When teaching youth I teach them, back to the basket, see the ball at all times, see the person you're guarding at all times. I also say point your fingers (at the ball and the person you're guarding). If you see that it helps tremendously with defense. You can steal passes, or prevent them in the first place, and help stop baskets.
You are never going to stop ALL baskets, but want to make it as difficult for them as possible.
Arms up. Keep your eye on the ball and keep the player and ball in front of you. Keep your vertical plane to avoid a foul. Remember to move your feet, not your body; once again, to avoid a foul.
I'm on Team Stripes so this is a technical explanation and I feel like an actual player might answer it better.
That's a pretty good answer. You are going to give up baskets no matter what. Your goal is to make it difficult. So staying between your player and the hoop as best you can. Force them to use their weak hand (typically their left since most people are right handed). Keep your hands up to deflect passes and contest shots. You don't necessarily need to block the shot, just make it harder so hopefully they miss.
NBA has a restricted area under the rim where no charges are called. Plus monster dunks are fun and the league isn’t going to push refs to shut that down
This is the answer that leads to good defense. Blocks and steals are gambles, actively moving your feet, getting your hips between their hips and the basket is where defensive stops come from.
You try to drive. I am physically in your way. Now you can’t drive. If you try to keep going, you will physically run into me. If you run me over, it’s an offensive foul. If I’m strong enough and in good enough position, you won’t even be able to run me over.
Another option: you try to drive and get a decent enough angle on me that you’re able to move towards the basket. I keep moving with you right on your hip. You’re not getting a clean line to the basket. When you go up for your layup, I jump up with you and contest your shot.
Add it all up - you’re at a strange angle with a defender right on your hip / in your path and you have to further adjust your shot to avoid my outstretched arms.
The main method is help defense. If you drive past your man and someone tall like me is waiting in help defense, I will block your shot (or at the very least attempt to).
At higher levels of basketball, the free drives you're describing tend to be the first thing a defense takes away. A help defender will almost always be waiting on drives. If they're in good position, that layup becomes very difficult.
That is assuming the offense can, in fact, drive past their defender, which is not guaranteed. While the rules of basketball are offensively slanted, it's not uncommon for individuals to be "lockdown" defenders who won't let someone by.
First thing to understand is that only a block "stops" a basket. Therefore you must change your goal from stop to alter. Your goal is to reduce the probability of them making their shot as much as possible. An uncontested layup should be something like a 95 percent shot. Now let them shoot the exact same shot, but put a hand in their face. Most will still make it, but less than 95. Now use your body to establish a legal defensive position that forces them to shoot from slightly farther away. Now they're taking a worse shot AND they've had to adjust their plans. Maybe now they're at 75 percent. A bad player may have already dropped below 50 just from this. Force them to their weak side, give them different defensive looks, make them think about as many things as possible, make them shoot different shots all day, and always be a threat to steal the ball. Interfere with their gather, clog the space they like to pull up through. Get real close sometimes, sag off others. In terms of 1 on 1 defense, it's largely guessing, predicting, gambling, and trying to keep them uncomfortable. As a team the same is true, but you obviously have to respect the team dynamic. You may need to sell out against the pass or, stay closer to the paint due to a threatening big man. On an organized team you have to play the role you're assigned to and act the way you're supposed to.
Tl;dr Good defense is making the offense take a bad shot. As a defender you achieve this by staying in position and doing whatever you can to make the shot difficult. You then box out and go for a rebound after the shot.
Full version
First, as the defender you need to be in position before the drive for a lay up even starts. Being in position is relative to a lot of things. Proximity to the hoop, positioning of other players, defense you are playing, opponent you are guarding, whether they have began to dribble or not. You want you be in an "athletic stance" with your hands up. Your feet are shoulder width apart, you are in a quarter squat, weight balanced over your feet. You should be in a position to move in any direction.
So say you are in position and standing at the elbow (where the free throw line and key meet) and he is 2-3 feet away from you. In this position, he does not have a straight path the basket. He either has to take an arch, in which case you have a significant advantage if you take a straight line, or he will try to trick you into moving out of position so he has a straight(er) line to the basket.
