Youth Basketball Warmup Drills: Defensive Slide

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson and what we want to talk about right now, is we are going to work on just kind of breaking down our defensive stance a little bit. And we're going to take this drill through, at both slow speed, and then at game speed, to really work on the mechanics of defense. The first time we're going to do this, we're going to work real slow on our defensive slides. So what we're going to have our players do is we want to really work on and focus on getting wide steps and staying on our toes. So as they take a step, you don't want to take baby steps. You want to reach out there and really take big steps and stay low on your stance. So we're going to do this real slowly. We're going to work on the defensive slide. Now it's not just your feet when you're playing defense; you want to also work with your hands, as well. So not only do we want to take a big step, we want to use this front arm to pull us along so that we can get good momentum on our defense. We want to use our off hand to dig the ball on defense. You don't want to slap down on top of the ball. That's how you get fouls. You want to pop the ball up from the bottom. So first we're going to have these guys go through real slowly, and when they get to each different spot here, and they're going to switch, you want to drop step and you want to rip back. And I always have them make a noise so that they really enthusiastically drop on that step. So, "Yah!" You want to really rip it. And then you're going to go slow this way. And then, "Yah!" And you're going to spin back. You're going to rip that elbow through and that's going to give you leverage as you're playing defense. So let?s go through it real slow here. Good. "Yah!" Good. Drop step. "Yah!" Good. "Yah!" Good. "Yah!" All right go ahead and stop. Let?s go ahead and switch over here. And the second time through, we usually have them go down, walk across, and go ahead and come slow back. And then we're going to show you how we do this in fast speed. Good. "Yah!" Open up. Good. "Yah!"Good. "Yah!" "Yah!" We got one really enthusiastic player; couples that are a little sleep this morning. All right, good. "Yah!" Let?s go ahead and sprint it over here. Now the second time that we go through this drill, we always do it fast. And this is where you don't want to lose your focus. You want to still, even though you're going fast, you still want to get good wide stances, and you want to make sure and stay on your toes as you step out, and we don't want to cross our feet here. So this is how it's done at a fast speed. Ready, go. "Yah!" Good. "Yah!" "Yah!" Good, stay on your toes. "Yah!" Stay on your toes. "Yah!" Good, walk it on across, walk it on across. Go ahead back. Go ahead back. "Yah!" Good. Wide, stay wide, stay low, stay wide. Good. This is how we work on our defensive slides at a game speed and also at a slow speed."