Basketball Defense Drills – Stop the Ball

I got the inspiration for this basketball coaching tip from Rene, one of my subscribers.  It includes some fresh ideas on basketball defense drills.  Try this basketball drill out and let me know what you think!

From Rene…
Stop the Ball Drill
Goal of the drill: To teach the players to run to a spot in front of the ball handler instead of along side of them.

Drill setup: Two lines near the baseline under the basket, one line with the basketballs(offense), one without(defense). The line with the basketballs(offense) is on the outside of the other line.

Drill execution: You can either have the defense line start a little ahead of the offense line to give them a head start or have the offense line angle there approach toward the mid-court sidelines (place a cone at the intersection of the mid-court line and the sideline) and the defense line take a direct approach to the far basket. On the whistle, the first player in the offense line dribbles towards the cone at the mid-court/sidelines, when reaching the cone they cross-over and head for the far basket to do a layup. The defense line player takes a more direct line to the far basket in order to get to a spot in front of the offense player.

When they meet (hopefully before the basket) the defensive player squares up into a defensive stance and then they play 1 on 1 until the defensive player gains possession of the ball.