Five drills that will get your transition game: Up and running. (Basketball).

WITH SO MANY EVENLY matched half court offenses in basketball, it is usually the team that scores the most easy baskets that will come out on top.

While it is easy to tell the players to "Get out and run!", the transition game is a skill that has to be taught and practiced. At Kishwaukee College. we use a set of five drills to implant the transition mindset and accomplish a number of other basics at the same time. They allow us to perfect our:

1. Transition offense - passing, dribbling, screening, and shooting.

2. Transition defense - stopping the ball, getting back on defense, and communicating.

3. Conditioning.

We do not necessarily run all of these drills every day, but almost always use a combination of them.

Drill 1A is a 3-man weave into a 2-on-1. The players set up in three lines outside the baseline. The first three players (1, 2, and 3) move onto the court and execute a 3-man weave (pass and go behind) until the coach blows his whistle.

At this point, whoever has the ball (in this case, #3) will drop it and sprint back on defense, while the two other players execute a 2-on-1 fast-break against defender 3 (Drill 1B).

Teaching points:

1. Defender (3) must sprint back to the lane and prevent the easy bucket.

2. #1 and #2 pass ahead if given the opportunity -- staying wide (outside the lane-lines) to prevent the defender from covering both of the attackers.

Drill 2A is our 11-man break. The diagram shows the initial setup with extra players (the O's) outside the sidelines. The drill starts with three offensive players coming down on a 3-on-2 fastbreak.

The middle man (1), the ball-handler, is allowed to pull up or penetrate, though we prefer him to pass off to a cutting wing and then get to the ballside elbow.

Once the offense scores or a defender comes up with a rebound, the defender outlets to one of the two wings (O's) stepping onto the court (Diag. 2B) and fills the outlet side as the three offensive players head down on a 3-on-2 break.

On each possession, two offensive men must convert to defense as the fastbreak heads the other way. The third offensive man and the non-rebounding defender simply jump in line at the outlet spot.

This is a continuous 3-on-2 in which we often count turnovers for a designated amount of minutes and impose a penalty for mistakes.

Drill 3A is our 5-on-0 secondary break. Five offensive players are spaced around the lane. Whenever a coach yells "Shot!", the players box out imaginary defenders and the coach makes or misses a lay-up, at which point the players will run their own secondary break the other way (Drill 3B).

Once they score, the players transition back to the end at which they started. We then bring on five new players who immediately run the drill, scoring in a different way each time. The groups rotate a few times until we are happy with the execution. If we cannot execute 5-on-0, we obviously cannot expect to perform 5-on-5.

Drill 4A is called cycles. It requires 10 players, five of whom (1-5) start on offense around the lane area. Two defenders (X4 and X5) wait out of bounds on the opposite end of the court, while three defenders (X1, X2, X3) wait out of bounds at the starting end.

The players again move and box out whenever the coach calls "Shot!" and again deliberately misses. The offense then runs its secondary break 5-on-0 to the other end.

On the return trip (Drill 4B), X1 will step in and create a 5-on-1 situation. On the third trip, X4 and X5 will step in as shown to create a 5-on-3.

The offense will transition back and forth in this manner. This is a tremendous continuous drill which entails six trips down the court with the offense going 5-on-0, 5-on-1, 5-on-2, 5-on-3, 5-on-4, and 5-on-5 in transition.

Each trip must end with a made basket, even when a defender comes up with the ball (he must then stick it in). We will then immediately change offense and defense and repeat the drill. After doing the drill two or three times, the players will definitely be winded - just as they probably will be in a game situation.

Drill 5A is called 5-on-5 catch-up. Five defenders align on the free-throw line extended opposite five offensive players spread out on the baseline.

A coach starts the drill by passing to any one of the five attackers, and the offense will transition down the court. Four defenders sprint back on defense, while the defender of pass receiver 3 must sprint to the baseline, then sprint back and pick up his man (Drill 5B).

If the offense is unable to exploit the 5-on-4, we will go to one possession of running our halfcourt offense.