3-on-3

There is not a better way to learn the nuances of basketball than through playing 3-on-3. You can not hide your flaws offensively or defensively in this setting and you are going to be part of the action. Besides being a lot of fun, it is a great learning and evaluation tool.

Offensively, it begins with the triple threat from which you can pass, shoot or dribble. In a 3-0n-3 situation - fundamentals are the key. 1) You can take your player off the drive using your 1-on-1 skills, 2) You can run a pick-n-roll with a teammate allowing either you to get to the basket or for you to pass to your teammate rolling after the screen or 3) you can have teammates screen for each other and pass to the open man. Plus, if you can execute the dribble drive, a defender will be forced to help leaving one of your teammates open for a shot. Beautiful!

Defensively, you are on an island. You need to be able to move your feet, provide help defense, close out on the recover and you must be able to talk! All of the things a good coach teaches in practice have to be executed in a 3-on-3 scenario or the opposing team will get plenty of opportunities to score.

The problem with 3-on-3 is that one tremendous athlete can dominate the game where in 5-on-5 you can get more help and allow for special defenses to slow the player down. So, as a teacher, how do you address this problem?

You take away the advantage that the offense has...you take away the dribble! So now you play 3-on-3, No Dribble. The offensive players must learn to move without the ball. They must either pass and cut or pass and screen away. Setting up the defender becomes more important since the you now are limited to two of the three threats. I guarantee that you will begin to see positive results by implementing this in practice. Players will learn how to play without the ball and as a team.

Next step is 3-on-3 full court! Talk about conditioning! Play a game to 3 or 5. No long snow bird passes. The players need to cut to to the ball and work their way down the court. Make it progressive where in one game they can only use bounce passes, another two hand overhead and another only chest passes.

Work this into your next practice session and let me know how it works!