As an old fart I consider defense in basketball to be a neglected art. Good defense is something that is a team effort to be done right, the coach has to emphasize it, and the team has to buy into it for it all to work. But when it is done right it is impressive!
We’re going to spend a few posts talking about this. In today’s post the emphasis is on how important a team approach (instead of an individual approach) to defense is.
Our goals for defense are to make sure the other team can’t score, to create turnovers, to get rebounds, and to encourage the other team to make mistakes that are in our favor. There are several ways this is done, including:
- Keeping the ball out of the red zone
- Defending against the person with the ball
- Denying the pass
- Denying access to the paint
- Blocking shots
- Trapping the ball
- Causing turnovers
These will all be the subjects of future posts. The point here is that none of these things will happen unless the entire team is working together to make them happen. For example, to deny the pass the athlete guarding the ball handler has to do an effective job with defense, the athletes guarding the players that are one pass away need to be doing their jobs, and the other athletes need to be ready to adjust what they are doing depending upon the positioning of the ball.
All of this requires serious practice so that everyone learns their roles in different situations, it requires communication between players, and it requires dedication and emphasis from the coach.
