Basketball Defensive Strategy - Tips & Resources for All Types of Defense

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"Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships."

Whether you run man to man, zone, press or a combination --- most coaches agree defense is a top priority!

When your offense is stagnant, or the ball just isn't falling, you can always count on your defense to keep you in the game.

Defense is mostly about effort, focus, and teamwork. The skill of shooting takes years to learn... defense can be taught in a relatively short amount of time compared to offensive skill.

There are dozens of different types and philosophies regarding defense... man, zone, force baseline, force middle, pack it in, force turnovers, create tempo, and so on.

But regardless of the defense you run, we find that players that have developed strong man-to-man defensive principles can quickly adapt to any type of defense -- whether it's a full court press, 1-3-1 zone, or a 2-3 zone. However it doesn't usually work the other way around -- players that start by learning a zone, often have trouble learning strong man to man principles later on. So, we recommend start with man-to-man as the foundation for young players.

Defensive Systems and Resources

Whatever your defensive preference might be, here are several resources to help you get stops and take your defense to the next level!

Man to Man Basketball Defense

Zone Defenses

Pressure Defenses

Defense Tips for Players