On the whole, my guards tend to play off their guy when he has the ball. I think the main reason is they don't want to get beat off the dribble. We emphasize help side defense, so they know their teammate has their back. I also emphasize a big first step to cutoff the dribbler if they head a certain direction.

Are there drills I can do to increase their confidence to put more pressure on the ball handler? I'm trying to determine if it's a skill issue of not being quick enough or something that can be worked on with the proper emphasis and drills. Maybe I'm missing something when teaching them certain points on guarding their man. I teach ball side hand is high, off ball hand is low and digging.

Is there something you tell your players that sticks with them during a game? For example, your head should be on the ball at all times or another point of emphasis to give them something practical that is effective.

Thanks!

Rob -

The one drill we did a lot was the 1 on 1 zig zag full court... we started with just a little pressure just to get the idea of footwork and NOT reaching. Then we did it 100% and the idea was to turn the offensive player as much as possible. The O player has to stay between the sideline and free throw lane line.

Then in the half court we ran what we called GUARD STEER.... O player is at the top of the key and the defender has to STEER the offensive player towards the free throw line extended... that way, there is no danger of getting beat to the basket.

We also ran what we called the "Man Maker Drill" 3 offensive players on the end line, 3 defensive players at the free throw line. Each O / D player has to stay in their lane. ( 1/3rd ) of the court. This is a no dribble drill.... its good for the offensive and defensive players... The idea of the drill is for the offense to get the ball across half court WITHOUT a dribble.....

This drill is good at creating a toughness in your players, all of these drills should give your players some confidence. Defense is all about heart... either you want to play D or you are lazy and go about it half heartedly. You will have to sell them on the fact that DEFENSE can win games for you when your offense is a little off that game.

Hope this helps.

Like those drills, I've used the zig zag. Did you give the players a reference point on defense? I know coaches always say to stay between your man and the basket, but did you have anything else like nose on ball or always make sure to split the defender? Trying to find at least one thing I can have them focus on regarding where they should be in relation to their man.

Nose on the ball would work fine.... from there.... we gave them a point of reference to steer their man to.

For example... for the point guard.... we wanted the ball OFF the CENTER LINE so that our HELP SIDE D was dicated.... so we told him to steer him to the free throw line extended (sideline) If you try and force him to hard... we found that our players were opening up too much, thus getting beat to the basket. Thats where I came up with that reference point.

From the wing, we wanted to steer them to the short corner....that gave their offense a smaller area to work with and a lot less for us to defend..

So, think about this.... Full court is 84' to defend... go to the half court and its 42' - a lot easier to defend.... cut that in half once the ball is on the sideline, its 21' and you have HELP SIDE D..... and the GREAT defensive teams are really good at this. NOW, take them to the SHORT CORNER and its only 10.5 to defend. ( as long as you are putting a lot of pressure on the ball and denying or dead fronting the post )

To give you an example of this... I had one kid, JB that loved to drive the baseline and then pick up the ball in the short corner..... result, usually a turnover... so I came up with the JB rule, you drive it there with nothing to do with the ball and you come out of the game.- IF you can do this to teams you will do the same thing to their players.... put them in a very difficult position to do anything with the ball.

Does this make sense to you?

Sell them on this and you will have a great defensive team.

For us it takes constant drilling and emphasis. Even at the high school level we are constantly talking to guys about pressuring the ball. If you don't stay on it constantly, it will slip. It's easy to miss it during games too. Sometimes you'll notice watching film that guys were backing off just a bit and you don't notice it until then. Depending on the type of defense you run, this can have a big impact.

So for us, it's emphasized in everything. We emphasize in 1on1 drills, close out drills, shell drills, half court scrimmage, full court scrimmage, games, and so on. Even when we practice half court offense it's emphasized. So basically every single drill that you do should teach and emphasize ball pressure.

BTW, you can do the same thing for rebounding. Every single drill is a rebounding drill. Having an assistant to focus on those things during the whole practice helps.

Coach Sar - "defense is all about heart" - spot on. You can see which players have the heart and attitude to play good D. It's interesting to watch games at the younger levels, unfortunately, all the praise from the stands comes whenever a shot is made, especially 3 pointers. I tell my kids that I notice (and look for) things like boxing out, hustle, and solid defense. Then I ask them whose opinion will matter when it comes to game time? Mine or the people in the stands?

You make some great teaching points with the size of area being defended, that is definitely a big reference point for me. I missed your first point regarding the center line and steering out ft line extended. Another good teaching point as it does dictate who is help-side D for us and reduce the area being defended. We talk about this, but you've given me more specifics. This helps me give the players a goal when defending the ball depending upon where they are on the court.

Jeff - great point about the constant emphasis on ball pressure. It's definitely easy to get side tracked. I like to pick my poison and have a few main points of emphasis in the game/practice. Ball pressure is one of them.

If they apply ball pressure and get beat, the normal tendency is to back off a bit. How do you keep your players in that pressure mode and away from backing off? Most of the time, I can tell my player was standing too upright or just didn't explode with that first step on defense. In other words, it's not an athletic issue of not being able to keep up, it's more of a technical or effort fix, imo. How do you determine if it's an effort/hustle issue or they are simply outmatched and really do need to back off a bit?

Good discussion, this helps a lot.

My first point..... we had a lot of problems defending a 1- 4 defense early in my Varsity career.... then I decided that we needed to get the ball out of the middle of the floor... take to either side, I didn't care.... just get the ball out of the center of the floor.... there is NO helpside D when the ball is in he middle..... take it to either side and NOW you have HELP SIDE defense.

Then we went to the point of reference called out GUARD STEER.... take the ball to either side.... f/t line extended.... Help Side again... Early in my On/Up the line career, we were really playing tough D on the ball and were getting beat from time to time.... so I decided on the F/T line extended philosophy. Clear now? Sorry if I confused you.

Rob, to answer your last question, ... I haven't figured out how to answer that yet. It's just a judgement call by you as the coach and something players just have to learn. Bottom line, pressuring the ball without getting beat is a skill. It requires discipline, balance, foot coordination, effort, and lots of practice.

So just like any skill, keep working on it. You could require guys to always be able to reach out and touch their opponent (unless you specify otherwise). That way the always have a method to gauge and you can ask them,... can you touch your guy from where you're at?

Sometimes guys also have slow mental reaction time and it's difficult for them. I guess all you can do is just keep working with them and developing them as individual players.

Rob / Jeff -

I agree Jeff, its kind of a gut call......... you know how quick your player is and how quick/good the player he is defending... from there, you decide how to play him and your player will figure it out too (sometimes)

I think that you would know how hard your kid works in practice, IF he is giving his all and hustles all the time. No kid wants to get beat if he is any kind of athlete.... sometimes the other guy is just better. The longer I coached the more I learned that no matter what we tried ( game planning ) that really good kid was going to get his points... we just hoped to control them. I bet you have had a couple of those on your teams..... I know I have and I bet Jeff has had a few too.

All those things you listed are important Jeff... Discipline is on top.... I tried the pro active approach.... steering them where we wanted them to go.... knowing that I was going to get early help.

Everything else Jeff said is spot on.

Appreciate all the input. Worked on defense for most of our practice last night. You helped give me a few more tools to work with this year.