May/June 2019 - 20

DIAGRAM 1
Progression
drills to teach
help defense
By Joseph Kubacki, contributing writer
The key to effectively playing man-to-man help
defense is trying to perfect the " dance " and its " steps. "
The " dance " consists of the defender, the offensive
player, and the position of the ball relative to the players
and the basket. " Jumping to the ball " and " helping and
recovering " represents the dance " steps. " The farther
away the ball, the farther the participants are from each
other. The closer the ball, the closer the participants are
together.
I developed this set of progression drills so that manto-man
help defense concepts could be practiced in a
controlled, monitored environment. But I also wanted to
include the unpredictability of a game. The 1-on-1 and
2-on-2 drills allow for maximum teaching potential and
are the foundation of the learning process. The 3-on-3
and 4-on-4 drills allow for maximum flexibility to work
on help-defense positioning and any other facet of man
defense within a game-like environment.
In this drill, a defender is added with each progression.
This, in turn, adds new features along the way, including
movement, dribbling and on-ball screening.
1-on-1
We start with 1-on-1 help-side. The offensive players
are usually in three spots ball-side and one of two spots
help-side - wing or corner.
DIAGRAM 1 shows the initial set up: 4 in the corner, 2
on the wing, and 1 at the point with the ball. The defender
is in one-pass-away position.
DIAGRAM 2: 1 skip-passes to 4 in the corner. The
defender jumps into the lane, three passes away in help
position.
Two to five ball-side passes are made before a pass is
thrown to the help-side player. This helps the defender
learn to move correctly with each pass. Once a pass
is made to the help-side player, a quick-score, 1-on-1
scrimmage is initiated, shown in DIAGRAM 3. Once
this takes place, the rest of the offensive players step off
to the side.
2-on-2
The first stage of the help-side/ball-side drills does not
allow for any offensive movement, but that changes in
the second stage. The help-side movement is limited to
20 MAY/JUNE 2019
DIAGRAM 3
DIAGRAM 2
May/June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May/June 2019
