3/4th grade Defense

Hello, I stumbled on this site after I offered to help coaching our 3rd/4th grade boys basketball team, and it is a fantastic resource. In our league, we play man to man defense, however, once the ball enters the paint inside the free throw line, the boys are allowed to double team the ball. Does anyone know any drills that would be beneficial in promoting this. This is what usually happens gametime.....our defender gets picked at the top of the key, shooter dribbles in for an easy layup.

Despite working on switching after a pick, the boys just seem confused. I should preface that this team is made up of mostly 3rd graders that have not played before. We have even tried to teach the other defenders to keep an eye on this, and if they seem a shooter with an open path to a layup, to collapse on the paint.....just doesnt seem to be working....Am I expecting too much?? Is there any drill or something to work on at practice to help with this?? Thanks in advance...any input is appreciated.

This is a tough age group... but we had the defender on the player setting the pick to show early and recover to his man.. that will give the defender on the ball room to stay with his man.

As far as the other players... run a shell drill so they know where to be one pass away and two passes away. THIS will give you the early help that you need.

I hope this isn't too advanced for your kids.

Ken

Thanks for the tip, we will try that in practice tomorrow....this age group can be a little trying though at times. They seem to do well in practices, and then fall apart defensively come gametime.

They are young... it will take some time for them to be comfortable with new things... be patient.. encourage them and they will want to please you and they will learn the game faster and have FUN!


Ken

This is a struggle at this age level. I had absolutely no luck last year. I think there is a natural tendancy to defend too close and generally no fouls are called. Plus, you can't talk too much because thier eyes glaze over.

What I am going to try this week is a "positioning drill." Start them out with the ball at the top and the defender defending the wing (one pass away). When the ball is passed to the wing, they need to step up and defend the ball. Go back and fourth a few repititions. Later in the year, I'll add two passes away. We'll see how it goes. Good luck.

Stress to your boys that good M2M defense means the team can not give up any easy uncontested layups. That it is OK to leave their man to stop a drive or prevent a layup. Tell them it's called help defense.
As Coach Ken said, run the shell drill to reinforce:

"on ball" position and stance
denial and
help defense

Essential is "see man, see ball" at all times. Never turn your back to the ball when defending. When not in "on-ball" defense, the defender's head should always be moving back and forth quickly...seeing both their man and ball.

During shell drill, actually have a defender play "dummy defense" and allow his man to drive and then teach the other defenders to help and rotate. At this agegroup, I actually walk thru this in slow motion, so it's not chaotic and they see it happening slowed down, better understanding it.
During the shell drill you can go 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 at first. This way you and your coaches can see what each kid is doing defensively instead of having 10 kids running around.
When a point needs to be made by you or your coaches, yell "FREEZE" and then explain why the defense broke down or if someone did not help.
One last tip, you can also run a defensive shell drill with a few coaches and a couple players on the perimeter passing the ball around. As the ball is moved around, the defending players go from on-ball to denial to help. As a coach or player catches the ball, he holds up a number of fingers which the defending team MUST see and yell out the number. This promotes "see ball, see man". They are guarding their man but also need to see where ball is and yell out the number that the coach is holding up.

Good Luck

Have fun with that age group. I know it's tough, but you are playing such a positive role in their development.

Coach A

dominicd21 wrote:once the ball enters the paint inside the free throw line, the boys are allowed to double team the ball.

Come up with a name for the paint. We call it the blood & guts area and the basket is their castle. They defend the castle at all costs, especially when anyone gets in the blood and guts area.

Already been pointed out, but some type of shell drill with maybe 2 offense, 3 defense. Get excited when someone helps on defense. Stop the practice and make a HUGE deal out of it. Give out a prize at the end of practice for those who helped out.

Having said all that, expecting 3rd graders (age 8?) to be able to track the ball and their man, plus help out is a bit much. I think you'll probably end up with a few kids who get it and the rest will kick in now and then.

Coach Rob is right and made me realize that these are just 8 year old boys learning basketball for the first time. Keep it simple and offer incentives and positive reinforcement for good defense. I probably got way ahead of myself with some of my M2M suggestions.........

Cheers,

Coach A

Thanks for all the replies, they will be very helpful. We had practice yesterday and worked a little on the shell, the boys took to it quite well......unfortunately they are going on x-mas break starting next week, so we wont be having another practice for almost 3 weeks. We'll work on it some more when they get back. I appreciate all the help.

