Why Is It So Important to Teach Defense

How To Develop A Great Man-To-Man Defense And Win More Games

Version 1.3

BreakthroughBasketball.com

By Jeff and Joe Haefner

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TTAABLEBLE OOFF CCOONTENTSNTENTS

KEY TO DIAGRAMS ...... 7

THE IMPORTANCE OF DEFENSE ...... 8

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK ...... 12

YOUR FORMULA TO DEVELOP A GREAT DEFENSE...... 14

DETAIL OF “THE FORMULA” – YOUR 12 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE ...... 16 #1 – How and Why You Should Emphasize Defense ...... 17 #2 – How To Develop Intensity and Determination ...... 19 #3 – Tracking Your Statistics and Performance ...... 21 #4 – How To Contain The Ball and Apply Pressure ...... 24 #5 – How to Deny Penetrating Passes...... 44 #6 – How To Establish Good Help Positioning...... 62 #7 – How To Develop Early Help and Quick Recovery...... 77 #8 – How To Secure The Ball ...... 118 #9 – How To Improve Transition ...... 120 #10 – How To Develop Good Communication ...... 121 #11 – How To Develop Quickness and Anticipation ...... 123 #12 – Strive To Improve...... 127

CHOOSING YOUR TACTICS...... 129

BUILDING A MAN TO MAN DEFENSE: THE FOUNDATION ...... 131 Step 1: Get Your Players On Board ...... 132 Step 2: Teach the Defensive Stance and Slide...... 134 Step And Slide Drill...... 134 Step 3: Teach Your Players How to Guard the Ball ...... 137 Partner Sliding Drill...... 137 One on One Drill...... 140 Step 4: Teach Them How to Guard the Perimeter – One Pass Away...... 141 One Pass Away Drill...... 141 Step 5: How to Guard the Perimeter – Two Passes Away...... 143 Basic Shell Drill (Progression 1) ...... 144 Shell Drill – Dribble Drive (Progression 2) ...... 146 Step 6: Teach Your Players How to Guard the Post ...... 150 Shell Drill w/ Low Post...... 152 Post Drill – One on One In the High Post...... 153 Shell Drill – High Post...... 154 Low Post to High Post, High Post to Low Post ...... 155 Transition Drill ...... 155 Shell Drill – Two Offensive Post Players ...... 156 Step 7: Teach Your Players How to Get Back on Defense! ...... 157

Whistle Drill ...... 157 3-on-3 Transition Drill ...... 158 Bringing the Foundation Together...... 159

HOW TO MAINTAIN AND CONTINUE TO TEACH NEW CONCEPTS ...... 161 Close Outs ...... 163 Close Out Drill ...... 163 2-on-2 Closeout Drill...... 165 Shell Closeout Drill ...... 166 Rebounding...... 167 One-on-One Rebounding ...... 167 Shell Rebounding Drill ...... 168 Three-on-Three Block Out Drill...... 169 Defending Cuts – Perimeter & Post ...... 170 1-on-1 Cutting – Top of the Key ...... 170 Fogler Drill ...... 172 Post Cuts – Low Post to High Post, High Post to Low Post...... 174 Post Cuts – Weak Side Post to Ball Side Post ...... 175 Post Cuts - Diagonal Cut: Low Post to High Post...... 176 Post Cuts – Fake High, Go Low Cut...... 177 1-on-1 Live Post Defense Drill...... 177 Defending Screens ...... 178 3 on 3: Doubling Screens ...... 179 Shell Drill: Ball Screens ...... 180 Taking Charges...... 185 Beginner Charge Drill ...... 185 Baseline Drive Charging Drill...... 186 Full Court Charge Drill ...... 187 Top Things to Watch for Within Man to Man Defense...... 188 More Defense Drills...... 190

HOW TO HANDLE GAME SITUATIONS ...... 191

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’S) ...... 204 Importance of Starting from the Beginning ...... 204 Number of Days to Teach Defense ...... 204 Problem With Teaching Multiple Defenses...... 205 Problems Against Weaker Teams ...... 205 Communication and Rotation Problems ...... 206 Time Spent on Defense...... 206 Fouling Issues ...... 207 Teaching Youth Players Defense ...... 208 The Right Defense For You...... 208 Making Things Fun...... 208 Mental Toughness...... 209 Age to Teach Defense...... 209 Youth Basketball: Defense ...... 210 Youth Basketball: Screens ...... 211

Youth Basketball: Pressing...... 211

ADVANCED DEFENSIVE CONCEPTS...... 213 Half Court Traps...... 213 Full Court Man to Man Defenses ...... 216

KKEEYY TTOO DDIIAGRAMSAGRAMS

TTHHEE IIMMPPOORRTTAANNCCEE OOFF DDEEFFEENNSSEE

Defense is one of the most important things you can teach as a basketball coach. All the successful NBA and college coaches are always talking about defense. Teams that win championships consistently have a good defense. Not only do they keep the number of points scored low, but they also make the opponent shoot a low shooting percentage.

If you look at the 2007 NBA Finals, San Antonio and Cleveland have two of the best defenses in the league. San Antonio allowed the fewest points per game during the regular season, while Cleveland allowed the fewest points per game during the playoffs.

Previous NBA champions and their ranking in Defensive Points Allowed Per Game:

2007 NBA Champions – San Antonio 1st in Regular Season 6th in Playoffs

2006 NBA Champions – Miami Heat 2nd in Playoffs

2005 NBA Champions – San Antonio 4th in Playoffs 1st in Regular Season

2004 NBA Champions – Detroit 1st in Playoffs 1st in Regular Season

2003 NBA Champions – San Antonio 2nd in Playoffs 3rd in Regular Season

I’m sure if we continued to look through past champions of the NBA or NCAA, this trend would remain constant.

The bottom line is: DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!!

Defense is something you can control…

As a coach there are a lot of things you can’t control in the basketball world, but defense is something that you can keep consistent day in and day out. For example, sometimes you can’t control how well your kids shoot. Sometimes they’re going to have bad shooting nights, and sometimes they’re going to have good ones. But defense is something you can control.

When you happen to have a bad shooting night, well your defense is there to keep you in the game and give you a chance to win it at the end. That’s the reason that all the great teams play tough defense.

Man-to-Man Defense; Why Should I Use it?

There are pros and cons to man-to-man defense. The nice thing about a man-to-man defense is that it can cover a wide variety of teams that you’re going face. If you are facing a great shooting team, man- to-man defense works well against it. Man-to-man defense covers up the shots, where zone is a little more susceptible to open three-pointers. Man-to-man defense is flexible.

Whether you play man or zone defense, it still involves a man stopping a man. If you can’t guard your man, it doesn’t make any difference what type of defense you are playing.

There is a saying in coaching, “If you can’t play man, you can’t play zone!”

Further, if you take a look at the college game, how often do you see teams running zones? I can assure you that there are very few. There’s a reason that all of the successful college and high school teams are out there running man-to-man defense, because it works.

This leads to another good point:

Let’s say that you’re a youth or even a high school coach and all you teach is zone defense. And let’s say you have a good player or a couple of good players that have a chance of playing college basketball and earning a scholarship. Those players are going to struggle transitioning from a zone defense to a man-to-man defense, because it does take a long time to learn. This may discourage college coaches from recruiting those players compared to players with similar skills that know how to play man-to-man defense. Do you want to be the reason why a player didn’t receive $50,000 or more in scholarships? I sure wouldn’t.

In addition to wondering if a player can go from a zone defense to a man defense, it would be tough for a college coach to evaluate whether an offensive player that plays primarily against a zones can be effective against a man defense as well, especially shooters.

There’s another reason why we only teach man-to-man defense: It has worked great for us and that’s what this book is all about.

Bottom line, whether you play zone, man, press, or junk defense… YOU need to know how to guard and keep people away from the basket by applying man-to-man principles. Everything starts with man- to-man and then variations can be added from there.

Playing Zone Defenses at the Youth Level, Won’t It Win You More Games?

This is a valid argument. As a team, you probably will win more games; however, you’ll be shorting your players in the long run. Once they get to the high school level, these same players won’t be as good as they could have been. Sure, you’ll win a few more youth games, but you’re not doing your players justice, and you’re not doing the right thing for them by teaching zone defense.

The first thing your players have to learn is how to guard people in man-to-man. If they don’t know how to play man-to-man defense first, then they’ll have such bad habits from zone defense that it will make it even harder for them to learn man-to-man defense, so it can really mess them up. A few of those bad habits we speak of are lunging out of position, going for the steal every time and constantly playing out of position.

If you teach a man-to-man defense from the start and apply those same principles to a zone defense, your players will not form those terrible, self-defeating habits. Your zone defense, in return, will be much more effective.

HHOOWW TTOO UUSSEE TTHHIISS BBOOOOKK

What’s covered?

This book covers everything that you need to know about implementing a man-to-man defense. It’s the most complete manual you’ll find anywhere out there. In this book we break everything down into simple steps that you can incorporate into your practice. We take things step by step and tell you exactly what you need to do to be successful and get your team playing great man-to-man defense.

Ultimately, the goal is for you to have a great defense that keeps your opponents’ shooting percentage as low as possible, keeps your opponents’ overall scoring lower, and gets you more possessions. In other words, a defense that gets the rebound after the offense puts up the shot, so they’re “one and done”, meaning you WIN MORE GAMES!!

So that’s what this book is all about. We’re going to cover everything from the defensive stance to the complete man-to-man defensive strategies and techniques that you need to know for your team to succeed.

Are there different types of defenses covered in this book?

Yes, we’ll go over different types of man-to-man defenses, but we will not cover zone defenses. For example, we’ll cover things such as the pros and cons of whether to allow the perimeter pass or deny the perimeter pass, whether you should front the post versus playing behind the post, and forcing players to their weak hand versus forcing them baseline or middle. We’ll discuss different tactics that are important when you’re implementing your defense, how to quickly teach your players these new tactics and implement them as fast as possible. We’ve learned many valuable tricks over the years and are privileged to share them with you!

How should I use this book and get the most from it?

There are two main sections that you should focus on:

1. The Formula 2. The Step-by-Step Instructions (Building a Man-to-man Defense: The Foundation)

We advise that you start by reading the formula. This will enable you to understand the philosophies and secrets to a great defense. There are 12 parts of the formula and each part is important. At the very minimum, you should read and study the first couple of pages of each part of the formula.

Once you have a strong understanding of the formula and the keys to a great defense, you can proceed to the step-by-step section.

This section shows you how to teach each aspect of man-to-man defense. It’s logically organized so that you start with teaching the most essential aspects and set a great foundation.

If you have an experienced high school team, you should be able to go through each step at a pretty quick rate. You might get through the first seven steps in just a couple of days. But you should always start at the beginning each year because it’s a good refresher and allows you to make sure everyone understands the basics.

If you have a youth team with very young players, you’ll want to go through each step much more slowly. It might take you two years to get through the first seven steps. Once your players master each technique, then you can move on to the next step.

YYOOUURR FFOORRMMUULLAA TTOO DDEEVVEELLOOPP AA GGRREEAATT DDEEFFEENNSSEE

Before getting into the details of your defense, we must first agree on a goal. With most challenges in life, it’s important to always “begin with the end in mind”, and it’s no different for this.

Once we’re all on the same page, it will be much easier to teach you how to develop a great defense.

So what is the goal of your defense?

It’s simple:

Do NOT let the other team score!

This is the mentality. That’s the purpose of all the tactics, tips, and drills we’re going to discuss.

ALWAYS keep this goal in mind as you’re teaching defense!

So, how do you stop the offense from scoring?

You must do one of these two things:

1) Force them to take a very difficult, low percentage shot, making it highly unlikely that they will score.

2) Stop the offense from shooting by stealing the ball or causing them to turn it over. (NOTE: We don’t recommend that you emphasize stealing the ball due to the high risk of giving up more points because of being out of position, especially against good teams.)

Ok, now how do you accomplish YOUR GOAL as often and quickly as possible?

This is where our formula for success comes into play.

Based on what we’ve learned from dozens of other coaches, experts, and from our own experiences, we have devised a formula that includes what we believe are the key ingredients to GREAT defense.

In this formula, you’ll find tidbits from many high school, college, and NBA coaches. Essentially, we have just combined everything we have learned into a blueprint that works for us and will work for you.

It is simple and yet includes the best of all worlds. When you study the formula; it will be very obvious why it works so well. It’s both a tactical formula and a philosophical formula that keeps everything in balance.

In order to develop a great defense, we believe you must do ALL of these things:

1. Emphasize defense

2. Develop intensity and determination

3. Track your statistics and performance

4. Contain the ball and always apply ball pressure

5. Deny penetrating passes

6. Maintain good help positioning

7. Provide early help & quick recovery

8. Develop communication

9. Improve anticipation and quickness

10. Secure the ball

11. Get back in transition

12. Strive to improve

Every step revolves around keeping the ball as FAR from the basket as possible. All players must be positioned properly and work together to keep the ball away from the hoop and to force VERY difficult shots.

You must dictate the offense. You decide what you’re willing to give up and allow. Don’t let the offense dictate you.

This 12-part formula might appear simple and it is -- but don’t overlook the power of its simplicity!

It includes both the key tactics to great defense and the key philosophies that will keep everything in balance and ensure that your team reaches its maximum potential!!!

It’s simple enough for you to digest and apply, yet thorough enough to cover the most important aspects to make your defense successful.

We’re sure it will all become clear as you read the details…

DDEETTAAIILL OOFF ““TTHHEE FFOORRMMUULLAA”” –– YYOOUURR 1122 KKEEYYSS TTOO AA SSUUCCCCEESSSSFFUULL DDEEFFEENNSSEE

##11 –– HHOOWW AANNDD WWHHYY YYOOUU SSHHOOUULLDD EEMMPPHHAASSIIZZEE DDEEFFEENNSSEE

If you want to have a great defense that keeps your opponents shooting percentage low, you MUST emphasize defense. There is no way around it!

You can’t go into this half-hearted. You MUST be fully committed to defense the entire year.

By simply emphasizing defense every day in your words and actions, you will GREATLY improve your defense.

It’s a simple, yet powerful, concept that you need to be consciously aware of.

Your players will pick up on what’s important to you. And you can’t fake it. The smart players will work their butts off to earn a starting role on the team

If they truly believe that defense is very important to you, your players will make a mental and physical effort to get better at it.

It’s simply human nature. You are their leader, so be sure that you put emphasis on the right things.

Here’s a fact:

You can’t be good at everything.

So good coaches will strategically decide what they will focus on and become great at it.

For example, Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan stresses passing, defense, taking care of the ball, and half court execution.

Bobby Knight focuses on defense, motion offense, and rebounding.

The San Antonio Spurs focus on defense, half court execution, rebounding, and limiting turnovers.

The Phoenix Suns focus on fast paced running and high-powered offense.

None of the great teams are good at everything. But they are GREAT in a few select areas.

It would be impossible for you to have a team that was great at full court press, man defense, rebounding, passing, fast breaks, half court execution, zone defense, forcing turnovers, junk defenses (Triangle and Two, Box and One), and limiting turnovers. It’s just too much!

So if you want to be great at defense, you must continually focus on defense all season long.

Here are a few tips that will help you effectively emphasize defense:

• Tell your players at the first team meeting that you know who two of the starters are! Tell your players, “The first starter will be our best defensive player. And our second starter will be our second best defensive player.” (That will get their attention!!!)

• Talk about defense every day.

• Start each practice with defensive drills. It’s generally most effective to start with what you consider to be the most important drills. This also sends a message to your players about what’s important to you.

• Spend plenty of time working on defense.

• Talk about defense during games.

• Continually sell your team on the benefits of defense. Give them quotes from great coaches. Give them examples. Tell stories.

• You must follow through. If these are the things you say, you must do them.

• Run drills that reward defensive performance. For example, give points when the defense gets stops, takes charges, and so on. If you preach defense but spend most of your time practicing offensive stuff and only reward players for scoring, they’ll see that you don’t believe in the importance of defense.

This isn’t rocket science. But it’s something that most coaches overlook. And you’ll simply fall short if you don’t incorporate this emphasis into your coaching style.

##22 –– HHOOWW TTOO DDEEVVEELLOOPP IINNTTEENNSSIITTYY AANNDD DDEETTEERRMMIINNAATTIIOONN

90% of defensive execution comes down to three key things:

1 – Positioning

2 – Balance

3 – Intensity

Here, we’re going to discuss intensity.

Intensity is a key ingredient to a great defense. In fact, it’s critically important. You must have great desire to stop your opponent without relaxing for even a second. It only takes one second for your opponent to see a weakness and expose it.

This is why great offensive teams will reverse the ball and show patience on offense. They know that eventually most defenses will break down, loose concentration, and get out of position.

The truth is that playing great defense is hard work!

Even with marginal technique, intensity and determination can make for a great defensive player!

Hustling and working your tail off can get you a long ways. Just look at Ben Wallace. He became an NBA millionaire by becoming a great defensive player. Yeah, he’s a good rebounder, but he certainly doesn’t get paid for his shooting ability!

Your team must maintain a high level of intensity for the entire possession, on every possession.

Have you ever noticed at the end of a close game how some teams can really turn things on and cause lots of turnovers and stops on defense? It makes you wonder where that was the entire game.

Any team can play hard when the game is on the line. But the true champions play hard on every possession. This is very difficult, but it can be done. Just look at the Chicago Bulls (Michael Jordan era), San Antonio Spurs, and past Duke teams.

Develop Habits…

We have found that the best way to maintain intensity is to develop habits. You can develop these habits by emphasizing intensity on day one.

If you can get your players to always go hard in practice when performing defensive drills or playing defense in scrimmages, then they will develop a habit. They will only know how to play hard on defense. They won’t know anything different.

You simply can’t provide that great speech and motivation every single game. It must come from within the players and from habit. Let’s face it, it’s hard for your players to get up for a team that’s not very good. But we all know that any team can win on a given night. If your players have the mindset and the skills ingrained to simply play hard by habit, you’ll be less susceptible to losing those “easy” games.

It’s also hard to get yourself “PUMPED UP” for every single possession for the entire game. That’s another reason that developing the habit of intensity is extremely important.

Make sure your players go hard in every defensive drill and scrimmage!

Talking doesn’t do it.

Intensity has to be handled on the court with consistency, emphasis and by using a reward system. If you reward for good defense, everyone will catch on. Praise is a reward, but playing time is the ultimate hammer. It doesn’t matter what motivates them; you don’t have to yell. Just control the playing time and they will all come around.

##33 –– TTRRAACCKKIINNGG YYOOUURR SSTTAATTIISSTTIICCSS AANNDD PPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE

We believe that it’s very important to keep the correct defensive statistics and constantly evaluate them, just as in any thriving enterprise. Every successful businessperson has to keep track of key performance indicators. They monitor those things so they know if they’re doing a good job or not. The same things apply to your basketball team.

How do you expect to improve your defense if you don’t constantly measure your team’s performance?

The right statistics will tell you if your defense is improving and which areas you really need to work on.

The right statistics also let you set goals for your players to help motivate them to improve.

HOWEVER, you need to be careful because most coaches, players, fans, and people in the media misunderstand statistics and focus on the WRONG things.

Statistics might seem simple, but they can be very confusing and misleading. You must be very careful about coming to the wrong conclusions.

For example, having a low Defensive Field Goal Percentage doesn’t matter if you can’t rebound.

Getting lots of blocked shots doesn’t mean that you have a great defensive player or team. How many easy baskets were given up because the player left his feet?

Getting lots of steals doesn’t mean that you have a great defensive team. How many lay ups did you give up because you were out of position?

It’s important to understand that certain stats like these need to be linked to other stats.

We still firmly believe that you should measure statistics because they help you to set goals, motivate your players, and make strategic decisions, but you must look at the “right” statistics and understand how they relate.

Here’s an explanation of the statistics that relate to defense and what we believe you should track:

Opponents’ shooting percentage vs. your own shooting percentage

Possessions - You need to know who’s getting more possessions—you or your opponent.

Other statistics that help you get more possessions:

o Defensive rebounds o Offensive rebounds o Opponents’ turnovers o Your turnovers o Steals o Blocks

Points Per Game (PPG) –

Some coaches will set a goal and say, “Hey, we want to keep every team we play under 40 points.” Well, that’s not necessarily the best thing to focus on because if you run and gun a lot, you could have a great defense, but the other team scores 50 points because there are a lot of possessions. Instead, you may want to track what’s called points per possession.

Points Per Possession (PPP) –

Points per possession is our favorite defensive statistic for a few different reasons.

As mentioned before, PPG is not always a good indicator if you’re a run and gun team.

Your opponents’ shooting percentage is usually a good indicator of a solid defense, but there are situations where it is not. For instance, perhaps one game you only gave up 33% shooting, but you still lost by 10 points. If you look closer, the opposing team did shoot 10 of 30, but they shot 55 free throws and made 40. Your PPP would show that your overall team defense was average, but the opponent had 15 more possessions due to offensive rebounds.

You may also run into a situation where your points per possession say that you’re playing great defense, but you’re still losing by 15 points a game. The problem may not be with your defense. You may notice that you’re turning the ball over 30 times a game and you’re shooting 30% from the field. So, it isn’t your defense that needs fine-tuning-- it’s your offense.

In 2007, on the men’s college level, the average PPP was 1.021 (or 102.1 points per 100 possessions). Below, we’ve listed the teams that made the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament along with what is called an adjusted rank and a normal rank of PPP. The adjusted rank takes into account the level of competition. The normal rank does not include level of competition in the formula. This is implemented because some teams that play in weaker conferences have a better normal ranking. The teams that play in the stronger conferences will have a better adjusted rank.

Adjusted Rank Rank Ohio State 15 25 Memphis 11 2 UCLA 2 10 Kansas 1 1 Oregon 51 87 Florida 12 14 North Carolina 4 12 Georgetown 20 57

There were 336 teams at the D-1 level last year. In the adjusted rank, every team listed in the chart above is in the top 15% for Defensive PPP. Seven of the eight teams are in the top 6% for PPP! That’s why PPP is a very important statistic for advanced levels of basketball.

If you’d like to see all of the stats and explanations for basketball, go to http://kenpom.com/stats.php

TIP: Arrange for some assistants to track these stats for you. Give them the responsibility and teach them how to do it. You should make these arrangements before your season starts.

If you are coaching players 15 years and older, we highly advise tracking the team’s PPP. For youth coaches, don’t be overly concerned about these statistics. You might want to use them to set specific goals and celebrate small successes (because you can’t always win). But your number one priority is to get them to focus on playing fundamentally sound, team basketball.

##44 –– HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTAAIINN TTHHEE BBAALLLL AANNDD AAPPPPLLYY PPRREESSSSUURREE

Intense ball pressure means that you always have a defender close to the ball and he is harassing the offensive player. The defender should be up close to the ball in an athletic stance and ready to move. He should never let the offense relax.

Why is this SO important?

This is a critical aspect of your defense because it does several things for you:

First, it takes your opponents out of their comfort zone. Would you rather play a team that sags off of you when you have the ball, or play a team that constantly applies intense pressure on you and harasses you until you turn the ball over?

We know that we would much rather play against someone that sags off. You can pop the shot or drive into the defender, get him on his heels, and blow past him!! It’s like taking candy from a baby.

Second, the person with the ball is the ONLY person who can score, so you better make things difficult for him and make it a priority to always stop the ball.

