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Session Plan · U16 · Team (7 or more) · 60 min

Lock Left: Put the Ball in Jail

Why it works

Most ball handlers go right, and most offences enter the ball to the right wing. A defence that takes the right side away makes the offence play on its weaker hand, on the side of the floor it practises least. The on-ball defender picks up early and shades the ball handler's right shoulder, so going right means going through their chest. Next to the ball on the right side, a defender denies chest to the ball, so the ball handler sees no pass there either. On the left side, a defender sits in the gap with a hand on the drive line, fakes at the drive and sprints back out, so the pass is easier than the drive. The last defenders protect the rim. The ball ends up on the left side, in a smaller slice of the floor, and the shot that comes is off the dribble, left-handed, from inside the arc.

The thread through every block

  1. Pick up the ball early
  2. shade the right shoulder: the ball goes left
  3. right side: deny, chest to the ball
  4. left side: gap, fake at the drive, sprint out
  5. the rim is guarded
  6. an off-the-dribble shot, left side, inside the arc.

Setup. 10 players, 1 coach, 2 hoops, 6 balls, 8 cones. Five at each hoop for Blocks 1–2. The warm-up and finisher are 5v5 at one hoop; Block 3 is half-way to the rim.

Prints on A4 for the clipboard: diagram on the left, rules on the right, and no block split across a page.

Warm · 8B1 · 9B2 · 10B3 · 12Finisher · 16

Warm-upFive to five, right-hand knockout8 min

11122334455ones and twos, first to 5right-hand drive scored = game over
5v5, no teaching. Twos and threes count one and two. If any attacker scores off a right-hand drive, it's a knockout and the game ends.
  • 5v5 at one hoop, straight up, by ones and twos to five (twos count one, threes count two). One extra rule: a right-hand drive to a right-hand layup that goes in is a knockout, and the game is over.
  • No teaching. Play two or three games and watch where the knockouts come from. Then one question: "Does a left-hand layup hurt us as much as a right-hand one?"
  • Theme link: the defence starts working out for itself that the right hand is the danger.

Block 1One-on-one: put it in jail9 min

111jailoffence: right-hand drive to the paintdefence: right shoulder shaded
No basket. The attacker's only goal is a right-hand drive into the paint. The defender shades the right shoulder and sends every drive left, into jail.
  • Adds: a live 1v1 against an attacker who only wants one thing.
  • 1v1 at each hoop, three waiting. No scoring at the basket: the attacker wins by getting a right-hand drive into the paint. The defender picks up early, shades the ball handler's right shoulder (their own left foot slightly forward), and sends every drive left. Six dribbles, then it's over.
  • Scoring: a right-hand drive into the paint is 1 to the attacker; anything else is 1 to the defender. Swap every rep.
  • Progress when: defenders win most reps without fouling.
  • Regress if: attackers get right every time. The defender starts one step further to the attacker's right.
  • Cues (questions): "Where was your chest when they tried to go right?" "When they went left, did you chase or stay a step ahead?"

Block 2Three-on-three: deny right, gap left10 min

1112233right: deny, chest to ballleft: gap, fake and sprint outcatch on the right wing = 1 to offence
3v3, two waiting. The right-side defender denies high up the line, chest to the ball, and lets the back cut go. The left-side defender sits in the gap, fakes at the drive and sprints out.
  • Adds: the players next to the ball, so the ball handler sees no pass right and a crowded drive left.
  • 3v3 at each hoop, two waiting. The defender on the right wing denies chest to the ball, high up the passing line; a back cut is allowed and is a pass the defence wants. The defender on the left wing sits in the gap with a hand on the drive line. When the ball drives, they fake at it and sprint back out; they don't stop the drive.
  • Scoring: a basket is 2 to the offence; a catch on the right wing is 1. Defence: a stop is 1, and a shot off the dribble from the left side inside the arc is 1 even if it goes in.
  • Progress when: possessions end on the left side of the floor.
  • Regress if: the right wing keeps catching. The ball handler can't use a ball fake for a round.
  • Cues (questions): "What did the ball handler see on your side?" "When you faked at the drive, where did you go next?"

