Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Basketball: Notes, Defensive System Development, Nenad Trunic

Professor Nenad Trunic (Serbia) gave a logical, specific, well-thought out presentation on building a defensive system in an online Coaches Clinic. 

Here are highlights: 

"Make life difficult for the offensive player."

Defense has rigid principles, offense allows more freedom.

Individual responsibility helps define who is doing their job. "Be able to defend at least 2 positions."

Apply ball pressure while maintaining ball-you-basket principles. He could not have repeated this more. 

His teams deny one pass away with one hand in the passing lane and "no middle" mandate. 

He prefers to push to the weak hand when possible; he uses terminology ball side and help side. He believes saying weak side makes defenders less focused. 

Prepare to jump to the ball during transition on-ball to off-ball defense. Everyone must immediately adjust on the pass (shell drill for examples). Closeout implies transition from off-ball to on-ball defenseHe opines that closeout is "most important skill," 
with sprinting to short steps.

Tactical decision depends on the receiver's skill (first, deny direct drive unless great shooter). Second rule to contest shot, he prefers one hand up (impede shooting mechanics). If the dribbler penetrates, he wants no middle (even top players are less efficient baseline).



 For help on the driver, he prefers to stop penetration with two hands up and rotation (help-the-helper) is responsible for bounce passes. 

Communication: first helper calls "ball." 

Box out on help side is critical because of both frequency (70 percent) and degree of difficulty.

Communication: defender calls "shot." 

For defensive rebounding he teaches "hit and get" approach (contact offensive rebounder first with forearm.)

Ball containment is a must. Push to sideline/corner as part of "close the middle" philosophy (above). Disallow face cuts (with proper jump to the ball), just as offensively he wants face cuts. 

Lagniappe: Building your range (via Alan Stein, Jr.)



Lagniappe 2: A multifaceted drill that we could modify for shooting, closing out