Third, it makes it difficult for your opponent to make good passes. If you sag off of the ball, it’s easy for the offense to make that perfect pass into the post. However, if you apply intense ball pressure, it’s much more difficult to make a good pass that exposes your defense.

Fourth, ball pressure will cause more turnovers and give you more possessions.

Don’t overlook the importance of ball pressure!

Ball pressure is a very subtle thing.

You can go through an entire game and see that your defense just isn’t getting it done. After looking back at the tapes, you’ll often find that it was simply because your ball pressure was a little soft.

It’s very understated, but something that you must constantly watch.

If your players are a shade too far back and complacent, it will be too easy for the offense to make accurate passes and break down your defense.

How to Contain the Ball

It’s pretty obvious that it’s important to contain the person with ball because that’s the ONLY person that can score.

Your primary goal is to keep the ball as far away from the basket as possible.

Dribble penetration is the enemy of your defense. Not only does dribble penetration allow the person to get closer to the basket for an easier shot, but it also makes it much easier for the person with the ball to make an easy pass to someone else that’s close to the basket.

Everything you do on defense is geared around keeping the ball as far from the basket as possible. You want to always keep the ball out of the “danger zone”.

Keeping the Ball out of the Danger Zone

A lot of coaches talk about keeping the ball out of the paint. Well, we don’t completely agree with that because you could catch the ball on the low block and still be out of the paint, but you’re pretty close to the basket. The goal is to keep the offense away from the basket at least ten feet in all angles.

Here is an excerpt from one of our newsletters that helps explain the “Danger Zone” concept:

To help teach your team how to stop penetration and really reinforce the concept, try this...

First, bring a tape measure to practice.

Next, have the kids gather round and choose one person to help you measure 10 feet from the basket. Put tape down in five places, making an arch 10 feet from the basket.

The tape marks show your team where the danger zone is located.

In other words, this is the area where you absolutely never want to allow the ball.

This visual reminder does a couple of important things for you...

First, it helps reinforce the concept of keeping the ball away from the basket. Most coaches use the phrase, "keep the ball out of the paint". However, we don't agree with this because if a player gets a shot in the post area, that's a very high percentage close shot, yet they are still just outside of the paint. Little things like this can confuse players and limit your defense.

Second, the tape marks create a physical and mental barrier for your players. It really helps

them understand what you, as a coach, are trying to accomplish. It also lets them know if they are doing a good job or not. It's easy to tell if the other team gets the ball in the “danger zone.”

Third, this allows you to add some really effective rules that help you improve your defense.

For example, you could add a special scoring system when practicing defense in the half court. You could do something like:

• Every time a player gets a shot in the "danger zone" (made or not), your team loses 2 points. • Every time you take a charge you get 2 points. • Deflections are 1 point.

The trick is to make it a competition to keep the other team out of the danger zone.

You'll be amazed by how much this improves focus, positioning, and your overall defense.

Defensive Stance

In order to stop the ball and deny dribble penetration, you must begin with a good stance.

If you don’t have a good stance, you won’t have a good defensive slide, and you’ll constantly be out of position and off-balance. This will enable the offense to score on you at will. Everything begins with a good defensive stance.

Keys to a Good Defensive Stance:

• Fronts of the Feet – Most of your weight should be on the fronts or balls of your feet.

• Wide Base – Feet should be slightly wider than shoulder width apart.

• Knees Bent – You don’t want your knees pointing out past your toes.

• Knees should point forward, they should not bow out.

• Butt Down – Staying low helps maintain balance.

• Hands up – Depending on the tactic (Hands out or hand up to defend shot/dribble).

• Eyes focused on the player’s waist or chest.

• Upright torso – Chest out and back slightly arched.

• You should be able to draw a vertical line from the front of your forehead thru the front of your knees thru the front of your toes.

• All of this should create GREAT BALANCE.

Improper Defensive Stance – If you lean too far forward or too far backwards, it’s easy to lose balance.

Ball Pressure

Picture 1 Ball pressure is important. It can prevent a player from easily dribbling where he wants to go. It also prevents easy passes. Picture 1 demonstrates the correct distance from the offensive player.

We also like our players to be close enough to cause a 5-second call. This puts a lot more pressure on the offensive player.

You should be close enough to disrupt a quick change of direction dribble (crossover), but not too close that the offensive player will be able to blow right by you (Picture 2). Usually, you should NOT be close enough to touch the opponent’s midsection.

If you are too far away, it’s easy to use a quick change of direction or take an easy shot. (Picture 3)

Picture 2 Picture 3

Defensive Slide

Once the person you’re guarding starts to dribble, you must move with him and try to prevent him from getting near the basket. In order to stop him, you must have good footwork and a proper defensive slide.

Here are a few things to watch for when sliding, in addition to a proper stance:

• Feet should be 12 inches apart at all times. If your feet come together too much, it means that you’re going to lose balance because you didn’t maintain that wide base.

• Feet stay close to the ground – When sliding, your feet should stay low to the ground. This allows for quicker movements, which are needed while playing defense. It allows you to cut and change direction quicker and more easily.

• Head on a level plane – You should not bounce up and down.

How low should the defensive player be?

Something we’ve used and we’ve heard other coaches say is to keep your head lower than the offensive player’s head. That way you’re getting underneath the offensive player and will be in good position to slide your feet or take a charge.

Defensive Drop Step or Swing Step

The Defensive Drop Step, or Swing Step is needed when the offensive player is dribbling down the court and uses a change of direction dribble to make the defensive player slide in the opposite direction. If you cannot do a swing step, the offensive player will blow right by you.

For example, in this picture, the defensive player is sliding to the right while the offensive player dribbles to his left.

In this picture, the offensive player has switched direction. He is no longer dribbling to the left. He is dribbling to the right. The defender then needs to execute a Drop or Swing.

The player plants his outside foot and swings his back foot to start sliding in the other direction. When performing the swing step, it helps to swing your elbow back as well to give you more momentum.

In this sequence, the defensive player was sliding to the right and needed to start sliding to his left, so he planted his right foot and swung his left foot back. He can now continue to slide with his left foot as the new lead foot, as displayed in the picture to the right.

Other factors that play into containing the ball are body positioning, hand positioning, and eye concentration. There are a few different ways you can defend the basketball within the man-to-man defense.

Body Positioning:

You may have a great stance and be able to slide quicker than anybody, but if you are in bad position, the offense will pick you apart. Here are a few different ways to approach body positioning within the man-to-man defense.

Straight Up:

You can guard the offensive player straight up, which means you place yourself directly between the offensive player and the basket. You don’t force him left, right, middle, or baseline. You just try to stop him from getting to the hoop.

Staggered Stance:

Some coaches don’t have preference on which way the defensive player forces the offensive player. Instead, they teach a staggered stance, which shades or influences the offensive player to go one way.

Funnel to Baseline:

Some coaches like to funnel the offensive player to the baseline. The defensive player does not give the baseline, but he forces the offensive player towards the baseline. This allows you to use the baseline as a 2nd defender. Help defense is usually present near the block area.

Force Weak-Hand:

With this approach, you force the offensive player to dribble with his weak hand. The weak hand is usually the opposite of the hand he shoots with. If he shoots with his right hand, his weak hand would typically be his left hand. If you take this approach, an offensive player may not feel comfortable going to his weak hand, and he will be less likely to dribble or drive to the basket. A lot of youth and high school players drive with their strong hand only. On the college and pro level, this may not be as effective because most players can attack with either hand.

Which method should you use?

In all honesty, we don’t think it matters too much. Just pick a method that you feel comfortable with and teach it well. We generally shade to the baseline when guarding the wing; otherwise we play straight up. That works for us.

Whichever method you choose, you need to be able to stop the ball and keep your man from getting close to the basket.

The most important part of guarding the ball is to play the angles. Do not move with the ball handler. Take an angle to where he is going and beat him to spots.

Hand positioning:

Hand positioning is another important aspect of guarding the ball. It can help you deflect more passes, get more steals off the dribble, and block more shots. After studying and seeing numerous ways it can be done, these are two of the most effective hand positions we have encountered.

Hands Out

If you play defense with your hands straight out, this will make you appear bigger. From a psychological standpoint, the offensive player may think you are bigger. This will help against dribble penetration and entry passes. If you are pressuring the ball, it will also help you create more deflections.

One Hand Near the Midsection (Shot Pocket), Other Hand Back

Having the hand near the midsection will defend the shot or the dribble. Your hand will already be in the shooter’s pocket to strip the ball if they bring it up. Just by having your hand there, it often discourages shots. You can also defend the dribble or prevent the offensive player from doing a quick change of direction dribble in front of their body. You would most likely use this with a staggered stance. Your back hand will be used to defend against passes.

Active Hands

With either method, we believe it’s important to have active hands. Your players should learn to keep active hands, try to get deflections, and harass the offense.

We suggest flipping up at the ball because few refs will ever call this a foul. Also, when the ball is exposed within arms reach, grab it with two hands. Even if you get part of the offensive player’s arm, the ref rarely calls this a foul.

Simple rules to teach:

• If the ball is below the mid-section, put your hand above the ball. This prevents the offensive player from putting it in shooting position.

• If the ball is in shooting position, put your hand on the ball. This will stop the player from shooting and you will NEVER have to leave your feet (which causes you to lose balance).

• If the ball is above his head, place your hands under the ball and flip up. This keeps you out of foul trouble (because most refs only call fouls if you swing downward) and it also keeps the player from bringing the ball down to shooting position.

Eye Concentration

Most coaches teach their players to watch the waist or chest or the person with the ball. The philosophy behind this is that a person cannot move without his waist or chest. If you stay in front of the player’s waist or chest, the opponent will not get by you. This is to take your concentration off the ball, so that you will not jump at ball fakes.

Balance

If you lose balance for one second, YOU ARE BEAT!

The purpose of every offensive move is to get YOU off balance – because as soon as you lose balance, the offense can blow by you.

This means that when you’re guarding the ball, you must:

• Stay on your feet and do NOT go for shot fakes. When you go for fakes, you are beat!

• Do not lunge for the ball and get off balance.

• Stay in a WIDE stance. If you’re feet get too close together, you will lose balance.

• Stay in a LOW and athletic stance. If you stand upright, you will more easily lose balance.

• Take short steps when sliding. If you’re feet come too close together, you will lose balance.

Closing Out on the Offensive Player

A proper closeout is very important, because it will prevent easy shots and dribble penetration.

If you don’t close out under control, your momentum causes you fly right by the offensive player and the offensive player can dribble right by you, whereas, if you don’t close out fast enough, they’ll make the outside jump shot every time.

Priorities for the close out:

1 – Stop the shot 2 – Stop penetration 3 – Dictate to the offense

When closing out:

• Sprint until within 7-9 feet of the player and shuffle with quick, choppy steps under control the rest of the way. • Get your hand up to discourage the shot. • Do not raise your torso. Keep your butt down.

This enables you to get to the defender in time to defend the shot and still be under control in order to slide if the offensive player chooses to dribble penetrate.

Progression of a Closeout:

The first picture shows the proper defensive position if the ball was on the opposite wing.

Beginning of Close Out (Run)

The second picture illustrates the defensive player starting to move while the pass is being thrown. He starts out running to close out, but will shift to a shuffle once he is within 7-9 feet.

End of Close Out (Transition to Shuffle)

The third picture shows the second part of the close out. He is beginning to shuffle and raise his hand to defend the shot.

Final Position (Great Defensive Position)

In the final picture of the transition, the player is still low enough to slide and stop the dribble penetration if the opponent chooses to drive.

Here is a close up of the offensive player starting to bring the ball up to shoot:

Little Secrets to Apply More Pressure to the Offense

For youth coaches teaching the basics, do not worry about these tips. First, get your players a good foundation before you even cover any of this to avoid creating an information overload for some players and confusing them even more.

When guarding the ball, there will be times when the offensive player will be in triple threat, dribbling, have the ball above his head, etc. In this section, we’re going to provide a few tips on how to guard these scenarios.

When the player is in triple threat with a pivot, you may run into a few different situations.

Bad Catch:

If a player makes a bad catch with his body facing away from the basket, you will want to:

Crowd the offensive player

Straddle Leg

This way, if he turns hard or throws an elbow into you, you can take the charge.

If he gets into position where he is an offensive threat, it would be wise to hop back into proper defensive stance.

Good Catch:

If you close out on a player and he catches the ball in a good triple threat position, use the aforementioned tips and close out properly. You should use your hand to measure the distance. If you can get your hand in the shot pocket, you are at a perfect distance.

Brings Ball Above Head:

If an offensive player STRAIGHTENS his legs and brings the ball above his head, you should close the gap and get your hands up to defend the ball. If the player brings the ball back down into triple threat position, you need to retreat back into proper defensive position.

To Defend the Dribble Drive:

If the offensive player gets ready to dribble drive and slightly moves forward, you will have to hop back with both feet to defend the drive.

If the player brings the ball back into the shot pocket, creep back forward. DO NOT LUNGE! A smart offensive player will blow right by you.

Tips to Stop Getting Beat by the Dribble:

TIP: Try to keep the dribbler from squaring up to you.

If he squares up to you, it’s easier for him to get by you. In order to prevent this, you cannot allow too much space between the offensive player and the defender.

TIP: Try to keep the offensive player in a protective stance and force a slow change of pace dribble as shown in the picture below.

What to do if the offensive player blows by you:

• First, sprint back and try to beat them to a spot on the floor.

• If you come up behind the offensive player, stay to the side. If you run directly behind the ball handler and he stops abruptly, you’ll run into him and a foul will be called on you.

• When trailing, flick with your hand closest to the ball. Don’t swipe on top of the ball; you’re more likely to be called for a foul. Try to flick underneath the ball. And don’t reach across his body or your body to go for the steal, it looks like a foul and 95% of the time, it will be called.

• Try to get a couple of strides ahead before cutting off the defender. Too often, as soon as the defensive player catches up to the offensive player, he starts bumping him from the side.

##55 –– HHOOWW TTOO DDEENNYY PPEENNEETTRRAATTIINNGG PPAASSSSEESS

In order for you to keep your opponents’ shooting percentage low, you must force them to take TOUGH shots.

So what shots are easier? Close shots or shots far from the basket?

We all know that shots taken far from the basket, preferably off balance, are the type of shots we would prefer to give up.

That’s why as a rule, you should always deny penetrating passes. Our definition of a penetrating pass is any pass that is entered inside of the 3-point arc. Even passes into the post would be considered penetration. When the ball is in the lane, your defense is exposed. The offense has lots of options and a good chance to take an easy shot inside.

It’s best to ALWAYS keep the ball as far away from the basket as possible. This is one of your main defensive goals! If the ball gets in the post, your defense has momentarily broken down and you must pack down to dig out the ball. Do whatever you can to get the ball back out away from the basket, and match up again.

Universal Rule for Penetrating Passes: Deny any pass inside the 3-point line. In order to do this, position yourself between your man and the ball. See your man and the ball at all times.

To further illustrate the rule, here are a few scenarios to help you understand.

In this section, we are going to discuss how to:

• Defend in the Low Post

• Defend in the High Post

• Defend Perimeter Cuts

• Defend Post Cuts

Defending in the Low Post

Note: We are referring to when the ball is on the same side of the post, as in the picture to the right. We will discuss in more detail how to guard the post when the ball is on the opposite wing or at the top of the key.

Three-Quarter Front:

In the Three-Quarter Front, you have an arm in front of the post player and one leg in the passing lane, but you’re still slightly positioned to the side behind him. This enables you to deny the post, yet still allows you to be in good rebounding position, if a shot goes up.

Full Front:

Try to keep the offensive player completely behind you. With a full front, you want to be lower and wider than your opponent. You should have your arms out to appear bigger and to discourage passes into the post.

A lot of coaches use this because they find it easier to keep the ball out of the post. It is something we use whenever the ball is below the free throw line extended. We will explain this in a little more detail later in this formula section.

A disadvantage to the full front is that the defender has to work a lot harder to get good rebounding position. This is the defense we use, so we drill rebounding from that position.

Play Behind:

Play directly behind the offensive post player and try to keep him out of the lane.

This does NOT deny penetrating passes. If you have a couple of 7-footers, this may be a good strategy to use.

. Now, Which Tactic Should You Use?

Play Behind the Post:

If you’re going to stand behind the post, you have the benefit of an easier block out after the shot. It’s also easier to teach this concept.

The cons to playing behind the post are that it makes it very easy for the offense to throw the ball in to a good post player who could utilize his post moves to score a bucket. Most of the time, standing behind the post isn’t a good idea, especially when you’re playing a team that has a few decent post players. They can really score a lot of points. Ultimately, a good defense keeps the ball out of the lane and away from the basket so that the other team has to shoot low percentage shots.

If you have a dominant big player, you might be able to get away with staying behind the post if you know you’re never going to play anybody that’s as big and strong as they are.

Although, this is an option, we highly recommend the 3/4 front or the full front.

Youth coaches should teach the 3/4 front or full front. There is no need to worry about strategizing to win more games just because you have some big kids. If anything, just teach a 3/4 front.

3/4 Quarters or Full Front:

Our Recommendation: If you’re equally matched or you have a small team, playing behind the post probably isn’t a good idea and we always do either a three-quarter front or a full front of the post when we teach defense to our teams.

Most importantly, a full front of the post allows the defensive post player to easily help against the dribble penetration. For example, if a good wing player manages to drive by the defensive player, it’s really easy for your post defensive player to step in and stop the ball quickly before he gets too close to the basket. It’s all about keeping the ball as far away from the rim as possible so the offense has to take difficult shots.

Below are a few pictures to show the transition:

The Defensive Player is Fronting the Post.

In this picture, the defender is able to stop the ball further away from the basket, compared to if he were standing behind the post. The closer the player gets to the basket, the higher the percentages are that the offense is going to score.

Defensive Rotations on this will be discussed later in the formula section.

If your defensive post player is behind the post, he’s got to go all the way around the post player and then try to stop the ball. It’s just too hard for your players to get there in time and actually stop the ball on a consistent basis. That’s the main reason why we teach a three-quarter front or a full front. We can get that early help and keep the ball as far from the basket as possible.

You’ll also notice how much deeper the player gets in this diagram, compared to the one above.

The picture below shows the offensive player getting about 6 or 7 feet deeper when the post player plays behind the post.

Top of the Key – Low Post Defense

When the ball is at the top of the key, we prefer to use the 3/4 front. Notice how the arm and leg are both in the passing lane, making the entry pass more difficult.

Reasons that we use the 3/4 front when the ball is at the top of the key:

Limit Dribble Penetration – If needed, the defensive player can turn his body to help on dribble penetration.

Psychological Impact on Offense – It also affects the offense psychologically. It makes the offense think that the middle is congested and keeps the offense away from the basket.

Defend Lob Passes – We also use the 3/4 front when the ball is at the top of the key, because there is not any help on the lob pass. This enables you to get around the offensive player if needed. If you fronted the post here and the offense gained good post position, there would not be any help side defense to take away the lob pass, which would result in an easy scoring opportunity. The offense also needs to make the “perfect” lob pass when you defend this way, because the out of bounds line is another obstacle.

Opposite Wing – Low Post Defense

The picture below is from the passer’s point of view on the opposite wing.

There are a couple of different ways you can defend the pass when in the low post with the ball on the opposite wing:

1) Have your arm and leg forward, denying the entry pass as displayed in the photo.

2) Swing your right leg back where you would be in an open stance.

Defending in the High Post

Whenever the ball is above the low block or in the high post area, the post player should be in a 3/4 front on the bottom side (below the offensive player). If he were on the top side, this would open up a huge lane to the basket for the player he is guarding. He would also be out of position to help out on dribble penetration.

How to Defend Perimeter Cuts

In order to deny penetrating passes, you must be able to defend perimeter cuts. A cut opens up passing lanes, and, if not denied properly, it could create an easy scoring opportunity for the offense. Even if your players know how to defend a cut, it’s very important to work on it.

When I played high school basketball, we had a team of all guards. Nobody was taller than 6 feet 1 inch. So, our coach decided to run an offense called, “Cutters.” We had 5 players spread out along the arc and we strategically would make cuts. That way, we could use our quickness to our advantage and it gave us more isolation to dribble penetrate without clogging the lane. It was also very effective for penetrating and passing the ball back out for an outside shot.

Even though teams knew what was coming, it was still very hard for them to defend it. We were always a below average team, but my senior year we were 12-8. We gave the state champs a run for their money twice. They had a starting front line of 6 feet 7 inches, 6 feet 8 inches, and 6 feet 8 inches.

Our point is that this experience proved how cutting can be effective from an offensive standpoint. If you don’t drill defending cuts, you certainly could get beat by them.

Guarding the Player with the Ball:

Player Passes to Wing:

Notice, how the player moved on the pass and is in great position to help if the player on the wing chooses to dribble drive. He is also in great position to deny the cutter.

NOTE: The Trick to Stopping the Give-and-Go Cut

The trick is simply to jump into help position immediately after the pass and do NOT let the player get between you and the ball. This is yet another example of how good positioning solves problems for you.

See below for additional pictures of the defending cuts to the basket.

Player Makes a Cut Through the Lane:

Player Begins Cut to Opposite Wing to Clear Out the Lane:

Notice, how the defensive player is not following him to the other wing. He stops on the rim line where he is supposed to be positioned for the help side defense.

Player Clears Out to Opposite Wing:

The defensive player stays in his proper help side position, seeing both his player and the ball.

How to Defend Post Cuts

Post cuts can also open up opportunities for penetrating passes. The defensive player may play great defense when the post player is standing in one place, but if he doesn’t know how to position himself after the offensive player makes a cut in the post, he’ll get eaten alive!

Transitioning Between the High Post and Low Block:

In order to transition from the low side to the top side, here is what we teach: (Pictures are displayed on this page and the following page)

• Take your back arm and your back leg and step across the front of the player’s body. It’ll be like doing a swing move and a step in one fluid motion.

• Now, you’re in a full front. (Diagram B)

• Next, you want to take your bottom leg and swing behind the offensive post player’s top foot.

• You should be in a 3/4 front from the top side. (Diagram C – next page)

• Or, you can stay in the full front position, which is what we do when the ball is on the wing.

A) Starting Position B) Transition

C) Ending Position

Another way you could perform this transition is to slide behind the defender. We do not recommend this, because you are susceptible to the entry pass for a second as you slide behind the post player. It also gives the offensive player a chance to seal you. If you step in front during the transition, you’re already in a good defensive post position.

A disadvantage to the transition in front of the post is that you are susceptible to the lob as you go across the front of the post player, but weak side help should always be there for the lob pass.

If you want to teach how to slide behind the offensive player:

• The defensive player should slide behind the offensive player as he is moving to the new location (high post or low block).

• The defender should step with the front foot and bring the front arm up into the passing lane

If the player has you pinned behind him, you may need to slide your head and arm underneath the armpit of the post player in order to get back around him.

Transition from Low Block to High Post:

Next, you may have to transition when the post player goes from the block to the high post.

For this technique, you can do it the exact same way as before. Just teach your players to always transition in front of the post player when transitioning from the high post to the low block and from the low block to the high block.

Cuts Across the Lane:

For all cuts across the lane, the same rules apply:

1. Deny the pass into the post.

2. Stay between your man and the ball. Always be on ball side of the cutter.

3. See your man and the ball.

4. After the cut is made, you should either be in the proper positioning that you teach for low post defense or high post defense.

Here’s an example below:

Weak Side Block to Ball Side Block

When the cutter is coming across the lane, the defensive player should step into the path of the cutter. The defensive player should be slightly above the cutter and bump him with his butt as he is coming across the lane. The defender should never throw his hips because a foul will be called. Instead, he steps into the path of the cutter.

