediately turn their back to the defender and start dribbling in place. Any thoughts on drills or ways to better communicate that I want them to catch the ball, face up and look at what is happening? I've tried telling them repeatedly that the last thing we want to do is just dribble in place.. if we dribble, we are dribbling with a purpose which means either bringing the ball up the court or dribbling to attack the basket. Perhaps I am not explaining it clearly. Maybe I can do something where I have them pair up and make a pass, catch, square up then pivot back and pass to their partner who does the same thing, and just do that for a few minutes each practice so they get the idea of catching and looking.

Sunday will be interesting - that team has two good ballhandlers (one of whom is a decent shooter for a 3rd grader) plus another mid range shooter, and they will be running mostly a 2-3 zone against us. But, we have 9 players on our roster while most teams have 8, so I will have to sit my players more than they do (league rules state that for the first 4 quarters, everyone must play one quarter in the first half and one in the 2nd half and no one can sit twice before everyone has sat once, and we play a 5th quarter that is open substitution).

It sounds like you are doing a good job with them.... remember their age, they are young and it will take some time for them to become comfortable and be able to handle the ball better..

If you run a shell drill try this.... after every pass, the person that catches the pass must go into a triple threat, pass fake and shot fake before they can pass the ball..... this will help them in games - hopefully they wont panic so much. This will also give you a chance to correct the positioning your players on defense... on the ball, one pass away and HELP DEFENSE.

Remenber, this is a journey and not a destination, especially with this age group.

Coach Sar wrote:If you run a shell drill try this.... after every pass, the person that catches the pass must go into a triple threat, pass fake and shot fake before they can pass the ball...

Great advice. I would add that if your league allows steals, you will need to teach them to protect the ball when in triple threat. Turning and facing the basket is a great fundamental to start teaching. They won't always remember and it will be a slow process.

Coach Sar wrote:Remember, this is a journey and not a destination, especially with this age group.

More great advice. You'll have to find that balance between being a passionate coach who wants to see the kids put all the pieces together and realizing these are 3rd graders. It's tough, especially with kids who've never played much before.

My advice as you go through this season is to focus on a few fundamentals and really get excited when you see that on the court. Maybe it's getting in triple threat and making good cuts on offense. On defense it could be blocking out and good help defense. I remember Coach Mac coming on here and smacking me around because I was complaining about a decision I'd made to play up a level (I think we were 7th or 8th graders). We were getting killed by the other team's full court presses. He reminded me why I made the decision, Coach Sar chimed in with some sage advice about breaking presses and from then on, my whole goal that season was to figure out how to break presses. We ended up 2-6, and a few games were blow outs, but by the end of that season, we could break a press like nobody's business. We actually did ok in the end of season tourney too.

Basketball in itself is a highly dynamic game that requires a player to do a lot of things at once. Throw in parents yelling, coaches yelling, kids yelling at each other, and refs blowing whistles. That's a lot for a little guy to handle who's never played much basketball.

Enjoy the updates.

Ahhh, good old 3rd grade. Good luck. I would temper my expectations otherwise the frustration will get to you. If you can keep them from picking their noses, consider It a success. :)

As for defense, wait until they see the speed of the real game. They will be lost. They will probably turn and chase. You just need to keep reminding them what you want -- how to position, help side, pistols, etc. Come up with some simple phrases to describe what you want -- I used defend "inside out." And be prepared, they will not defend an unguarded man with the ball but will follow "their man" wherever he goes.

Offensively, you need to come up with key reminders/phrases to drill into their heads. I like "if we pass, we score." As for the kids who go head down and dribble immediately, I used to reinforce using the term "LOOK!" Every time they caught the ball, what where they supposed to do? LOOK! This still remains a problem for some kids in 8th grade.

Make sure you have a fridge full of beer for Sunday night. You're going to need it. Just remember to have some fun. Good luck.

Thanks for the extra input guys. Good news is I am naturally pretty laid back, so am approaching the season as a learning tool for the kids, with less emphasis on winning (emphasis on being competitive and hustling).

Another long post follows.. my apologies but it is slow at work this week so I have time to put my thoughts down.

