Basketball: Defender in the Middle

All players love shooting, so reward your team with this shooting skills session as we aim to improve their lay-up and offensive rebound shooting!

The person in the middle will receive the basketball from the player on the side, once the person in the middle has the ball they will throw it straight back to the same person.

They will then turn to the other side and repeat this.

They will continue to repeat this until they reach the half way line.

Once they get to the half way line the players on the side lines will turn and dribble back.

Once they get around 20 feet away from the basket, one at a time they will perform a "give and go" or 1-2 pass for a lay-up.

Players are stood in each corner of the court with two players stood in the center circle. On the coach's signal players 1 and 2 start dribbling before passing to players 3 and 4 respectively who return the pass.

Players 1 and 2 then dribble further before passing to players 5 and 6 and moving towards the elbow of the free throw line to receive the return pass from players 5 and 6. They then immediately pass to the players 7 and 8.

Players 1 and 2 should now replace players 5 and 6.

Split the class into groups of 6. With 3 defenders and 3 attackers. One team starts with the ball and is attacking the basket, with the other team defending. If the defenders get the ball then the roles are reversed.

Players set up a circle with one defender in the middle and one ball per group.

The players on the outside of the circle must pass the ball and try to keep it away from the defender.

The defender stays in the middle until they steal or deflect the ball. When that happens, the pass who threw the pass will become the next defender.