The defensive player slides into a 3/4 front or full front, depending on what you chose to teach. It’s usually easier to go from a full front to a 3/4 front.

##66 –– HHOOWW TTOO EESSTTAABBLLIISSHH GGOOOODD HHEELLPP PPOOSSIITTIIOONNIINNGG

Positioning is one of the most important, and one of the most difficult concepts to teach.

Good positioning solves LOTS of problems for you.

It makes your team appear quicker because they have less ground to cover. For example, if your players are perfectly positioned, they can quickly close out to the players they are guarding or they can step in to help.

Good positioning is something you must maintain throughout the entire possession. Why do you think most good offensive coaches preach ball reversals? This is because they want to reverse the ball a bunch of times so your players will eventually get out of position and they can expose the seams in your defense.

The great thing about positioning is that even slow players can get good at it. Positioning is more of a mentality and a habit than a physical ability. Even a non-athletic player can learn great positioning.

As a coach, you will never have enough time to cover all the different situations your players will face. That’s why we set rules that apply to all situations. It’s very important for you to do the same so that your players understand what to do when faced with unique situations. Here’s an example of ours below:

VERY IMPORTANT RULES!!

When defending the player away from the ball:

• Stay between your man and the ball. See your man and the ball at ALL times!

• Deny all penetrating passes.

• Be close enough to stop the player you are guarding if the ball is passed to him.

• Be close enough to help! You should be close enough to the player with the ball to prevent him from getting into the danger zone if he dribbles by the defender that is guarding him.

• Always stop the ball if it is in front of you!

It doesn’t matter if the player with the ball is at half court, high post, corner, etc. You should always be in position to stop your man and stop penetration.

Here are some scenarios to help you understand these rules:

How to Defend the Perimeter Pass (One Pass Away)

One Pass Away refers to when you’re guarding an offensive player and there are no other offensive players between you and the ball. When the ball is one pass away, your positioning is very important because this will determine whether you can help on the dribble drive or rotate if needed.

When One Pass Away:

• Be Close Enough to Help – When a player is one pass away, the defensive player should be off the player he is guarding and both “Up the Line” and “On the Line.”

Up the Line – The line we are referring to is the imaginary line between the player with the ball and the player that the defender is guarding. The defender should be a 1/3 to 1/2 the distance up that imaginary line. This distance allows the defender to be close enough to help on dribble penetration. It also allows him to be close enough to stop the player he’s defending if the ball is passed to him. If the ball handler gets by the defender and you cannot get there in time to help, you are probably not far enough “Up the Line.”

On the Line – This refers to when the defender should have his feet or hands in the path of that imaginary line. This positioning may vary depending on whether you allow or deny the perimeter pass. If you allow the perimeter pass, you may take a step back so you can stop penetration. If you deny it, you’ll definitely want to have a foot and hand on the imaginary line to force more turnovers.

• Be Close Enough to Stop the Player You Are Guarding – You want to be close enough to help, but you also need to be close enough to stop the player you’re guarding if the ball is passed to him. If you cannot get to your player in time to stop him, you are probably too far “Up the Line.”

• Be Ready to Move – Just like any other position on the court, you must have your knees bent and ready to move quickly!

• See Man and the Ball – You should be able to see the man you are guarding and the player with the ball at all times. This way you can see if your man moves. You can also react to help on dribble penetration if the ball handler penetrates.

Something that is crucial while seeing your man and the ball is head position.

Head Position

When you’re one pass away, you always need to see your man and the ball at all times, so head position is really important. Your head should essentially be looking straight between the ball and your player so that you never have to turn it.

If you have to turn your head to see the ball, or if you have to turn your head to see the player you’re guarding, you’re in the wrong position. It’s very important to see both the man and the ball without turning your head.

A big mistake that most players make is that they’re constantly looking back and forth. If you have to look towards the ball for a split second, your man can cut behind you and beat you for a lay-up to the basket. If you take your eye off the ball to look at the player you’re guarding, the offensive player might dribble-penetrate by the defender and you’ll be too late to help or rotate.

Proper Head Position is illustrated below:

When defending the ball one pass away, we recommend two options, either “Deny” the perimeter pass or “Contest”, or allow the perimeter pass. Both types of defenses still try to shut down the opposing team by:

• Denying penetrating passes or any passes inside the three-point arc

• Helping and Rotating on penetration

• Defending the post

The pictures below display each tactic. We also discuss the pros and cons of each approach.

Deny versus Contest (Allow)

Deny the Perimeter Pass:

If you’ve got a really quick team and you’re going to rely on causing a lot of turnovers, you may want to position your perimeter players in the passing lane to deny the pass. When your players are denying the wing, the opposing players won’t be able to catch the ball, and this can cause turnovers, such as 5-second calls and bad passes. It could also force the offensive player to over dribble and destroy the offensive rhythm. Notice, the player is “On the Line.”

Although, you can create more turnovers, you will be more susceptible to dribble penetration because you have more distance to cover when trying to help from a closed, denial position.

For Those Using Shot Clocks:

This defense is also a good consideration for the following reason: If your league uses a shot clock, this type of defense can force the offense to take longer to get into an offensive set because, if you execute it correctly, it keeps the ball away from the basket. In return, the offense has to force a low percentage shot as time is expiring. If you’ve ever watched a Duke Blue Devils basketball game, you can see this tactic used by Coach K.

With that said, Bobby Knight has been one of the most successful coaches in history by using the “Contest the Pass” philosophy, which allows the perimeter pass. This is explained below in more detail. Our preference is to teach “Contesting the Pass” because it’s hard to have the great athletes that are needed for this defense to be successful every year. You also don’t need to spend as much time drilling to “Contest the Pass,” which allows you more time to work on other fundamentals.

Contest or Allow the Perimeter Pass:

The other option is to contest the pass, which allows the perimeter pass. This focuses more on defensive help positioning rather than going for the steal. Even though the focus isn’t on stealing the pass, if you have a guaranteed steal, you’d better go for it.

With this tactic, you step back a little bit so you’re in better position to help, and you’re allowing the perimeter pass to go through.

As mentioned before, Bobby Knight, who has the most wins in men’s college basketball history, uses this concept. He allows the perimeter pass, but he denies all penetrating passes. This is a good defensive tactic because it can make it hard to penetrate.

Although your defense is allowing the pass to go around the perimeter, ball pressure is still needed. Typically, when we contest the pass, we use an open stance (mentioned later) as well. This focuses less on creating turnovers and more on forcing low percentage shots.

This type of defense is also referred to as a “Wolf Pack” style defense. If a predator penetrates the wolf’s boundaries, the wolf pack swarms them. Your defense should act in the exact same manner. If the ball handler penetrates, the defender nearest to the ball should swarm to the ball and make him pick up his dribble or pass the ball. If the offense gets the ball near the “Danger Zone,” your defense needs to swarm the ball handler and force him to turn over the ball or pass the ball away from the basket, which would result in a lower percentage shot.

Some other coaches might call this “Saggy” defense. We really dislike this terminology because it gives kids the perception that it’s a lazy and relaxed type of defense compared to the denial defense when, in reality, this is completely untrue. Just like a denial defense, you should be intense, always on the balls of your feet, and constantly communicating. The only difference is that you allow the pass around the perimeter.

If you use the “Wolf Pack” terminology, it brings a tenacious, intense mentality to playing this type of defense, which is exactly what you want from your players.

On the next page, a couple of pictures are presented showing players both denying and contesting the pass, but from different viewpoints.

Denying the Pass:

Contesting the Pass:

This section explains terminology for the stance you use when either “Contesting the Pass” or “Denying the Pass.”

Open Stance:

Here is an example of the open stance. As you can see, the torso is not facing the defender as in the closed stance. The open stance is usually more beneficial to help out with a Wolf Pack type of defense. It’s easier to slide over to help. If you are in a closed stance, you need to turn your body before you can slide over to help.

Closed Stance:

Notice, with the closed stance, your torso is facing the player you’re guarding while your head is looking straight between the player you are guarding and the player with the ball. The advantage to the closed stance is that it’s easier to slide with your player back and forth to deny the pass. The disadvantage is that it’s harder to help on dribble penetration.

Defending the Perimeter Pass (Two Passes Away)

Two Passes Away refers to when you’re guarding an offensive player and there are one or more offensive players between you and the ball. It’s very important to be positioned properly to help out on dribble penetration or to rotate.

In this diagram, Player 2 is guarding the player in the corner.

When the ball is on the wing and you’re two passes away, we always teach for at least one foot to be on the rim line.

The rim line is the imaginary line going down the middle of the court from basketball hoop to basketball hoop.

With a more aggressive defense where you are pressuring the ball and denying passes, you may want to use the one-foot-in-the-lane technique. This will enable you to steal more skip passes. At the same time, it’ll make you more susceptible to penetration.

When we played pressure defense, we still used the rim line concept mentioned above.

If you’re playing a “Wolf Pack” style defense to prevent players from reaching the “Danger Zone,” it’s better to get your players on the rim line.

When the ball is on the top of the key, the player two passes away does not have to be on the rim line. Rather, just next to the lane or with one foot in the lane.

This is important because you need to be in the lane to help and stop any penetration to keep the ball out of the lane.

If you’re playing an aggressive defense where you are trying to force turnovers, you may want your defensive player to be a couple steps closer to the offensive player they are defending.

Transitioning in the Post on Passes

On all passes, you need to transition OVER THE TOP of the offensive post player in the post area!

If you don’t transition in the post on every pass, you will be susceptible to passes into the post or be out of position to play HELP DEFENSE. It may seem minor, but if you don’t drill it or teach it, it will be likely that you’ll give up some easy baskets that could have been prevented. We’re not saying to spend your time drilling all the scenarios. It just needs to be covered.

Here’s a technique that we’ve found very effective when defending in the low post:

• Use a 3/4 front when the ball is above the free throw line extended, and full front when it’s below the free throw line extended.

In a couple of pages, a transition is displayed covering what to do when a pass goes from the top of the key to the wing.

Reasons we use a Full Front when the ball is below the Free Throw Line Extended:

Entry pass is not as easy – An entry pass becomes easier once the ball is on the wing or below the free throw line extended if you are behind or in a 3/4 front.

Chances of scoring increase when the ball is in the post – We like to keep the ball out of the post by all means necessary because the percentages of a team scoring with the ball that close to the hoop increases dramatically.

Help Side Defense – We also have help side defense that can rotate over and steal a lob pass if necessary. On the next page is a picture of the help side defense if a lob pass is entered into the post.

The defensive player guarding the player on the opposite block is on the rim line. If a pass is thrown, he can get there in time to steal or deflect the pass. If he does not react as quickly as needed, he is still there to double-team the ball.

Transition of 3/4 Front to Full Front:

Top of the Key

Pass from Top of Key to Wing

As the pass is thrown, the defender transitions OVER THE TOP of the offensive player. The defender steps over top of the offensive player’s leg to get good post position.

Ball on the Wing

Now, the defender has completely transitioned into the full front position with the ball on the wing.

Cross Court Passes:

Over the next few pages, we’ll illustrate the proper footwork to use in order to maintain good post position on cross court passes. This is often overlooked and under taught, and an experienced or smart post player can take advantage of this.

Shown below and on the next page are pictures of the transition.

Ball on Opposite Wing

The player is in good defensive position if he:

• Is near the rim line and ready to rotate if needed

• Can see the man and the ball

Pass from Wing to Wing

The defensive player steps over top of the offensive player with his right foot to get into a proper full front position. The defensive player takes the right foot and wraps it around the post player.

Ball on Wing:

The defensive player is in great position and the entry pass into the post player is very difficult.

##77 –– HHOOWW TTOO DDEEVVEELLOOPP EEAARRLLYY HHEELLPP AANNDD QQUUIICCKK RREECCOOVVEERRYY

Most coaches teach help side defense but they neglect to teach the “early” help and “quick” recovery. This is important because… The only player who can score is the person with the ball. So you must always swarm to stop the ball.

This subtle teaching point can have a tremendous effect on your defense!

Early help keeps the ball from getting close to the basket, and quick recovery allows you to take away the easy shot when the pass is kicked out.

This is an understated point that you need to teach and practice.

In this diagram, you can see the early help and quick recovery concept when a player is on the perimeter and tries to drive in. The defensive player that is one pass away should be able to step in quickly with early help to stop the ball from entering the lane. The goal is to keep the ball as far away from the basket as possible.

As mentioned, it’s important for the defenders not guarding the ball to anticipate the dribble- penetration so they can stop the ball.

It’s also important to anticipate a quick recovery back to the player you’re guarding. Once you stop the ball with the help defense, you want to be ready to anticipate the recovery and get back to your spot on the pass.

If the offensive players get into the “Danger Zone,” that means your help phase is NOT quick enough.

If the offensive player passes the ball after early help and the offense shoots an open shot, the recovery phase is NOT quick enough.

Help can also come from a post player and a defensive player two passes away. It really should be a smothering concept so that the offense can never drive in. This keeps the offense out of the lane and makes them take tough shots. You should make the offense feel like there are always five defensive players against three or four offensive players.

Defensive Positioning and Rotation

In this section, we are going to cover the proper positioning of all the defensive players when the ball is in the half court.

4 Wings and 1 Low Post

Ball on the Wing:

• Player 1 is shading the ball towards the baseline.

• Player 2 is one pass away and should be approximately 1/3 to 1/2 way “up the line”. If the player with the ball (Offensive Player 1) drives into the lane, Player 2 should be close enough and deep enough to stop the dribble penetration.

• Player 4 is one pass away and 1/3 to 1/2 up the line.

If you coach in areas where the back door lob is part of the game, you should have the defender slightly closer to the player he is guarding, but he should still be a couple of steps off of the player he is guarding. If he is too far up the line, a back door lob could be executed.

Most youth and high school coaches don’t have to worry about this, so you can teach them to be a third of the way up the line.

• Player 3 should either be on the rim line or close to the rim line as displayed in this picture.

• Player 5 should be in a 3/4 front, denying the entry pass into the post.

Ball in the Corner:

• Player 4 is guarding the ball, shading towards the baseline.

• Player 1 is 1/3 “up the line” and sinking towards the level of the ball a little bit. You want him to slightly sink down, in case the player chooses to drive left instead of baseline. That way, he’s in position to stop the dribble penetration.

• Player 5 is fronting the ball because it is below the free throw line extended. This also allows him to help on defense if the player with the ball drives to the baseline.

• Player 3 is two passes away and is also on the rim line. If Player 5 rotates over to help on the baseline drive, Player 3 needs to slide over to take away the pass to the post.

• Player 2 is two passes away and on the rim line.

Player 2 is on the rim line for two reasons:

1) If the player with the ball drives baseline and Player 3 slides over to help in the post, he needs to drop back to take away a back cut from the offensive player whom Player 3 was guarding.

2) If the player with the ball drives to the middle and gets by Player 1 (who should’ve stopped the ball), Player 2 is there as a second line of help defense to stop the ball.

These rotations will be shown and explained later in this section as well.

If you look at Player 2’s and Player 3’s positioning in the lane, it also gives the appearance that the lane is clogged and the offensive player will naturally think, “I don’t want to go there. There are too many defenders.” And that’s exactly what you want the offense to think!

Ball on Opposite Wing:

• Player 5 is positioned so that he can deny the pass into the post. He has his arm and leg in the passing lane.

Ball at Opposite Corner:

• Player 5 is on the rim line. He is either in an open stance or a semi-closed stance. He is also responsible for sliding over to stop baseline penetration.

4 Wings, 1 High Post

Ball on the Wing:

• Player 5 should be in a 3/4 front position on the inside of the offensive player in the high post with his hand and leg in the passing lane. He should not allow any passes into the post area.

• The other defensive players are in the same positions as in the “4 Wings, 1 Low Post” diagrams.

Ball in the Corner:

• Player 5 is on the bottom side and still in 3/4 front position. He should not allow any passes to be made into the post.

• Player 3 is on the rim line. He is responsible for stopping dribble penetration if the offensive player beats Player 4 to the baseline.

• Player 2 and Player 1 need to be ready to rotate if needed, which we will cover later.

When the ball is on the opposite side of the court, all of the perimeter positions will be the same. The only difference will be the positioning of the defender guarding the offensive player in the high post.

Ball in Opposite Wing:

• Player 5 is a step or two off the player in the high post. He is still in semi-closed (3/4 front) stance, denying the pass into the high post.

Ball at Opposite Corner:

• Player 5 is on the rim line. He can either be in an open stance or a semi-closed stance (3/4 front), denying the entry pass into the high post.

3 Wings, 2 Posts

In this section, we are going to focus on the perimeter defense. This example is different from the ones above, because there are only 3 perimeter defenders, compared to 4. The post players will have the same positioning and responsibilities as previously mentioned.

Ball at the Top of the Key:

• Players 2 and 3 are a 1/3 “up the line” and ready to help on dribble penetration.

Ball on Wing:

• Player 3 is on the rim line. Player 3 is also responsible for dropping down to take away a pass to the low post, if Player 5 has to help on a baseline drive.

• Player 1 is one pass away and ready to help with dribble penetration.

4 Wings w/ 1 in Corner

• When a player is in the corner and the ball is at the top of the key, you need the defensive player guarding the player in the corner to form a “Shallow Triangle.” In the first diagram, this would be Player 4. If he comes over to the rim line, he is too far away from the offensive player. You want the player to have their foot near the lane.

• This would also happen if there were 5 wings. Players 4 and 5 form the shallow triangles.

Rotations Against Baseline Drive:

When Low Blocks are Occupied:

• Player 5 should be in a 3/4 front or full front. This will allow him to slide over to help out on the baseline drive. Player 2 will recover and form a trap with Player 5 against the baseline. It is very important not to foul here. Hands should be straight up!

• By rule of thumb, we always trap the baseline drive if the offensive player beats the defender guarding the ball.

• Simultaneously, Player 4 rotates over to take away the dump pass to the player on the block on the ball side. Player 4 should slide underneath the player. If he goes over the top, it’ll be easier for the post player to get inside position.

• Player 3 drops down to take away the weak side block.

• Player 1 drops down to play “center field.” He keeps an eye on Players 1 and 3.

Ball Side Low Block is Occupied:

• The rotations are very similar to the previous one. The only difference in this diagram is that there are four offensive perimeter players instead of three.

• Player 5 slides over to stop the ball. Players 4 and 5 trap the ball.

• Player 3 slides underneath the post player to take away the entry pass.

• Player 2 slides down to take away the backdoor cut by Offensive Player 3.

• Player 1 plays “Center Field.”

If Players 1 and 2 do not go to their positions, a perimeter player (1, 2, or 3 in the example to the right) can make a cut down the middle of the lane for an easy dump pass.

Tip:

When the opposite block is empty, we always have the defensive player farthest from the ball on the weak side rotate over. In the example to the right, Player 2 would be that player. This will happen if the offense overloads one side of the court.

If Offensive Player 3 is in the right corner, as displayed or in the high post on the side of the ball, Player 2 would rotate over to help in the post.

When Opposite Block is Occupied:

• When nobody is on the ball side block, Player 5 rotates over to stop the baseline drive and Player 3 drops down to take away the pass to the weak side block.

• Player 2 drops down take away a pass to a cutter.

• Player 1 plays “Center Field.”

When Both Blocks are Unoccupied:

• When nobody is on the low post area, Player 3 would be responsible to help out the baseline dribble drive. Player 2 would need to slide down to take away the backside cut.

• Player 1 plays “Center Field.”

• Player 5 stays put when defending the high post.

How To Recover After Help Situations:

You can defend this situation a few different ways. The first way, which tends to be the easiest, is to rotate back to the player you were guarding. The second way is to rotate back to the closest player. When the ball is passed out, the key is to communicate, anticipate the recovery, and move on the pass!

If you choose to match up with the player you were guarding, there may be a couple of situations where you will need to switch.

First Situation:

• The offensive players on the perimeter slide over to the right in order to relieve pressure.

• If the offensive player trapped on the baseline passes it to the top of the key, Player 1 will want to guard the player at the top of the key. Player 3 will rotate to guard the player on the wing. A switch occurred.

• Players 4 and 5 would hustle back to the players they’re usually guarding.

Second Situation:

• The player trapped on the baseline throws a skip pass to the opposite wing and Player 3 gets caught underneath the hoop.

• You want to do the same thing as in the previous situation. Player 1 will rotate to guard the ball on the wing.

• Player 3 will guard the player at the top of the key.

Lob Passes:

Good help side rotation is vital when you’re fronting the post. This means that your other players on defense rotate over to take away the lob pass. A lot of times they’re going to try and throw the lob over the full front and you have to take that away.

In this sequence, notice how the defender guarding the player on the opposite block is on the rim line in a good defensive position. The defender guarding the offensive player on the block on the ball side is fronting the post.

TIP: To prevent a good lob pass into the post, make sure your guards are applying intense ball pressure. Don’t let the offense make an easy pass.

As the ball is being thrown, the defender guarding the player on the opposite block slides over to either help or steal the pass if he can.

After the player catches the ball in the post, the defender who slid over to help should have a wide base with hands straight up. The defender guarding the player with the ball turns around to form the trap.

In this sequence, you are not able to see all the rotations, but on the next page, we will display all proper rotations of every player on the court.

Rotations against the Lob Pass:

The rotations on the lob pass are very similar to the rotations on the baseline drive. Here are a few examples for you.

When Both Blocks are Occupied:

• Player 4 and Player 5 will trap the ball in the low post area.

• Player 5 will rotate over as the pass is in the air. Sometimes, he’ll be able to get a steal or deflection. It’s usually best to rotate over and put your arms straight up. You’ll force the offensive player to take a difficult shot or pass. The offensive player may also barrel into you for an offensive foul.

• Player 3 rotates down to take away the pass to the opposite block. Player 1 rotates down to play “Center Field” and defend any basket cuts near the lane.

• Player 2 defends the pass back out to the wing.

When Opposite Low Block is Unoccupied:

• Player 5 slides over to help. Players 4 and 5 trap the ball.

• Player 3 drops down to take away any weak side cut.

• Player 1 goes to the lane to watch for cutters to the basket. Player 2 denies the pass back out.

When One Side of the Court is Overloaded:

Sometimes, coaches will do this to open up the lob pass to one of their post players. In theory, there should not be any weak side help.

Since Player 1 is the only person on the left side or near the left side, he has to recognize this and cheat down into the lane. That way, if a lob pass is thrown, he can get there in time to help. This opens up the back door cut for Offensive Player 3. Communication is going to be very important. Player 1 will need to yell to Player 4 “Jimmy, get in the lane”, or whatever you deem appropriate.

Player 2 will slide down and take away the high post. Players 1 and 2 will be open for a 3-point shot. But, most of the time, you’d rather give up a 3-point shot over an easy lay up.

Taking Charges

Nothing frustrates an offensive player more than getting called for the charging foul.

Want to keep good ball handlers out of the lane?

Try drawing a few charges and see how many times they drive in after that.

If you want to get good at taking charges, learn to set up by great defensive position and early help.

When you play a good defensive team that knows how to take charges, it can change the whole mindset of your team. Instead of driving and attacking the basket, your players become tentative and less aggressive. You are now settling for the low percentage shots instead of getting close to the basket. Psychologically, it can change a game and create a huge advantage for the defense.

Here are some tips on how take a charge:

• Feet – Your feet should be shoulder width apart and planted on the ground. You should never leave your feet or reach!

