Advanced 4 Cones Defensive Basketball Drill

One of the hardest things to do when playing sports is staying mentally engaged as you begin to get tired. Still, players must develop mental toughness and learn to think even when they are physically fatigued. The advanced 4 cones defensive drill is designed to work on a player’s defense, but it is also a conditioning drill that will force the player to listen to commands and think as they are tired. Hopefully, this will translate into the player being more mentally engaged in late-game situations after a long game.

Along with training the body physically and mentally, this defensive basketball drill will help the player work on specific defensive movements. The movements that will be trained are the closeout, defensive slide, backpedal, and quickly changing from one movement to the other. This is a great basketball drill to do during the beginning of practice or your basketball training.

Basketball Drill Overview

Drill Name: Advanced 4 Cones Defensive Basketball Drill

Equipment Needed: 4 cones and a partner.

Similar Basketball Drills and Resources

• 4 Cones Defensive Basketball Drill
• Lane Slides Defensive Basketball Drill

Goals of the Drill

• Work on different defensive basketball-specific movements and conditioning.

Coaching Points

• Don’t sacrifice form on any of the movements as you get tired; stay locked in mentally.
• React as quickly as you can to the coach’s call, and don’t waste any movements.

Basketball Drill Instructions

• Set up a cone on each elbow and each block to make a square.
• The player will start at either of the cones on the block with their back towards the free-throw line.
• When the drill starts, the player will be in a defensive stance with active feet.
• The coach will call out “turn,” and the player will rotate their right foot back (like they are going to turn) and then back to the starting position.
• This will happen two more times on the coach’s call, but on the third time, the player will open all the way up and closeout to the cone at the elbow.
• As soon as they pass the cone, they will break down into a defense slide to the opposite elbow.
• After they pass that cone, they will backpedal to the block, and as soon as they cross that cone, they will breakdown again into a slide across to the starting cone, which completes the drill.
• However, the coach can call out switch/change at any time, and the player must immediately change the direction that they are going and go the opposite way.

*Depending on the player’s level and conditioning, you can call change 3-6 times, but the drill is over once you let them cross the original starting cone at the end with a defensive slide.