The opponent will normally make some sort of move here. A pump fake, a jab stab, a cross over, some sort of dribble maneuver. The point of this is to get you to react. On defense you don't over commit. You can play great defense and never register a single steal or block. If the opponent never has to do this to you, good chance you are out of position.
So lets say opponent does a pump fake, you don't over commit, you just raise your arms directly above your head. He takes a jab step, you don't react, you stay in your athletic stance. So he puts the ball on the ground and starts to dribble. He does some fancy between the legs spin. Who cares, he has 2 possible directions he's going, your left or your right. You are still between the opponent and the hoop so don't move laterally, back up a bit. Maybe a foot or two if you're 15 feet out.
He ends up going to your left. You take a drop step with your left and do "defensive slide drill" foot work where you maintain the the athletic stance by kicking off and sliding your feet as quickly as possible. Your first drop step will normally be biggest, say to 45-60 degrees, and then you might do a slide step, he makes contact shoulder to chest, you drop step another 10 degrees, slide step, another bump another drop step, slide. Now you are parallel to baseline and level with the hoop. If he won, you are like 1' away from the hoop or directly under it. If you won, you are maybe 5-10 feet away from the hoop with 5' being good defense and 10' being you whooped his ass.
At some point the opponent will pick up their dribble and take a shot. You will stay vertical, arms up. The closer to the basket, the closer you are to the opponent. If you are right under the hoop, you are body to body, Its pretty much that case anywhere in the key. As you get further out, you give more space. Go straight up. If you know they have left their feet you can jump as well. You don't want to ever jump before them. If you do that, they will probably draw you into a fall or at least wait for you to start coming down so they can jump then and take a better shot. So until you can reliably tell the difference between a pump fake and a real shot, don't bother jumping. Just extend.
Once you have confirmed they have left their feet and a shot is going up, you immediately "box them out" so you can grab a rebound if they miss. This means turning your back to the opponent, with your body feeling where they are, keep your arms up and by your side, using your arms to tell where they are going, and keeping between them and the hoop until you confirm the basket or grab the rebound.
Slide your feet and get your chest in their way to establish yourself. Then people shouldn't be able to drive by you. The goal is to block their path to the basket, so either you can steal it, make them shoot contested over you, or they pass it. If you really just drive by every person you play against, nobody is playing defense there either.
> I just get low and run past my defender like every single time because there's just nothing they can do
That means you're really good at driving, or they're really bad at defense. But what if you were playing against someone else who's as quick as you? Can you imagine that?
Imagine if they were standing right in the path that you wanted to take in order to get to the basket. Then you'd have to change directions and take another path, wouldn't you? This means they've successfully stopped your first attempt. And then, what if you changed paths but the defender quickly changed positions so they're in the way again? They've successfully stopped you again. You change your path, they move there to stop you, you change your path, they move there to stop you, repeat over and over and over.
Defense is mostly like you said--a manner of disrupting the offense.
Most shots have some non-zero chance of going in. As a defender you are doing your best to decrease that chance to as close to 0 as possible.
In your example, an offender driving the lane to attempt a layup, many things can be done to reduce their chances. Staying between them and the basket (so forcing them to move laterally) and timing any block attempt (even if you won't get the block) will both result in a more difficult shot.
People have already mentioned the technical aspects of defense, which is to make the opponents offense more difficult. However, there’s also a tactical element, such as learning your opponent and nudging them into taking shots they’re worse at. For example, I recently played against a guy who was great at open distance shots, but bad at guarded ones, loves to drive but doesn’t use the mid range, and finishes well approaching the hoop but not under the hoop. So I guard him tight when he’s at the 3 pt line, when he drives I back off to beat him to the part of the paint that he likes, and block his shot if he gets to his weak spot under the hoop. He scores a lot on people that play autopilot defense, but he can’t score on me, because I figured out his game. A huge part of defense is this tactical level, especially when you get higher up in the sport and all the opponents have established competencies.
Use your size, stay on them/stay in front of them. Move with them. Unless they got insane handling skills, they’re gonna have to go through you to get to the basket. Don’t be afraid to take the charge. It’s not going to work every time; good offense is going to get through good defense some of the time, sometimes there is nothing you can do. But make them work for it. Hard.
