Dr. David Cardenas, a visiting Professor from Spain at UCSB, has a world of knowledge on the game of basketball with a great philosophy on the fast break.

The number one statistic he gave me is that in the World Championships, fast break shots taken after a make are made at a very high percentage! That’s right, teams make a high percentage converting after made field goals. This blew my mind. The only team I could think of that has done this successfully (running off of field goal makes) is coached by Roy Williams at North Carolina.

Dr. Cardenas tells me that the key is execution and constant practice of the details. This must be done daily and correctly. He teaches footwork on taking the ball out of the net and getting out of bounds (very quickly) with strict footwork and releasing the ball with a two handed chest pass or more of a whip pass with the strong hand being prevalent. The point guard must try to get open at the free throw line or further up the floor as quickly as possible. PUSH-PUSH!! Only dribble if the lane is not clear to pass ahead.

Dr. Cardenas also says that there is “slight relaxation” on the part of the opponent for a second or two after scoring and that is when we attack with the PUSH-PUSH philosophy It is important to practice inbounding the ball quickly every day.

5-3-2-1 Push-Push Drill

5321PushPush

  • Frame 1 – Run offense against no defense. When offense scores 5 takes it and passes it to 1 going down the sideline. 1 looks ahead and tries to chest pass it further down the court. We are in a PUSH-PUSH with a possible Yankee ending.
  • Frame 2 – 5 takes the ball out of the net and chest passes to 1. 1 should be at least to free throw line extended. We are now in 5-on-3 and run Yankee.
  • Frame 3 – 5-on-3 until they score or the defense gets the ball on a steal or rebound. They will attack 3 on 2 which will be our 1 and 2 who transitioned back on defense.
  • Frame 4 – 3-on-2 and whoever shoots first is back on defense vs 1 and 2.
  • Frame 5 – We finish the (5-3-2-1) with 2-on-1. The next 5 set up at the other end to start 5-on-0 and continue the drill

Adding Accountability (with Peer Pressure)
The one thing I never did was have some kind of accountability for our team in our 10 to 12 minutes of this type of drill. Today, I would keep track of the number of shots taken and tell the whole team that they had to shoot at least 50% or suffer a consequence such as starting over or sprints at the end of practice.