The Right Way to Closeout & Contest
WHat is the sprint stop closeout?
Traditionally, closing out to a shooter has always been taught with the terms “high hands” and “choppy feet” meaning as you are closing out you break your feet down, and shoot both hands in the air. Still today many coaches and programs are coaching closeouts using this methodology. However, if you actually breakdown the film of high level defenses that are able to defend the three point line, you won’t see high hands and choppy feet. Rather, you will see defenders using what is becoming commonly known as a “sprint stop closeout.”
Like its name suggests, a sprint stop closeout is when a defender sprints out to the player receiving the pass and rather than chopping his feet and breaking down, he comes to a sudden one-two stop with a high hand within arm’s reach of the ball.
Why the Sprint Stop?
When asking the question of why sprint stop closeouts as opposed to traditional closeouts, it is important to remember the goal of a closeout. The goal of every closeout is to eliminate or deter the catch & shoot opportunity, typically resulting from a drive and kick situation.
Contrary to popular belief, high hands are not what deters a catch & shoot. What deters a catch & shoot is a lack of air space for the shooter. This is why sprinting to cover as much ground as possible until you are within arms length of the shooter (close enough to tag him) is more effective than chopping your feet to breakdown. Ideally, you close the air space before the shooter can get the ball above his eyes.
Secondly, traditional closeouts try and stop both the catch & shoot (high hands) and the drive (choppy feet), when in reality it fails to do either. Any good shooter will simply rise up and shoot over high hands, especially if given space, and chopping your feet with your hands above your head is not an athletic position to defend against the dribble drive. Rather, we should seek to take away the highest value shot with our closeout, that being a catch & shoot three. That is why sprinting to take away air space is critical to eliminating that shot, and forcing the player to put the ball on the floor to take the lower valued mid range or attack the second line of your defense.
Traditional closeouts give the offensive player space - space to shoot or space to attack. Therefor, we are being forced to react to the offensive player. By sprinting to take away air space, before coming to a one-two stop (which naturally puts you in an athletic position), we all but eliminate the shot option, forcing the offensive player to react to us and put the ball on the floor.
How to Sprint Stop Closeout?
Without getting overly complicated, there are three things that ensure an effective sprint stop closeout; sprint to eliminate air space before coming to a one-two stop, be close enough to tag the offensive player without over closing out (arms length away), and be sure take away 2 of the offensive player’s 3 options. Those 3 options being the shot, the dribble drive left, and the dribble drive right. We want to ensure our closeout eliminates the catch & shoot three first and foremost, and we want to be sure we are forcing the ball where our defensive principles suggest (by angling our foot angles). If you play a pack line system, you want to take away the shot and the baseline drive. If you are a “no middle” defense, you again want to take away the shot but also angle your feet to eliminate the middle drive.
Up to this point we have mainly talked about our feet, but what are we doing with our hands. I really love the concept of “sticking the shooter’s face” which I picked up from Wake Forest Assistant Coach and Tony Bennett disciple, Matt Woodley. With our inside hand (the hand that would be our denial hand), we are “sticking the shooter’s face” on the catch meaning that hand goes in front of the offensive players face. Sticking his face with your inside hand will also keep you at the right closeout distance (arm’s length) naturally.
Are we leaving our feet to contest the shot?
In the event the offensive player does rise up to shoot off the catch, are we leaving our feet to contest the shot? Yes, we are leaving our feet to contest the shot at the highest point, but we are jumping second. This means we are leaving our feet second, after the offensive player has already left the ground and initiated his shot.
How to work it into your practice plan?
In my opinion, coaches and teams spend way too much time working on closeouts in 1 on air drills that don’t translate to game situations. The best way to work on your sprint stop closeouts in game-like situations is through 1 on 1 drills, where the defender is starting from a help position and being forced to closeout on the pass. A great example of this would be playing 1 on 1 from a single side tag situation where the defender is forced to tag a rolling big (coach) before having to closeout to the shaking player lifting from the corner. Some other ideas for 1 on 1 from help include helping from the nail (one pass away), helping from a post dig, helping from the low man on a skip pass, etc.