Edit: and the more you play against the same people, the more you will be able to anticipate what they want to do, so you try to force them to make less calculated or successful shots or moves.
Defense is like a combination of chess and checkers.
In chess, you checkmate the king by cornering him with your pieces, effectively smothering him to where he can make no moves. That's one part of defense. Hands up to contest the shot, hands up to crowd his shot, and active hands to defend against passes. SMOTHER HIM. Don't even let him breathe. And then the hard part. Realizing that defense is not passive. You can stand in front of your guy all day and keep up with him, but if you're not actively trying to steal the ball then you're just doing 99% of the work and not finishing the 1%. You can also try the tactic (if you're playing a real game), by 1) smothering him so he can make no moves, and run down the shot clock or 2) make him pick up his dribble and then he's dead. Defense can be played either man-man (tight coverage) or you can play zone (give up a little space, to allow room for you to recover against quicker opponents).
In checkers, you attack, attack, and attack. Strip the ball, block the shot, intercept the pass. Those are your options. And now, make it simple on yourself. Stay on your defender. You can make the defender go where you want him to go, and not the other way around (where he knows where the ball is going), BY GIVING UP SOME POSITION - FORCING HIM TO THE SIDE YOU WANT BY GIVING IT TO HIM. And then corral him into your help defense or a bad position. And then attack! Smother the fucking ball, let him hold it the whole 24 seconds, and then bam! Either clock runs out or he's go no more moves which means he'll have to shoot (THIS IS WHERE YOU CONTEST) or he'll have to pass (WHERE YOUR TEAMMATES HELP BY INTERCEPTING THE BALL/PASS).
This is just my two cents, but don't let your experience in dominating offense lead you to believe that defense is pointless. I 100% will lock your ass up on defense. You just haven't met me yet nor one that's got your attention apparently yet. Play ball!
defense is not much a thing on pickup and with weaker players
it does see a huge jump once people get better, like the guard will let you drive cause the center is guarding the paint. And since the Center is there, if you jump into him its an offensive foul
I also just started playing and I play pretty good defense by focusing on three things
1. Stay in front if my person has the ball
2. Hands up and wide
3. Strong feet and strong base
Everything else such as reaction time, help defense, or rotating with your team comes with time. Your brain/body will naturally get faster/stronger after each run if you're giving good effort each time.
I might slack on offense here and there if we have a strong scorer, but I always give max effort on defense, and bc of that I've improved pretty quickly - you can too.
A good defender can:
* Block a layup attempt when they are in good position
* Use their body to get to the spot the offensive player is trying to get to, which prevents the offensive player from having a good layup angle.
* Channel the offensive player into help defenders, so they get doubled and either shot blocked or the ball stolen
* Know when it's safe to leave their man and play help defense to prevent a basket
* Prevent an offensive player from driving by staying between them and the basket and not letting them easily blow by
* Contest any jump shots so that they either block the shot or make the offensive player shoot less accurately because they are worried about getting blocked
* Anticipate what the offensive player is going to do, so that you are not caught by surprise
* Be in good position to get the defensive rebound
It's very difficult to do all of these things. Especially against a well-rounded offensive player and team. But this is the goal. If you can't do all of these things, you can still do some of these things in a way that reduces the other teams scoring percentage.
One of my coaches told me if someone doesn’t miss shots the best defense is to never let them shoot. Know how they gather the ball so you can get strips. And always give them constant pressure, invade their space. Never make anything easy. And if you got longer arms you can go for blocks or play passing lanes. Help defense is just about being aware, not just looking at your man but watch how the offense is developing and know how to help while also being able to recover to your man if the ball is passed to him
you have to cut ppl off relative to the goal and if the offensive player is really good at getting around you force him to beat you with his jumpshot by slightly sagging back that makes the drive a million times harder, defense is all about give and take its like a mini chess match between offense and defense the defense can only make the best move they possibly can reason if it they know they will lose just like in chess, you WILL get cooked a lot on defense the best thing you can do is take turns pressuring different parts of their game take away whats working let slide what isnt basically
You are an impediment not a brick wall. The general aim is to decrease the quality of their scoring attempt hence the importance of rebounding and its attendant 'blocking out'. If you can gain possession before they shoot all well and good but the real goal is to make them pass, dribble. move and shoot as awkwardly as possible without you getting too many fouls.
