Hollywood Squares by Caroline Ma
4+
This drill is focused on defenders and their ability to shut down the “open under” when guarding a cutter.
Setup:
Two lines of cones are laid out, roughly 5m away from each other. Within the lines, the cones are also roughly 5m apart. The thrower, A, marked by D1 sets up in line with one line of cones. These cones represent the open side. The attacker, B, and defender, C, start at the first cone of the other line.
Rotation:
D1 > A > C > B
Step 1
- B begins with a side step to the middle cone. C aims to mirror their movement while also thinking about their buffering and defensive priorities (open side under).
Pre-Requisite Drills:
Tips:
Caroline Ma says:
Have all participants run at around 70% for one or two iterations in order to understand the patterns and footwork.
C can start buffering early because they know where B will turn. It should be easy to stop the cut in the first few iterations.
Remind C to continue defending all the way until B reaches the cone.
If your group is skilled at this, you can eventually remove the top cone. The cutter can cut under at any point on that straight line to the opposite middle cone. This will require more anticipation and provides more game realism for the defender.
Running this drill on both sides is great for helping participants practice turning to different sides and getting defenders looking over different shoulders.