Defense in basketball may be the most difficult skill to improve, as defense, in general, is difficult to practice on your own unless you are actually playing in a game of one on one to five on five. It helps to be quick and athletic but it’s just not that cut-and-dry to be a great defender.
How to guard a quicker player in basketball? There are a series of things you can immediately due to become a better defender right now, after reading this article you can apply these hacks on the court immediately. I will discuss a few hacks that can improve your defense and impress your coach.
Please understand that the best thing you can do for yourself right now to improve your defense is knowing the player you are guarding and their offensive tendencies. It’s really simple, the player you are matching up with, what does he like to do, how does he like to score, does he like to drive to the basket shoot the three, does the post like the ball in certain spots down low. Does he like the right-handed hook shot?
How you counter their moves is basically getting the player to do the opposite of what you want them to do. If they are excellent penetrators and score that way, then give them space to entice them to shoot the ball instead. Vice versa.
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Some Examples Of Players Tendencies
- Likes to shoot threes.
- Likes to pull up for 2s.
- Drives and kicks if not open for an easy two.
- Likes to drive more than shoot.
- Likes to shoot more than drive.
- Crashes boards hard unexpectedly.
- Likes the right-hand hook in the post.
- Shoots, when dribbling to the left but drives to the basket when dribbling right many players, do this.
- The spot-up shooter doesn’t like to dribble.
- Looks to pass more than shoot.
You will also find that to guard most every one of these tendencies is do the opposite in most cases, but the higher the level of basketball you play the more difficult it may be as players are more well rounded in their game and adjust to what the defense gives them. This is also not the end of holding players to zero points but it’s a good start.
You may even notice that you may find that you’re pretty good at guarding players who play a lot like yourself as this could be because if you’re a shooter you know what shooters like to do based on what you like.
Force Player Towards Help
Guarding a quicker player can be tough but it doesn’t have to be, you should try forcing the player to your closest teammate. While at the same time cut them off as they will shy away from the help defense, you may also need to communicate this to your teammate. If you get beat, your teammate may have to help by hedging the player until you recover.
Another way to force them towards help is to try and force them to the side of the floor that has the most players on it or is most crowded they are looking for the one on one opportunity but at least if you cut off the baseline from the wing you should get help in the middle. Expect a pull-up jumper from the offensive player as they are viewing the area your forcing as congested.
Be Physical
Basketball is a physical game don’t let anyone tell you otherwise it is also a mental game, many players hate being touched and will cry foul to the ref. When you see that this is a player who expects calls when he is touched the slightest, what you should do is put your hands on them as much as possible even when they don’t have the ball. Get in their face when they are about to make a move, knowing you have help defense behind you, be as physical as possible without being called for a foul. Be shoulder-to-shoulder up and down the court after a score or turnover in possession, most players hate the physical part of the game as they may not be used to it and or in general don’t like to be touch.
Fakes On Defense
Just like on offense we use fakes to get the defense to bite such as a pump fake to get the defender to jump or a jab step to get the defender to go one way while we blow by them the other way. We can do this on defense as well, when I close out on a player on defense after recovering from help defense, I like to use the fake jump to prevent the three-point shooter to shoot the wide-open shot, for example:
The player receives the skip pass in the corner, I close out by stutter-stepping while using a big arm swing to make the player think I’m going to jump and try to block the shot. They will immediately pull back on their shot and wait for me to jump so they can get wide open to shoot with no problems. But I don’t actually jump, I mimic the approach of a volleyball player who’s getting ready to spike the ball but I never take off to jump. This works so well that every time I do it I’m staring in the eyes of the player and he always has this what the heck look on his face to say I should have just shot the ball when I received it
On a quicker player, this works well also, after the pump fake they want to blow by you when you close out on the shot while the fake will be obvious to where they will want to go.
Blocking Shots Vs Disrupting Shots
Blocking shots feels very satisfying, especially if you block a ball and it ends up in the stands. Blocking shots is very overrated because most are not very good at it. Even when you block a shot most are swatting it as hard as they can and when the shot is blocked it may not end up in your team’s hands. Think about it this way how many shots do you block vs how many shots you don’t and are scored on because of a pump fake, bad timing on your jump or fouling. If the number of blocks doesn’t exceed the number of mistakes from the block attempts, start thinking of a better defensive strategy.
Disrupting shots is underrated the idea when contesting a shot should not be to block it but to disrupt it this is a better way of thinking as it’s tough enough to block a shot and if you do happen to do so when disrupting the shot by the offensive player while blocking it that’s a bonus. The league leaders for blocked shots in the NBA is less than three blocks per game, not a lot, is it.
Here is how you can effectively shot contest when the shooter shoots the ball with his right hand use your left instead of reaching across your body with your right hand. It is a shorter reach using your right hand to block a shooter who is also right-handed. When you reach across, you give up a few inches, when you reach straight-up mirror the same hand with you, you extend the reach a couple of inches. The same is true with left-handed shooters reach up with your right hand to contest the shot but whatever you do you always stay on your feet do not jump.
Forcing Players to Play How You Want Them To
Force players to do things they don’t normally do, players who don’t shoot threes give them room to shoot threes. Make posts go to their left hand because it’s open for them to score but they are terrible at it. Players who are not good with layups using their left hand make those players drive more. It’s really simple but you need to observe and know the player, also called IQ.
Force players to where you want them to go, this is really simple you want to make the player you are guarding with the ball think they have an angle to penetrate only for you to cut them off to describe this think of lining up perfectly on defense position with the ball. Now move to a position that you are slightly left or right of the ball-handler but not so much of that you are taken away his right like many of us are taught at a younger age to do when a player cannot use their left. What this does is allow the player to assume they have an opening to beat you only for you to cut them off or even steal the ball.
Using The Forearm And Wrist
We all know most of the time it is a foul to hand check, here’s a secret way to get away with it. This trick coincides with aggression, when a quicker player tries to beat you and you’re able to initially maintain position with him have your forearm sandwich between you and your defender, do not extend the arm but pancake it between you and your man like your forearm is the hamburger and you and your defender are the buns. Flex your wrist away from your body pushing it towards your defender’s body, you will want to keep the opposite hand up straight up in the air to make it look to the refs that you are playing good defense as to not get a foul call. The flex of the wrist slows down the player and allows you to get back into position if you are about to be beaten, it takes some practice but it works well.
How do I apply these defensive hacks to my game? The simplest way not to clutter your brain with too much information is to choose one of the defensive tactics that I provided and practice it for a week until it’s instilled in your game permanently.
This concludes the article I hope you enjoy these defensive tips, remember you can apply these hacks right away, to your game.