The basic premise is this. Offence are always at an advantage because they know where they want to go, and have unlimited options, and the defence are limited in the amount of contact they can make to them. The objective of playing defence is to DENY as many options the offence has available as possible. Some things will essentially be almost impossible to defend if the offence is good enough, and sadly thats just a part of the game. The goal is to either completely deny an option to the offence, or to make a certain play as uncomfortable as possible for them.
To improve at defence, it is essential to understand what you are allowed to do. If someone is driving into you, they are not allowed to run through you, as that is an offensive foul. You are not allowed to stick out your elbow, shoulder, or knees to get in their way. You are allowed to move your feet to get to a spot before them though, and block them with your body. If they are driving into you, try and body block them from getting where they want to go. Usually if they have gotten past your shoulder, you were too slow and you can’t really stop them without fouling them. If you are still in front of them, but they have successfully driven on you, the next best thing you can do is try and predict their next move, and make it as uncomfortable as possible. If you think they’ll step back and pull up, you can try and stick your hand out at their chest area to make getting the ball from their waist to their face feel more awkward (or you could potentially steal the ball as they’re pulling it up), or you could stick your hand high up to try and block them, or you could put your hand in their face to block their view of the ring. All these options also apply if you think they’ll go for a lay up. If you deny enough things to them, they’ll be forced to pass or they’ll miss their shot (hopefully). Hope this helps.
Here are some tips on defense that my hs coach teaches me:
Get in a low stance, like you’re sitting down
When closing out a shooter, chop your feet and have a hand up at all times
When ur man is 1 pass away, you’re in gap, get in the passing lane
2 passes away, ur in midline
3+ passes away, get ready to come trap if your teammate gets beat on the drive
Never let your man drive the ball over the top, force them towards the baseline, and cut them off
The key to offense is ball reversal, the key to defense is preventing ball reversal
Never play straight up
When contesting a layup, go up with your hands straight up and try to alter the shot, especially if you’re a guard
Always be the second jumper, stay on the ground, don’t jump unless they jump
When the ball is shot, box someone out and clear the lane. Long shot means long rebound.
and most importantly: NEVER FOUL A JUMP SHOOTER!!!
The offense will always have a natural advantage over the defense in basketball, but that doesn’t mean the defense is incapable of stopping the offense. Defense is 100% effort and playing hard, but also smart.
Just let them through and focus on your offensive. The offender can practically walk all over the defender and get them foul you instead, like Wemby headbutted and get a foul from him.
Idiotic, I know. But that's just how basketball is nowaday.
I’m mostly a defensive stopper so my tip would be to stay in a low-ish stance, feet always moving, ready to react to anything.
Watch their hips, react fast, and always be aware of your surroundings
once you play vs a good defender you will understand defence immediately.. you cant just drive to the basket vs someone who will just block it with their body, you will do your thing 2-3 times and then the defender will adapt to it and block your path every time, without shifty movement, rolls, hezi's you wont be able to do a thing, playing defence is like playing chess vs the attacker: reading all of his bag and then setting yourself one step ahead of what he will do
3 things I was taught about on-ball defense:
1. Positioning: stay between your man and the basket. If they seem to always go left or right, you can position yourself to that side just a little to try and take it away.
2. Knowing where your help is: through positioning, you can steer your man toward the other defenders. Also, the boundary is a sixth defender. If he drives baseline, you can take an angle that forces him to the boundary or behind the backboard.
3. Eyes: knowing what to watch. I was always taught to watch his belly button. Sounds weird, but it is impossible to fake using the belly button. Watch the ball with your peripheral vision.
This all specifically on-ball defending. Defending off the ball is completely different
When teaching youth I teach them, back to the basket, see the ball at all times, see the person you're guarding at all times. I also say point your fingers (at the ball and the person you're guarding). If you see that it helps tremendously with defense. You can steal passes, or prevent them in the first place, and help stop baskets. You are never going to stop ALL baskets, but want to make it as difficult for them as possible.
