Build Your Team Defense

Start with these 3 areas!

Teaching team defensive can be a time-consuming part of the practice. We can’t cover everything every day, so how do we prioritize? What are the most important areas to focus on when constructing your team defense? 

Here are 2 ways some coaches decide

  1. Outlining what you’d like to run on defense 
  2. Noting areas of defense to focus on following past performances

Instead, Daniel Gomez (Spanish basketball coach) in his clinic titled Construction of the defense in team training shared steps needed to construct your team defense by focusing on 3 areas. The fundamental stuff…

  1.  1 on 1 (most important – done every practice)
  2.  Help defense open and half court (1st and 2nd line) 
  3.  Rotational defense 

These 3 areas cover what many teams need to know at all playing levels. They all go hand in hand and are progressions of one another.

Here are a few examples

Man to Man

  • Need to know – 1 on 1 defense, help defense positioning as someone will get beat, followed by rotating and rebounding.

Half-court zone defense

  • Need to know – 1 on 1 defense, taking up space, help defense positioning, rotating and rebounding 

Full court press

  • Need to know – 1 on 1 defense, help defense positioning, rotating outside of the double-team

5 ways to implement this into your practices

  1. Dedicate enough time to constructing your team’s defense
  2. Choose at least one drill from each area outlines
  3. Progress from one on one > help defense > rotational defense  
  4. Teach the small details not just the overall defensive concepts
  5. Rinse, repeat and progress