How To Become A Solid Basketball Defender

Good defenders are a rarity on the basketball court these days. Some players have no interest in playing basketball defense, but more often players just don’t know how to play defense. From their earliest days on the floor, coaches tell players the defense just takes desire. While desire is a large part of playing good defense, coaches are doing their players a disservice by telling them that desire is all they need. There is technique and there is strategy to defending.nnWhat is Good Defense? Before you can become a good defender, you have to have an objective. You have to know what it is you are trying to accomplish. Are you trying to block shots, steal the ball, etc? Simplify your basketball defensive plan, do what is necessary so your man doesn’t score. Going for steals and block shots open up scoring opportunities that would not be there otherwise. If a steal opportunity presents itself, take advantage of it. However, stealing the ball does not make you a good defender. Concentrate on preventing your man from scoring. Just stay between your man and the basket.nnPlay the Angles Basketball is a game of angles. Use those angles to your advantage. If your man takes a dribble to the basket, don’t go with him, cut him off. You know where he wants to go, use an angle to cut him off instead of just running with him. If your man has the ball on the side, angle him to the sideline or to the baseline. Angle him to an area where he can’t score. That will make your defense much more effective.nnPlay Him Before He Gets the Ball Don’t wait for your man to get the ball to start to think about defending him. Put yourself in a position where you can force the offensive player to areas where he will not be effective before he gets the ball. If the offensive player wants to cut high to the ball, get between him and the ball and force him to go low, away from the ball. When the offensive player is inside his scoring area, force him out of that area before he gets the ball.nnGet Your Hands Up The simplest and most effective deterrent to shooting the basketball is simply putting your hands up. When your man gets the ball your first thought should be, ”Stop the shot” Get your hands up, make him look at you, force him to shoot over your hands, bother his shot, all makes a shooter less effective. Getting your hands up immediately upon the offensive player receiving the ball makes you effectively bigger and quicker as well. Also, use the guideline, “your hands above the ball.” Many offensive players carry the ball below their waist. By putting your hand above the ball, you can prevent your man from even getting the ball in shooting position. If he can’t get the ball into shooting position he will be a much less effective shooter. When he is on the dribble, your hand above the ball will prevent the offensive player from getting into any type of effective offensive position once he picks up the ball.nnValue Your Defense More than anything else, be sure to place value on your basketball defense. In an era of basketball where players seem to get their identity from scoring it is a special player who values his defense enough to make it an aspect of his basketball identity. Every day, you see players get upset about missing a shot but rarely do you see players get upset when their man scores. For every time the offense has the ball and they don’t score, that is 1 less point your team has to score to win. It is much easier to win a game needing only to score 40 points than it is to win a game where you need to score 80 points. Hold your man’s scoring down, it will be easier to win. In addition, good defense leads to good scoring opportunies. Forcing a turnover, a bad pass or making your man miss and getting more rebound opportunities all lead to scoring opportunities for your team after your opponent comes up empty. This is the value of defense and you have to put value where it belongs. These simple thoughts will help you become a solid defender and more valuable to your team.