Had our first game Sunday afternoon. Since I assisted with a team last year when my son was in second grade, I knew what to expect, especially for the first game, but was very pleasantly surprised by how the team performed.

The games start with each player shooting a free throw... one point per make that count to our score. In warmups, we were nailing 6-7 out of 9, only make 2 to start the game. Other team made 4, so we are starting in a 4-2 hole, which I actually liked to teach the kids the importance of why we are practicing free throws every practice.

I think I mentioned it previously, but we play five 8 minute periods, with running clock. Each kid must play one period in the first half and one of the third/fourth periods. The 5th period is open substitution. No subs allowed during the first 4 periods except for injury or a foul out. My approach is to set as balanced a lineup as possible for the first 4 periods (If all 9 of my kids show up, 2 will play 3 of the first 4 periods) and get everyone some time in the 5th period. The way the league is structured is we play 8 regular season games, which are used to seed an end of season tournament which determines the final standings, thus there is no need to "play to win at all costs" in these regular season games.

Pros from the game -
5 different players scored for us - one was the pregame free throw. One kid made his first ever basket for this league, after never scoring all of last season (very exciting). Our scoring was pretty blanaced across the other 3 kids that scored. From what I heard, most other teams, not counting pregame free throws, only had 2 or even 3 kids score points... one team had a kid score 21 of the teams 27 points.. I don't know how many of those points came from free throws in pregame, so needless to say it was a one man show.

Even though we have not had time to work on boxing out, we still rebounded fairly well. Some work on boxing out will really help. We are generally a small team, so boxing out and speed are important.

We passed well for a 3rd grade team, and just about everyone got an offensive touch. I tried to work on pass and cut in practice, but as we were up against a 2-3 zone, a dribble drive and dish was working really well. But, I had very few trips down the court where my player just took it all the way in and put up a shot without making a pass. Very happy with that.

Since I preach defense in practice, I loved that I had a couple kids begging to let them guard the other teams best 2 players. I loved that desire to challenge themselves. Overall, we did a good job. We rarely made it easy for them to get close to the basket to get really easy shots. While I can't say it is a real indicator of our defense with a 1 game sample size, but we did give up the least points of any team in our division this weekend. This is something I will be praising the kids for. I may reward them with ice cream at practice and let them know that every week we are the top defense, I will bring ice cream (or hot chocolate as it is getting a bit colder). That should be a good motivator to get them to work on defense even harder.


Things to work on
Just like in the scrimmage, had kids forgetting who to guard. I expect that at this age, so it did not bother me. They also said they were bored if the man they were guarding was not too involved in the offense, so they would leave their man and chase the ball, leaving their man wide open. We gave up a few open passes to the post because of this.

Helpside positioning - I think repetition in practice is key. Shell drill for the defense. I have two kids that have only made one practice due to soccer commitments, so I expected this a bit from them, but had a few other kids getting lost as well.

Defensive stance - We weren't getting down in a good stance often (my son was the biggest offender and got beat off the dribble several times). Granted, the court was slick which contributed, but proper stance would help. We'll be doing some extra drills about getting low.

Offensive spacing - I still have some kids that just run to whomever has the ball and calls the kids name. Working on it, and new to work on the idea of rotating after a player makes a pass and cuts. Since we are going to face a lot of 2-3 zones, I like the idea of running a 4 out with 1 in(running short corner to short corner and flashing the middle on a drive) pass/cut style offense. Lack of practice time contributes to this.



Final result is we pulled off a 23-13 win. The other scores were 27-21 and 19-18 (buzzer beating layup to win the game), with one game being rescheduled and one team on bye. Based on last years season, by midseason most teams will be averaging in the mid to upper 20's for points scored.

Here is the best part..... you wrote down all of your problem areas so now you know what to work on in your next practices.... I did that all the time. Be patient.... they are still rug rats just having fun which is a good thing.

With the length of your posts I was going to ask you IF you ever worked LOL Keep up the good work.

1, no comment on if I ever get any work done. LOL.


And I look at each practice as a chance to add a small layer on top of the foundation we've built so far. Taking my game notes and consulting with what my assistant coaches saw to build the plan to add those layers.

Sounds like you have a good plan.... good luck.