Warm-upBack screen layup race7 min
- Cutter at the right slot with the ball, screener at the right elbow, passer on the right wing. A cone stands in for the cutter's defender.
- Pass to the wing. The screener steps up behind the cone, back to the rim. The cutter steps a step away, then cuts past the screener's shoulder to the rim, catches and lays it in.
- Rotate: cutter → wing → screener → line. The two hoops race to 10 layups; then switch to the left side.
- Theme link: every rep tonight is this action. Here it's the timing, with no one in the way.
Block 1Screen the blind side10 min
- Adds: a defender on the cutter, watching the ball from the high side.
- The defender stays on the cutter's high side with eyes on the ball and follows at half speed.
- Screener: get there early and stand still, back to where the cutter is going. A moving screen is a foul.
- Cutter: walk your defender a step away from the screen, wait until it's set, then cut close enough to brush the screener's shoulder. Hand up as you reach the rim.
- Rotate: cutter → defender → screener → wing → line.
- Progress when: the cutter is a step clear at the rim on most reps. Then the defender goes full speed.
- Regress if: screens keep moving into the defender. The screener walks to the spot and stops before the cutter goes.
- Cues (questions): "Did your defender see the screen coming?" "When did you leave: before or after the screen was set?"
Block 2Who did they leave?11 min
- Adds: the screener's defender, which gives the passer a read.
- The screener's defender chooses each rep, without telling anyone: stay with the screener, or step across to stop the cut.
- After the screen, the screener steps out towards the ball. Passer: cutter open at the rim? Hit them. Screener's defender helped? Hit the screener and they shoot or drive.
- Five per hoop exactly: passer, screener, cutter and two defenders. Rotate one place every rep.
- Progress when: the passer picks the open player on most reps. Then the screener's defender can fake help and recover.
- Regress if: the passer keeps throwing to a covered cutter. The screener's defender says their choice out loud at first, so the passer learns what each one looks like.
- Cues (questions): "Who did the screener's defender go with?" "Where did the screener go after the screen?"
Water2 min
Block 3Back screen coming! Live 3v211 min
- Adds: live defenders who talk. The screener's defender calls "Back screen!" before the screen arrives, and both defenders choose their own way through it.
- Play it out live until a basket or the defence gets the ball. Attackers may now drive if the defence takes the screen away.
- Scoring:
- Attack 2 pts: a basket by the cutter or the screener.
- Attack 1 pt: any other basket.
- Defence 1 pt: a stop, plus 1 if the call came before the screen was set.
- Rotate two places every possession so everyone defends both spots. Switch sides after 5 minutes.
- Progress when: the defence calls it early on most reps. Then the attack swings the ball top to wing to top before the screen, so the defence has to find it on the move.
- Regress if: the attack never gets a clean cut. Go back to the defenders at three-quarter speed for a few reps.
- Cues (questions): "When did you hear the call?" "What did the defence give you, and did you take it?"
Finisher4v4: start with the back screen16 min
- Two teams of five, 4v4 at one hoop; one sub per team swaps in each possession and shoots at the other hoop while waiting.
- Every possession starts with the ball on the wing and the back screen. After that, play it out live, man-to-man.
- Scoring:
- 2 pts: a basket from the back screen: the cutter or the screener scores, or the pass after it creates the shot.
- 1 pt: any other basket.
- Defence 1 pt: a stop; +1 if "Back screen!" was called before it was set.
- Two halves of about 7 minutes. Swap the starting side at half-time.
Huddle3 min
- One question to the group: "When the back screen didn't work tonight, what had the defence done, and who was open because of it?"
Coach notes
- Decision errors vs execution errors:
- Throwing to a covered cutter when the screener was open is a decision error. Ask Block 2's question.
- Cutting before the screen is set, or cutting wide of it, is an execution error. Ask "how close were you to the screener's shoulder?"
- A screener who moves into the defender is execution too: get there earlier.
- When the defender is way off: a cutter whose defender is sagging into the paint doesn't need to wait for the screen. Go early. Waiting is for a defender who's tight.
- Common failure: the screener stops after the screen and watches. In Blocks 2 and 3, the screener's basket is worth the same as the cutter's for exactly this reason.
- Judge the read, not the finish. A pass to the open player that ends in a missed layup is still the right play.
Sources
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| Patrick Hunt — Defending Screens | What a back screen is, reading the defender off a screen, the "back screen coming" call, Block 3 defenders choosing their way through |
| Don Showalter — Fundamentals of Half-Court Offense | The screener's angle: back to where the ball is going |
| Kestutis Kemzura — Transition Offense | Setting the back screen early so it isn't a foul |
| Kristen Veal — Movement without the Ball | Block 1 waiting for the screen and going shoulder to shoulder, coach notes on going early |
| Mike Longabardi — Special Situations | Warm-up back screen layup, Block 2 screener coming back to the ball |
| junior.basketball (original) | Warm-up race, Block 2 defender's choice, Block 3 and 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.