There are three specific areas that I think deserve special attention.  First, is contesting shots.  Second, denying the entry pass and third is blocking-out.  As we develop our defense we must excel in these three areas.

Contesting Shots

1. Whether you leave your feet or not we want your hand on the ball, and not in the shooter’s face.  We feel that forcing the shooter to adjust his shot is more detrimental to good shooting than obstructing his vision.

2. The hand nearest the shooter’s hand (left vs. right) must be raised about shoulder level, and from there it will only have to be raised a short distance and decrease the chance of fouling.

3. Legs are coiled, slightly bent, ready to react to the leap of the shooter.  From this position we respect offensive fakes and possibly force the offensive man to hurry his shot.

4. If you do leave your feet to bother the shooter the hand and arm is extended.  Straight up, not into the shooter.  The hand, in line with the ball, is raised in line with the body so that it will be about a foot away from the ball.  “The ball comes to the hand.”  Also, when we leave our feet to contest, we want the defender to be the second one to leave the floor.

5. When descending from your jump, you do a half turn so you are properly positioned to block our between your man and the basket.

6. If you are unable to block the shooter out it will probably be because he is chasing the ball early and thus not shooting with good follow through technique.

Denying the Entry Pass

The focal point of our defense is the ball itself.   Each of our five defensive players has a primary responsibility of stopping ball penetration.

Let us now examine the roles of the ballside defender not playing the man with the ball.

1. Denying the Pass

a) We want to put as much pressure as possible on the guard to forward pass.

b) In this situation the man playing the strong side forward assumes an over-play or contesting position.  Hand in passing lane, arm extended, palm facing the ball.

c) The defensive man must always keep his head between the man he is playing and the ball.  This will take away the passing lane and prevent quick cut into the post.  When you assume this position you will see the man and ball.  Keep contact with off man by touching nothing with fingertips of inside hand.  Very annoying.

d) When the offensive man steps toward the basket turn and continue to deny him in a face to face alignment.  If you don’t he can step right back to the ball.  Keep in mind that the offensive guard is being harassed by our defensive guard making the guard to forward backdoor very difficult to complete.

Blocking Out

We believe that the two most over-rated things in basketball are size and jumping ability.  Position is by far the most important part of rebounding.

Making Contact

We feel that it is essential to make contact with the offensive man to keep him off the board.  We stress the following points:

a) The guard will use the reverse method and the forwards will us the cross-over method.  Reverse is used by the guards because they have more time while the cross-over done by the forward is the quickest method.

b) In both methods, as the pivot is being made, we want the elbows as high as the shoulders with the hands raised.  This greatly widens the blockout surface and puts the hands in a position where they can’t hold.

c) Contact is made with the butt hitting the offensive man in the upper leg.

*We will teach both methods to both guards and forwards and allow the players to choose the method which they feel the most comfortable with and do best.