Drills play
Drill: Deny and Jump to the Ball
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 5 steps
About this play
This installs the deny stance and the jump-to-the-ball habit the shell drill assumes, which is why I teach it before shell. Setup: three stationary offense at the top and both wings, three defenders in lines under the baseline, a coach with the ball at the top beside the point. The coach passes to a wing: the wing's defender closes out, the one-pass-away defender sprints into deny, a step up the line toward the ball with his hand in the passing lane, chest to his man and eyes over his shoulder, and the two-passes-away defender sprints to the help line in the lane. The coach checks alignment, calls ball back, and the next pass moves everyone again; after the wing, the top, and the far wing the three defenders become the offense. Score it by reps, or three catches then rotate. Common mistakes: facing the passer and losing the back cut, denying with the wrong hand, and standing still while the ball is in the air. Progression: the wing V-cuts and back-cuts so the deny hand has to work, then live 1v1 off the catch. Every level. I picked it up from Coach's Clipboard's man-to-man positioning drill and Bob Huggins's 4-on-4 sprint-to-help clinic on Championship Productions; read them for the wing deny add-on.
