Swarm Defense Concept Level 1 Drills / Swarm Defense Concept Level 2: Middle Release

Written by Coach Peterman

I have coached at the NCAA Division 2 (Southwestern Oklahoma State University), NAIA (USAO), and JUCO Levels (Blinn College and Carl Albert State College) as well as high school. I just felt that fellow coaches especially young coaches need to constantly work on their “game”. Just like the basketball players that we coach. We as coaches need to improve ourselves. That is my story and why I do this blog.

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Basketball Coaching | Basketball Coaching Clinic Notes

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December 21, 2013

Swarm Defense Concept Level 1 Drills / Swarm Defense Concept Level 2: Middle Release

This basketball article is an introduction to Coach Wayne Walters SWARM defense, and his excellent DVDs that detail this defense. Coach Wayne Walters is the Founder and Director of SWARM Enterprises, the creator of the SWARM Defense and a veteran of over thirty years of coaching both genders from Junior High to Junior College. Coach Walters is the former Head Men’s Coach at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. His last four teams at the JC level forced over 30 turnovers per game without pressing using the SWARM Defense on the way to four straight Championship game appearances.

In this article, I will give you a breakdown on this very intriguing defensive system. I have used this defensive system with some of my girls basketball teams at the high school and have found it to be very effective as a half court aggressive defense. Here are the concepts of the Swarm Defense that I have gathered from notes and his Swarm DVD’s. You have to check out these Swarm Defense Concept Level 1 Drills.

The 10 Commandments of the Swarm Defense / Swarm Defense Concept Level 1 Drills
1. The defense dictates to the offense…..Defense is an action not a reaction.
2. We must communicate with our teammates at all times.
3. We force and stuff penetration as a team and challenge all shots…only great teams do both.
4. The open man with the ball is more important than your man without it.
5. You can never help too early or too often.
6. Hustle, blocking out and communication and taking charges are a matter of heart and desire.
7. Weak side players must be ON THE LINE and post players must be in FULL FRONT.
8. We only accept aggressive mistakes
9. Play as hard as you can for as long as you can
10. Defense creates offense and wins championships

Swarm Defense Concept Level 1 Drills

Coach Walter’s uses a series of drills to teach his Swarm Defense Level 1 concepts, but the main drill is his Chair drill. The following diagrams will illustrate this key drill in teaching his Swarm concepts. (One of his main Swarm Defense Concept Level 1 Drills)

1. Chair drill
a. Ball at Point Rotation
b. Ball at Wing Rotation
c. Ball at Baseline Rotation

Coach Walters puts 5 chairs on the perimeter with a defender at each one. He then uses a coach at the point to initiate the dribble and defensive rotations.

Coach Kevin Furtado Bio: I have coached girls varsity basketball for 22 years at both public and private schools. I have coached in Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky and have collected 369 wins in my career. I have collected basketball clinic notes from 1990 to 2013 that I will be sharing with you.