Dribble Drive Motion
Submitted by ttomes on Thu, 08/21/2008 - 13:38
What are your thoughts on the popularity of dribble drive motion made popular by programs such as Memphis and others in the past few years?
Alan, Welcome back by the way. We missed you.
Good news for you, there is
Defending Dribble Penetration
Well coaches, from my years of experience and perspective stopping penetration dribble comes down to great footwork, desire and anticipation. The simplest element you can have your defenders focus on in keeping their lead foot outside of the penetration foot and staying is a low and balance defensive position with active feet. I know this sounds an over simplification but I think way too many coaches pay too little attention these days to stopping dribble penetration. We had a drill many years ago which was essentially a 1 on 1 defensive footwork drill with the sole purpose of working a attacker from a defensive standpoint without help to keep them out of the paint. In addition to bringing confidence to the defender, it encourage them not to rely on defensive help to stop penetration. Too many defenses today encourage penetration to help. I prefer to approach team defense from the perspective that you "never let your man beat you" and then "if you are beaten help is always there.". From a team standpoint there are a couple of things you can do to discourage these types of offenses. First you can switch all same size perimeter exchanges to prevent any "picking" action on a handoff designed to create a penetration gap. However this is less desirable if your opponent is using big-small screens like the high pick and roll.
I always try to get coaches to think out side the box a bit when put into these kinds of situations as well. What about extending a defense like playing a passive (but aggressive stop penetration on the ball ) 1-3-1 or 2-1-2 half court trap. You don't encourage your team to trap in these situations because it opens up penetration off of ball movement, but you can extend with the emphasis on using the clock and taking a team out of their "late game dribble penetrate and pitch" type offensive sets. Think change up, just like a baseball pitcher does to keep the "offense" off balance as well. Get creative and change defenses to keep the offense off balance an adapting.
If you must play a zone or match-up consider using the Dean Smith Point Zone Defense which is essentially a 1-3-1 match-up with an emphasis on keeping 3 men between the ball and basket at all times.
Dribble Drive perspective
Coaches,
I'm a bit of old school. I think there are some very interesting aspects of the Dribble Drive Motion Offenses however growing up as a player and young coach in the days of Bob Knight's passing game, and John Wooden's UCLA Offense I'm more inclined to enjoy sets that involve intelligent passing and screening. I think the Dribble Drive concept is one that can be incorporated into many offenses but I personally don't like to see it as a primary set. Too many young players today don't know how to do anything but dribble the ball and penetrate. This doesn't teach them the many nuances of playing with or without the ball at higher levels of the game. As a consequence many players who are athletic learn how to be great dribble penetrators but when put into more advanced structures they get lost. I think Dribble Drive is an important concept in basketball to be able to execute because when pressure comes, every player should be able to break down a defender, and draw a second one to open up a teammate for a high percentage shot.
I know there are a lot of successful coaches out there using the 3 out 2 in or 4 out 1 in dribble penetration and dish offensive sets with success. However I much more prefer watching an offensive game that isolate mismatches, finds the hot shooter, or uses mis-direction and ball movement out of sets to get the highest percentage shots. One final thought, if you face a team that has excellent penetration defense footwork, what type of shots do you get?
dribble drive motion
It seems that the keys to the DDM are spacing, aggressiveness and kicking. It keeps great spacing and opens up gaps for penetrators. It breeds a "score" mindset which is a plus, especially on the high school level. And it creates a team mentality by stressing passing when the penetration is stopped. I just like the attack, attack, attack style of play.
DDM
The better question is what is the best way to defend it?
Think footwork and outside the box!
Well coaches, from my years of experience and perspective stopping penetration dribble comes down to great footwork, desire and anticipation. The simplest element you can have your defenders focus on in keeping their lead foot outside of the penetration foot and staying is a low and balance defensive position with active feet. I know this sounds an over simplification but I think way too many coaches pay too little attention these days to stopping dribble penetration. We had a drill many years ago which was essentially a 1 on 1 defensive footwork drill with the sole purpose of working a attacker from a defensive standpoint without help to keep them out of the paint. In addition to bringing confidence to the defender, it encourage them not to rely on defensive help to stop penetration. Too many defenses today encourage penetration to help. I prefer to approach team defense from the perspective that you "never let your man beat you" and then "if you are beaten help is always there.". From a team standpoint there are a couple of things you can do to discourage these types of offenses. First you can switch all same size perimeter exchanges to prevent any "picking" action on a handoff designed to create a penetration gap. However this is less desirable if your opponent is using big-small screens like the high pick and roll.
I always try to get coaches to think out side the box a bit when put into these kinds of situations as well. What about extending a defense like playing a passive (but aggressive stop penetration on the ball ) 1-3-1 or 2-1-2 half court trap. You don't encourage your team to trap in these situations because it opens up penetration off of ball movement, but you can extend with the emphasis on using the clock and taking a team out of their "late game dribble penetrate and pitch" type offensive sets. Think change up, just like a baseball pitcher does to keep the "offense" off balance as well. Get creative and change defenses to keep the offense off balance an adapting.
If you must play a zone or match-up consider using the Dean Smith Point Zone Defense which is essentially a 1-3-1 match-up with an emphasis on keeping 3 men between the ball and basket at all times.