Spacing drills

    Spacing is very important part of basketball offense, as FC Barcelona head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius once said - "Our offensive principle is to create more space for players to attack, and our defensive principle is to, create as less space as possible for opponents."

    Here I post some of my spacing drills that I use in my daily work with my teams. 

    Starting with 2x0 and 3x0 drills to teach basic principles, where to move depending on the ball. I don't do drills on air (without defense) a lot, I think for players it's more fun and bigger challenge to play with defensive players. Mainly it is about the decision making, as the defender gives situations to read.

    When basic principles are clear, we move to 2x1 drills. I want offensive player to attack the close out and score every time, but at the same time, I want to add a passing option. Passing option will create decision weather the offensive player have beaten defender or not, if not, then learn to pass out from different situations. One of the coaching points - better make a good pass, than shoot a hard shot. 

    Later we move on to 3x2 into 2x2 close out drill. I teach players every time to drive inside the paint, and then look for solutions. In this drill I want offense to maintain spacing during the drive, and after the pass out, use the close out situations with extra pass. 

    I play a lot of 3x2 spacing drill. I think players can get a lot of decisions in this drill and it is helping them to improve awareness of the court. Later you can teach cutting situations as it will create more decisions. To make it more challenging, I make the court smaller, by putting the cones, so it is even more important to use cutting to gain better spacing. 

    These drills sometimes can look pretty messy, but as time goes on players will improve, because situations are always changing and not a single situation is the same. 

    If you have any questions about the drills or you want to know more details, about WHY of these drills, feel free to contact me. 

Coach Rozlapa.