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KG’s Weekly Newsletter · Jul 17, 2026

KG's Weekly Newsletter

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Kurt Guelsdorf · KG’s Weekly Newsletter

Happy Friday Coaches!! It’s a BEST OF this week! NIKE EYBL Vegas in the books! On to NIKE Nationals July 24-27.

This week’s shout out goes to Mackenzie Lynn Head (Novak), Assistant Women’s Coach at the Air Force Academy. Daughter of Doug Novak, Mackenzie has started a newsletter on the Doug Novak Basketball site and it’s great stuff! Check it out here: Coach Mac Links.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

-Angela Duckworth

This week is a BEST OF!! OFFENSE-DEFENSE-SPECIAL TEAMS! The big 3! I’ll go back in the archives today and pull up three of my favorite segments from Volumes 1-187!

Let’s Go!!

  1. OFFENSE: Dribble Drive has been my go-to conceptual offense since 2014. I’ve tinkered and tweaked and made it my own over time. VOLUME 36 was ALL DDM! Go here if you want to check out the full volume: V36 Here’s an excerpt on the basics of my DDM Philosophy:

    Basic Alignment: The original dribble drive was a 4 out-1 in alignment with a slot PG, two corner wings, a trailer PG, and a post opposite. There can be many tweeks to this alignment with O5 getting higher and wider, O4 going short corner and other wrinkles as you and your team get more advanced in DDM. 5-out is another option to apply dribble drive principles.

    PHILOSOPHY: Coach Walberg wanted to create DOUBLE GAP and sometimes TRIPLE GAP drives to attack. Layins and 3’s are the GOAL. Great spacing is VITAL. Gaps refer to the area between the ball and a teammate.

    DDM Terminology: RACK ZONE, DROP ZONE, DRAG ZONE, and BREAKDOWN ZONE

    Emphasis is on getting to the RACK. In the BREAKDOWN ZONE players look to attack the defender and get to the rack. If players can’t get to the rack we now look for backdoors, kick ups or kick backs. The DROP ZONE is the area to deliver the backdoor from, the DRAG ZONE is the area we look for skip passes and directly behind “drags.”

    Basic Movements and terminology: Kick ups-kick backs-drops

  2. DEFENSE: The 1-2-2 press has been a favorite of mine for many years. It can be an up-tempo max pressure press, and can be a tempo control 3/4 and 1/2 court system.

    During the install process we will work 5-10 minute blocks. MAX pressure, 3/4 pressure and 1/2 court pressure. I believe in the WHOLE-PART-WHOLE method of teaching the press.

    Diagram 1: Show basic alignment. Pressure on the ball. Shade slightly to take away backside and encourage pass to the strong side corner. Get tips. x2 and x3 pick up in their area. x2 gets top hip and pushes to the corner if possible. On inbound pass, x5 sprints to trap (careful of a straight line here to avoid the split of the trap). x3 shoots the gap, x4 is on a rope with x3.

    This is our MAX PRESSURE version of the 1-2-2.

    RULES: On ball 90 degree trap, take away vision, no foul. Off ball NO SIDELINE NO MIDDLE. Read offensive player. On ball reversal we sprint at 45 degree angle to next level. On pass backward we zone up again at the next level. On pass forward we trail/tip, looking to either match up or find a “free” trap along the sideline vs. a team that doesn’t attack to score. (short clips of the beginning of our install)

We utilize the quarter system to help players position themselves and a numbered zone system to designate our pick up points.

Diagram 2: Quarter system and Zone Pick Up Points. Ball on outside quarter, all 5 players should be on that side of the middle line. Ball in inside quarters, all 5 players should be in the inside quarters. 4 zone is full court, 3 zone is 3/4 court, 2 zone is half court, 1 zone is top of key.

Diagram 3: Adjustment to cover slant cuts. x3 stays home and covers middle. On reversal all players sprint at 45 degree angle to reset the press at the next level.

We would practice the full court, 3/4 court, and 1/2 court versions of this press in 5-10 minute blocks. Follow up with breakdowns of the middle, sideline, and trap coverages.

I love how versatile the press is. It can be a max pressure, down 10 with 4 minutes to go press, or a tempo control, slow down the opponent fast break type press.

For a detailed breakdown of all my presses go here: PRESS

  1. SPECIAL TEAMS: DEEP CORNER Baseline Sets: A hard place to get a bucket, and sometimes a challenge to get the ball inbounded. This set is a good one for a safe entry and a couple of good scoring options:

    • Run from an OUTSIDE box alignment this set uses screens and cuts to create rim pressure followed by screen the screener action for your best shooter. The SLIP option vs switch or zone is another wrinkle to this DEEP CORNER baseline out of bounds play.

    • O3 goes first off a diagonal from O2.

    • O2 flips their hips and sets a second curl screen for O4

    • O5 cleans up O2 for STS action.

    • O5 slips vs a switch

    _____________________________________________________________________

    Please hit the subscribe button for the NEWSLETTER and also on my

    YouTube for some Dribble Drive content, special situations, and tons of other stuff. I’m low on tech but hopefully high on content.

    GOOD LUCK COACHES!!

Read the original on kurtguelsdorf.substack.com ↗

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