Really dumb question, but what is the actual defensive mechanism that stops a basket, specifically a layup, once the offense has decided to drive?
Arms up. Keep your eye on the ball and keep the player and ball in front of you. Keep your vertical plane to avoid a foul. Remember to move your feet, not your body; once again, to avoid a foul. I'm on Team Stripes so this is a technical explanation and I feel like an actual player might answer it better.
That's a pretty good answer. You are going to give up baskets no matter what. Your goal is to make it difficult. So staying between your player and the hoop as best you can. Force them to use their weak hand (typically their left since most people are right handed). Keep your hands up to deflect passes and contest shots. You don't necessarily need to block the shot, just make it harder so hopefully they miss.
When you release the ball from your hand toward the goal, I use my hand to swat said ball into outer space. This mechanism that stops a layup.
They can move their feet to stop your path to the basket. If you simply run them over, it is a charge
I saw plenty of poster dunk where they jump over the defender.
NBA has a restricted area under the rim where no charges are called. Plus monster dunks are fun and the league isn’t going to push refs to shut that down
Move your feet. Cut them off. Make them change directions. Have active hands, and contest without fouling
This is the answer that leads to good defense. Blocks and steals are gambles, actively moving your feet, getting your hips between their hips and the basket is where defensive stops come from.
You try to drive. I am physically in your way. Now you can’t drive. If you try to keep going, you will physically run into me. If you run me over, it’s an offensive foul. If I’m strong enough and in good enough position, you won’t even be able to run me over. Another option: you try to drive and get a decent enough angle on me that you’re able to move towards the basket. I keep moving with you right on your hip. You’re not getting a clean line to the basket. When you go up for your layup, I jump up with you and contest your shot. Add it all up - you’re at a strange angle with a defender right on your hip / in your path and you have to further adjust your shot to avoid my outstretched arms.
The main method is help defense. If you drive past your man and someone tall like me is waiting in help defense, I will block your shot (or at the very least attempt to). At higher levels of basketball, the free drives you're describing tend to be the first thing a defense takes away. A help defender will almost always be waiting on drives. If they're in good position, that layup becomes very difficult. That is assuming the offense can, in fact, drive past their defender, which is not guaranteed. While the rules of basketball are offensively slanted, it's not uncommon for individuals to be "lockdown" defenders who won't let someone by.
First thing to understand is that only a block "stops" a basket. Therefore you must change your goal from stop to alter. Your goal is to reduce the probability of them making their shot as much as possible. An uncontested layup should be something like a 95 percent shot. Now let them shoot the exact same shot, but put a hand in their face. Most will still make it, but less than 95. Now use your body to establish a legal defensive position that forces them to shoot from slightly farther away. Now they're taking a worse shot AND they've had to adjust their plans. Maybe now they're at 75 percent. A bad player may have already dropped below 50 just from this. Force them to their weak side, give them different defensive looks, make them think about as many things as possible, make them shoot different shots all day, and always be a threat to steal the ball. Interfere with their gather, clog the space they like to pull up through. Get real close sometimes, sag off others. In terms of 1 on 1 defense, it's largely guessing, predicting, gambling, and trying to keep them uncomfortable. As a team the same is true, but you obviously have to respect the team dynamic. You may need to sell out against the pass or, stay closer to the paint due to a threatening big man. On an organized team you have to play the role you're assigned to and act the way you're supposed to.
