4-out 1-in, and why one corner is empty
Basketball · Attack · 5 of your players
Point guard at the top of the key, a wing on each side, a shooter in the right corner, and the fifth player on the left block. Three-quarters of the floor is open and there is still someone to throw it to inside.
Opens on a basketball pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
The alignment on the floor
Four players outside the three-point line — the point guard at the top of the key, a wing on each side above the free-throw line extended, and a shooter deep in the right corner — with the fifth on the left block. The ball starts at the top.
The empty left corner is not an oversight. The post is on that side, and leaving the corner below him open gives him room to work into and a clean angle to be fed from the left wing. Fill both corners and you have crowded the one player who needs space the most. The corner that is filled is the far one, and it is filled because it drags a help defender to the opposite side of the lane, which is the difference between a post catch and a double team.
Why a coach chooses it
Choose it when you have a genuine inside player and do not want to give him up for spacing. A 5-out alignment is cleaner to drive into, but it teaches nothing about playing with your back to the basket and it gives you one offensive rebounder at best. This keeps a target on the block, a passing angle from two wings, and still leaves the right side of the lane empty for a drive or a cut.
It asks for one thing you may not have: a post who can catch and finish against contact. If he cannot, the shape stops being an offence and becomes four players passing around a stationary fifth.
Details worth a whole practice
- The post relocates when the ball moves. Draw him from the left block across to the other side as the ball is reversed, then animate it. A post who stands still is guarded by one defender all night.
- Every drive has an exit. Send the point guard past the left wing and mark where the corner shooter and the post both go. Two players moving off one drive is the habit.
- Feed from the wing, not the top. Draw both entry passes side by side. The one from the top crosses a defender and the one from the wing does not, and players believe the picture faster than the explanation.
Load 4-out 1-in on the half court and draw your own entry, your own post-up and the two cuts you want behind it.
Also known as
- four out
- post play
- motion offence
- block
Shapes to look at next
5-out
Attack · 5 players
All five outside the three-point line — both corners, both wings and the top of the key — so the lane is completely empty to drive or cut into. The spacing motion offence most youth programmes start with.
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High pick and roll
Attack · 5 players
Ball handler above the arc on the right with the screener stepping up to meet him, both corners filled and the weak-side wing lifted. The three spacers keep help defenders a pass away from the roll.
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Horns
Attack · 5 players
Two bigs at the elbows, two shooters in the corners, the ball at the top of the key. Every horns action — the double drag, the flare, the elbow entry — starts from exactly this picture.
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1-2-2 zone
Defence · 5 players
One up top, two on the wings and two low. Pressures the ball higher than a 2-3 and invites the pass into the middle, where the two low defenders are waiting.
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1-3-1 zone
Defence · 5 players
One at the point, three across the middle — two wings plus a defender in the heart of the lane — and one on the baseline. Traps hard in the corners and takes away the high post.
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2-3 zone
Defence · 5 players
Two guards at the free-throw line extended over three across the baseline. Protects the paint and the boards, and asks the offence to beat it from outside.
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Put the 4-out 1-in on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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