(Rental)-Open Basketball Practice with John Calipari

John Calipari Basketball Practice

During his Hall of Fame career, Kentucky head coach John Calipari has taken several players with amazing offensive abilities and molded them into multidimensional, well-rounded teammates. Calipari’s ability to do so has led his teams to 30 different conference and conference tournament championships. His 2012 Kentucky team won the national championship and Calipari was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

This outstanding John Calipari basketball practice video allows viewers a unique opportunity to see Coach Cal in his element. With an audience of coaches, Calipari slows down his practices and details how he teaches a number of drills and how he develops players into champions.

Defensive Drills

In the first John Calipari basketball practice of the video, Coach Calipari teaches defense. He begins with the stance and preaches the “big step” which allows defenders to stay in front of a ball handler and level a drive. From the basics, Coach Calipari demonstrates proper closeouts. The ability to closeout and then recover to an open shooter leads into working on disadvantaged situations, 4-on-3 for example.

The Transition Build Up Drill forces athletes to apply four basic principles of basketball: get back, do not allow 3-pointers, sprint on offense, and make reads on offense and force the play on defense. Coach Cal starts with 2-on-1 and then builds to 3-on-2, 4-on-3, and 5-on-4 before eventually going to 5-on-5 full court transition.

The final part of the defensive segment shows players applying their defensive principles in 5-on-5 pick and roll situations. The action is slowed down so that coaches can see how to defend the different actions off of a pick and roll.

Zone Coverage

Assistant coach Tony Barbee steps in at this point to demonstrate the five ways an offense can beat a zone defense and how Kentucky counters to defend those actions. Barbee demonstrates how to teach your guards to play aggressively and with their hands up to force deflections, which can lead to easy turnovers and conversions the other way. Teams will counter with a big mobile post player which forces you to basically play man-to-man inside. Wing players work to take away any easy post passes.

This 170-minute video is a great look at how Calipari and Kentucky practice from day to day. You’ll see how he demands the most from his players and how he teaches individual drills that you can use to improve your program. Rent this John Calipari basketball practice DVD today.