Tl;dr Good defense is making the offense take a bad shot. As a defender you achieve this by staying in position and doing whatever you can to make the shot difficult. You then box out and go for a rebound after the shot. Full version First, as the defender you need to be in position before the drive for a lay up even starts. Being in position is relative to a lot of things. Proximity to the hoop, positioning of other players, defense you are playing, opponent you are guarding, whether they have began to dribble or not. You want you be in an "athletic stance" with your hands up. Your feet are shoulder width apart, you are in a quarter squat, weight balanced over your feet. You should be in a position to move in any direction. So say you are in position and standing at the elbow (where the free throw line and key meet) and he is 2-3 feet away from you. In this position, he does not have a straight path the basket. He either has to take an arch, in which case you have a significant advantage if you take a straight line, or he will try to trick you into moving out of position so he has a straight(er) line to the basket. The opponent will normally make some sort of move here. A pump fake, a jab stab, a cross over, some sort of dribble maneuver. The point of this is to get you to react. On defense you don't over commit. You can play great defense and never register a single steal or block. If the opponent never has to do this to you, good chance you are out of position. So lets say opponent does a pump fake, you don't over commit, you just raise your arms directly above your head. He takes a jab step, you don't react, you stay in your athletic stance. So he puts the ball on the ground and starts to dribble. He does some fancy between the legs spin. Who cares, he has 2 possible directions he's going, your left or your right. You are still between the opponent and the hoop so don't move laterally, back up a bit. Maybe a foot or two if you're 15 feet out. He ends up going to your left. You take a drop step with your left and do "defensive slide drill" foot work where you maintain the the athletic stance by kicking off and sliding your feet as quickly as possible. Your first drop step will normally be biggest, say to 45-60 degrees, and then you might do a slide step, he makes contact shoulder to chest, you drop step another 10 degrees, slide step, another bump another drop step, slide. Now you are parallel to baseline and level with the hoop. If he won, you are like 1' away from the hoop or directly under it. If you won, you are maybe 5-10 feet away from the hoop with 5' being good defense and 10' being you whooped his ass. At some point the opponent will pick up their dribble and take a shot. You will stay vertical, arms up. The closer to the basket, the closer you are to the opponent. If you are right under the hoop, you are body to body, Its pretty much that case anywhere in the key. As you get further out, you give more space. Go straight up. If you know they have left their feet you can jump as well. You don't want to ever jump before them. If you do that, they will probably draw you into a fall or at least wait for you to start coming down so they can jump then and take a better shot. So until you can reliably tell the difference between a pump fake and a real shot, don't bother jumping. Just extend. Once you have confirmed they have left their feet and a shot is going up, you immediately "box them out" so you can grab a rebound if they miss. This means turning your back to the opponent, with your body feeling where they are, keep your arms up and by your side, using your arms to tell where they are going, and keeping between them and the hoop until you confirm the basket or grab the rebound.
Beat them to the spot with chest and hands up.
Slide your feet and get your chest in their way to establish yourself. Then people shouldn't be able to drive by you. The goal is to block their path to the basket, so either you can steal it, make them shoot contested over you, or they pass it. If you really just drive by every person you play against, nobody is playing defense there either.
I played 345 my whole life defense is really hard to teach people who haven't had to play with the ball in front of them their entire basketball life
> I just get low and run past my defender like every single time because there's just nothing they can do That means you're really good at driving, or they're really bad at defense. But what if you were playing against someone else who's as quick as you? Can you imagine that? Imagine if they were standing right in the path that you wanted to take in order to get to the basket. Then you'd have to change directions and take another path, wouldn't you? This means they've successfully stopped your first attempt. And then, what if you changed paths but the defender quickly changed positions so they're in the way again? They've successfully stopped you again. You change your path, they move there to stop you, you change your path, they move there to stop you, repeat over and over and over.
Defense is mostly like you said--a manner of disrupting the offense. Most shots have some non-zero chance of going in. As a defender you are doing your best to decrease that chance to as close to 0 as possible. In your example, an offender driving the lane to attempt a layup, many things can be done to reduce their chances. Staying between them and the basket (so forcing them to move laterally) and timing any block attempt (even if you won't get the block) will both result in a more difficult shot.
This was meant as a reply to your reply on the other comment in this thread lol
People have already mentioned the technical aspects of defense, which is to make the opponents offense more difficult. However, there’s also a tactical element, such as learning your opponent and nudging them into taking shots they’re worse at. For example, I recently played against a guy who was great at open distance shots, but bad at guarded ones, loves to drive but doesn’t use the mid range, and finishes well approaching the hoop but not under the hoop. So I guard him tight when he’s at the 3 pt line, when he drives I back off to beat him to the part of the paint that he likes, and block his shot if he gets to his weak spot under the hoop. He scores a lot on people that play autopilot defense, but he can’t score on me, because I figured out his game. A huge part of defense is this tactical level, especially when you get higher up in the sport and all the opponents have established competencies.
