Teaching Team Defense With Whole Part Whole Concept

Introducing a team concept like man to man defense takes preparation and planning. By using the whole-part-whole concept, players can see the entire defense first to grasp the main idea. Once this has been accomplished the parts can be introduced one at a time. By putting the team defense back together all parts begin to make sense. I highly recommend the whole-part-whole style of teaching basketball.

Man to man defense is an excellent way to using the whole concept of teaching. Here are the steps to follow with your team;

1. Show the whole concept first on the floor with just 5 players so they can seen firsthand how a 5 players look as a defensive unit.

2. Carefully and slowly have players walk through all of the slides and situations that can occur in the half court.

3. Have the defense defend some half speed offensive possessions. Go slow enough to coach them through each pass and movement.

4. Break the defense down into individual parts and drill each of these.

5. Put the parts back together and play full speed in the half court.

As soon as you play it live, you will scurry back to #1 or #2. Defensive slippage is huge at all levels, but even more at the elementary and junior high levels. An example of teaching a part of man to man defense is the flat triangle concept. The flat triangle is a term to describe the shape formed between the defender, his man, and the ball.

The best way to teach this concept is to take string and have the player with the ball and your man hold it...this represents the "line of the ball." By the way, just another term we use loosely that we expect our players to instantly grasp!!! Wrong, they are thinking about playing X Box in an hour when practice is over.

Extend the string to allow the defender to hold the string also. If he is one step off the line of the ball, the shape the string takes will be a flat triangle.

I've done this with many college teams to drive home the terminology and the idea of how this works into team defense.

Moving too fast with your team is a characteristic of poor coaching. Pieces of basketball must be broken down, explained and practiced. A coach cannot afford to assume their players know how to execute the many parts of the game. By using the Whole-Part-Whole method you will help your players see the game in a different, less confusing way. In the end, execution on the floor will be the by product of teaching basketball in this organized manner.

I encourage you to take the big teaching concepts and breaking them down into their smallest form. Perfecting the part will make your team tough to beat on both ends of the floor. Take this concept and apply it this season to with your team for excellent results.



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