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3 Stop Drill Brings Competitive Defensive Edge To Your Practices
By Tanya McKay, Head Womens Coach, University of
Winnipeg
Courtesy of WinningHoops.com
This is a great defensive team drill to develop teamwork and discipline on
defense, no matter the scheme you run. It's a half-court drill that has the
defensive team continuing to play defense until they get "3 stops."
It's a versatile drill and one that gets the entire team involved. If you have
12 players on your team, you can use either 4 teams of 3 players or 3 teams of
4 players. Divide your team into squads that are fairly even from a talent
standpoint so that the drill remains competitive. Have one coach work with the
offensive team and the other coach work with the defensive team. Another coach
or team manager can keep track of the scoring (number of stops) and officiate.
The purpose of the drill is to emphasize your team's defensive
philosophy. What do you want your team to accomplish in games? Where are
you forcing the ball? How do you handle screens away from the ball? How do you
handle screens on the ball? These are all important questions to ask when
develop a scoring system for the drill. It should be based on defensive items
that you give a high priority to in your program.
DRILL RULES:
The offensive team brings the ball into play from half court to start drill.
The defensive team needs to record 3 consecutive stops to get off defense. A
defensive stop is considered any of the following accomplishments.
- Defensive rebound
- Steal
- Any deflection that leads to a recovery
- Forcing an offensive violation
- Drawing a charging foul
REASONS TO STAY ON DEFENSE:
If any of the following occur, the defense stays on the floor and its score
resets back to zero.
- The offense scores a basket.
- A player on defense commits a foul.
- The offense secures an offensive rebound.
- A player misses a box-out assignment while establishing defensive rebounding
position
- The defense allows an uncontested lay-up or shot (regardless of whether or
not the shot was made).
- The defenders do not communicate on screens.
- There isn't any defensive help on dribble penetration.
- Any of the defenders gives up on a play or demonstrates a lack of effort. The
coach reserves the right to reset the score to 0 for any reason.
The coach in charge of the drill decides what keeps a team on defense. The
above reasons are what we follow in practice. The drill is very competitive,
productive and simulates game-like intensity.
Play this drill twice a week. The "reward" for achieving three
consecutive defensive stops is to get off the floor and then get a chance to go
on offense. The longest our team has ever had a defensive team stay on the
floor was 25 minutes.
Players must rely on one another to play solid defense and get out of the
drill. You'll find that there's a lot of learning that occurs during this
drill.
It's been the most effective drill to reinforce our team's defensive philosophy
and prepare us for games.
DRILL VARIATIONS:
This drill can be modified to include the defensive items that your coaching
staff emphasizes. For example, our team occasionally institutes the following
changes into this drill to keep things fresh and challenging to our players.
1. The defending team works exclusively on either man-to-man or zone
defense concepts.
2. The offensive team is challenged to work on certain things such as scoring
off the dribble, penetrating all the way to the basket, using screens, etc.
You can also begin by having the defense play with a goal of 2 consecutive
stops until it becomes more familiar with the drill. Or, you can make the drill
more difficult by instituting a stipulation that the defense must record 4
consecutive stops to get off the floor.
Insert your defensive team philosophy into this drill and you'll see it
translate into your game.
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