• Vertical – You should not be leaning forward or backwards; you should be standing straight up. It is important not to fall backwards before the offensive player runs into you.

Note: Although it is important not too fall backwards, you can start to slightly lean backwards to cushion the impact. We’ve also heard coaches say that you should transfer the weight from the balls of your feet to your heels just before impact.

• Square to the Player – When taking the charge, make sure to be square to the offensive player. Otherwise, you could be called for a defensive foul.

• Hand Positioning – For girls, we’ve always heard that you should cross your arms in front of your chest. For boys, you should place both hands in front of the groin area. You could also have one hand up to protect your upper body and your face and one hand down to protect your groin.

• Be Set – The defensive player should be set. It's optimal to be already set before the offensive player arrives. It's also very important not to get there too early. Otherwise, the offensive player will have time to recognize this and slide around you.

• Let ‘Em Hear You – As the offensive player runs into you, it is important to let the referee know about it. You should let out a loud, "UH!!!” to get the referee’s attention.

• Learn How To Fall – When falling to the ground, teach your players to land on their butts. An injury is more likely to occur when landing on the back and shoulders. It’s also important to reach back with both hands to help you slide on your butt when hitting the ground. Do not reach back with one hand; otherwise, you’ll be more likely to break your wrist or finger.

• Elbows In – Make sure that your players do NOT stick out their elbows. They will get called for a foul.

• Avoid Charges When In Foul Trouble – Remember, a charge is a judgment call made by the referee. If you have a player in foul trouble, sometimes it is good to have him avoid taking a charge.

• No Flopping - Although, it is important to "sell" a charge, you do not want to flop. A flop is when you fake getting run into and you obnoxiously fall backwards. You will be more likely to get a foul called on you if you flop. You want to have a good body control when falling to the ground.

• Practice! Practice! Practice! – If you want your players to take a charging foul, make sure to cover this at least every other practice. In one of my first years of coaching, I always told the players to take a charge, but never practiced it. Guess what! We took about two charges in twenty games, and I'm pretty sure the players took those charges by accident.

Defending the Screen

In order to have a great defense, you have to know how to defend screens. HELP DEFENSE is vital on defending screens. If your players do not help on a ball screen or help on a back screen, the offensive team will always get open looks at the basket. You should not only be concerned with how the two defensive players involved in the screen react, but how the other defensive players away from the screen react as well. If the screen breaks down those two defenders, their teammates need to recognize this, provide help and rotate. Considering how often screens are set within almost all offenses, it would be impossible to play a good defense without knowing how to defend screens.

The five basic screens that we will cover are the:

• Ball screen • Away screen • Post screen • Back Screen • Down Screen

There are a few different options you can use to defend against the screen. You can switch on all screens. You can stick with your man and fight through all screens. You can also use a combination of switching and fighting through different types of screens. For example, you could switch on all post screens and fight through all ball screens.

Here, you need to make a decision on how you want to defend ball screens. You can either switch screens, you can hedge screens, or you can slip under the screens.

Now, you may be asking, “How do I choose to defend Ball Screens?”

Switching on Ball Screens

You may want to switch if two guards are setting screens for each other and the defensive players have equal ability. That way, a disadvantage is not created. If most of your players have a similar height and have similar athletic ability, you may want to switch on screens.

If a post player sets a screen for his guard or vice versa and you switch on this screen, this creates mismatches. Your guard defensive player is guarding the opposing team’s post player and your defensive post player is guarding the opposing team’s guard, which can create a huge disadvantage. Any smart team will know how to take advantage of such situations.

On the next page is the transition of switching on ball screens:

Starting Position:

Ball Screen about to be set:

Screen is Set:

The defender sticks with the person setting the screen. The person guarding the screener pops out to guard the ball.

Switch is Complete:

Hedging on Ball Screens:

Another thing you can do is hedge and stick with the man you are guarding. That’s usually what we advise because this doesn’t allow mismatches.

Initial Screen:

Communicate – It’s very important for the person who’s guarding the player setting the screen to communicate with the player guarding the ball. Example: “Screen’s coming!!” or “Screen!”

Sliding over Top of Screen:

The defender guarding the ball should hedge over the screener’s top foot without fouling the offensive player with the ball. The defensive player should go over the top of the screen, not underneath it.

Hedge and Recover:

The player guarding the screener will also want to hedge out on the ball-handler to make him either pick up his dribble or dribble away from the basket. As a result, this will give the player guarding the ball more time to recover and prevent an easy scoring opportunity. As soon as the player who’s guarding the ball recovers back to him, you should sprint back to the man that you were initially guarding.

Fully Recovered:

Going Underneath Ball Screens:

Times that you want to go underneath the screen:

• The offensive player is not a three-point threat or is a really weak shooter.

• If you’re up against a very good ball handler who hurts you more with his dribble penetration. An example of this in the pros would be Tony Parker. It’s not that he’s a terrible shooter; it’s just that very few people can take away both the penetration and the outside shot because he’s such a good player.

Setting the Screen:

In the picture below, the screen had already been set. The defender guarding the ball slid underneath the screen.

The player guarding the screener took a step back to allow some room for the defender to get around the screen. He is also in proper position to help if the person guarding the ball gets stuck on the screen and can’t recover in time. Once the defender gets used to this, he can mix in a jab step at the offensive player with the ball to make him think he’s coming at him to stop him from dribble penetrating. This allows for more time to let the defender guarding the ball recover to the man he is guarding.

Once the defender guarding the ball completely recovers back to his man, the defender guarding the screener hustles back to guard his man.

Doubling Ball Screens:

A more advanced option of defending ball screens is to double the ball-handler. Whenever a screen is set for the ball, the man guarding the screener will step out and double the ball until he passes or creates a turnover. You will need great rotation in order to do this.

Here is the transition:

Tip for Youth Coaches: For youth players, it’s often easier to go underneath or switch on the screen, but we don’t advise it because it’ll form bad habits for them in the future. It’s easier for players to transition from hedging on screens to going underneath or switching on screens than vice-versa.

Defending the Pick and Roll

As previously mentioned, you should hedge and recover so that you don’t get mismatches in the post or on the perimeter.

You may find that you’re doing your best to hedge and recover, but the offensive duo is doing a very good job of executing the play and you’re having trouble stopping it. First of all, the defensive player guarding the screener should hedge and try to force the ball as FAR away from the basket as possible. The hedger should not leave the ball until the defender originally guarding the ball fully recovers. This will take away the dribble penetration or shot off the initial ball screen. It will also give the defense more time to help and recover and make the pass back to the screener much longer, because the player with the ball will be forced away from the basket.

When the hedge fails, it’s almost always because the hedger is afraid to go all the way out there and fully commit to pushing the ball handler towards half court. They must hedge very aggressively in order for this to work.

After the defensive player recovers back to the ball, the defensive player guarding the screener needs to hustle back to his man to take away the pass to the screener.

If for some reason the defender is not recovering in time, your help defense should be there to take away the pass, as shown in the diagram to the right. Defensive Players 3 & 4 should be there to take away a pass into the lane area made by the player with the ball.

Screens Away from the Ball:

The secret to defending screens away from the ball is positioning.

If your players are getting to their positions on the pass, then screens away from the ball should not be much of a problem. For example, if a pass is thrown from the top of the key to the wing and the player at the top of the key goes to set a screen for a player on the opposite wing, the defensive player should already be in the lane two passes away, which makes it more difficult for the screen to occur. When the offensive player fills the top of the key, the defensive player just slides up into the “One Pass Away” position. This is shown in the pictures on the next few pages.

As you can see, the offensive player has no one to set a screen on when he goes over to the wing to set a screen. You can look at the pictures on the next few pages to understand the concept as well:

The player at the top of the key just passed the ball to left wing, which cannot be seen in the picture. Notice, how the defender guarding the player on the right wing has already slid to the rim line.

As a result of sliding to the rim line on the pass, the screen is much more difficult to set.

The defender was able to easily slide around the screener and get in proper position to defend with the ball on the wing and only one pass away.

Back Screens:

Back (Blind) screens can be a little more difficult to defend because the defensive player usually does not see the screen coming. This is another major reason communication is important. The player guarding the screener needs to make his teammate aware that a screen is coming. This will help his teammate position himself so that it will be easier to get around the screen.

Here is the transition:

Because of the difficulty of guarding back screens, we have the person guarding the screener step into the path of the offensive player coming off the screen. This way, he does not have a straight path towards an open part of the court.

We also teach the defensive player to bump and guard the cutter until the defensive player who was screened fully recovers.

Once his teammate recovers, the man who initially was guarding the screener sprints back to the proper defensive position on the player he was originally guarding

Now, everybody has fully recovered. This whole sequence should take only a few seconds.

Defending Down Screens:

When defending down screens, you can:

• Switch

• Go over or fight through the screen

• Go under or slip the screen

The problem with going under (slipping) the screen or switching is that you are susceptible to the flare cut.

Another disadvantage to switching would be that it could create a mismatch, such as a post player defending a guard, or vice versa.

If you fight through or go over the screen, you can over pursue and get back doored for an easy lay up. If a good screen is set, you can also get caught on the screen and end up following the player around the screen. A smart offensive player may do a short curl cut or pop out for a short jump shot.

When slipping the screen, have the player guarding the screener take a step back to allow more room for the defender to slip through the screen more easily.

If you are going to fight over the screen, you become susceptible to the back door cut. Have the player guarding the screener take a short step back to defend the back cut if needed.

Our recommendation would be to have your players go under (slip) the screen, but demonstrate both how to go under (slip) and how to go over (fight through) the screen.

We have found that when players go under (slip) the screen, they are less likely to get caught on the screen. When the offensive player does a flare cut, the defender often recovers in time. If you are constantly getting beat on flare cuts, then you may want to make an adjustment and fight over the screens.

Defending Post Screens:

When defending post screens, you can either fight through all screens or switch on all post screens.

You could also do a combination, if you feel comfortable with giving your players the freedom to be able to communicate and make good decisions. This is very difficult to do with players at the high school level or lower. If you get a group of smart players, it can be achieved.

We usually prefer to switch on post screens because we found it too difficult for the players to fight through all the screens.

Switching On All Hard Screens:

Some college and pro coaches like to switch on all hard screens off the ball. The theory is that open shots beat you, not the mismatch. If you have a little bit more time and the same belief, you may want to teach your players to switch on HARD screens. This type of tactic requires more communication and quick decision-making. The only thing you do NOT switch on is ball screens because of the pick-n-roll.

You need to make sure that you don’t have any slippage in all of the other fundamentals that we mentioned previously. That’s why you want to add these advanced tips one step at a time.

##88 –– HHOOWW TTOO SSEECCUURREE TTHHEE BBAALLLL

You just busted your butt to get a stop, so you better block out and secure that ball!

Nothing is more depressing and de-motivating to a defense than working your tail off for 35 seconds and then having your opponent get the ball back on an offensive rebound.

Not to mention that offensive rebounds are often tip-ins that result in easy high percentage shots.

Basketball is a game of possessions and shooting percentages. You always want to have more possessions so you can get more shots than your opponent. In order to get more possessions, you must block out. Rebounding also leads to fewer possessions for the opposition. Fewer possessions for the opposition lead to fewer shots taken. Fewer shots taken often leads to fewer points scored.

This means that ALL 5 defensive players MUST block out on every shot and every possession.

Every time the opposing team shoots the basketball, everybody on the team needs to yell, “Shot.” They should find a man and block him out. You should drill rebounding/blocking out every day. What we like to teach is shown on the next page.

• Identify your man.

• Stay in a low, athletic stance – knees bent, wide base.

• Stick out your forearm.

• Make contact – maintaining low, athletic stance.

• Do a back pivot into the player.

• Keep elbows straight out to make it harder to get around. It’s important not to swing elbows. That is a foul.

• Shuffle feet to stay in front of player.

If the player is on the perimeter, it is easier to use the arm bar as displayed in the first picture above. Instead of rotating into a complete block out position, as displayed in the second picture above, stay in the position displayed in the first picture until you go for the rebound.

For more rebounding tips and suggestions, visit our website at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/rebounding.html.

##99 –– HHOOWW TTOO IIMMPPRROOVVEE TTRRAANNSSIITTIIOONN

In order to get stops, your defense must get back quickly and get set. You can’t overlook the importance of hustling back on defense.

You can have the greatest half-court defense in the world, but it won’t do you any good if your defense never hustles back to get set. Your help defense will not be there, rotations will be broken down, and all the great defensive fundamentals you’ve worked on can be thrown out the window because the offense always has the advantage. You just can’t play good defense if this happens.

Hustling back on defense is something that you’ll need to constantly emphasize in practice. The second the offense secures the ball; your players need to turn and sprint back to the opposite end and find the player they were guarding. At times, you’ll have to have your players match up. When this happens, it’ll be very important for your players to communicate. Otherwise, you’ll end up with two or three defenders guarding the same guy and an offensive player standing right underneath the basket for a wide open shot. We’ve all experienced that frustration at some point in time.

If the offense for some reason starts a fast break and has an advantage, we have our players sprint back to the danger zone to protect the basket and then come out from there to match up. If the offense has an advantage in numbers, we would much rather give up an outside shot than an easy lay up.

To sum it up:

• Sprint (hustle) back.

• Find your player.

• Communicate

• Protect the basket if the offense has an advantage.

In order to keep this part of your defense up to par, make sure to emphasize transition defense throughout the season. Don’t allow any slippage. If you see your players not hustling back, instantly take them out of the game. Tell them why you took them out of the game and put them in a few minutes later. Tell them that if you see them doing it again, the time spent on the bench will be a lot longer. Hold true to this, otherwise you’ll lose the respect of your players.

You also need to incorporate drills throughout the year to stay sharp. A couple of drills you can reference are the “Whistle Drill” and “3-on-3 ‘Get Back’ Drill” which are located in Step 7: Getting Back on Defense.

##1100 –– HHOOWW TTOO DDEEVVEELLOOPP GGOOOODD CCOOMMMMUUNNIICCAATTIIOONN

If you want to have a great defense that keeps your opponents shooting percentage low, you MUST emphasize communication.

Communication is one of the most important things in basketball. You could have some of the best fundamental basketball players in the world, but without communication, they could get eaten alive. Think about it….

You’re playing perfect position defense on a player on the wing. All of a sudden, “Smack!” you get nailed by a back screen and you’re on the ground because you lost your balance. The defender guarding the player who set the screen played it perfectly by bumping and sticking with the cutter until you recover. The only problem is that you’re on the ground. The one defender cannot guard two people and they get an easy bucket. The defender guarding the screener could’ve easily yelled, “Back screen, John!” and prevented the score.

Without great communication, your team defense will never be great.

Although you should emphasize communication, you should never have meaningless communication. Every type of communication should have a purpose. Here are a few examples of when to use communication:

• Shot – When a player shoots, you yell, “shot” to make your teammates aware that a shot was taken. This enables them to locate their man quickly and block out.

• Screens – When a screen is set, you yell, “screen” so that your teammates can position themselves to get around the screen easier. If you’re going to switch, yell, “switch” so that your teammates know what to do.

• On Ball Defense – When you are guarding the ball, you yell, “ball” to let your players know you are guarding that player.

• One Pass Away – When you are in good position to help on the dribble drive, you yell, “got your help” to let your teammates know that they can pressure the ball because you’ll be there to stop the ball if the offensive player drives by them.

• Skip Passes – Whenever a skip pass is thrown, we yell, “Skip” three times. This alerts the defense to find the ball and to get in good help position.

• Call Out Your Man – When you’re in transition, starting a new possession, or scrambling on help defense -- ALWAYS call out the person you are guarding. Make sure every player is accounted for and communicate with your teammates to get everyone covered.

Here are a few ways that you can improve your team’s defensive communication:

1) Run overload drills that promote communication.

One of the best ways to get your players to talk is to use overload drills, like 4-on-3 and 5-on-4 shell. When overloaded, the defensive players are forced to constantly scramble and help each other. If they don't communicate, they will fail miserably. We've found that players will naturally start talking and this is a great way to improve communication on defense.

2) Make communication a habit by requiring it in all of your defensive drills.

Coach K at Duke incorporates talk on almost all drills and he also gives suggestions on what his players should be saying in certain situations. Just adding communication as one of your "points of emphasis" to all the drills on your practice plan will help. However, we don’t suggest useless communication. Everything should have a purpose.

The key is to develop a habit. How do you develop habits? You develop habits with consistent and continual repetition.

3) Make communication a habit by requiring your players to talk in games.

At the very least, you need to consistently remind your players to communicate during games. This goes back to developing good habits and consistency. The habits are learned in both practice and games.

One surefire way to get your players to talk is to bench them when they forget. Nothing gets their attention more than time on the bench. This is a bit extreme, but if communication is a big problem, you might want to consider this tactic.

4) Practice game situations

Be sure to run plenty of transition drills and situational drills that require your players to talk. They’ll learn to communicate in practice, so you must put them in situations that will occur in the games.

Many times coaches struggle to get their players to communicate because they have not practiced for game situations. Are you practicing these situations?

##1111 –– HHOOWW TTOO DDEEVVEELLOOPP QQUUIICCKKNNEESSSS AANNDD AANNTTIICCIIPPAATTIIOONN

You can literally double the quickness of your team just by incorporating a few simple techniques.

This quickness allows you to take away easy shots and scramble to close out, even when you get beat to the hole. Quickness simply makes a defense difficult to score against.

There are four key methods to improve quickness. We’ll start with the easy ones:

First, teach your players to move on the pass, NOT the catch.

This tactic alone can double to quickness of your team and make it seem like you have a super quick swarming defense.

You must train your players to start moving to their correct defensive positions when the ball is leaving the fingertips of the passer.

This makes a huge difference because most players will start moving to the correct defensive position when the ball is caught. In fact, most players think that is what they are supposed to do. And they have developed this bad habit at an early age.

Simply by moving on the pass, you get an extra second to get to your position. In fact, many times your players can actually get to their position at the same time that the ball arrives!

So all you need to do is require your players to move on the pass during each defensive drill. This is most effective during 4-on-4 and 5-on-5 shell drills. They should literally be moving when the ball leaves the passer’s fingertips. But don’t leave before this happens because you don’t want to fall for pass fakes.

You should also make it a point to explain the reason why they should move on the pass. Simply by demonstrating the huge difference in a close out drill will do the trick. Set your players up in the close out drill. Have them throw a skip pass and move on the catch. Then have them throw a skip pass and move on the pass. The offensive player who catches the ball won’t be able to get his shot off. It will be ridiculous how big of a difference this makes.

Second, drill your players into the habit of always keeping their knees bent in an athletic stance, even when they are two passes away on help side defense!

Now imagine you have five defenders who all move on the pass, and ALL of them have their knees bent, and are ready to move…

You have just converted from a slow, easy-to-score-against defense, to a fast, extremely tough defense in just two steps!

It’s easy to illustrate this point...

Just line up your fastest player on the team and the slowest player on the team and let them race 15 feet. Have the slowest player bend his knees in an athletic stance. Then have the fast player stand straight up. Yell, “Go!”

The SLOW player will win every time!

Third, practice anticipation and mental quickness.

This is related to our previous suggestion to move on the pass. But this is more than just anticipating the pass. This relates to anticipating everything.

For example, when guarding the ball, your players should get better at anticipating the opponent’s move.

There are several ways you can improve mental quickness and anticipation.

One way is to study your opponent. Some of your smart players will do this while on the bench or maybe even watch game tape to become familiar with the moves of the player they are or will be guarding.

TIP: Let your players know whom they will be guarding ahead of time so that they can study their moves.

Another way to improve mental quickness is to use drills like intense one-on-one and the shadowing drill.

Yet another way to improve is by clearing your mind and getting in “the zone”. Removing mental clutter (like stress) and meditating are simple ways to clear you mind and improve clarity.

I remember in high school there was a player on our team who was a pretty slow kid. I could basically run circles around this kid. When we were on the basketball court, he seemed just as quick as, if not quicker than, me at times. It drove me nuts. I just couldn’t figure out why. The reasons above were exactly why he could keep up with the quick players on the court. He moved on the pass, he always had his knees bent, he anticipated and was mentally quick, and he worked on his quickness to get the best of his abilities.

If you need a good example of a successful slow player, just say the words “Larry Bird.” He would definitely make the top 10 greatest players in almost every basketball expert’s eyes.

Fourth, incorporate quickness drills that will improve physical quickness.

Quickness Drills:

• Lane Slides (Found in the Reference eBook: 70 Defensive Drills)

• Foot Fires – The defensive player will assume a proper defensive stance. On the whistle, the player will tap his feet against the ground as quickly as possible. The tapping should be going left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, and so on. Make sure the player stays in a good defensive stance and stays on the balls of his feet.

• Jump rope – Simple but effective. You can also try speeding rope -- jumping as quickly as possible for one minute. Have the player rest for 30 seconds and start again, doing 3 sets while keeping track of how many jumps they make in each set.

• Line Jumps – The player will find a line and jump over it as quickly as possible. Some of the basics are:

Side to Side Front to Back Diagonals

Square Front to Back to Diagonal to Side

There are many different combinations to do for line jumps, but hopefully those got you on the right track.

To improve strength, speed, and quickness, you also run hills and stairs. Something that has also gained popularity is plyometrics. Before trying plyos, I highly recommend to meet with an athletic trainer, sports performance coach, or physical therapist so that you use the correct technique and avoid injury.

##1122 –– SSTTRRIIVVEE TTOO IIMMPPRROOVVEE

Never settle.

As soon as you get complacent, your defense will get stagnant and someone will pass you by.

The best teams and players in the world are great because they never settle or get complacent. They keep working to improve everyday. They think outside of the box. They come up with new ways to get better. They study. They practice. They perfect.

Steven Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, claims that the most successful people in the world will “sharpen the stone” on a daily basis.

This means that they continue to learn and improve themselves. They never settle.

This is also very true for your basketball team and your defense. You must continue to improve by:

• Studying game and practice tapes. Identifying your weaknesses and work on them in practice. You should study tape after every single game.

• Watch your statistics and performance indicators. Are your Points-Per-Possession improving? Are your number-of-possessions getting higher than your opponent? If not, you should find out why and figure out how to get to the next level.

• Think outside of the box and keep things fresh. Come up with new ways to teach your players and develop habits. In basketball, we continually do the same movements over and over again, so it’s important for you to come up with new ways to do the same thing. This keeps both you and your players from getting bored.

• Continue to learn. Keep learning, studying, and sharpening your stone. Read this book again and again every year. But don’t settle with this book. Learn from others too!

• Let go of your mental barriers. Too many of us get in a comfort zone and feel satisfied where we are. This applies to both players and coaches. For example, learning all of the defensive positioning and help rotations can be very daunting for a player who has never been exposed to it. It can take a long time.

HOWEVER, if you were to get those players really focused, like they’ve never been before, they can literally learn all the rotations in one practice! I’m not suggesting that you say this exactly, but what if you told your players that their life depended on them learning all the rotations in one practice? You’d better believe they would learn them!

How? They would just get really focused and do whatever it took.

The point is that our minds are capable of MUCH more than what we realize and players can learn MUCH faster than you think. What can you do to add a little extra focus and break loose from those mental barriers?

Bottom line, you will never be great unless you always strive to improve. This is the last critical aspect of our formula that will keep you and your team in check.

As we mentioned before, every part of this formula is important and it keeps everything in balance. We suggest that you continually refer back to the formula so that you can remind yourself about each critical area.

