Circle Drill

Coach Ron Sen presents the circle trap defense (and offense) drill which can help young players practice both their offensive and defensive skills:

Young players need to learn to apply and to cope with pressure. As general rules, we teach defenders not to allow players to dribble out of trap defenses, to deny ‘gut passes’ through traps, to deny passes to the high post from traps, and to force players to throw over their outside shoulder.

Offensive players must learn to protect the ball, to see ‘through’ trap defenses, move the ball quickly, use ball fakes, look off defenders, and use pivoting effectively.

Every player is a potential offensive or defensive player. The coach inbounds the ball randomly to a player. There is no dribbling allowed. The two adjacent players become TRAPPERS (T) who aggressively trap. INTERCEPTORS (I) must react to defend the other offensive players (O) who cannot move off their spots. When the ball is passed successfully, the adjacent players become the new trappers and new interceptors come into play.

Ron Sen, MD, FCCP @rsen01 on Twitter
Ron Sen is an assistant coach in a middle school girls basketball program and a primary and specialty care physician