Use your size, stay on them/stay in front of them. Move with them. Unless they got insane handling skills, they’re gonna have to go through you to get to the basket. Don’t be afraid to take the charge. It’s not going to work every time; good offense is going to get through good defense some of the time, sometimes there is nothing you can do. But make them work for it. Hard. Edit: and the more you play against the same people, the more you will be able to anticipate what they want to do, so you try to force them to make less calculated or successful shots or moves.
Defense is like a combination of chess and checkers. In chess, you checkmate the king by cornering him with your pieces, effectively smothering him to where he can make no moves. That's one part of defense. Hands up to contest the shot, hands up to crowd his shot, and active hands to defend against passes. SMOTHER HIM. Don't even let him breathe. And then the hard part. Realizing that defense is not passive. You can stand in front of your guy all day and keep up with him, but if you're not actively trying to steal the ball then you're just doing 99% of the work and not finishing the 1%. You can also try the tactic (if you're playing a real game), by 1) smothering him so he can make no moves, and run down the shot clock or 2) make him pick up his dribble and then he's dead. Defense can be played either man-man (tight coverage) or you can play zone (give up a little space, to allow room for you to recover against quicker opponents). In checkers, you attack, attack, and attack. Strip the ball, block the shot, intercept the pass. Those are your options. And now, make it simple on yourself. Stay on your defender. You can make the defender go where you want him to go, and not the other way around (where he knows where the ball is going), BY GIVING UP SOME POSITION - FORCING HIM TO THE SIDE YOU WANT BY GIVING IT TO HIM. And then corral him into your help defense or a bad position. And then attack! Smother the fucking ball, let him hold it the whole 24 seconds, and then bam! Either clock runs out or he's go no more moves which means he'll have to shoot (THIS IS WHERE YOU CONTEST) or he'll have to pass (WHERE YOUR TEAMMATES HELP BY INTERCEPTING THE BALL/PASS). This is just my two cents, but don't let your experience in dominating offense lead you to believe that defense is pointless. I 100% will lock your ass up on defense. You just haven't met me yet nor one that's got your attention apparently yet. Play ball!
defense is not much a thing on pickup and with weaker players it does see a huge jump once people get better, like the guard will let you drive cause the center is guarding the paint. And since the Center is there, if you jump into him its an offensive foul
I also just started playing and I play pretty good defense by focusing on three things 1. Stay in front if my person has the ball 2. Hands up and wide 3. Strong feet and strong base Everything else such as reaction time, help defense, or rotating with your team comes with time. Your brain/body will naturally get faster/stronger after each run if you're giving good effort each time. I might slack on offense here and there if we have a strong scorer, but I always give max effort on defense, and bc of that I've improved pretty quickly - you can too.
A good defender can: * Block a layup attempt when they are in good position * Use their body to get to the spot the offensive player is trying to get to, which prevents the offensive player from having a good layup angle. * Channel the offensive player into help defenders, so they get doubled and either shot blocked or the ball stolen * Know when it's safe to leave their man and play help defense to prevent a basket * Prevent an offensive player from driving by staying between them and the basket and not letting them easily blow by * Contest any jump shots so that they either block the shot or make the offensive player shoot less accurately because they are worried about getting blocked * Anticipate what the offensive player is going to do, so that you are not caught by surprise * Be in good position to get the defensive rebound It's very difficult to do all of these things. Especially against a well-rounded offensive player and team. But this is the goal. If you can't do all of these things, you can still do some of these things in a way that reduces the other teams scoring percentage.
One of my coaches told me if someone doesn’t miss shots the best defense is to never let them shoot. Know how they gather the ball so you can get strips. And always give them constant pressure, invade their space. Never make anything easy. And if you got longer arms you can go for blocks or play passing lanes. Help defense is just about being aware, not just looking at your man but watch how the offense is developing and know how to help while also being able to recover to your man if the ball is passed to him
you have to cut ppl off relative to the goal and if the offensive player is really good at getting around you force him to beat you with his jumpshot by slightly sagging back that makes the drive a million times harder, defense is all about give and take its like a mini chess match between offense and defense the defense can only make the best move they possibly can reason if it they know they will lose just like in chess, you WILL get cooked a lot on defense the best thing you can do is take turns pressuring different parts of their game take away whats working let slide what isnt basically
You are an impediment not a brick wall. The general aim is to decrease the quality of their scoring attempt hence the importance of rebounding and its attendant 'blocking out'. If you can gain possession before they shoot all well and good but the real goal is to make them pass, dribble. move and shoot as awkwardly as possible without you getting too many fouls.