CCHHOOOOSSIINNGG YYOOUURR TTAACCTTIICCSS

Before you start to develop your defense in practice, you must first make a few decisions…

You need to decide which tactics you will teach. For example, will you switch on ball screens or will you hedge? Will you full front the post or will you play behind?

It’s very important to have this figured out before the season starts so you don’t waste any of your valuable time.

Here are the things you need to decide:

• Guarding the Ball – Straight up? Shade to the baseline? Force weak hand?

• Hand Placement – Defend shot and dribble? Hands out?

• Perimeter Pass – Open stance? Closed Stance?

• Perimeter Pass – Deny? Allow?

• Low Post Defense – Front the post? 3/4 Front? Play behind?

• Ball Screens – Hedge and recover? Switch? Double?

• Post Screens – Switch? Fight Through?

• Where Do You Start Guarding the Ball – Quarter Court? Half Court? 3/4 Court? Full Court?

• What will you emphasize? You CANNOT do everything, so pick a couple of things that will define your team – charges, causing turnovers, active hands, playing physical, etc.

To decide which tactics you want to use, refer back to the previous section of “The Formula.”

Our opinion is that it’s not terribly important which tactics you use. Instead, it’s more important to become very good at whichever tactics you choose and to pay attention to the details of those tactics.

We could develop a very strong defense using any of the tactics. The key is to understand the intricacies of each concept and the theory behind a strong defense.

As Rick Pitino has been quoted as saying: “The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it.”

If you’re curious, here are the tactics that we prefer:

• Guarding the Ball – Shade to the baseline

• Hand Placement – One hand up to defend shot and dribble, one hand back

• Perimeter Pass – Open stance

• Perimeter Pass – Allow

• Low Post Defense – Combination.

Above free throw line – ¾ front. Below the free throw line – Full Front.

• Ball Screens – Hedge and recover

• Post Screens – Switch

• Where Do You Start Guarding the Ball – Quarter Court

BBUUIILLDDIINNGG AA MMAANN TTOO MMAANN DDEEFFEENNSSEE:: TTHHEE FFOOUUNNDDAATTIIOONN

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." --William A. Ward

In this section, we will cover the fundamentals of a man-to-man defense. Everything in this section will need to be covered and perfected before you go on to the more advanced portions of this ebook.

To put this in perspective, a high school varsity team that has been drilled on these defensive fundamentals for years may only need to spend a couple days reviewing these fundamentals before adding other tactics onto this foundation. A coach for 10 and 11 year olds may not make it past Step 3. It may take a youth team three years before they cover everything in this ebook. And that is fine! You don’t want to rush youth, especially with fundamentals.

We’re not saying that there are not other ways to teach defense, but we have found this way to work the best for us. We also formed this approach from watching and learning from some of the best defensive coaches in the world.

When explaining the process of teaching the fundamentals, you may want to read the formula section first so that you understand the principles because they are not explained in depth in the following sections.

First time through, run drills at 1/2 speed! When running through a drill for the first time, it’s very important to go half speed. This helps the players learn the steps before being thrown to the sharks.

It’s also very important that your players can do everything properly in each step before you move on to the next one. If you move on to the next step when your players are doing everything just okay and they only “kind of” get it, your defense is going to end up below average to average.

Step 1: Get Your Players On Board

You need to make sure that your players understand why defense is so important, and this will really help motivate them and keep them working hard. So on the very first day of practice, you could say: “If you want to be successful; this team, your team, our team, needs to be great at defense.”

You can then bombard them with sobering defensive statistics showing the last 5 NBA and college championship teams. You’ll need to do a little selling and convincing to get them on board, and using facts are a great way to convince.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to keep selling them on defense all year, but you should make a concerted effort on day one to kick things off.

Explain the “Reason Why”

Another great way to get your players on board is to explain the reason why you do certain things. Most coaches neglect this super effective tactic and instead they just jam the tactics down their players’ throats.

Explaining the “reason why” is a proven psychological trigger that causes people to take a desired action.

Humans, by nature, want to know the reason why they are doing something.

If your players don’t understand the reason you want them to keep their knees bent, always be ready to help, see man and ball, apply ball pressure, and so on, then they will NOT give 100%!

Teach them why you’re quicker if you keep a low center of gravity and knees bent.

Teach them why you’re not supposed to leave your feet and get out of position.

Teach them why they are contesting the pass when they are one pass away.

The more your players understand the science behind your defense, the more they will buy into it and perform!

Explain Your Goal

You should also make your defensive goal very clear.

Your GOAL is to stop the offense from scoring on EVERY possession.

Your goal is NOT to go for the steal every time and give up an easy basket.

We all know that’s almost impossible, but to get your players in the right mindset, it should be stated.

The Importance of Intensity and How to Maintain It

When you’re developing your defense on the first day, it is very important to emphasize and maintain intensity on defense.

If you don’t see your players:

• Guarding the ball with intensity

• Rotating to the proper spot on the floor as quickly as possible

• Hustling over to take a charge

• Diving on the ground for loose balls…

Then a change needs to happen. That’s the difference between an average defense and the good-to-great defenses. Are they willing to play when they’re tired and pick up teams up at half-court to pressure them? Intensity is one of the priceless things that really make teams great.

When they’re playing really hard and doing a great job, give them verbal rewards and praise them. You should reward them with Gatorades for the player who plays the hardest, the player who takes the most charges, the player who dives on the floor the most, etc. As long as you’re consistent with your discipline and your emphasis on intensity, they’ll play hard without thinking twice about it.

Step 2: Teach the Defensive Stance and Slide

The very first day of practice you want to line up your team on the out of bounds line around the gym. One at a time, you want to check everybody’s defensive stance. Defense is all about balance, especially when it comes to guarding the ball. Make sure everybody is in a perfect stance before continuing on to the next drill, the “Step and Slide Drill.” You only need to use this drill on the first and second days of practice. We use this technique because it lets you critique everybody’s defensive stance individually.

Step And Slide Drill

1. Have your players push off their back leg and take a step with their lead foot at the same time, pause, then slide their back foot. Take a step, pause, then slide.

2. As soon as the first player starts sliding and is sliding properly, you can let the next player start.

We suggest that the first player is someone you think will do a good job with this so he can set a good example.

3. Each player will step and slide all the way to the finish line.

4. Once everyone is finished, have your players rest for a minute. Then, have them repeat in the opposite direction. So, if they were sliding to their right, have them slide to their left.

You’re going to want to go slow when you’re doing this, especially if this is the first time that your team has ever done it. You have to make sure that they do it properly from the very beginning. Once you’re done with that, they should get the idea of how to do a simple slide.

Notice, in step 1, we also said to push with the back leg and take a step forward with the lead foot. In order to get any explosiveness and momentum while sliding, you need to push/explode off of that back leg. Most coaches teach step and slide. They often forget to emphasize the push, which is vital to a good defensive slide.

If their feet come together too much, it means they’re going to lose balance because they don’t maintain that wide base. If your players’ feet come together too much, you can put a chair between their legs and have them perform the drill. After doing this once, the players usually do not have a problem keeping their feet apart.

Show Your Players the Importance of Balance:

After they perfect that drill, we recommend that you show them why balance and staying low is so important.

1. Have one of your players stand beside you with his feet together and legs straight. Give him a little push on the shoulder and he’ll tip right over and lose his balance.

2. Have that same player get a really wide base (slightly wider than shoulder width apart) with their legs straight and push him in the shoulder again. He won’t move as much this time.

3. Next, have him get low and wide in his defensive stance. He won’t budge. He will have a good strong base and won’t lose balance. Balance is crucial to a defender. If the defender has bad balance, a simple cut or change of direction dribble by the offensive player will shake him.

After you demonstrate the importance of staying low, you can progress to the “Sideline-to-Sideline Slide Drill.” This drill is great because it focuses on the fundamentals of the defensive stance and slide. Some college coaches practice this drill every day in practice. I would recommend using the “Sideline-to-Sideline Drill,” at least every two or three practices. If you are going to use this drill right after the “Step and Slide Drill,” you can skip the step where the players step and slide. You can go directly into the 50% speed in step 4.

After a few practices where you have critiqued everybody’s defensive slide using the “Step and Slide Drill,” you can just start with this drill to work on your form for your defensive slide and progress to faster speeds as indicated in the drill below.

Sideline-to-Sideline Slide Drill

1. Line everybody up on a sideline.

2. Have everybody get in the proper defensive stance

3. Next, have them push, step, and slide until you’re satisfied with the way everybody is doing it. Then have them jog to the opposite baseline the rest of the way.

Be vocal when doing the push, step, and slide. They should push and step on your command of, “Step.” When you say, “Slide,” they slide their back foot back to the proper defensive position. So, you will be saying “Step. Slide. Step. Slide. Step. Slide.” Don’t say it too fast until everybody is doing it correctly.

For players 15 years old and older, have them step and slide most of the way. For youth players, don’t go much farther than half way.

4. Next, we have them go at 50% speed when sliding. Make sure they are focusing on form rather than speed. This time they slide all the way across the court.

5. Next, they go back at 75% speed.

6. Then, the final time they go at full speed.

The first time running this drill with youth, it is a good idea to have them go a couple at a time to make sure everybody is using great form.

After perfecting the defensive stance and slide, you can move on to Step 3, which teaches your players how to guard the ball.

Step 3: Teach Your Players How to Guard the Ball

Next, you will want to cover the principles of:

• Hand position

• Distance from the offensive player

• Defensive swing step

Make sure to spend time teaching the principles of each one. When you first explain these concepts, you will find yourself teaching way longer than you are actually performing the drill, and that’s great. Too often, coaches will try to fly through teaching the principle so they can get to another drill or another play. Those other plays and drills are useless if they don’t understand these principles.

Partner Sliding Drill

1. Have your players partner up and form a line underneath the hoop.

2. Each group should have one basketball.

3. One player will have a basketball and the other will be on defense.

4. The offensive player will dribble at an angle while the defensive player slides to beat the player to the spot. When the defensive player turns to the offensive player, the defensive player does a “Swing Step” and continues to slide in the other direction.

5. Once one pair reaches half court, the next pair in line can start.

6. After each pair reaches the opposite side, they are to stop and wait for every other group to finish.

7. When everybody is finished, the partners switch positions and go back down the court. The player that was dribbling first should now be on defense.

8. The first time through, we usually go at 50% speed. Second time, we go at 75%. Third time, we go at full speed. Make sure they have their hands out.

To speed things up, we usually split the court in half and have two groups go at once.

The very first time you do this, it’s best to have one group go at a time, so that you can concentrate on each defender and make sure everybody is doing it correctly.

Shading the Ball (or Body Position):

The next concept you can teach is shading the ball. Shading the ball refers to when a player gets in a staggered stance (one foot slightly ahead of the other) and forces the offensive player to one direction.

You want to teach your players to shade the ball towards a certain direction based on your philosophy. Here are your choices:

• Force Weak Hand

• Force Baseline

• Straight Up

• Whatever the player feels comfortable doing – some coaches choose this option because they want the players to do whatever they can to stop dribble penetration.

Another good drill that will help players improve their on-ball defense is simply playing one-on-one in the half court. Within this drill, you can practice all of the concepts you have taught:

• Defensive Stance and Slide

• Hand Positioning

• Shading the Ball

• Swing Step (not needed as often in the half court)

You can see the One-on-One Drill on the next page.

One-on-One Drill

1. Start a line at the top of the key.

2. The first player will be on defense. The second player will be on offense.

3. The offensive player is allowed 3 dribbles (this number can vary).

4. If the defensive player gets a stop by rebound or forced turnover, he gets two points. If the offensive player scores, he gets one point.

5. The offense then rotates to defense. The defense goes to the back of the line.

6. After everybody has gone through 4 or 5 times, add up the totals and see who wins.

If space allows, split up the team so only one or two groups are at each basket. This way you get a lot more repetitions in a smaller time frame.

Variations:

Half Court or Full Court – For advanced players, either start at half court or use the entire court.

Make It, Take It – Match up your players according to skill level, the best player with the second best player and so forth. Have them play to 7 and give them 1 point for every basket scored. The only way to get the ball on offense is to get a defensive stop (turnover, rebound). If the offensive player scores, he gets the ball again.

We really like this variation, because it forces the defense to play intensely. If they don’t play hard, they won’t even get the ball back. And we know everybody loves to play offense.

Step 4: Teach Them How to Guard the Perimeter – One Pass Away

We generally teach the open stance so that it’s easier to always see man and ball. Closed stance would be better for denying the pass.

Here is a simple one-on-one drill you can run to incorporate positioning for One Pass Away.

One Pass Away Drill

1. An offensive player is on the wing. A defensive player will be guarding the wing player. A coach or player is at the top of the key with the ball.

2. Introduce the “On the line” & “Up the line” concept.

3. The offensive player cuts back and forth on the wing and the defensive player slides back and forth, maintaining the proper position while one pass away.

This drill will vary upon what type of defense you want to use. If you want to deny the pass, the player/coach attempts passes to the offensive player. If the pass gets through, the defensive player works harder to deny the pass. He’ll be working on positioning and denying the pass.

If you are playing ”Wolf Pack” style defense, you are not emphasizing the denial of the pass, so it wouldn’t matter if you made the pass or not. You focus solely on positioning.

You can also pass the ball and let the players go one-on-one to emphasize “On-Ball” defense as well.

After that, introduce a variation to the One Pass Away Drill.

One Pass Away Drill – Help and Recover Variation

You can incorporate this variation into practice early help and quick recovery.

1. Perform the drill just like the “One Pass Away Drill” on the previous page.

2. Now, introduce the “Early Help and Quick Recovery Concept.”

3. Have the player/coach fake a dribble drive to make sure that the player is watching both the ball and the player he is guarding.

Step 5: How to Guard the Perimeter – Two Passes Away

After the players understand this concept, we like to move onto the “Shell Drill”, which will be explained in a few pages. This allows a greater number of kids to get more repetitions and more time on the court.

Some coaches are big fans of breakdown drills. We’re big fans of teaching concepts within the Shell Drill. With that being said, we still like to break down the drill before we go into the shell drill. So, that way, you can use the best of both worlds.

Please understand that when demonstrating the Shell Drill in this step-by-step process, we are going to use the defense that has worked best for us. You may need to make a few adjustments for the type of defense you prefer.

We prefer to allow the perimeter pass and deny all penetrating passes. Whether you play full denial defense or “Wolf Pack” style defense, all of the rotations will be the same.

Communication

Before we go into the Shell Drill, we like to briefly talk about communication and how important it is for the basketball team’s success. You might want talk to your players about communication earlier, but, at the very least, start talking about it now. It is VERY important to emphasize it from this point forward.

Here is an analogy we like to use with our players:

How well do you think you’ll do in life without being able to communicate? This isn’t referring to common miscommunications that everybody runs into. This is referring to any type of communication: writing, talking, showing how you feel, or understanding what anything means. Could you imagine not being able to tell someone when you’re not feeling well, when you’re hungry, or when you need help?

If you cannot communicate in life, you will not be successful. The same applies to basketball. If you do not communicate on the court, you will not be successful in the game of basketball.

Basic Shell Drill (Progression 1)

NOTE: Defensive players will allow all passes to go through except passes into the post. We will indicate when players should be allowed to steal passes. In most of these drills, do not allow the steal on the perimeter pass.

Shell Positioning

1. Four offensive players will be lined up outside the three-point line. You should have four offensive players and four defensive players. Two offensive players will be on the wings and two offensive players will be near the corners, with a defensive player guarding each of these players.

2. Give one of the offensive players the ball and then demonstrate how the defense should be positioned.

3. At first, tell your players when to pass the ball. You can either yell, “pass” or blow the whistle. When the pass is thrown, your defensive players should be moving to their new position. This move should be while the ball is in flight.

The first time showing them these positions, explain where they need to go and why. Go to each defender and position him exactly where he needs to be. If the players understand why they are doing something, they are more likely to do it.

Make sure everybody keeps his knees bent in a good athletic stance.

When introducing the “two passes away” concept, it is a good time to talk about the “rim line.” Tell the players when the ball is on the wing and you are two passes away, “Get your butt on the rim line.” If the players don’t ask you why you put them on the rim line, tell them why: • Psychologically, to an offensive player it makes the middle look clogged and naturally the offensive player doesn’t want to force into a crowded area.

• When positioned on the rim line, it’s easier to rotate on dribble penetration. Tell them you’ll show them why later.

4. After explaining the positions, you can take a step back and start this pattern: a. “Pass”, wait 3 seconds and if needed, correct their positioning. Repeat this about 5 or 6 times. b. After they get the hang of it, you can allow the offense to pass the ball when they want.

5. You should make the defense work hard for 20 to 30 seconds

6. After that, have the players on the wings flip flop with the players near the corners. This way, everybody will practice all of the defensive positions.

You will progress from passing and waiting 3 seconds to letting the offense pass when they want.

7. After you have done that, get an entirely new defense in there and rotate them until everybody has participated.

Correcting your Players:

Make sure to correct the players if they are in an incorrect position. If you do not correct them on these minor details, they will develop bad habits and your teachings become useless.

Moving on the Pass:

Your defenders should be “Moving on the Pass.” In other words, as soon as the ball is leaving the offensive player’s fingertips, all of the defensive players are already moving to their positions so that, when the ball is caught, they’re literally in their spots already. Even a SLOWER TEAM can appear to be quicker if they’re in the habit of always moving on the pass. The goal is to get to the new defensive position when the other player catches the ball. .

If they wait to move until the ball reaches the offensive player, the defense will constantly be out of position and scrambling to get to the correct spot.

Knees Bent

To show your players the importance of having their knees bent, take one of the quickest kids on the team and take one of the slower kids on the team, lining the two next to one another on the baseline.

Position yourself around the free throw line. Tell the quickest kid to stand straight up like he was about to get his height measured. Tell the other one to get in a runner’s starting position with his knees bent. When you say, “go” have them race to the free throw line. Almost every time, the slower kid will win. Don’t let the quicker kid cheat; make sure he keeps his legs straight.

Shell Drill – Dribble Drive (Progression 2)

Next, reintroduce the Early Help and Quick Recovery concepts.

You can allow the offensive players to dribble drive, but do not allow your defensive players to use their hands. If you have to, make them put their hands behind their backs.

In no particular order, an offensive player will:

• Drive Middle

• Drive Baseline

• Pick up his Dribble

At this point, you will want to show your players to step in and help the defensive player. Once somebody drives middle, stop the drill and show the defender one pass away how to help and stop the drive (if the player did not do so). If the player successfully stopped the drive, stop practice and applaud it. Tell the rest of the players what he did and how he did it.

When somebody drives baseline and beats the defender, show the defense all of the rotations. Even though there are only 4 players on the court, it still has the same principles. In order to drill the rotation on the baseline drive, you can also use the “Baseline Drive Rotation Drill” below.

After you have covered these situations, let your players go “Live” in a controlled scrimmage within the half-court. Stop and correct positioning when needed.

When somebody picks up his dribble, you can introduce the “Dead Concept.” We like to cover this now, but you can cover it at a different time if you want to.

“Dead” Concept

If the offensive player picks up his dribble, we teach our players to yell, “Dead! Dead! Dead!” We also teach them to belly up against the offensive player without fouling and to have active hands mirroring the basketball.

There are a few different reasons to do this:

1. It puts a lot of pressure on the offensive player, which can create turnovers.

2. It makes your teammates aware that the offensive player has lost his dribble. Now, they can close the gap between themselves and the player they are guarding, which will allow them to get more deflections and steals when a pass is made. If a pass is made, everybody needs to sprint back to their appropriate positions.

Baseline Drive Rotation Drill

1. Line up four players around the perimeter.

2. Players will move to the new position when you yell, “Pass.”

3. When the ball is passed to the bottom wing player, the two offensive players on the opposite side exchange.

4. When you want a bottom wing player to drive baseline, yell, “Drive.”

In this drill, you do not want the players to steal the pass. This is all about positioning.

5. When the offensive player is trapped along the baseline, he will throw the pass out. “On the Pass,” the defensive players will rotate back to their man and continue the drill.

Variation:

6. You can implement this step after you have introduced how to defend in the low post, which is covered in the next section. Put one player in the post. You can either practice with a high post or low post.

When we have a player in the low post, we usually have them stay on one side, that way you get the different rotations; baseline drive with a post player on the side of the ball and also on the opposite side.

After this, you can move onto the next section. The next step is to teach them how to guard the post.

Step 6: Teach Your Players How to Guard the Post

You may have the best perimeter defense in the state, but if you have poor post defense, you’ll still have problems defending opposing teams. That’s why it is important to cover post defense as well.

The first thing to teach is how to defend in the low post. We always teach the 3/4 front in the high post and a combination in the low post.

Here’s an explanation of how to guard in the low post:

• If the ball is below the free throw line, full front in the low post.

• If the ball is above the free throw line, 3/4 front in the low post

Post Drill – Pass From the Top of the Key to the Wing:

1. Have a player or coach at the top of the key with another coach or player on the wing. You want a player on the block on offense and another player on the block on defense.

First, explain how you want your post defenders positioned when the ball is at the top of the key.

You can either demonstrate or have a player demonstrate it.

2. Pass the ball to the wing. Show them how you want to defend when the ball is on the wing or below the free throw line extended (3/4 front or full front).

3. Pass the ball back and forth a few times, then rotate other players into the drill. We usually rotate from the top of the key, to the wing, to the post offensive player, to the defensive post player with a line starting at the top of the key.

If you are limited on coaches, space, or time, you could have them do this on both sides of the hoop on both sides of the court. Next, incorporate a low post player into the Shell Drill.

Shell Drill w/ Low Post

1. Have the players assume their shell positions.

2. Progression should go: (Do not progress to the next step until everything is done properly!!)

• Pass on Coach (You) • Pass on their own • Rotate all players • Allow Dribble Drive • Practice Baseline Rotation Drill w/ Low Post on ball side • Go “Live” – have a controlled scrimmage within the half-court. Stop and correct when needed.

Here is a review of the baseline drive rotations:

3. Make sure to rotate the players every minute or so. That way, everybody gets positioned in the post area. If short on time, you may only rotate the post players into the post area. Everyone needs to practice in the post, so it is important to get everybody repetitions at one time or another.

After this, you should teach how to defend in the high post.

Post Drill – One-on-One In the High Post.

1. Show your players the proper position when the ball is at the top of the key.

2. Have the player pass the ball to the wing. Show your players the proper transition behind the post. Demonstrate the defense from the high post, which should be a 3/4 front.

3. When everybody understands this new concept, you can pass the ball back and forth a few times to drill this and rotate players.

Once, you perform these drills and everybody understands the concepts, incorporate a high post player into the Shell Drill.

Shell Drill – High Post

1. Progression: (Do not progress to the next step until everything is done properly!!) • Pass on Command • Pass when they choose • Rotate • Dribble Drive • Baseline Drive • Go “Live”

Review on Rotations for Baseline Drive:

• Notice how all the rotations are the same for the 4 perimeter defenders as in the Baseline Drive Drill.

• Player 5 shuffles in front of the defensive player in the high post to deny him the pass and stop him from cutting to the basket.

Next, teach them how to transition from the low post to the high post and vice versa.

Low Post to High Post, High Post to Low Post Transition Drill

1. When first showing this drill, make sure to go step by step to display the transition you prefer, which is either behind or in front. Start with the transition from the low post to the high post.