Water2 min

Block 3Three-on-three transition: wolf, tiger, bear12 min

1112233wolf: chase the ball lefttiger: gap left, hunt passesbear: back to the rim
Teams of three from half-way to the rim, continuous. Every defender calls their role as they get back: the wolf chases the ball left, the tiger hunts passes, the bear guards the rim. One shot, seven seconds.
  • Adds: transition, so nobody gets time to set up; roles replace matching up.
  • Teams of three (four in one team, who rotate a player out each trip), half-way to the rim, continuous. One shot, seven-second clock; the defence then attacks the other way and a new team comes on. Every defender calls their role as they get back:
    • Wolf: find the ball and chase it left. Wolves sprint; they don't slide.
    • Tiger: pick up one pass away on the left, sit in the gap, hunt passes.
    • Bear: get back to the rim and contest everything there.
  • Scoring: a basket is 2 to the offence. Defence: a stop is 1; a steal by the tiger is 2.
  • Progress when: the roles get called without the coach calling them.
  • Regress if: two players go to the ball. The coach calls the wolf by name as the shot goes up.
  • Cues (questions): "Who was the wolf, and how did you know?" "Where was the ball when you got set?"

FinisherFive to five with roles16 min

11122334455one wolf, two tigers, two bearsright-hand drive scored = game over
The warm-up game again, now starting in transition with one wolf, two tigers and two bears. A tiger on each side, a bear on each side of the rim, then match up from there.
  • The warm-up game again: 5v5, ones and twos to five, right-hand knockout. Now every possession starts in transition from half-way, and the defence gets back as one wolf, two tigers (one each side) and two bears (one each side of the rim), then matches up from there.
  • Scoring: as the warm-up, plus: a defensive stop that ends with a shot off the dribble from the left side inside the arc wins the defence an extra possession.
  • Play three or four games. Keep a tally of knockouts and compare it with the warm-up.
  • Progress when: there are fewer knockouts than in the warm-up.
  • Regress if: the offence is scoring catch-and-shoot threes off the left side. Tigers close the left-wing catch to the left hand, no further.

Huddle3 min

  • "Where did their shots come from in the last game, compared with the first one? What changed?"

Coach notes

  • Decision errors vs execution errors:
    • Helping on a drive (leaving a shooter to stop the ball) is a decision error in this coverage. The tigers fake and recover; only the bears help, at the rim. Ask Block 2's question.
    • Shading right but getting beaten left for speed is execution. More gap on the pick-up, not less.
  • Common failure: fouls. Forcing the ball downhill to the left hand exposes reaching and poor walling up. First-year teams foul more; keep hands back and chests in front.
  • Common failure: the right-side deny getting beaten by a back cut. That pass is the one the defence wants. The bear contests it, and a left-handed defender at the rim beats a right-hand layup on the wing.
  • This is a coverage, not the only way to defend. The site lets under-16s install a defensive coverage. It changes the help rules from the help defence plans (Help the Helper, Two Levels): one pass away fakes and recovers instead of stopping the drive. Use it as a scheme the team chooses, after man-to-man principles are in place.
  • Left-handed ball handlers: lock them right. The rule is "their weak hand", not "the left side".

Sources

SourceUsed for
Tyler Coston — Lock Left DefenseMechanism (most teams go right; shade left; deny one pass away right, chest to ball; gap one pass away left, fake and sprint out; the rim helper; forcing off-the-dribble shots inside the arc), warm-up five to five with the right-hand knockout, Block 3 wolf, tiger and bear transition game, finisher with the roles, coach note on fouls
Mark Cascio — How to Teach Defense with Small-Sided GamesBlock 1 one-on-one with the scoring removed so the attacker only wants a right-hand drive into the paint, "Where's jail?"
junior.basketball (original)Block 2 three-on-three scoring, finisher extra-possession rule, Block 3 team of four rotation

Related

More session plans, the Session Design guide this format follows, Game-Based Practice for why every plan ends live, and blank session plan templates to write your own.

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.