A very common warm up drill in basketball is the fast break drill. After a dynamic warm up, my teams always move into the fastbreak drill or other active movement shooting drill. The goal is to take their warm muscles and push them to a full paced sprint while simultaneously getting the minds focused on the fundamentals of basketball: rebounding, passing, defense, full speed dribbling, and quality decision making. In this post, I describe the 3-on-2 to 2-on-1 fast break drill.
Objective of a Fastbreak:
When a team is transitioning from defense to offense and has their opponent outnumbered this is considered a fastbreak or transition offense. The key objective is to get a high percentage shot and have more rebounders in position than your opponent to secure any missed shot. The best shot is a lay up, but a transition offense is also successful when a wide open foul line or 3-point shot is attempted or the ball rebounded for a quick put back. Let work through a fast break drill that can be used to develop a transition offense.
Player Positioning:
This drill uses three offensive players and two defensive players. The offensive players start with one under the basket for a short rebound and two players at the elbows. The defensive players start from the wing positions on the 3-point line.
The coach has the basketball anywhere on the court, but usually near the foul line or 3-point line.
Drill:
The drill starts with the coach shooting the basketball. The offensive players move to get the rebound (any offensive player can get the rebound). A fastbreak is started by the rebounder passing the ball ("outlet pass") to the wing position. If the coach makes the shot, the offensive team should quickly take the ball out of bounds and pass the ball to the wing at the sideline. In this example, the coach misses and O2 secures the rebound and O3 moves to the ball side wing to receive the outlet. To make this a game situation drill, the defensive players (D1 and D2) cannot move until the outlet pass occurs and the recipient of the outlet cannot be farther down the court than the top of the 3-point line.
The next step is to get the ball into the middle of the court and to fill the wing position ("fill the lanes"). This is done by O3 passing the ball to O1 near the top of the key and then O2 and O3 hustling down on each side the court. O1 dribbles the ball down the middle and O2 and O3 stay wide (outside the cones). When the wings reach the foul line extended (outside the cones) they redirect their path to take a 45 degree angle toward the backboard to give themselves a good angle for a lay up. As the ball handler (O1) reaches the top of the key, he checks the defense to determine which side they are favoring and passes the ball to the other side. In this case, O1 passes to O2 for the lay up.
Once the 3-on-2 break lay up occurs, then the drill turns into a 2-on-1 break the other way. The two defenders are now on offense and the offensive player at the top of the key (O1) now becomes the defender. Once again, the rebounder passes the ball to his teammate positioned on the ball side wing (D1 passes to D2) and the break starts. In this case, D2 stays wide on this side of the court and D1 fills in the other wing position (outside the cones), while O1 hustles back to the 3-point line to play defense. The wing with the ball (D2) dribbles as far down the court as possible till the defender (O1) picks him up and passes the ball to his teammate for the lay up.
When this break is completed, the two original wing players (O2 and O3) become the new defenders and three new offensive players come out on the court. The coach gets the ball, shoots, and the drill starts again.
Key Fundamentals:
Now that we have the drill mechanics, let work through the details that need to be emphasized. When first teaching a team this fast break drill, the coach may consider running this drill at three quarters speed a couple of times so the players learn where they need to be positioned. Once the players know the positioning, this drill needs to be run at full speed, just like a game: quick outlets, quick ball movement to the middle, quick lane filling, and aggressively going for the lay up.
Key points for the 3-on-2 break:
- Secure the rebound: A fast break cannot start until the team secures the rebound. Every player must box out in order to get the rebound. This is the motivation behind starting the drill by letting any of the offensive players rebound the ball. Since the coach is shooting 15 to 20 feet jumpers, there will be a large number of long rebounds that the players starting at the elbows need to secure.
- Outlet to the ball side sideline: A very common mistake made both in practice and game is for the outlet pass to be made into the middle of the court. Astute defenders will steal this pass for easy lay ups.