2. Next, drill this transition with all of your players.

3. Put a coach or player on the wing with the ball. When the player with the ball slaps the ball, the offensive player will make a cut to the high post. The player on the wing should make an entry pass if it’s open. That way, it ensures that the defensive player is properly denying the ball.

4. After everybody does this correctly, show them the proper way to transition from the high post to low post. We recommend transitioning in front of the post player.

5. Drill this transition until everybody is doing it correctly.

6. Have the offensive players cut back and forth between the low and high posts on your ball signal.

7. Let them go “live” and have the offensive player cut back and forth trying to maintain position to get the ball.

Progression: (Do not progress to the next step until everything is done properly!!)

• Low Post to High Post • High Post to Low Post • Back and Forth on your command • Go “Live”

Shell Drill – Two Offensive Post Players

1. Progression: • Pass on Command • Pass when the players choose • Rotate • Dribble Drive • Baseline Drive (All of the rotations can be seen in the formula section) • Go “Live”

2. You can also run this drill with two players in the low post and two players

in the high post.

Shallow Triangle Concept:

3. Introduce the shallow triangle concept. Have one of your post players go the corner. Explain the shallow triangle and the positioning. You can also drill the shallow triangle with 5 wings.

Step 7: Teach Your Players How to Get Back on Defense!

You need to make sure that your players always get back on defense. If the players do not get back and set, it eliminates all the hard work you spent on teaching defense. Teams are going to try to run on you and score before your defense gets set.

There are a few different drills you can use:

Whistle Drill

1. Divide your squad into teams of five. The teams should be scrimmaging like normal.

2. When the coach blows the whistle, the offensive player with the ball will set the ball down. This will be treated as a turnover, and the offense will have to hustle back to play defense. The defense should sprint back to the lane and locate the man they are guarding.

3. The defender closest to the ball will pick it up and get it to the point guard. The point guard will then push the ball up the court and try to get a quick fast break basket.

4. If a basket is scored, play it like a regular game. If not, set up the offense and repeat the first three steps.

Variety - Make sure to vary who has possession of the ball and the location of the ball when blowing the whistle.

Communication - Your players should always be talking when getting back on defense. “I got him.” “I got Jimmy.” To make sure they communicate, you can also mix it up by telling them that they have to guard somebody different every time you blow the whistle. This will force them to talk!

3-on-3 Transition Drill

1. Have three players on defense lined across the free throw line extended.

Have three offensive players across the baseline. The middle person will have the ball.

2. On the whistle, the three offensive players start a fast break towards the opposite goal.

The defender in the middle sprints all the way back to the lane to become a safety valve on defense. The defensive player on the left wing sprints toward the 3-point line in attempt to stop the ball. The defensive player on the right wing sprints to touch the baseline and has to sprint back on defense. Initially, the defense is at a disadvantage.

3. If the offense scores or a change of possession occurs, the offense and defense switch roles and continue the drill down to the other side of the court.

To add competitiveness, use a point system. If the offense scores before the third defender hustles back, they get 3 points. If they score after the third defender gets back, they get 2 points. Reward the defense 3 points for any stop.

Bringing the Foundation Together

Next, you want to put everything that you learned together. This is the foundation to a good defense. You may want to run a half-court scrimmage and concentrate on these concepts to make sure that players are doing them correctly. The second somebody slips up, stop the practice and correct the problem. It may be a lot at first, but the players will adjust quickly.

Everything that we’ve discussed so far revolves around keeping the ball away from the basket. So always keep that in mind as you teach and work on your defense.

Defensive Concepts to Watch For:

• Always stop the ball. If the ball is in front of you, stop it. • Keep the ball as far from the basket as possible. • Seeing man and ball at all times • Positioning one pass away • Positioning two passes away • How to guard the post • How to guard the ball • How to stop penetration • Early help and recovery • Moving on the pass, not the catch • Proper Defensive Stance- All players need to be low with their knees bent. They need to be on the balls of their feet. They need to be ready to have quick feet, anticipate, and move quickly so that they’re all moving to their spot as soon as the ball is passed, driven in, or on any shift.

• Active hands • Communication - Make sure at this point to incorporate communication into your Shell Drill. Yell, “Ball” when guarding the ball. Yell, “Skip” on skip passes, etc. Establishing this communication will really help you in the long run, and you need to start the habit from day one.

For instance, the other team might have a fast break opportunity, and your player will respond by saying, “Hey, I got ball. You get mine behind me.” This is a great example of communication. That’s why they need to talk and get into that habit from the very beginning.

From this point, we’ve provided you with the basics. This is a great foundation for your team. Most youth teams can be very successful without the rest of the book. If your team has never even played man-to-man before, or your team is struggling with concepts mentioned previously, you should stop now and keep practicing all the things that we’ve gone over so far and get those mastered before you move on to more advanced techniques and strategies.

Once you have perfected the foundational concepts, you can move onto the more advanced tactics, like recovering on screens, handling cutters, closing out on the offensive player, and other various tactics we’re going to discuss with you soon. Otherwise, you will overwhelm your team, and your players will forget about the important things that you previously covered. Once you feel comfortable in these areas and your team is doing a good job, you can start to advance to the next step.

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Now that you have the foundation of the man-to-man defense, you can incorporate new concepts to help you dominate the opposition. We do not have a step-by-step in this section. We do cover it in the order that we normally teach, but we don’t think it should be set in stone.

After a few scrimmages or games, you may notice that your team is terrible at defending post cuts, so you will work on post cuts before close outs. Maybe your team is having a tough time defending back screens, so you’ll cover that before teaching how to defend cuts.

Upon watching and analyzing film, you may also notice things in the foundation that your team is doing poorly. So, you’ll go back and work on those concepts while adding new ones.

Don’t forget to always work on foundation drills!!

You don’t want to stop practicing the basics.

For example, your practice schedule might go something like this:

• 3 minutes – Zig Zag drill • 4 minutes – 1 on 1 live • 12 minutes – 5 on 5 shell progression o Pass on command o Drive on command o Live with points (for competition) • 10 minutes – Introduce new concept: hedging on ball screens

Another factor that will determine what sections you want to teach first is emphasis. What are you going to emphasize on defense? If taking charges is going to be a point of emphasis, you better make a point to practice that at almost every practice after you get the foundation implemented. If you want to out rebound everybody, you should emphasize rebounding drills more often.

Here is the list of factors as mentioned above:

• Foundation – Is it perfected? • Weaknesses – Did you play poorly in certain areas on defense? • Emphasis – What do you want to be good at? • New Concepts – What do you need to introduce?

Maintaining Your Foundation

As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to keep working on foundation drills discussed in previous chapters.

Once your players have a solid understanding of defensive positioning and objectives, we like to use competitive Shell Drills almost every day. Not only does this help maintain what you already learned, it helps you continue to improve your defense. And just as important, it sends a message to your players that YOU are serious about defense!

Defensive Point System

Here’s an explanation of the live Shell Drill with a point system:

• 3 points for taking a charge • 2 points for a defensive stop • -2 points when you give up an offensive rebound

You can only score when you’re playing on defense. You can use this point system in 3-on-3, 4-on-4, 5- on-5, or half-court controlled scrimmages.

Three and Out

This is a 4-on-4 drill where the defense must stop the offense 3 times to get out. You should divide your team into evenly matched personnel. You might only want to run 2 stops to get out, depending on your team’s experience level.

This drill will help you identify your best defenders, build mental toughness, and allow you to see what areas of your defense need improvement.

After a score, address and fix any mistakes.

For an added challenge, require the defense to get three stops in a row. Don’t bail them out. Make your players suck it up and get the job done.

Overloads

In addition to using defensive point systems for controlled scrimmages and live Shell Drills, we like to run overload drills. You might want to consider running overload drills every day because they will help your defense improve communication, early help, quick recovery, rotations, and anticipation.

With overload drills, you have a live Shell Drill (or half-court controlled scrimmage) with 4 offensive players and 3 defensive players. Let the offense go live and try to score. Your defense will really have to help each other, scramble, and communicate. It’s a good way to develop the habits you want on defense.

You should also run 5 on 4 overloads.

Close Outs

At this stage, we normally start to work on close outs. If your players don’t know how to close out, the offense may be getting wide open shots, penetration, or a combination of both.

Close Out Drill

1. First, show everybody the proper close out. The defensive player starts out on the block with the ball, and then passes the ball to the offensive player on the wing.

2. The defensive player sprints halfway to the offensive player and then breaks down into a defensive shuffle using wide, short, choppy steps.

3. The offensive player fakes a shot, and then brings the ball down. The defensive player then raises his arms to contest the shot. If the offensive player is left-handed, the defensive player raises his right hand to defend the shot and extends his left hand out to defend the pass or dribble.

4. At this point, the offensive player dribbles twice to one side or the other, and the defensive player’s goal is to prevent the ball handler from getting by.

5. Rotate every two or three repetitions.

6. You can also have a coach or player throw a pass from the opposite wing.

For high school coaches, you may also incorporate some advanced techniques on how to guard the pivot that were mentioned in the Formula section of this ebook.

If you want to get players plenty of repetitions in a short amount of time, you can incorporate the Baseline Close Out Drill, though we highly recommend using the one above first. That way, you can focus on every player to ensure that each is using the proper technique.

Baseline Close Out Drill

1. Line up the defensive players on the baseline with the ball. Line up the offensive players at the free throw line extended or a little farther back.

2. The defensive players pass the ball to the offensive players.

3. As soon as the defensive player passes the ball, he sprints and shuffles (when within 7 to 9 feet) to close out.

4. You can have the offensive players take the ball to the baseline and turn into the defensive players, and continue to rotate like that.

Here is another great close out drill that you can use:

2-on-2 Closeout Drill

1. One player has the ball on the wing. A defender should be guarding him. Another offensive player will be on the opposite wing with a defensive player guarding him.

2. The offensive players will pass the ball back and forth a few times. One defensive player will close out while the other one sprints to the rim line.

3. After a few passes, you can let them play 2-on- 2. Do not allow the defense to steal the initial passes until you give them permission to go “Live.”

Variation: You can also add a cut from the wing after each pass to practice defending the cutter. You will want to wait to do this until after Step 10: Defending the Cutter.

Here is a great way to incorporate the close out within the shell drill:

Shell Closeout Drill

1. Line up four defensive players underneath the hoop. Line up four offensive players on the perimeter.

2. Stand between the defensive players under the hoop and pass the ball to one of the offensive players. Everybody will then sprint to the appropriate position.

3. From there you go live into the Shell Drill.

Make sure that the defensive players are lined up appropriately so that they don’t cross each other. Otherwise, the drill becomes a mess.

After you introduce close outs, you may want to turn your focus to teaching the art of defensive rebounding.

Rebounding

In order to be a great rebounding team, it takes all five players to block out every time. This way you limit the other team’s possessions and give yourself a better chance to win.

Before you introduce a drill, you need to cover how to block out step by step. After this, you can put them into drill setting.

From a communication standpoint, have the players yell, “shot.”

Some drills you can utilize are One-on-One Rebounding, Shell Drill Rebounding, and Three-on-Three Block Out.

One-on-One Rebounding

1. Defender 1 is facing the offensive player – about 2 to 3 feet of separation is appropriate.

2. A ball is placed about 5 to 10 feet behind Defender 1.

3. When you say, “Go”, or blow the whistle, Defender 1 tries to keep the offensive player from getting the ball for 3 seconds.

Do not let the offensive players dive for the ball. They can break a wrist or lose a couple of teeth.

We really like Shell Drill Rebounding because it emphasizes defensive positioning. It is also more game-like, because you’re not right next to the offensive player when the shot goes up.

Shell Rebounding Drill

1. Perform this drill just like the Shell Drill. Have the players pass the ball either on your command or when they choose.

For this drill, do NOT allow any dribble penetration.

2. When you yell, “Shot!” (you can also blow your whistle), the offensive player with the ball will shoot. Each defensive player needs to locate the player they’re guarding and block him out.

Three-on-Three Block Out Drill

1. Split your players into groups of three with one group on offense and the other on defense.

2. Have the offensive players scatter around the 3- point arc area. The defensive players should be about 5 or 6 feet away.

3. A coach/player is positioned with a ball somewhere else on the court. When the coach/player shoots the ball, the three defensive players attempt to block out the three offensive players. Everybody goes for the rebound.

4. If the offensive team gets the rebound, they get 1 point. If they get the rebound and score, they get 2 points. The defensive team gets 1 point for the rebound.

5. You can have them play to 5, 10 points or whatever you feel appropriate. The loser does pushups, runs, etc. You can either have the offense and defense switch after every shot, or you can have one team on defense until they get a defensive rebound. There are many different ways to run this drill.

In order to be successful at rebounding, you need to emphasize it at every practice. If you do not have time for some reason, you need emphasize it during a scrimmage or other drills.

Defending Cuts – Perimeter & Post

First, you’ll want to make sure that everybody is defending the cutter properly by using this drill.

1-on-1 Cutting – Top of the Key

1. Have one player at the top of the key with a ball, one player guarding the ball and one player on the wing.

2. Have the player at the top of the key pass the ball to the wing. As soon as the ball is passed, the offensive player at the top of the key makes a basket cut in front of the defender.

3. The defender should have already placed himself between the ball and the player he is guarding. This way, he denies the entry pass. If you think about it, the defensive player should already be in ideal defensive position if he “Moved on the Pass,” making an open cut to the basket very difficult. All your player would need to do is to shuffle down with them all the way through the lane and make sure that it is not easy to pass.

4. The offensive player clears out to the opposite wing. The defensive player stays on the rim line.

A variation you could add is to fake the dribble drive to make sure that the defensive player is watching the man and the ball at all times.

You can start with this drill as well: 1-on-1 Cutting.

1-on-1 Cutting – Wing

1. Start with the offensive player on the wing, a coach or player on the opposite wing with the ball, and a defensive player positioned on the rim line, guarding the offensive player without the ball.

2. On your command, or when the players are ready, have the player from the opposite wing cut to the free throw line. The defensive player should step up to deny this pass.

3. The offensive player has three choices: Cut to the top of the key, back cut, or a face cut.

4. The defensive player’s goal is to take away all three options. This is also a great way for your offensive players to work on their cuts.

Another drill you can use is the Fogler Drill. This is a great drill to incorporate within the Shell Drill.

Fogler Drill

1. You need four offensive players and four defensive players. This is just like the 4-on- 4 Shell Drill, except a basket cut is being added.

2. On your command, the offensive players pass the ball around the arc. Whenever the ball is passed to the corner (Players 3 or 4 in the diagram to the right), the person throwing the pass cuts to the basket. After the cut, the player clears out to the opposite side and the other players rotate over.

Do not allow defenders to steal passes made around the arc. Allow them to steal any penetrating passes to the cutters.

3. After the offensive player clears the lane and cuts to the opposite of the corner, 99% of the time, the defensive player will instinctively follow his man to the other side of the court. You do not want your players to do that; you want them to just stop in the lane and get in

your help position so they can see man and ball, open their stance, and stop right there.

4. Continually pass the ball around the arc until you are satisfied with your defense.

Another mistake you’ll see is that players will often take their eye off the ball while their man is cutting. Make sure your players do not do this! It’ll break down your help defense and rotation. If a defender does this, an offensive player may drive right by him because he was looking only at the cutter he was guarding. If you’re maintaining the proper vision of man and the ball, you’ll be able to deflect any attempted passes in to the cutter, which can be the difference between giving up two points and scoring an easy two points the other way.

You’ll want to practice defending the cutter over and over so that your players break the bad habit of following the cutter across the court. Once you add movement to the offense, you also need to make sure that your players know how to stay in the right position.

Along with defending wing cuts, your team will also need to know how to defend cuts in the post. A series of cuts your players will need to know how to deal with in order to defend in the post are covered over the next few pages.

Before running each of these drills, be sure to show your players the proper form for defending the cutter as shown in the Formula section.

Post Cuts – Low Post to High Post, High Post to Low Post

1. You need one player or coach on the wing, one defensive player, and one offensive player.

2. The offensive player starts in the low post with the defensive player in correct defensive position.

3. On your command, the offensive player cuts to the high post.

4. The defensive player needs to make the correct transition, whether it’s behind the offensive player or in front of the offensive player.

5. On your command, the offensive player goes back from the high post to the low post. Again, the defensive player should make the correct transition as previously discussed in this section.

6. Repeat until you’re satisfied with the way the drill is being performed.

Post Cuts – Weak Side Post to Ball Side Post

1. Have a coach/player on the wing. You need one offensive post player and one defensive post player.

2. The offensive post player starts on the opposite block. The defensive player starts in proper defensive position-- one step away, near the rim line with the front foot and arm in the passing lane.

3. When the wing player slaps the ball or gives the offensive player a wink, the offensive player cuts across the lane.

4. The defensive player slides into a 3/4 front or full front, depending on what you chose to teach. It’s usually easier to go from a full front to a 3/4 front.

5. Do this a couple of times, then rotate.

Post Cuts - Diagonal Cut: Low Post to High Post

1. The offensive player starts on the opposite block.

2. The defensive player is in proper position.

3. The offensive player cuts to the high post on the side of the ball.

When guarding the cutter, the defensive player should use an arm bar and his body to make the offensive player curve the cut. The diagram to the right shows the type of cut you want the offensive player to have to make.

4. Do this until the defensive player is guarding the cut correctly.

Post Cuts – Fake High, Go Low Cut

1. Start with the offensive player on the opposite block and the defender in proper position.

2. The offensive player fakes high.

3. After this, he cuts below to the opposite block. As this happens, the defensive player should twist his head the opposite way, and his opposite leg becomes the front foot, the arm bar turns into the defending arm, and the defending arm turns into the arm bar.

4. The defender slides over to the block with the offensive player, while denying the entry pass.

1-on-1 Live Post Defense Drill

• After teaching how to defend the post cuts, you can go live into a drill where the offensive player starts on the opposite block and does whatever he wants. The defensive player has to react appropriately.

• You can also incorporate a fake dribble drive to make sure the post defender is keeping his eye on the man and the ball.

When you’re ready, the next step you want to incorporate is defending against the ball screen.

Defending Screens

Ball Screens: Two on Two

1. First, show the players the technique you want to use when defending ball screens: • Underneath • Hedging • Switching

2. You need two players on offense and two players on defense.

3. The offensive player without the ball sets a screen for the player with the ball.

4. The offensive player dribbles off the screen.

5. The defensive players defend the screen appropriately, depending on your coaching philosophy. In the diagram sequence on the right, we are demonstrating hedging through the screen. Defensive Player 2 steps out to stop the ball, then recovers back to the player he was guarding.

6. After they have defended it properly, rotate so that the player with the ball is now the screener. The screener is now the ball handler.

7. After that, switch offense and defense, then repeat.

Make sure the defensive players are communicating. The defensive player guarding the screener needs to yell “Screen right” or “Screen left,” depending on where the screen is coming from.

If you want to practice doubling the ball on screens, you can use this 3-on-3 drill on the next page.

3 on 3: Doubling Screens

This is very similar to the drill on the last page, except you add a third player on offense and defense. Now, instead of just hedging the screen, the player guarding the screener jumps out and double-teams the ball along with the player guarding the ball.

The third player’s responsibility is to get near the lane to take away the pass to the player left unguarded.

1. You can have a player on top, on the wing, and in the corner like in the diagrams to the right. You could also have two players on opposite wings with a player on top.

2. The player between two offensive players will always have the ball.

3. You can tell which player you want to have set the ball screen. In the first diagram, the player from the corner sets a screen on the ball. Players 2 and 3 double-team the ball. Player 1 drops back into the lane to defend the Roll by the screener.

4. In the second diagram, the screen comes from the top of the key. Players 1 and 2 trap the ball. Player 3 drops into the lane to defend the Roll by the screener.

Shell Drill: Ball Screens

Here is an easy way to incorporate ball screens into the Shell Drill:

1. On every pass, the offensive player follows the pass and sets a screen for the player that receives it.

Sometimes, the players setting the screens will get in a rush to set the screen. It isn’t a race, and let the offense know this. If they are setting sloppy ball screens, the defense does not get a chance to learn how to deal with well- executed screens.

Shell Drill: Screens Away From the Ball

Here, we will show you how to incorporate screens away from the ball into the Shell Drill. You should drill each type of screen individually before you start using the combination drills.

Away Screen (4 Wings, No Posts):

1. Show players the proper way to defend a screen away from the ball.

2. After every pass, the passer will set an away screen.

3. There is only one time an away screen is NOT set: when the player in the corner passes the ball.

Do not allow the defense to steal any passes in this drill.

To prevent confusion, do not allow skip passes.

Down Screen (3 Wings, 2 Posts):

1. Show players the proper way to defend a down screen.

2. After every pass to the top of the key, the wing player will set a down screen.

Back Screens (4 Wings, 1 Post):

1. Show players how to defend a back screen.

2. After every pass to the opposite side of the court, the player in the post sets a back screen on the passer.

When to set back screen:

• Wing to Opposite Wing

• Corner to Opposite Wing

• Wing to Opposite Corner

• Corner to Opposite Corner

Post Screens (3 Wings, 2 Posts):

1. Show the players how to defend post screens. With our defense, we switch on all post screens.

2. On every pass to the wing, have the post player on the side of the ball go set a screen for the opposite post.

You can also use combinations of screens within the shell drill. Here are a couple of examples:

Combo Screens: Post and Away

1. After every pass to the wing, an away screen and a post screen is set at the same time.

Combo Screens: Away and Down

1. After every pass to the wing, an away screen is set.

2. After every pass to the top of the key, a down screen is set.

After this, you could go live and let the offense choose what type of screens they are going to set.

You can also grab the offense to the side and say, “Only set down screens”, and, “When I blow the whistle, go to 4 wings and 1 post and set back screens.” That way, the defense has to react and doesn’t know what’s coming right away.

If you are having trouble with back screens, here is a breakdown drill that we like to use:

Back Screens Breakdown Drill:

1. You need two wing players and one post player. The post player starts on the same side as the player with the ball.

2. The player with the ball throws a skip pass to the other wing.

3. The offensive player in the post sets a back screen for the offensive player who just threw the pass.

4. The wing player cuts to the block on the ball side.

5. The player with the ball tries to throw an entry pass to either the screener or the cutter to make sure that the defensive players are defending it correctly.

6. After this, the player with the ball throws a pass across the court to the other wing player and the same motion is run again. You can run this repeatedly until you are satisfied with the way the group is defending back screens.

Taking Charges

Before you start doing any intense drills on taking charges, the very first thing you should do is teach them how to take a charge. Here is a drill that helps you accomplish this:

Beginner Charge Drill

1. Have your players line up across any line (half-court, sideline) on the court, side-by-side.

2. You (Coach) will walk down the line to every player and gently push him.

3. The player will then fall backwards like he is taking a charge. If he does not properly fall and yell when taking the charge, make him do it again.

You can also put a mat behind the players so that they do not hurt themselves until they have improved their form. After you have done this, you can progress to the more advanced charging drills.

Baseline Drive Charging Drill

1. Put a line of players on the wing.

2. The defensive player is underneath the hoop. Have him pretend that he is guarding a player on the opposite wing. The defensive player should be in proper help side position. We prefer to have our players on the rim line in this situation. Others like their players with one foot in the lane.

3. The player with the ball on the wing (Player 2) drives baseline. To make it more realistic, we also place a player on the opposite wing (Player 1).

4. The defensive player should slide to stop the ball. The player needs to be in good defensive position so he can take the charge.

