3 Simple Tricks That Will Instantly Double Your Defensive Quickness

THAT IS EXCELLENT ADVICE. I KNOW WHEN I USE TO PLAY MY COACH USE TO SAY THE SAME THING AND IT WORKED ALL THE TIME.

THANKS FOR ALL THE TIPS!

I really like the tip on moving during the pass. Great to teach to my young kids.
Thanks, mark

Nice tip! I'm not a really good defender but I'll try it.

Quality advice. All for free!!

Great tips...I'm going to include them in practise tonight. Especially like the tip about moving on the pass. I'll also try the race!!

Good tips for increasing my defense skills in my 14-under team. Go ahead

Great tips. Moving on the pass is a key part in becoming a good defender.

They are alright but what happens if my coach doesn't have the names of the players on the other team ahead of time? For tip #1 do you mean when they pass the ball you start running or what?

Ava,

You won't always know who you'll be guarding and you won't be able to do much about that. But with most organized middle school and high school basketball you'll know which team you'll be playing. Coaches can almost always get game tapes. Just ask the coach. Most players have numbers on their jersey too, so you can go by number.

For moving on the pass, yes, you start quickly moving (running or sliding) to your spot as soon as the ball is passed. You should be moving while the ball is in the air. Sometimes you don't have to move very far and other times (on a skip pass) you have to go farther. It's all about anticipating and watching the ball.

Jeff

These were great tips. They are times perfectly because I have noticed that on defense my players move to late. I like the idea of moving on the pass. Thanks, these were great!! Keep 'um coming!!

This is a good tip! The athletic stance and the kness bent is very important in establishing denfensive positioning. Let me add that I always teach my players to use their hands on the off the ball defense. One hand pointing at the direction of the ball and the other hand pointing to his man. So that at all times a player will know where the ball and his man on defense. Also, I encourage them to voice out their position so the other players on defense will be able to recognize the help and weakside defense, etc. Thanks and more power!

its good to know that there are ways to speed up the defense. for sure this will be effective once we praticed it. but we have to go back to the basic so that the players will be able to master the art of defense.

Hi Jeff, thanks for this tip, accually it is tru and i think most of the coach's try or tell or even teach his players to move with the ball not to move when the offence receive the ball, but the seceret and the diffecult part how to make it a habit and that you don't have to shout at them all the time in the games so that they do it. So is there any special drills to help them, or i have to keep shouting at them untill hopefully one day they will do it as a habit.
Thanks for all your effort in suppling us with great tips.
imad

thanks to the tips, really good teaching and im excitted to the new release this end of nov. more power and God bless always!

Hi Imad,

To get you players to develop a "habit" of moving on the pass, you can do a couple different things:

- Explain the "reason why" to your players. Demonstrate the difference and make sure they understand "why" they are doing these things. It’s easy as a coach to forget to teach the reason why and just try to make them do it. People don’t like to be force fed.

- Playing time. The ultimate motivator is playing time and if you reward the good defensive players that move on the pass, they'll all get the message. Or if you pull a player out of the game and leave them out because they didn't go hard on defense, they'll get the message.

- Repetition. We do tons of 4on4 and 5on5 shell work. This is when you emphasize defense and the kids know it. This is where we develop many habits. We start with just passing the ball around and don't move on to the next thing until everyone is moving on the pass (even if it takes the entire practice). If it's non-negotiable from day one they just do it and it's not a problem.

Hope this helps.

Jeff Haefner
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com

Great tip regarding moving on the pass & not the catch. This idea alone will improve my zone defense's "shifting" speed.

Props.

- Coach Ruwe in the nasty 'nati

I like this moving on the pass tip. Have tried in once, it works when showing it to one player. The thing is to get everyone on the defence to react to it. But great tip.

I appreciate the great tips! I will incorporate them in my defense!

GOOD

Good stuff.
It gives those who think they are the slower player a system to even the playing field.

you do not have off nights in playing defense.

Gentlemen

Thank's for all the good advice and the good play's. My kids really enjoy the hard work and dedication you guy's put into it

Great tips, this will help at any level and allow -slow footed kids again an edge in games on close-outs and not allowing good open looks at the bucket - keep them coming love the FREE advice...