Warm-upRange ladder6 min
- Partners, three pairs sharing the hoop, alternating sides. Move into the catch, catch in the air, one long dribble, one step, finish. No travel, no second dribble.
- Make it clean and your next catch is a step further from the rim. Miss or travel and you stay. First round outside hand, second round inside hand.
- Theme link: this is the space a long step can cover. Most players can finish from further out than they think, and the read later only works if they know their range.
Block 1Shot fake, cross step5 min
- Adds: a shot fake, so the drive starts from a shot the defender has to respect.
- Self-pass to the wing, catch facing the rim. Shot fake: ball and eyes up, upper body rises, legs stay bent. Then a long cross step past the cone: middle for a one-dribble step-in jumper, or baseline for a two-foot power layup. Five each way, then the other wing.
- Progress when: the fake doesn't change the feet: someone watching only the legs couldn't tell it from a shot.
- Regress if: players straighten up on the fake and then have to sink again before going. Hold the fake for a one-count with the knees bent.
- Cues (questions): "If I only watched your legs, would I have bitten?" "How much floor did your first step cover?"
Block 2Coach's menu: A, B or C8 min
- Adds: a closeout to read, and one of three answers.
- Before each rep the coach shows the defender a letter the catcher can't see:
- A: close out short and balanced, hands up.
- B: close out flying, high hands, weight forward.
- C: close out shading one side, high or baseline.
- The catcher cuts to the wing, catches in the air and plays the answer: A shoot, B long step past the high foot, C go to the open side. The defender plays soft-live after the closeout. Two dribbles max.
- Three reps per catcher, letters in random order, then change the spot: wing, corner, slot. Rotate catcher → defender → line.
- Progress when: the catcher's first move matches the letter on 4 out of 5 reps, with no hold.
- Regress if: catchers guess before the defender commits. The defender makes the closeout bigger and slower until the read lands, then sharpens it.
- Cues (questions): "Which foot was the defender's weight on when you caught it?" "What told you it was B and not C?"
Water2 min
Block 3Pin-down into a live closeout10 min
- Adds: a live defender whose closeout comes from chasing a screen, so the size and angle of it change every rep.
- Passer at the top, a screener with no defender, cutter on the block with a live defender. The cutter takes the defender below the screen, comes off shoulder to shoulder and reads it (curl if they trail, flare if they cut under). The passer throws to where the cutter is going, not where they are. The defender has to close out from wherever they ended up.
- The catcher has two dribbles to score. No advantage? Pass back to the top and run it again.
- Rotate: passer → screener → cutter → defender → line. Both sides.
- Progress when: most attacks start on the catch, not after a hold.
- Regress if: cutters catch it standing and the defender recovers every time. The defender starts a step further behind.
- Cues (questions): "Where were you when the defender took their last step?" "Did you need the second dribble?"
Finisher3v3 swing game11 min
- 3v3 half court, live. Two dribbles per catch. Swing the ball side to side quickly so the defence has to close out, then attack the closeout on the catch. Only layups and open shots; a contested pull-up isn't the shot we want.
- Scoring:
- 2 pts: a score straight off a catch, or within two dribbles of the catch.
- 1 pt: any other score.
- Defence: a stop wins the ball. Holding the ball in the middle for more than a second turns it over.
- Offence stays on while it scores. First team to 7.
- Progress when: the ball moves faster than the defence, and drives start on the catch.
- Regress if: it turns into isolation. Every possession needs a swing pass before the first drive.
Huddle3 min
- One question to the group: "When did you miss the moment, and what did the defender do because you waited?"
Coach notes
- Decision errors vs execution errors:
- Shooting over a short, balanced closeout's hands, or driving into a defender who shaded that side, is a decision error. Ask Block 2's question about the defender's weight.
- The right read with a short first step, or a travel on the go, is execution. Back to the warm-up range ladder for a round.
- Common failure: catching flat-footed. If the feet aren't loaded on the catch, every read comes late. Ask "were you in the air when the ball was?"
- Common failure: forcing it. If two dribbles don't make an advantage, the answer is to pass back and go again, not to hunt a contested shot. The finisher's held-ball rule pushes the same idea.
- U16 challenge point: once Block 2 is clean, the defender makes the letters subtler and the coach stops telling the catcher afterwards which one it was. They should know.
- Running it for 60: add the 15 minutes to the live end, not the technique blocks. Block 3 goes to 15 min, adding a defender on the screener so the screener can slip if the defence switches. The finisher goes to 19 min; the second round drops the two-dribble limit but keeps the 2 pts for scoring off the catch. The huddle goes to 5 min, with a second question: "Which closeout did you see most, and why?"
Sources
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| Raoul Körner — Downscreens and Attacking Closeouts | Warm-up, Block 1, Block 3, finisher |
| Ryan Pannone & Alex Sarama — P&R Concepts and How to Teach Them | Block 2 |
| junior.basketball (original) | Warm-up range ladder, Block 2 closeout menu, finisher scoring |
Unofficial resource. Drills are adapted from recorded coaching clinics and credited to the coaches named in Sources above; anything marked junior.basketball (original) was written for this plan. Not affiliated with or endorsed by those coaches or the organisations that ran the clinics. Full credit to every presenter.