Dom

Coach A wrote:Stress to your boys that good M2M defense means the team can not give up any easy uncontested layups. That it is OK to leave their man to stop a drive or prevent a layup. Tell them it's called help defense.
As Coach Ken said, run the shell drill to reinforce:

"on ball" position and stance
denial and
help defense

Essential is "see man, see ball" at all times. Never turn your back to the ball when defending. When not in "on-ball" defense, the defender's head should always be moving back and forth quickly...seeing both their man and ball.

During shell drill, actually have a defender play "dummy defense" and allow his man to drive and then teach the other defenders to help and rotate. At this agegroup, I actually walk thru this in slow motion, so it's not chaotic and they see it happening slowed down, better understanding it.
During the shell drill you can go 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 at first. This way you and your coaches can see what each kid is doing defensively instead of having 10 kids running around.
When a point needs to be made by you or your coaches, yell "FREEZE" and then explain why the defense broke down or if someone did not help.
One last tip, you can also run a defensive shell drill with a few coaches and a couple players on the perimeter passing the ball around. As the ball is moved around, the defending players go from on-ball to denial to help. As a coach or player catches the ball, he holds up a number of fingers which the defending team MUST see and yell out the number. This promotes "see ball, see man". They are guarding their man but also need to see where ball is and yell out the number that the coach is holding up.

Good Luck

Have fun with that age group. I know it's tough, but you are playing such a positive role in their development.

Coach A

That's great. You can practice it all night on Thursday, only to get the the game Saturday and have the ref say "Now boys, make sure you stick with your man." In 5 seconds a whole night of practice undone. True -- happened to me. :)

For this age group, how do you counter a coach that makes a number of substitutions at the beginning of the quarter to confuse the defenders as to who they should be covering?

We play in a league of 3rd graders that allows any kind of defense to be played (man or zone). Apparently a number of coaches figured out last season they could just make substitutions to dictate mismatches and/or confusion. Being new to the league, we came in with solid man to man fundamentals and by the end of the first half, my kids had no idea who to cover and we routinely found their biggest kids up against my smallest.

Is it just the age group and a poorly constructed league or is there a coaching deficiency here?

GS, sounds like a b.s. league to me. If coaches make substitutions at that age group you should be able to stop and pair everyone up. Plus, Zone at that age is b.s.

Now with that said, I think it is an important part of "basketball intellegence" to focus less on who you are "assigned" to guard and pickup the defense as needed. I've had kids arguing about who they are supposed to guard in the middle of a game letting players zoom by them for easy scores. At some point they just need to step up and play D and switch to the proper man as soon as practiable. Easier said than done at this age level.

One thought, you might want to play some type of "zone" to match your players up instead of assigning players to defend. For example, have your best defender take the point guard (usually the best player at this level) brining up the ball. Have your "big guys" down low and take the kids who set up down there. Have a couple responsible for the wings. Just have them make sure everyone is covered.

Good luck.

Thats a good idea... zone until you can match up..... OR... get into the paint until you can match up... tough deal with kids this age. Those types of coaches SHOULDN'T - thats the bottom line. They are not helping those kids, the only thing they are thinking of is the W. We could nominate those coaches for the 3/4th grade hall of fame.

Talk to the people in charge and ask them if they will put in a rule to stop the game for a few seconds to match up the players like Golfman said.

golfman25 wrote:GS, sounds like a b.s. league to me. If coaches make substitutions at that age group you should be able to stop and pair everyone up. Plus, Zone at that age is b.s.

Agreed. I am talking with the people in charge in the offseason to get the rules changed. At that age, kids do not need breaks every two minutes and, unless there is an injury, substitutions should be only made at quarter ends. However, it is a Park District league so I am not holding my breath (after all, they do allow zone).

golfman25 wrote:Now with that said, I think it is an important part of "basketball intellegence" to focus less on who you are "assigned" to guard and pickup the defense as needed.

Good point.

golfman25 wrote:One thought, you might want to play some type of "zone" to match your players up instead of assigning players to defend.
Good luck.

Very good idea. They should be doing this on transition anyway. Being used to man, this should be an easy development for them. Thanks for the great idea!