Defending the Man with the Ball - Unicaja |
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It’s important to inculcate the principle of individual responsibility: strong pressure on the man with the ball, leading him in a certain direction. Avoid body contact with the hands or legs, contact with the chest. Proper defensive posture to make good movements. In out of bounds situations, the point of contact with the attacker is the whole court, pressuring the ball and forcing changes of direction. Attack the ball, defend aggressively.
With a direct pick of the player bringing up the ball, you must pass from behind the pick, with the defender picking nearby, preparing to react.
When the ball arrives at the danger zone, like the three point line or even further on (depending on the situation), the defense adapts their position to remain between the ball and the basket.
Pressure the ball at two possible distances, which will depend on the characteristics of the player with the ball: there are two ways of defending: “shirts” and “pants.” “SHIRT”: No distance between the attacker and defender; used against shooters. Attack the ball aggressively; the position varies relative to the attacker’s strong hand; lead him, face the foot out with the stronger hand and the hand on the ball. We can use this to defend shooters, like Macijauskas, Stombergas, Granger. "PANTS": At an arms distance away from the attacker; we use this against players that are more dangerous penetrating than with long distance shots. The same position as “SHIRT.” In both cases, it’s important to keep the body balanced, feet and hands properly positioned, either after trying to anticipate, going around a pick, or helping a team-mate. DRILLS: a) To train one-on-one defense, we use, amongst others, a very basic, yet effective drill, mainly in pre-season. This is a one-on-one zigzag along the complete court, and upon reaching half-court, a real one-on-one looking to score.
With the emphasis on the aforementioned defensive concepts. The exercise lasts for 10 minutes, and all players are involved. b) Just like before, but adding an end line in-bounder, and we can lead the receiver to a corner, like after starting the zigzag. c) Another exercise to defend the man with the ball is "one-on-one, five positions."
The five available players: play by alternating one-on-ones with specific rules: for example, at first the attacker, once having started dribbling towards the basket, can’t change direction. The second exercise: the attacker has a maximum of two dribbles, and he can change directions. In both cases we can add, defend “shirt” or defend “pants” depending on the defensive aim we’re looking for; so we can defend “shirts,” making sure the attacker goes to the hole since he has no space to shoot. |
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