5. The offensive player bumps into the defensive player. The defensive player then lets out a yell, "Uh!!!" and falls under control backwards onto his butt.

If you are not satisfied with the way the player takes a charge, make him do it again until it has been done properly. Don’t embarrass the kid. Just teach him how to do it correctly.

This next drill is great because it teaches players how to hustle back on defense and take a charge.

Full Court Charge Drill

1. Have your players partner up. The first time through, you’ll probably only want one line so that you can watch everybody do it. After you’ve done it a few times, you can line up partners on the opposite side of the court in order to get more repetitions.

2. Have the defensive player line up on the free throw line facing the baseline.

3. On the whistle, or when you command, an offensive player starts dribbling towards the opposite basket. The defensive player turns around and tries to beat the offensive player to a spot.

4. Once the defensive player gets to a spot on the floor, he needs to turn around and get set to take a charge. The spot on the floor is usually a place where the defender can get back and get set in time to take a charge.

5. You can instruct your offensive players to go hard until right before contact.

Top Things to Watch for Within Man-to-Man Defense

If you do not harp on the things listed below, your defense will not be as good as it could be. You need to pay attention to detail and correct your players when needed. Here is our list of the top things that we focus on and watch for within our man-to-man defense:

Always Stop the Ball Handler, That’s The Only Player Who Can Score – If the ball is in front of you, stop it.

Keep the Ball Out of the Danger Zone and as Far from the Basket As Possible.

Knees Bent – Stay Down – The second you see your players start to stand up, correct them. If they relax for one second, that’s all it takes for the offense to score an easy bucket.

Hands Up – Whether the player is guarding the ball or guarding a player off the ball, he needs to have his hands up. It helps deflect the dribble, passes, and shots. Psychologically, it makes the defense appear bigger, which will discourage the offense from dribbling and passing to open spots on the floor.

Intensity – Defense is all about intensity. If your players relax for a second, you need to get their attention.

Get Back on Defense – If your players don’t get back on defense, it doesn’t matter how good your half-court defense is.

Deny the Pass into the Post – Never allow passes into the post. The chances of the offense scoring increase dramatically once the ball is within the “Danger Zone.”

See Man and Ball – Your players need to be focused so that they can see the man and the ball at all times. If somebody penetrates or passes the ball, they are able to rotate or get to the spot where they need to be quickly.

Move on the Pass – If they do not move on the pass, help side defense will be useless, along with every other defensive principle you taught.

Early Help and Quick Recovery – It’s vital to any team’s defense to have early help and quick recovery. If you do not have early help, you give up lay ups. If you do not have quick recovery, you give up open shots.

Quick Rotations – Rotations need to be recognized and executed. Otherwise, an offensive player will be wide open sooner or later.

Communicate! Communicate! Communicate! If your players don’t communicate, they will have many problems with screens, rebounding, positioning, etc. Make sure they yell, “Shot” when the offense shoots the ball. Make sure they call out screens. Make sure they communicate help to their teammates.

Ball Pressure – Without ball pressure, the offense can operate comfortably and easily. You never want the offense to feel comfortable.

Rim Line and Shallow Triangle – When players are two passes away and the ball is on the wing, make sure they get to the rim line. When they are two passes away and the ball is at the top of the key, make sure they form the shallow triangle. If they don’t get to these positions, help side defense will be non-existent.

Dead Concept – As soon as a player picks up his dribble, make sure your defensive players are shouting, “Dead! Dead!” and bellying up to the offensive player to signify that the player has lost his dribble. That way, your players can get into the passing lanes and force turnovers.

Hedge on Ball Screens – Make sure that the defensive player guarding the ball gets his outside foot around the screener’s top foot. You also need to watch for the player guarding the screener. This player should flash at the ball to push the ball handler towards half-court, giving the other defender more time to recover.

Deny/Bump the Cutter – Do not allow any offensive player to cut freely to the basket. Either bump him or make him change direction.

Box Out – If your defensive players don’t block out, all their hard work means nothing. They need to block out on every shot during every possession.

More Defense Drills

If you want more defensive drills to help you teach these concepts, see our reference eBook, 67 Defensive Drills, that came with your purchase.

HHOOWW TTOO HHAANNDDLLEE GGAAMMEE SSIITTUUAATTIIOONNSS

The next thing to teach your team is how to guard under certain game situations. When you first start out you can get by without spending a lot of time on this because most of your time is spent in live situations. However, it is important to know how to guard in special game situations, such as:

• Defending inbounds plays

• End of quarter

• Defending Great Players

• End of Game (Winning)

• Other end of game situations

• Spotting a problem

• Rewarding positive behavior

• Matching up players

• Players need a change of pace (Discussed in detail in Half Court Traps and Full Court Defense Section)

• End of game: Down by 2 points with a minute left (Discussed in detail in Half Court Traps and Full Court Defense Section)

• How to communicate to your players to foul, etc. (Discussed in detail in Half Court Traps and Full Court Defense Section)

You need to go over these situations and practice them so your team knows how to handle them properly.

When the Ball is Inbounded Underneath the Basket:

Some teams, even if they hardly ever play it, like to set up in a zone defense for out-of-bounds situations to take away any special plays that might catch your team off guard. If you are going to do this, it’s important to practice it.

Here are two choices when guarding the inbounder:

• Sag into the lane

• Pressure the heck out of the ball

If the player guarding the ball sags into the lane, this will ensure that no easy passes or shots are open, and then he can recover quickly when the ball is passed in. If you sag too much, a post player may execute a simple give-n-pop with the inbounder. This occurs when the player taking the ball out of bounds dishes to a post player and cuts behind him for an open mid-range shot.

Pressure

You can also pressure the ball and try to get the deflection on the inbounds under the basket. If you have a long, athletic player, it’s a good idea to pressure the inbounder, because this can cause turnovers and give the opposition problems executing out-of-bounds plays.

Otherwise, all of the principles stay the same-- one pass away, communication, getting through screens, helping out, etc. It’s something you need to practice if you want to be sure that your team knows how to deal with inbounds situations.

End of Quarter

You can use a few different tactics at the end of the quarter. Personally, we like to give the opposing team a mix to keep them off guard and out of their comfort zone.

Play Zone – If the players are stalling until the end of the quarter, at 15 seconds, have your players drop back into some sort of zone defense. It is very important to understand the principles of a zone defense. Otherwise, it will be useless, and you may allow the opposing team to score an easy basket. If run effectively, it’ll force a difficult shot from the outside.

Apply Pressure – If you see them stalling, apply hard pressure all the way up to half-court, deny the passing lanes and try to force a turnover. The problem with this is that your players may get out of position and give up an easy basket.

Stay in “Wolf Pack” Style Defense – Have your players sit back and let the team hold for the last shot. Make sure that players are stopping the penetration and force a contested, low percentage, outside shot. It’s very important for the player guarding the ball to buckle down and stay between his man and the hoop. No penetration!

Half-Court Trap – If you have taught or incorporated a half-court trap, you can apply one of these at your signal. It may catch the offense off guard and force a quick turnover.

Foul – If you have fouls to give, you can foul as time is running down. You have to be very careful not to foul the offensive player in the act of shooting. We personally don’t like this one, but you may use it some time. This is probably more effective at the NBA level where team fouls are tracked by quarters. This can also be used at the end of the game at the high school level.

Stopping a Star Guard

This will all depend upon the point guard’s strengths.

• Great Dribble Penetrator – If he’s a great dribble penetrator, but his outside shot is fairly weak, you may want to sag off of him and play underneath ball screens.

• Great Shooter – If he’s a great shooter, but ball-handling is not his expertise, you will want to pressure him and stay very close, so that he can’t receive any easy passes or get any room to get off a shot.

• Player can do Everything – If you run into a star player who can do everything, he will be much more difficult to stop.

Options:

Stay Off Until 1st Pass – One thing you can do is play “Wolf Pack” style defense. You make that first pass really easy for him and as soon as that first pass is thrown, you deny the pass back to him all the time. If the star player catches the ball within the half-court offense again, it is very important to provide some pressure so that it’s not easy for him to operate. If you can, try to influence him to go to one direction. If you cannot influence him in one direction, try to stay between him and the basket.

Deny the Player – You can also deny the player the ball from the start. Form something similar to 41 “Tight”, which is in our Half-Court Traps and Full-Court Defenses section. Instead, the player guarding the inbounder completely denies the star player while the defensive player assigned to the star player is on the opposite side. If he were to catch the ball, you could have the player denying the pass sprint back to the person he was initially guarding. You could also use the player guarding the inbounder to instantly form a double team to try to force the star player to get rid of the ball.

Take Charges – If you are also playing great help defense, you can take a couple of charges. This will make the player think twice before penetrating, and he’ll start settling for the tough, outside shots.

Overall, the biggest thing we’ve found that helps is just simply working with your guard defender who’s guarding him. Make sure that the defender is focused and watching his chest, just staying in front of him, and keeping his feet. For the most part, if you’ve got a marginally quick defensive player, he can stay in front of the star player, cause him to take tough shots, and contain his penetration.

Review the fundamentals of a good defensive stance and slide in The Formula chapter of this book.

Stopping a Star Post Player

Is this player a garbage man or is he more of a finesse player?

• Garbage Man – If he’s a garbage man and gets most of his buckets off of missed shots, it’d be a bad idea to front him because he’ll automatically have that inside position when a shot goes up. It is a better idea to stay behind this post player and keep him out of the lane.

• Finesse Player – If he’s a finesse player who hits a lot of outside shots, you’ll probably want to front him in the post and deny him the pass in the mid-range area. That way, he won’t be able to get the ball and spot up as easy.

• Post player can do everything – along with possibly denying or fronting everywhere, you can:

Double Team

One option to contain a dominant post player is to double down. You’re going to have to make a decision about whom you want to double down. You can double down from the opposite corner, opposite wing, from the top, or from the player who passed the ball.

Some other deciding factors of doubling down:

• The other team’s personnel, where the good shooters are

• How quick your team is

• What kind of defense you play: Force Baseline Force Middle

Most post players struggle to find the open man and pass it out when they get double-teamed. Make sure that your team understands that they need to anticipate the pass back out of the post. When that player gets double-teamed, he’s going to look to pass out. Everybody else has to anticipate moving on the pass so that they can quickly recover and match up to stop other players on the team from getting easy baskets.

You can double-team the post player a few different ways:

Guard 1 on 1 and drop down - You can choose to have your best post defender play the offensive player 1-on-1. We have used this approach and instead of having one of our wing players double down, we have the wing defender on the ball side come down and flick at the ball while it’s in the post. The wing player will be able to deflect a few dribbles and harass the offensive player. Once the wing player has done this a few times, he’ll be able to fake jabs at the post player to make him get rid of the ball without fully committing to him.

You also want to make sure that your post defenders hold their ground and don’t allow the post player to easily back them down. This prevents him from shooting an easy 6-footer compared to a 12 to 15 foot jump shot. As the player moves out, the percentages lower, and this can be the difference between shutting down a star post player and the star player putting up 50 points on you.

Create a Fast Tempo Game

If you find an opposing team with some great post players, your best bet may be to run a full court press and push the ball up the court on offense. This may take their bigger players out of the game because they cannot keep up the fast pace. It could also make the opposing post players tired, making them ineffective.

Keep Them Away From the Basket

Another very effective way to stop good post players is to play physical and keep them away from their comfort areas. Don’t let them get the position that they want.

If you can keep them farther from the basket when they catch the ball, they will feel out of their comfort zone and have more trouble scoring. Use one of your strongest players to keep them away from the basket. They should stay low for better leverage and not allow the post player to back them down.

Get Them in Foul Trouble

Quite often you can get big men in foul trouble a couple different ways:

1) When the post player catches the ball and your defense is playing behind, draw the foul. How many fouls does Shaquille O'Neal get called for by throwing elbows or pivoting into the defense?

2) Most big players like to block shots, so instruct your guards to drive to the basket and jump into the big man. Make contact. Most big men will jump instead of taking the charge.

Ball Pressure

Lastly, make sure that your guards apply intense ball pressure. This will make it difficult for the offense to throw good passes into the post and will limit the inside touches.

End of Game (Winning)

If you are winning by 2 points or less, you should play solid defense. Some may switch to a zone, but we prefer to stick with the man-to-man because we know that’s what we teach and that’s what we’re good at.

Foul Before the Shot – If you have fouls to give, you could also foul before they attempt the shot; that way, more time will be taken off of the clock. You have to be careful because some players will catch and shoot so quickly that you don’t have time to foul before the shot. You don’t want to foul somebody in the act of shooting.

• If the attempted shot is a 2-pointer and they make it, they have a chance to tie the ball game or tip in a missed free throw to win the game. • If it’s a 3-pointer, they have a chance to tie the game from the line and possibly win it on a put back.

With that said, if the player is going in for an easy lay up, you may want to foul the offensive player to ensure that the easy basket is taken away. This should always be a CLEAN foul. In high school and youth sports, you never want to promote dirty play.

If the opposing team has the ball with a few seconds left and you’re up by 3 points, you can foul as soon as they get the ball inbounds. Assuming that you are in the bonus, they have to shoot 2 free throws instead of getting to try a 3-point shot. We dislike only one thing about this tactic: The player makes one free throw and misses the second; the ball gets tipped out to the 3-point arc and the opposing team makes a 3-pointer. You go from worst-case scenario, being in overtime, to losing the game.

Straight-Up Defense – If your team is up by 3 points with a few seconds left, you can put 4 players around the perimeter with their hands up. You have a defender who is long and athletic guarding the inbounder. We prefer to put a player on the inbounder because it makes the pass much more difficult. If they get an offensive rebound, jump back to the 3-point arc and take away all shots. You should be willing to give up the two because time is running down and the only thing that can beat you is a 3- pointer. If a player gets the ball inbounds and starts to penetrate, let him go. Do not take a step inside the 3-point line to help. If you collapse on the penetration, then he can pass the ball back out to an open teammate for a 3-point shot to tie the game.

If they have to go the length of the court, then we like to put a player on the inbounder and have another great on-ball defender a little bit ahead of half-court to pressure the ball if anybody brings the ball up. If nobody is in the backcourt, the defensive player should take a couple of steps back so that the offense cannot make an easy up-court pass.

You can also go to a zone defense to confuse the defense, as mentioned earlier under the End-of-Quarter section.

Deny the Best Player

If the other team has a play maker who usually handles the ball, don’t let him get it. Deny the inbounds with a double-team and then match up. Make someone else who’s not comfortable in this situation handle the ball.

Great Practice Tip to Get Your Players to Perform in the Clutch

How to Apply End of Game Situations in Practice:

The strategies listed above are great to cover, but in order to get your players adjusted to end of game situations, here is a suggestion made by Don Kelbick (www.DonKelbickBasketball.com).

Split your players into two teams.

If you only have one assistant, you can have him coach one team while you coach the other. If you have two assistants, you can supervise or referee.

Decide what kind of situation to work on, whether it’s a close game, last minute scenario, last three minutes, or some other scenario.

Next, pick a situation with time and score. Let’s say it’s a regular game, “6 & 3.”

The game starts with the score 0-0 and 3 minutes on the clock. You start the game like a normal scrimmage by jump ball, out of bounds, etc. As soon as a team gets to 6, the clock starts. During the scrimmage, you can emphasize zone offense and defense, man-to-man offense and defense, full-court pressure, etc. Referee the game as if it were an actual game.

If the score is 6-0, a team is down 6 points with 3 minutes left. If the score is 6-5, a team is down 1 point with 3 minutes left. Do not stop play once the team gets to 6 points; just let them know that “the clock is running.”

During the clock period, the game is played as if it were a regular game. Each team has 1 time out, and both teams are in the bonus (1-and-1 or Two Shots, that’s up to your preference).

As soon as the clock starts, the “scrimmage emphasis” changes to a “winning emphasis.” For example, during the scrimmage portion you are working on half-court, man-to-man pressure defense; but once the clock starts, you change to a “game winning strategy.” If you’re up 6 with 3 minutes left, you may want to hold the ball. If you’re down 6 with 3 minutes left, you may want to apply pressure.

You can alter the situations to suit your needs. Play 2 and 1 for a close end of game situation. Play 10 and 2 for a longer scrimmage time to work on something.

Treat this exactly like a game by: o Stopping the clock o Calling ALL violations o Calling fouls o Calling timeouts, etc.

We highly recommend this technique because it’ll put the team in many situations that they may not have experienced. Your players’ comfort level will be so much higher during a real game if they’ve already been put in this situation before.

We also recommend running this at the end of practice for a couple of more reasons.

1. Players love competition and usually look forward to doing this. It’s a great way to keep them motivated throughout practice.

2. Players will be tired at the end of practice, and that is exactly what will happen at the end of a game. It makes the situation more realistic.

If you have not listened to Don’s one-hour free interview with us about coaching, we highly suggest that you do. Here is the link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/audio/news7kelbick.html

Spotting a Problem

Whether you’re coaching during practice or during a game, you need to acquire the ability to know when your defense is breaking down. For example, “Okay, are we putting pressure on the ball? Is our help-side defense there? Are they rotating? Who’s not rotating? Is the post player denying the entry pass?” When you spot a problem with your defense, you immediately need to correct the problem so that bad habits are not developed.

A few different tactics can be used to correct the problem:

• Call a timeout

• Quickly sub another player in and take the player out who made the mistake to inform him of what he did wrong and what he should be doing.

It’s really important to watch all of these things, and if you’re not good at doing it yourself, or maybe there’s too much for you to think about, put somebody solely in charge of watching defense and watching for this list of a dozen or so fundamentals and tactics that your team needs to be doing.

Reward Positive Behavior

You should always reward positive behavior and keep emphasizing defense during games, before the game, at halftime, and after the game. Let them know that DEFENSE is what wins games. If you have a couple of players working extremely hard or your whole team is working hard, verbally reward to let them know what a great job they’re doing. You should let them know when they’re doing a good job, as well as when they’re doing a bad job.

Matching up Players

Another thing that you’ll run into in game situations is how to match up your players. If you’re a high school varsity coach or a collegiate coach, then most of the time, you’ll have players scouted before you play them. So, you’ll know to match up your best post defender against their best post player and your best perimeter defender against their best perimeter player.

For youth levels, after a few plays, you should recognize which ones are the athletic players. Sometimes, you’ll be able to tell during warm-ups as well. Most of the time, at that age level, the point guard will be one of the best players. When we coach youth kids, by rule of thumb, we’ll tell our best perimeter defender to guard the point guard. You’ll also see who they’re trying to enter the ball in to the post.

Sometimes you’ll need to adjust during the game if one of your players is consistently getting beat on the drive. You might want to put somebody else there, or give your players some good pointers on what do to.

For example, you might just let him know, “Hey, you’re lunging every time that player makes a ball fake and that’s why he’s going around you. Make sure you keep your butt down, watch his chest and don’t go for any fakes. Just keep him in front of you.”

Another thing that you’ll notice is that there’s some game slippage. You might be hitting all cylinders during your practice session. Everybody’s helping out, communicating, anticipating, moving on the pass, etc. But when you get into the game, your players aren’t communicating, they’re forgetting to rotate, etc. The second this happens, you need to correct them and TEACH them what they’re doing wrong. Notice how we said, “TEACH,” not yell at them.

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Importance of Starting from the Beginning

1. I already taught this to them last year, do I really need to cover it again?

The answer is “YES!” Every season you need to start from the very beginning and go through this whole step-by-step progression. First of all, it’s a great review for your players and coaches. In the off- season, kids forget stuff. That’s just how it is. It’s human nature. They’re inevitably going to forget stuff and they’re going to develop bad habits.

Kids will also pick up new things every year that they may have missed the season before. Eventually, your players will become defensive experts themselves and they’ll be able to teach these same things to anyone else. When you get to that point, that’s when you know that you’ve done a good job.

If you have high school players, you can ask them to teach defense to youth players. This will make them think about why and how they do things. It’ll be a great review and learning experience for both groups of kids.

Number of Days to Teach Defense

2. How many days do you think this will take?

It all depends on the age and experience level of your players. If you’re working with 12 year olds, the first seven steps, which take you from proper stance to the shell and how to help, could take 10 to 20 practices. It really depends on how quickly they pick up things. But you don’t want to cut corners on those core fundamentals. After ten good practices, you should have a halfway decent start on that.

When you have a team that doesn’t necessarily know the fundamentals of defense, it could take them the whole season to put everything together. The next year is when things really seem to click.

Even though you may have worked on defense fundamentals with a team for three years, don’t stop running these drills that we’re giving you. You need to keep running these one-on-one drills, the shell drills, the block-out drills, etc. All of these aspects that we’re teaching need to turn into habits, and your players need to able to do everything without even thinking. If you work on our fundamentals day after day, you’re going to be a tough team to score against and be able to shut other teams down.

Ultimately, don’t go through these things quickly! A teacher isn’t going to teach you 1+1 on Day 1 of school and go onto Calculus on Day 2. With basketball, you’ll slowly progress your way through the fundamentals of defense before adding a man-to-man full-court trap. You need to polish your fundamentals before moving on to more advanced concepts.

What you’re probably going to notice is that, on day three or four, the newness of the drills that you’re running is going to wear off. When you see your players just going through the motions, you need to implement a variation or new part to the drill. For example, you may add the Fogler Drill.

If you notice that their progression has suddenly halted, there are a million ways to go about motivating players to work hard in these drills. The key thing to realize is that that kids can learn very, very fast when they’re motivated. If they absolutely had to learn how to guard that cutter, they would learn it in a few minutes. But if you’re lackadaisical about it, “Oh, well. They’re tired and we’ve been practicing enough,” then a simple drill could take weeks before they actually get the hang of it.

One thing that you can do is simply state, “Hey, if you don’t figure out this Fogler drill and this cutting drill, we’re going to run.” Or, “We’re not going to scrimmage until you get this drill figured out.”

Problem With Teaching Multiple Defenses

3. Shouldn’t I teach multiple defenses, instead of one?

The immediate answer is, NO! The second you run into a well-prepared team, they’ll eat your defenses alive. The reason is that you don’t have enough time to become great at all of these things. There is no way that you can practice a lot of defenses and become great at all of them. If you want to get a few easy wins against weak opponents, it may work. If you want to be a dominant team, it’s best to focus on a few things and become great at those things rather than being mediocre.

If you want to teach a great half-court man-to-man defense, you have to work on that every day. We’re not saying that you should not implement some half-court traps, full-court presses and other defensive schemes within the man-to-man defense. If you’re a varsity team, it’s a good idea to have some of those things to catch opponents off guard.

Problems Against Weaker Teams

4. I play “Wolf Pack” style defense and when I play weaker teams, this seems to allow them to compete with us. What should I do?

This simply means one of two things:

1) Your players are NOT going hard because it’s a weaker team. As discussed in the chapter about Intensity and Determination, you must develop good habits in practice so that your team plays hard no matter whom you are facing. Refer back to that chapter for tips.

2) Your defensive fundamentals need A LOT of work. If your defense is in good position, closing out properly, applying good ball pressure, helping, and denying penetrating passes – then your defense should be smothering the other team! They should be struggling to get any good shots, let alone compete with you.

If you’re struggling against a weaker team, this tells us that you are giving up uncontested shots and lay ups. Your defense should NEVER give up uncontested shots and lay ups. Read through the Formula and previous sections to polish things up and get your defense to the next level. It’s probably just fundamentals.

