3 Line Closeouts

Good man to man defense begins with the ability to get a good closeout on every catch. Closeouts are the single most important aspect of good man-to-man defense. Because of this closeouts should be practiced every day.

The ability to have multiple closeout drills keeps the players from getting bored in practice by doing the same thing over and over again. I try to use each closeout drill no more than one time every week during the season. I do not care to use the same closeout drill week after week but I try to constantly change the closeouts drills so the players are never getting tired of doing the same drill.

This drill is a good closeout drill to get every player a bunch of closeout reps in a short amount of time during practice. 3 players are able to closeout at the same time during the drill. And with 12 players in the drill, the drill should never slow down or stop. With 12 players, each player should be able to get about 10-20 closeout reps in about 5 minutes. This is being really efficient with practice time.

The drill has 6 lines. 3 line are offensive and 3 lines are defensive. The offense has lines on both wings and one at the top of the key. The 3 defensive lines are around the basket paired up with the offensive lines.

The drill has all 3 offensive lines doing the same moves at all times to keep rotations easy and to keep players spaced apart so they are not running into each other. By having the offense all move the same way the movement of the offense keeps the drill running smoothly.

The offense will do one of 3 movements. These are staying in the same spot as a catch and release shooter. Or taking 1 or 2 dribbles to the left or right. Those 3 movements are shown in the diagram above. The right line is not moving on the catch. The middle line is dribbling to the right. And the left line is dribbling to the left.

When the offensive player is not moving then the drill is as follows. The defender passes the ball to the wing and does a closeout. The offensive player catches and simulates a shot. After the closeout, the defender stays and goes to the offensive line they closed out to. Each offensive player takes the ball and moves to the defensive line to the right. So, the 3 defensive players move to offensive lines and vice versa after each rep. The defense stays in the same line and the offense moves to the right. The right line moves across the floor to the left line because there is not a line on their right side.

When the offensive player dribbles, then the offensive lines moves in the same direction as the dribble takes them. The defensive stays in the offensive line they closeout to. When dribbling right, the offense will move to the defensive line to their right. When dribbling left, the offense will now move to the defensive line to their left. This keeps rotation quick and easy making the drill get as many closeout reps as possible.

This drill is quick. It is easy. And it is a great drill to do right at the beginning of the defensive portion of practice. I use this drill to help the players understand we are transitioning from what we were doing to the defensive portion of practice. This quick 5 minute drill gets the players to change or adjust their thinking before moving into more complex defensive drills.

I really like to use this drill when we have a smaller defensive portion of practice because of the amount of reps it gets each player. So even though the practice did not do a lot of defensive work, the players still feel like we covered a lot of defense because of the sheer number of reps each player will get during the drill.

The ability to have a bunch of closeout drills and be able to rotate them a lot keeps players from growing bored of practices. This is one closeout drill that you can use among many others. I hope you find this drill useful for your teams.