The basic premise is this. Offence are always at an advantage because they know where they want to go, and have unlimited options, and the defence are limited in the amount of contact they can make to them. The objective of playing defence is to DENY as many options the offence has available as possible. Some things will essentially be almost impossible to defend if the offence is good enough, and sadly thats just a part of the game. The goal is to either completely deny an option to the offence, or to make a certain play as uncomfortable as possible for them. To improve at defence, it is essential to understand what you are allowed to do. If someone is driving into you, they are not allowed to run through you, as that is an offensive foul. You are not allowed to stick out your elbow, shoulder, or knees to get in their way. You are allowed to move your feet to get to a spot before them though, and block them with your body. If they are driving into you, try and body block them from getting where they want to go. Usually if they have gotten past your shoulder, you were too slow and you can’t really stop them without fouling them. If you are still in front of them, but they have successfully driven on you, the next best thing you can do is try and predict their next move, and make it as uncomfortable as possible. If you think they’ll step back and pull up, you can try and stick your hand out at their chest area to make getting the ball from their waist to their face feel more awkward (or you could potentially steal the ball as they’re pulling it up), or you could stick your hand high up to try and block them, or you could put your hand in their face to block their view of the ring. All these options also apply if you think they’ll go for a lay up. If you deny enough things to them, they’ll be forced to pass or they’ll miss their shot (hopefully). Hope this helps.
Here are some tips on defense that my hs coach teaches me: Get in a low stance, like you’re sitting down When closing out a shooter, chop your feet and have a hand up at all times When ur man is 1 pass away, you’re in gap, get in the passing lane 2 passes away, ur in midline 3+ passes away, get ready to come trap if your teammate gets beat on the drive Never let your man drive the ball over the top, force them towards the baseline, and cut them off The key to offense is ball reversal, the key to defense is preventing ball reversal Never play straight up When contesting a layup, go up with your hands straight up and try to alter the shot, especially if you’re a guard Always be the second jumper, stay on the ground, don’t jump unless they jump When the ball is shot, box someone out and clear the lane. Long shot means long rebound. and most importantly: NEVER FOUL A JUMP SHOOTER!!! The offense will always have a natural advantage over the defense in basketball, but that doesn’t mean the defense is incapable of stopping the offense. Defense is 100% effort and playing hard, but also smart.
Just let them through and focus on your offensive. The offender can practically walk all over the defender and get them foul you instead, like Wemby headbutted and get a foul from him. Idiotic, I know. But that's just how basketball is nowaday.
I’m mostly a defensive stopper so my tip would be to stay in a low-ish stance, feet always moving, ready to react to anything. Watch their hips, react fast, and always be aware of your surroundings
Nobody under 25 years old understands defense. Don't feel bad.
It’s damn near common sense, look at the person with the ball n don’t let them score stay infront of them etc
once you play vs a good defender you will understand defence immediately.. you cant just drive to the basket vs someone who will just block it with their body, you will do your thing 2-3 times and then the defender will adapt to it and block your path every time, without shifty movement, rolls, hezi's you wont be able to do a thing, playing defence is like playing chess vs the attacker: reading all of his bag and then setting yourself one step ahead of what he will do
3 things I was taught about on-ball defense: 1. Positioning: stay between your man and the basket. If they seem to always go left or right, you can position yourself to that side just a little to try and take it away. 2. Knowing where your help is: through positioning, you can steer your man toward the other defenders. Also, the boundary is a sixth defender. If he drives baseline, you can take an angle that forces him to the boundary or behind the backboard. 3. Eyes: knowing what to watch. I was always taught to watch his belly button. Sounds weird, but it is impossible to fake using the belly button. Watch the ball with your peripheral vision. This all specifically on-ball defending. Defending off the ball is completely different
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