10 Keys to a Great Basketball Defensive Stance

As a former coach who taught tough man-on-man defense, I agree with everything you have stated for the basic defensive stance excpt for the positioning of the feet. I believe that having a parallel foot position allows the offensive player the luxury of picking his direction to attack. My preferred foot position is to have one foot in advance of the other, depending on the direction you wish to influence the offense to take.

I would agree with Mauro. When not forcing to one side or the other, we teach ball side leg back. This puts the forward hand preventing the crossover and the latter hand in the passing lane.

Pressure is the key to prevent the interior pass. As the ball rises, we teach to step to a close position with both hands up until the ball is brought back down.

Excellent article on defensive stance.

Great points, guys!

We actually teach the same thing in our ebook as you. When sliding on defense, we show you how to position your feet with text, diagrams, and pictures.

Although we teach this, I believe feet positioning should be based on your personnel and what type of defense you choose to play that year. In basketball, there is a million ways to teach the concepts and still be effective.

If you have some extremely quick kids and you want to pressure and force to one side of the court, it would be a good idea to use the staggered stance like you said.

If you have some slow kids or you want to cut down on all dribble penetration, you may use where you pack your defense into the middle to make help and recover easier. Personally, I think it would be a good idea to use a parallel stance for this type of defense. If the offensive player attacks the lead foot, it can be hard for the defensive player to stop the dribble penetration (especially, if they are not the quickest player) because it takes a split second longer drop that foot back and react to the offensive player.

They are other times you may want to use a staggered stance to force players to the middle if you have a bunch of shot-blockers.

Either way, a defense can be very effective.

Other people please share your thoughts...

Thanks for starting this discussion Mauro!

Joe Haefner
www.breakthroughbasketball.com

The whole purpose for the staggered foot position is to influence the ball handler into accepting the easier path for his penatration attempt. This also signals to your teammates the direction you are attemting to force the dribbler. However, this does not eliminate the possibility for an attack on the lead foot. If the ball handler is very quick, the defender must allow for that and step off an extra step. There is no question that a successful attack on the lead foot is harder recover from, but it is also harder to accomlish successfully.

The principle of movement is to apply force in the opposite direction - if you want to go to the left you must apply force to the right with the right foot. However, if your knees are not inside your feet your ability to apply force is significantly compromised (in the picture the knees are not inside the feet enough). A basketball player in a proper defensive stance should feel like they are able to tear paper towel apart in the middle. If they are doing this they are applying the proper force properly and can move quickly in either direction.

The basic stance above is a good solid athletically sound stance that creates great balance. Whether you teach a stance that promotes dropping one foot back slightly depends on the knowledge base of the student. If you are working with younger kids or beginners of any age it may confuse them if you go right into theories behind pushing the offensive player in a certain direction. I coach freshman girls basketball and find that even some of the inexperienced kids need to start at the very basic fundamentals. The basic defensive stance and not crossing their feet while sliding is sometimes all they can handle.

In above photos, this player is very open his legs. This position isn't good for the run or slide. I think the shoulder width is enough for the good stance.

Hi Murat,

Sometimes, I think we as coaches get obsessed with the "perfect" form or "perfect" way to do things. In reality, every player is unique. In order to maintain proper balance and slide quickly, one player may only need his feet shoulder width apart with his knees slightly bent while another player may need to have a wider stance while squatting really low to the ground in order to be effective.

This is only from my personal experience, but I have found that most kids need to have their feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart in order to maintain good balance, slide quickly, and change directions quickly.

Joe Haefner
www.breakthroughbasketball.com

Please disregard the request to remove my name from your list to receive the newsletter. I inadvertanly clicked on the site to request to remove my name. I think, as I prviously state, this is a great forum for coaches to exchange views

Mirroring the ball and getting as close as possible to the man with the ball are pointers that need to be told to the players time and again. As for the footwork and vertical balance, what should be added is that players should also be reminded that best defence is the perfect anticipation of the opponent's plan of attack (re spin, stutter step, on dribbling,etc.), then things will work out fine for the man on the defensive end.

As a division 1 college basketball campion I totatlly agree with the ideas and concepts in this article. I played for Jim Calhoun, a Hall of Fame coach, who stresses being big as possible when guarding a player. As a defensive player you want to try and dictate the offensive player. You dont want the offense to get good and clear looks at the basket nor give the offense the luxuary to set up smoothly and read over your defensive.


Defensive players need to be active. By having players constantly talking on defensive keeps everyone on defensive alert and aware. By applying constant hand movement like Bruce Bowen showed in the YouTube video above.

With that said, you could teach a players all the fundamentals and skills needed to play good defensive, but a player must be willing to play tough solid defensive if their respective teams hope to win games.

PS- you guys are very knowledgable coaches, your ideas and concepts help millions of people. I love reading your articles to help me keep my knowledge of the game up to date and sharp, thanks.

1999 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

I've been in search of an answer to playing proper defense and I wonder if anyone here can give me some advice.

If an offensive player is good at attacking both left and right, should the defender still try to influence the offensive player to go a certain side and if so, which?

Hi Remy,

Is the player a good perimeter shooter? If not, you may want take a step off of the defender and give him the perimeter shot.

Now, which way should you force him? It all depends on the defensive philosophy. Some coaches like to force players to the baseline, because they rely on help rotation from the baseline. Some coaches like to force players to the middle, because they have shot-blockers in the middle. Some coaches say I don't care what you do, just stay between him and the basket. Some coaches like to force the players to the weak hand, but as the skill level increases, it's tougher to do that.

Now, if he is a good penetrator and a shooter, I would tell my player to get up within arm's length to defend the shot. Don't worry about forcing him one way or the other, just stay between him and the basket. I would tell the other defensive players to be ready to help. In today's game, it is very difficult to stop a player one on one. For more on defensive positioning, you can check out this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/help-positioning.html

Thx a lot Joe, that really helped!

I would just like to throw this question out there because the knees inside the shoulders and feet turned in is a completely new concept for me. Doesn't turning the feet in and having the knees angled to where they are inside the shoulders put a lot of unnecessary strain on the knees themselves? I will experiment with it myself when I go out and play this weekend, but please help me out I am having a hard time wrap my brain around that concept.

Hi Ravi,

I just learned of this concept this past year. However, I never stated that you want to have your knees inside your shoulders.

You want to have a straight angle from your ankle, to your knee, through your hips. If this happens, your knees will be slightly inside of your feet.

With the feet, you don't have to turn them in too far. Straight ahead is fine. Everybody is different. Mess around with the stance and determine what feels right so you can explode in either direction.

what is the proper position of the hands on a defensive stance?

Hi Coach R,

Every coach has different philosphies on this. Some like them out to the side to appear bigger. Some like a hand up to defend the shot and a hand low to defend the dribble. Some like hand up to defend the shot and a hand out to defend the pass.

I guess it depends on you're coaching philosophy. Personally, I like to have a hand up, because I believe contesting shots dramatically decrease the opponents shooting percentage.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/contestingshots.html

As for the other hand, I'm not too picky. Either have it forward to defend the dribble or out to defend the pass.

I think this is a good DEFENSIVE STANCE, not how to shuffle or play a person. This just teaches proper balance. Thanks

if you are a little heavy can you still be able to do all this stuff