Drill3 phasesRuns 9.8 s
4-on-4 Touch and Recover
Four attackers on the far baseline face four defenders on the free-throw line extended. The coach passes to one attacker, and that player's defender must touch the baseline before he can get back. Three defenders have to stop the ball and protect the rim until the fourth catches up.
- Trains
- TransitionDefense
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Ages
- U14–Adult
- Minutes
- 12
- Players
- 8–10
- Coaches
- 1
- Balls
- 1
- Equipment
- No equipment: players and balls only.
Run it, tilt it, change it to fit your practice. Free to start. No account, nothing to install.
Coaching points
- First job in transition defense: stop the ball, then protect the rim, then match up.
- The defender who touches the baseline sprints back to the nearest open man, not to his own.
- Talk the whole way: who has ball, who is back, who is late.
- Offense: push it up the middle and run wide lanes; passing beats the late defender faster than dribbling.
Phase by phase
1Phase 1
Coach passes to 3. X3 sprints to touch the baseline. The other three turn and run: the nearest one gets in front of the ball, the other two sprint to the paint.
- C passes to 3
- X3 cuts
- X3 cuts
- X2 cuts
- X1 cuts
- X4 cuts to the right elbow
- 1 cuts
- 4 cuts
- 2 cuts
2Phase 2
3 pushes up the middle; the wings stay wide. X2 stops the ball and turns it, X1 and X4 protect the paint, X3 sprints back to the nearest open man.
- 3 dribbles to the top
- X2 cuts to the top
- 1 cuts to the left wing
- 4 cuts to the right wing
- 2 cuts
- X1 cuts to the left elbow
- X4 cuts
- X3 cuts
3Phase 3
Now it is 4-on-4 live. The offense swings the ball to beat the late rotation; the defense closes out and matches up. Then the teams swap and go the other way.
- 3 passes to 4
- X4 cuts to the right wing
- X3 cuts to the left elbow
- X2 cuts to the right elbow
Variations
- The coach calls two names: both touch the baseline and the defense plays 2 short for a moment.
- 5-on-5 with a number call: calling 2 or 3 sends two defenders to touch (5-on-3), calling 1 sends one (5-on-4).
- Give the offense 12 seconds to score.