Basketball players seldom forget the effective full court press that their team used to secure a decisive victory.
My thoughts are constantly brought back to that high school basketball game, when we used our press defense to force four straight errors and mount a late-game comeback of 12 points. I always stress doing full court drills because of this.
Full court drills aid in attack, defense, ball handling, fast thinking, and overall court conditioning.
Here are some of the top full court basketball offensive and defensive drills.
Two Offensive Full Court Basketball Drills
The five offensive players in this Breakthrough Basketball drill start at one basket with Annie Over, while three defenders are waiting at the other end. A five on three quick break comes after Annie Over.
Starting the exercise on the sideline at half court are the two defenders who are not on the defensive end.
The two remaining defenders run from the sideline to meet at the jump circle at midcourt once the offense has advanced the ball past half court. These two defenders meet there and then join their three teammates as the offense tries to immediately score on the fast break.
The offense must take advantage of fleeting fast break opportunities when using the 5 on 3 + 2 fast break and transition drill. The ball movement needs to be swift and effective with a two-person advantage and momentum to enable a quick bucket.
This exercise is most helpful for:
As the ball handler must locate the open man or guys, this is a terrific drill for an offense that needs to develop in the fast break.
Fred Hoiberg’s Speed Drill
Breakdown of the drill:
Coach’s Clipboard’s list of crucial full court workouts continues with one from former NBA player and Nebraska Cornhusker head coach Fred Hoiberg.
The basketball exercise is as follows: offensive player #1 (O1) outlets to O2, who is advancing along the right side of the floor, from the opponent’s foul line.
O3 receives a chest pass from O2 and completes with a left-handed lay up. P5 races up the court toward the other basket from the same side O2 came from after O4 rebounds the layup and passes to him.
O2 has moved downcourt to catch a ball from P5 for a right-handed layup by the time P5 receives the outlet pass from O4, who was previously passing to O4. The exercise continues with O1 rebounding and O4 moving into the outlet location to receive the pass from O1.
Hoiberg stated that the objective was to make 28 layups in two minutes, thus precise and effective passing was required. In this exercise, players don’t have any motivation to dribble because they’re trying to pass as soon as they can and concentrate on making a layup virtually every four seconds.
This exercise is most helpful for:
This full court exercise is all about collaboration, and players who can make accurate passes to teammates can improve their team’s transition offense and avoid sloppy passing.
Two Defensive Full Court Basketball Drills
The Z-Drill
With or without an offensive player from the opposing team, a team can train defense using the Z-Drill.
The first defender (then the second defender, third defender, and so on) will start sliding diagonally from the left baseline toward the top of the free throw circle, which is where the first cone is located.
The defender moves on to the second cone, which is on the left side of midcourt’s out-of-bounds line. A third cone, which is placed at the opposing free throw circle, is where the defense advances to next.
Next, the defender performs a defensive slide, moving from one side of the baseline to the other. The player finishes at the opposite side of the starting position at the corner on the baseline after sliding back to the third cone, the second cone at the opposite side of midcourt, the first cone, and the third cone.
Drills come in three different varieties:
The aforementioned sliding from one cone to another is known as defensive sliding.
2. Defensive Sliding and Sprints: In this variation, sprinting and sliding from one cone to the next are alternated.
3. Man-to-Man Defense against Offensive Player: In this variation, the defender slides up on the offensive player until they are unable to keep up with the ball handler any longer. The defender now needs to dash back in front of the offensive player before returning to the defensive position.
Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer promotes this full court defensive drill by having the defender initially clasp his hands behind his back. She then gives the defender the order to maintain his hand in the dribbling lane. In order to provide pressure on the ball handler, the defender must also keep his or her head at waist level.
This exercise is most helpful for:
Defenders must develop these kinds of protective instincts. Although they are simple, they enable conditioning and transition defense to be improved.
The Tip Drill
Considering that there are only five players total, only four of them start the drill on the court, this defensive exercise is also rather straightforward.
The video clip below shows defensive player #2 (D2; blue) and offensive player #3 (O3; red in video) starting to pursue defensive player #2 (O2; red in video), who is dribbling the basketball from the free throw line to half court.
The basketball is tipped to D1 who is standing at the opposing free throw line by either O2 or O3. After receiving a pass from D1 to O1, O2 and O3 start a fast break against D1 and D2.
In this drill, D2 must stop a 3 on 1 + 1 fast break. Defensive hustle is crucial. There are numerous options for the offense to exploit the single defender, but with the D1 running back on defense, there is a chance that the defense will deflect the ball or steal it.
This exercise is most helpful for:
A defender needs to know how to handle such a defensive disadvantage because it is inevitable that players will encounter it during games.