- Get the ball to the middle: Offensive teams want to start with the ball in the middle so that in one pass the ball can move to either the left or right wing. If the ball is brought up on one side of the court then it will take either one very long pass or two shorter passes to get to the opposite wing. The long pass has a high probability of being intercepted and two short passes take to long. A fast break is only a one or two second player number mismatch. Speed of execution can give a team more players on their offensive end, but only for a very short time.
- Shorten the pass in the middle: The offense wants the ball in the middle, but the middle can be a congested with several players. To shorten the pass to the middle, the player receiving the middle pass needs to take one or two steps toward the passer to shorten the length of the pass in congestion. This also is where astute defenders will intercept a pass to stop a break.
- Get wide when filling the lanes: The two players running the sidelines need to be wide, five feet from the sidelines. To keep one defensive player from guarding two offensive players, the offense must spread the court. When the players are wide, it is easier for them to get a good 45 degree angle as they turn toward the basket to receive the pass for a lay up.
- Middle ball handler never goes below the free throw line: Just like requiring the wings to be wide for floor separation, the middle ball handler should never go below the free throw line unless they are driving all the way to the basket. By staying behind the foul line, the two defenders cannot just drop into the middle of the key and defend all three offensive players. If the defenders drop into the key to guard the wings cutting to the basket, the middle ball handler should shot the foul line shot. The fastbreak was successful because you got a good open shot with a player numbers mismatch and if the shot misses, there is a high probability of an offensive rebound.
- Read the defense: When the ball handler reaches the top of the key, they need to read how the defense playing. They have two options: 1) if the defense is sagging back toward the basket then they should shoot the jump shot and let the two wings cutting to the basket rebound if the ball misses, 2) if the defense is putting pressure on him then there is a two-on-one situation with the cutters, determine the side that the back defender is shading toward and pass the ball to the wing cutting on the opposite side.
- Do not put the wing in a charging situation: It is the responsibility of the ball handler at the top of the key to not put the cutting wing in a situation where they will be called for a charge. The wings are running at top speed toward the basket, do not pass the wing the ball if the defender is standing directly in his line to the basket. In this case, pass the ball to the other side.
Key points that are unique to the 2-on-1 break:
- Bring the ball up one side: The 2-on-1 break is different than the 3-on-2 break in that the ball handler wants to bring the ball up on one side. By bringing the ball up one side, it increases the separation between the two offensive players and increases the difficulty of one defender guarding both players.
- Decision time at the top of the key: When the ball handler reaches the extension of the top of the key, they need to decide if they are going to drive all the way to the basket or pass to their teammate. Their first choice is to drive to the basket. It is only if the defender is guarding them at this time do they pass the ball to their teammate. Why does the decision need to be made this far from the basket? Once the ball handler crosses this point, both offensive players are starting their angle toward the basket that reduces the player floor separation and makes it easier for one defender to guard to players.
Advanced Options:
A couple advanced options to increase the game realization are:
- For the 3-on-2 break, allow the defenders to intercept the outlet pass or the pass to the middle. In the original drill, we required the defenders to stay still until the outlet pass was made. In this variant, allow the defense to only move forward (toward the rebounder) once the rebound is secured. This will require the offensive players to make smart and quick decisions at the start of the break. It will also force the wing and middle player to learn how to get open to receive the outlet pass.
- For the 3-on-2 break and 2-on-1 break, place a defender in the middle of the key to rebound the coach's shot and guard the initial outlet pass. The easiest way to slow down a transition offense is to pressure the rebounder and slow down the initial pass. For the 2-on-1, have the defender that guarded the 3-on-2 outlet pass stay in the middle of the key (he does not run the floor) and play defense within a couple feet of the basket. This will force the two offensive players coming back up the court to take a short jump shot or make a second pass back to the other side for a lay up.
Most players enjoy fastbreak drills and they are a good way to start practice. The dynamic warm up loosens the muscles and slightly increases the heart rate. A good fast break drill elevates the heart rate and provides a conditioning element to the start of practice. It also helps the players start to focus on their dribbling, passing, defense, and decision making.
Try this drill in your practice and leave me a comment on how it turned out.
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