Communication and Rotation Problems

5. I’m having lots of communication and rotation problems, what should I do?

First, run through the Shell Drill to make sure everyone understands the basic help and rotation rules. See our step-by-step instructions in the Building Your Defense chapter. You’ll see how to progress through the Shell Drill and teach players their responsibilities.

Once they have a decent understanding, we suggest that you run 4 on 3 and 5 on 4 overload drills. You can run these drills every day.

The overload will cause your defense to scramble, help, and communicate. It’s the best communication and rotation drill that we know of.

Time Spent on Defense

6. How much time should I spend on defense each practice?

This will often vary by age level.

There is no point in having 7, 8, 9, and 10 year olds (1st thru 4th grade) practice defense for 30 minutes. They should be learning how to shoot, pass, and dribble. A majority of your practice should be spent on those basic fundamentals. A 17 and 18-year-old team should spend more than 10 minutes a practice on defense.

Here is a time schedule based on a 90 minute practice:

• 6 years old and younger – 10 minutes (Stance and Slide)

• 7 to 10 years old – 10 to 20 minutes

• 11 to 14 years old – 20 to 30 minutes

• 14 to 18 year olds – 30 to 45 minutes

• 18 years old and older – 30 minutes or more

Fouling Issues

7. How do I get my players to stop fouling – yet still play hard?

This is a great question because this is something that plagues all of us “defensive” coaches. We all want our players to go hard on defense and play tough, but this can get you in trouble because the aggressive play can cause the other team to get to the free throw line for easy shots.

The first and number one way to fix the problem is to make sure your players have good positioning and understand your prime objective. If your prime objective is to steal the ball, then your team will commit LOTS of fouls.

However, if your prime objective is to stop the other team from scoring, then that’s different. This means your team must be in good position to stop the ball from getting close to the basket. This means your players must not lunge for the steal and get out of position because if they do, they might give up an easy lay up.

Just by keeping your man in front of you and maintaining sound principles, you will greatly reduce your fouls. Many times your big post players will get in foul trouble because your perimeter defense goes for too many steals and your big man has to try and take away the lay ups. Good positioning and early help will greatly reduce his fouls.

In addition, here are a few other ways that we handle the issue…

From day 1, we teach our kids how to use their hands on defense. We have some pretty strict rules:

• Always harass the defense by flipping up at the ball. • Do not put your hands on the player. • When you are beaten, do NOT reach!! • Use your feet to stop penetration, NOT your hands!! • If the ball is exposed and within reach, grab it with TWO hands for a jump ball. Do NOT reach or slap! • Do not block shots or leave your feet. We rarely have athletic kids who can block shots, if we do, then we will give them permission to block shots. But they must always try to block the ball to themselves or a teammate. Do NOT swing at the ball; otherwise you loose your shot-blocking privileges.

The key is to get your kids in the habit of flipping up at the ball and using two hands. Very few referees will call this a foul. But if you swing, slap, or reach… it’s a super EASY call for the ref. Most refs are looking for reaching because it’s an easy call to make.

So we simply take time to teach players how to properly use their hands and then develop good habits from day one. If you’ve already started the season, then you can start developing these habits mid- season or anytime.

Teaching Youth Players Defense

8. Youth Basketball: What should I teach young kids about defense and how do I teach it?

This eBook will work for youth teams just like it works for more advanced teams. The difference will be the rate at which you advance through each step.

First, you should read the “Formula” section. This will give you an overview and the philosophies behind a great defense. You don’t have to memorize all of the details and advanced tactics, but you should read the first couple of pages of each part of the formula, so that you can get an understanding of the theory.

Once you finish reading, proceed to the Step-by-Step section, Building a Man-to-Man Defense: The Foundation.

You will start with Step 1 and advance through each step just like anyone else. The ONLY difference is that you will move through each step slower.

For example, an experienced high school team might get through all 7 steps in a couple of days. But a youth coach might take two years to get through all 7 steps.

We have tried to structure things in a logical, step by step process that allows you to implement your defense, no matter what age level.

The Right Defense For You

9. How do I choose the right defense?

For youth coaches, you should teach man-to man defense. For other levels, we, of course, like man-to- man because it’s so flexible. No matter what you choose, our recommendation is to stick with one or two defenses at the most. That way, you can get really good at them and cover all situations. If you try to teach traps, full court presses, zones, man-to-man defenses, etc., you’ll never get really good at any of them. There is just not enough time in the day.

Making Things Fun

10. How do I make things fun for both young and older players?

Defensive drills are hard work and can be a drag for players, so here are a bunch of ideas to help you keep things fun:

1. In order to make things fun, you have to be enthusiastic. Praise your players and tell them when they do a great job. Your players will feed off of this and carry more enthusiasm through the drills.

2. Give your players small rewards for defense. For example, you could give players a Gatorade every time they take a charge. It’s funny how a simple thing like a Gatorade can get them so excited.

3. Kids like to be highly active! Just by using fast paced drills and keeping things moving, your players will have more fun and get in better condition. Your kids should be breathing hard and their hearts should be pumping. Avoid standing in lines as much as possible and keep the ball in their hands as often as possible.

4. Celebrate small successes as the team improves. Everyone likes to be successful. You can track defensive statistics like charges, rebounds, stops, PPP, and so on. Set them up for success and celebrate the success with them. It takes hundreds of small accomplishments to meet your ultimate goal, so be sure to point out those accomplishments and reward them.

5. If you have a really tough drill, be sure to follow up with something that’s more enjoyable, and let your players know what’s coming. If your players know the practice schedule and that a good drill is coming up next, it makes it easier for them to fight through a tough one.

Mental Toughness

11. How do you develop a tough mentality?

Developing a tough mentality starts with you. You want to emphasize and praise the things that you consider to be characteristics of a tough mentality: things such as taking charges, diving on the floor, setting hard screens (not dirty screens), etc. Talk to your players about being levelheaded and keeping their composure. Make sure to carry this out through your actions as well. You need to have a cool, calm demeanor during games and pressure situations. The players will feed off your confidence.

Age to Teach Defense

12. What is the best age to start teaching man-to-man?

We believe that the right age to teach man-to-man is as soon as they start playing basketball. It doesn’t mean that you teach them rotations, drives, how to defend lob passes, etc. It means that you can teach the basics; such as defensive stance, slide, and man-ball principles.

Youth Basketball: Defense

13. What defense should youth players learn?

Youth teams should focus on man-to-man defense.

Why?

Because EVERYTHING starts with man-to-man principles.

There is a saying in coaching, "If you can't play man, you can't play zone!"

Whether you play man or zone, it still involves a man stopping a man. If you can't guard your man, it doesn't make a difference what type of defense you are playing.

In order to have a zone defense that works well, you must have players who understand how to keep the ball away from the basket and stop the ball.

In order to have a great pressing defense, you still need to be able to keep the ball away from the basket. What happens when the good teams break your press? You need to be able to fall back and stop them in half-court. Not to mention that by learning man-to-man defense first, your players will eventually be better at applying full-court pressure and guarding the ball.

All defensive principles originate from man-to-man defense.

Often, youth coaches teach zone defenses, traps, and full-court presses because these can be more effective at the youth level. The main reason is that a lot of youth coaches don’t know how to teach an effective man-to-man defense. This often leads to coaches experimenting with a zone defense and noticing that it works better. The zone defense isn’t even necessarily a good zone defense. The reason it works is that most youth players are not strong enough to throw long, crisp passes. These lazy passes often result in turnovers. The youth players’ fundamentals are still developing, so they are not as accurate with their passes and cannot handle the ball as well.

You’ll notice that a lot of these tactics that youth coaches use are not as effective at the high school or college levels. We’ve seen outstanding youth teams that used zones and presses to win a lot of games. But, guess what? These same teams that spent a lot of time working on zones, presses, and trapping did not spend as much time on the fundamentals of basketball. When these same teams get to the high school level, they’ve developed bad habits and turn into mediocre teams at best.

Why do you think the International game has caught up with the United States? Coaches are spending all of their time working on things that don’t help the players develop fundamentally: zones, presses,

© Copyright 2008 Breakthrough Basketball, LLC http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com FAQ’s 211 and complex offenses. The U.S. has all of these great athletes that get beat by less athletic, more fundamentally sound, basketball players.

We highly advise to join leagues that only allow man-to-man defenses. Personally, we don’t like to see zone defenses under the age of 14. Players are just too weak and undeveloped to handle these situations.

Youth teams should NOT be working on offenses to face a 1-3-1 trap, 2-3 zone, 1-2-2 zone, Box-and- One, etc. There is hardly enough time to work on the fundamentals, yet alone prepare for all of that stuff!

Youth Basketball: Screens

14. Should youth players switch on screens?

No, you should teach them to fight through screens. A lot of coaches at higher levels of basketball don’t like to switch on screens because it can create mismatches. That way, when the players get to higher levels of basketball, they won’t need to learn how to properly cover screens. They’ll already know. It’s much easier to transition from learning how to fight through screens to switching than it is to learn how to fight through screens after they’ve already been taught to switch.

There are situations where you’ll have to switch if a player falls over and gets smashed by a screen. Even though this is true, don’t allow your players to get lazy and start switching on screens.

Youth Basketball: Pressing

15. I’m a youth coach, should I ever press?

Youth teams should NEVER press and trap!

In fact, it should be against the rules in ALL youth leagues.

Would you throw a 10 year old on the mound at Yankee stadium? No way! Baseball starts with t-ball, then parent slow pitch, then little league with closer bases, and moves up. Just like baseball, young basketball players need to start with the basics so they can reach their potential!

Youth teams that press learn HORRIBLE habits that are difficult to fix when they get older.

Youth teams that press are almost always terrible at man-to-man defense when they get older.

Youth teams that press are NOT learning situational basketball. These teams trap in the corner to take advantage of young kids who are not strong enough to pass out of the double team.

Youth teams that press almost always neglect the important fundamentals.

Why in the world would you press if your players don't know how to execute in the half-court???

Even if you think they know how to execute in the half-court, they don't...

Do all of your players know how to read screens? Do they slip the screen when the defense hedges on the pick and roll? Do they set screens shoulder to shoulder? Do they block out after every shot? Do they always see their man and the ball when they're on defense?

In 20 years of watching basketball, we've NEVER seen a youth team that was ready to press and had all the fundamentals down pat!

AADDVVAANNCCEEDD DDEEFFEENNSSIIVVEE CCOONNCCEEPPTTSS

Half-Court Traps

There may be some other situations where you will want to confuse offenses within the half-court to get a quick turnover, or possibly use during the whole game.

We’re going to cover the sideline trap, front-court trap, fake trap, and the double trap

Sideline Trap

If you want to trap along the sideline within the half-court, you will want your players guarding the ball to shade the player towards the sideline. The player who is not guarding the ball on the ball side will trap the ball.

For all types of traps, the defensive player off the ball does not trap the ball until the offensive player is within two to three strides.

Otherwise, the offensive player will be able to pick up the trap early and find an open player for an easy scoring opportunity.

In these diagrams, Player 4 rotates over to take away the pass to the wing. The defensive player often on weak side help is the player who rotates over to take away the pass. This leaves the offensive player on the opposite wing wide open. Often times, this pass is too difficult to make or the pass will be an errant one, resulting in a turnover.

Top of the Key

With this trap, you will trap from the top two defensive guard positions. If the ball is on the right side, the defensive player will come over to trap the ball. The player on the opposite side will rotate up to take away the pass that is one pass away.

The goal is to make the player with the ball panic and throw a quick pass to the other player on the top of the key, which should get stolen by Player 4 in the diagram.

Fake Trap Switch

Exactly like in the half-court trap from the top of the key, the opposite defender comes over to trap. Instead of trapping, the player who originally was guarding the ball will switch with the defender coming over to fake the trap. This will often force the ball handler to pick up his dribble, which will create an opportunity for a 5 second call or a bad pass.

In the diagram, Player 1 should not leave the ball until Player 2 has arrived or the offensive player has picked up his dribble.

Notice how Players 1 and 2 switched on whom they were guarding.

Double Trap

Sometimes, the player with the ball will be able to break the sideline trap with some sort of reverse dribble out of the trap.

A counter move to this is to fake a first trap and rotate over a second trap. In the diagrams below, Players 1 and 3 start the trap. As soon as this happens, Player 2 starts to come over from the back side. Player 1 allows the reverse dribble and sprints to deny the pass on the wing. Players 2 and 3 are now trapping the wing. Player 4 comes up to take away the pass one pass away near the top of the key.

Some coaches have taught all of these traps and like to mix them up during the game. This will often confuse the offense and give the guards all sorts of headaches. You should also come up with a way to communicate these trap plays to your team. Some like to use a numbering scheme, while others just use signs to communicate it to the team.

If you want to incorporate these half-court traps and consistently use them, then this is something that needs to be practiced every day, otherwise, they’re too difficult to execute.

Full Court Man-to-Man Defenses

At some point in time, you’ll want to incorporate a full-court man-to-man defense.

You may need to apply a full-court defense for various reasons:

• Losing at the end of the game - This way you can try to get a:

5-second violation while the opposing team is trying to inbound the ball

Quick turnover by forcing a bad pass or some sort of ball handling turnover

10-second violation while the opposing team tries to get the ball past half-court

Quick foul – you may not have time to wait for one of the previous three to happen, so you need to foul instantly in hopes that the opposing team misses some free throws and you can get the ball back.

• Use up some clock – You may be winning and want to apply some light pressure to eat some time on the clock.

• Outstanding opposing player – The opposing team may have an outstanding player whom you want to keep the ball away from as much as possible. You may also want to keep the tempo of the game fast in order to take the opposing team’s great post players out of the game.

• Weak opposing team – The opposing team may have a bunch of weak ball handlers and you want to take advantage of that.

• Athletic team – You might have a quick, athletic team that can cause a bunch of turnovers.

• Depth – You may have a lot of depth and want to platoon players in and out of the game to wear down the opposing team.

• Pick up the team’s intensity – You see your team lackadaisical out there, and they need to pick up their intensity. You could play full-court defense for a few possessions. If it works, you can continue it throughout the game. It’ll often help them get into the flow of the game.

Every once in a while, you may have a group of kids who have difficulty getting into the flow of the game. One time, I was coaching a junior varsity basketball game, and we were down 25 -11 after three quarters. You’re probably thinking, “Oh my God! How did they only manage 11 points through 24 minutes of basketball?” Don’t worry; I was thinking the same thing. The funnier thing is that we only had two points at half. I was thinking of telling them to just shoot half courters.

Well, a great thought came to my mind almost three quarters too late, “Why don’t we pick them up full-court?” We started pressing with 6 minutes left in the game, and we managed to score 23 points in the fourth quarter. We ended up losing 38-34. We had an open 3-point shot with 15 seconds left to take the lead, but couldn’t convert, and they knocked down a couple free throws with less than 10 seconds left.

The funny thing is that we played them later in the year and had 35 points at half-time which was more than we scored the entire game against them last time. We did start out in a press that game.

Here are some full-court defenses that will help you handle the previous situations mentioned:

• Basic Full Court Man-to-Man

• Complete Denial

• 41 “Tight”

• 41 “Loose” or “Regular”

• Full Court Traps .

These will be covered in the next section.

Basic Full Court Man-to-Man Defense

The exact same principles apply to a full court defense as they do to half-court man-to-man defense, except you will most likely be denying most passes.

You should:

• “Deny one pass away”

• Help and Quick Recovery

• Proper help side position and rotation

• Stay between the Man with the Ball and the hoop

• You should still see man and ball

This is not a risky defense. It is to apply pressure and reduce easy shot opportunities. You do not want to get out of position and take lots of risks. It is unlike zone presses that run and trap. The pressure is supposed to annoy the ball handler and force him into making mistakes. If you’re looking for a quick turnover, this is not the defense to use.

This defense is built around applying pressure and protecting the “Danger Zone.” If the ball breaks the pressure, the defenders must sprint to the “Danger Zone” and stop the ball.

You can apply this defense after a made basket, turnover, rebound, etc. You may prefer to do this only after a made basket. After a change of possession, not including a made basket, you may want your players to pick up the player closest to them and apply the pressure instantly. Even though this may create mismatches, the pressure often forces more turnovers, which can make this worthwhile.

Ways to Get More Turnovers When Applying Full Court Pressure:

• If applying intense full-court pressure, try to turn the offensive player as much as possible. The longer the player has the ball in his hands and the more times he has to change direction, the greater the chances for a turnover.

• If applying light full-court pressure, you do not need to worry about turning the offensive player. Just be close enough to disrupt any quick, change-of-direction dribbles and make the offensive player feel uncomfortable. From personal experience, this can be more annoying and disruptive than the hard full-court pressure.

Full Court Man-to-Man – Complete Denial

You may also run into a situation where you need a quick turnover or you are down a few points at the end of a game. In these situations, you could use a complete denial strategy. This is where you position your players close to the man they are guarding. They should be completely facing the players you are guarding. You do not even worry at all about the inbounder.

If you run this defense, we also recommend that you switch on all screens.

You may want to have two different names for this type of defense.

• If you are down at the end of the game, you may want to have one where you deny the pass. If the ball is inbounded, you go for the steal. If you do not get the steal, make sure to foul the opposing team. Some areas apply an automatic technical foul if you yell at your kids to foul. That is why it’s better to call it “Black”, or something like that.

• If you just want to do this during the middle of the game to mix things up, you won’t want to foul. So, maybe, you name it “Blue.”

The naming of the defense also allows you to save timeouts.

The next one we are going to cover is 41. It’s called 41, because four people are denying the inbounds pass while the player guarding the inbounder is playing defense off the ball like in a “center field” position. You can use the defender guarding the ball a few different ways. The first one we are going to cover is what we call 41 “Tight.”

41 Tight

Bring the player guarding the inbounder a few yards behind the players in the backcourt. In this diagram, it’d be Player 3.

If the offense tries to lob a pass, the defender is right there to steal it. It also gives the defenders guarding the players in the backcourt more freedom to completely deny the pass because they know they have a defender to deny the lob pass.

If you are facing an opposing star point guard, you can also have the player guarding the inbounder shade over to the side of the star player so that he can’t get the ball.

41 Loose or Regular

This time, the player guarding the inbounder is going to be positioned either close to half-court or behind it. This time the player guarding the inbounder is used to prevent the fast break. Sometimes, coaches will go to this if they get beat deep a few times. By rule of thumb, we stick with 41 “Tight” until we give up two fast break buckets off of it. It doesn’t mean that we got beat down the court twice, it means that they SCORED twice.

The reason we say this is because they may beat you down the court or break the pressure 7 out of 10 times, but they are not scoring any hoops off the pressure. Those other three times, you get turnovers and score a couple of baskets. So, it’d be pointless to call off the pressure. You’re getting easy buckets and they’re not.

Full Court Trap

With a full-court trap, the trap can come from a few different places. You can:

• Force the ball handler down the sideline, and when another defender is a couple strides away, he comes over for the trap.

• Trap with the defensive player guarding the inbounder.

• Trap when the player is within two strides, no matter where the trap is coming from.

There are other ways to trap, but these will be the main ones we focus on.

You also have to realize that when trapping, it’s going to leave somebody open. You need to apply enough pressure so that it’s too difficult to make the pass. That way if the player makes the pass, it goes out of bounds or your teammate steals it.

Forcing Sideline:

If you are going to force the player down the sideline, you want to shade the ball handler so he does not try to attack the middle. It is also very important to keep the player from inbounding the ball to the middle of the court. If the player gets the ball in the middle of the court, it’s much more difficult to trap him. It is also very important to have proper rotation.

In the diagram to the right, you’ll see the rotation that may be required to form a trap and take away an easy pass to break the trap.

Player 1 and Player 2 form the trap. Player 4 is already cheating over a little bit, anticipating the trap. That way, he can take away the pass to the offensive player down the sideline.

This is just an example of an offensive formation that you may face.

Trapping the First Pass (With Defensive Player Guarding the Inbounder):

If the pass is thrown into a corner, the player guarding the ball takes away the baseline. The defender guarding the ball sprints over to trap the ball. You deny the inbounds pass, but you are not in a full denial position. Take away any passes to the middle.

Sometimes, it’s easier to have the defensive player guarding the inbounder to take a couple of steps back because it does two things:

1. Takes away the passes to the middle

2. Enables him to form the trap quicker

In the diagram to the right, you can see that Defender 1 and Defender 3 form the trap. Defender 3 was guarding the inbounder.

Defender 2 takes away the pass to the player who initially was the inbounder.

Defender 5 rotates all the way down to take away the pass to the player that Defender 2 was guarding.

Defender 4 denies the pass down the sideline.

The pass to Player 5, who is open, should be too difficult to make.

You should not foul the player that far away from the basket. He is not a scoring threat whatsoever. However, if it’s the end of the game, you need to foul.

Our rule is that whenever a pass is completed to advance the ball up the court, everybody sprints back to the “danger zone” and matches back up.

It is also VERY important to communicate. Otherwise, 4 people could be guarding the same person.

Trap Everywhere within 2 Strides:

This has the same rules as the one above. The two differences are that the trap can come from anywhere and the player has to be dribbling before the trap is formed.

Here is an example:

• Offensive player dribbles within two dribbles of Defender 2. Defender 2 goes to trap.

• Defender 3 rotates to take away the pass to the player that Defender 2 was guarding.

• Defender 5 rotates up to take away the pass to the offensive player that Defender 3 was guarding.

It’s very important to have quick rotation on any trapping defense. If not, the trap will be useless. The player will make an easy pass out of the trap, and it turns into a fast break with the numbers in favor of the offense.

Fake Trap:

The fake trap is used the exact same way as in the half-court. A defender will run over once the player has started to dribble. The defensive player guarding the ball sprints over and guards the other player.

It’s best to use this if you have already trapped a few times during the game. The offensive player will be expecting a trap and possibly pick up his dribble quickly to get rid of the ball. That’s exactly what you want. That way, your players are still denying the pass and the ball handler is stuck 80 feet away from the basket without his dribble.

In the diagram to the right, Defender 2 goes to trap. Defender 1 fakes the trap, then slides over to guard the player that Defender 2 was guarding. It’s basically a fake trap to switch

players they were guarding.

Again, if you are going to utilize these full court traps, then this is something that needs to be worked on. You are not going to be able to introduce it the day before a game and be able to run it. It’s something that takes practice to get the timing down.

Screens in the Back Court

In order to get open for an inbounds pass, a lot of teams will have guards screen for each other. We advise you to defend screens two different ways:

• You can either switch on all screens as mentioned above or

• Have the person who is guarding the screener take a couple of steps back, which allows space for the defender guarding the player getting screened to get through the screen and still deny the pass.

You will want to choose either type based on your personnel. If you have a lock down defender who you want guarding a certain player, you will probably want to loosen up on the screens and guard the same player. If you have a couple of defenders who have similar capabilities, it would probably be a little easier to switch.

Positioning of Defensive Players on the Sideline

You can defend passes down the sideline a few different ways in full court pressure.

First off, as displayed in the diagram below, you can have your back towards the middle of the court, facing the sideline. This position is natural because this is how you teach defense within the half court defense. You also have a better angle to the basket if a defender beats you deep.

Another position is to have your back to the sideline. This way you can see the whole floor. It’s also much easier to take away passes when the offensive player cuts to the ball.

When we coach a youth team, we do not worry about trapping and players positioning their backs to the sidelines. If you want to press with youth teams, just extend your man-to-man defense to full court. That way they can work on their man-to-man principles while pressing.

If you’re a high school coach or above, you may want to experiment with some of the trapping and defensive positioning to see what works best for you.