HUMBER DRILL - OFFENSE IN FLOW

I've been out to a few NT practices over the past week.  Great to see our coaches working so diligently and
passionately with our young athletes and great to see the talent within our club.  Thank you coaches for all you do for NT athletes.

One of the things that all teams must do is to practice their half court offense.  It's one of those things that takes countless repetitions and debriefs for your team to execute effectively.  Almost everytime I see teams rehearse their half-court offense the play starts statically with the ball already just outside the 3pt line.  In games, the offense never sets up this way.  In games, teams flow into their offense dynamically from the backcourt into the frontcourt.  I thought I would offer a couple drills for coaches to review and rehearse your halfcourt set, while flowing into the frontcourt from the backcourt.

One of the drills I use regularly is called the Humber Drill (because I took it from Darryl Glenn, former Men's Basketball Head Coach at Humber College).  Start with 5 players in the key, coach tosses the ball off the backboard.  The team rebounds the ball, and players fill their lanes as the team transitions into their primary break to the other end of the floor and score a lay-up.

After the layup, the same team of 5 inbound the ball and starts primary break back to the hoop where the team first started (where coach tossed ball off glass).  Once ball is inbounded another 5 players (defensive team) steps onto the court (in the key) prepared to defend the offensive team.  This gives the offensive team a chance to flow into their offense and meet the defensive team in the offensive front court.

You can play out the possession in different ways.  Play to a score with the defensive team transitioning directly from a rebound or inbounding on a score, or give each team a number of consecutive possessions (eg. 5 consecutive possessions each team).

To make it competitive, keep track of score for the 5 possession and see who wins at the end.

Modifications:
When the defensive team comes onto the court and the position on the court where the defense starts.  For example, the defensive team can come on the court, right on the heels of the offensive teams first primary break to the other end of the court or once the offensive team scores at the other end (or any other time you can think of that creates the desired situation).  This gets them on the court earlier and prepared earlier.

The next modification is the spot on the court where the defense starts.  When I want to emulate offensive transition against defensive transition, I'll have the defensive team sprint out to the 3 pt line on the opposite side of the court so that the offensive transition coming back to the original hoop against a transitioning defense.  For a little less defense in transition have your defensive team sprint to mid court to start to defend, and for the least amount of pressure in transition just have the defensive team step into the key at the original hoop.

Benefits:
The first benefit as mentioned at the outset is that you practice your offense dynamically in flow and not statically (which does not emulated how you transition into offense in a real game).

As teams of 5 transition from offense to defense the coaching staff has an opportunity debrief the team of 5 on particular points of emphasis immediately prior to their next offensive possession.  This is one of the true nuggets of this drill.

More:
If you want more, contact me at sealyja@gmail.com and I'll run the drill at your practice to show you how it works and how you can modify it to best suit your needs.