defense drills and tips

Defensive quickness drills
A big part of being a good defensive player is quickness (your ability to cut off an offensive player, your ability to slide out into the passing lane, etc.).

To help develop your quickness, work on footspeed drills such as jumping rope, doing defensive slides, running sprints, running stadium stairs, and doing cone drills. By increasing your quickness, you'll be a better defender. Here are some details on the drills you can do.

- Jumping rope: start off with a good warmup (30 to 45 seconds of jumping rope at a slow pace). Then do a series of 30 to 45 second repetitions where you jump with both feet, alternate from one foot to the other, and then jump on one foot or the other for the entire repetition.
- Defensive slides: you'll work on these during practice with your team, but you can also do these on your own. Start on the baseline at one corner of the court and slide to the middle of the lane, then switch directions and slide back to the sideline, continuing all the way up the court to the opposite baseline.
- Running sprints: go to a track and warm up with a lap or two of easy running. Then go onto the grass of the football field and run a series of sprints. Start off with some shorter sprints (20 to 30 yards), and work your way up to longer sprints (40 to 50 yards).
- Stadium stairs: running stadium stairs is a great way to get in shape and work on your agility. Start off with a good warm up, then run one set od stadium stairs stepping on each step, then one set where you kick your knees up high, one set where you put both feet on each step, one set where you run up stepping on every other step, and finally one set where you jump on each step with two feet.
- Cone drills: cone drills involve putting a cone (or some other object) on the court (or grassy field) and doing various sprint and slide movements from cone to cone. For example, place four cones about 10 yards from each other, with one cone in the center of the four. Slide from the center out to one cone, then back to the center, then out to the next cone and back to the center, continuing until you've slid out to each of the cones and back to the middle. Work on increasing your speed out and back to the cones.





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Slides
As touched on in the earlier drill, defensive slides are a key to being a good defender. Work on your defensive slides to become a better defender.

Here's a great drill to become a better defender. Start under the basket, and sprint to the free throw line under control. As you near the free throw line, slow down, and chop your steps so you are under control and ready to slide (this is called "closing out" on an offensive player). Once you close out to the free throw line, slide quickly and powerfully to one corner of the court (where the sideline and baseline meet). Repeat the drill several times, sliding to one side, then the other. This gets you used to closing out on an offensive player, then quickly being able to slide to one side or the other to defend them.





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Slide and jump (pressure the shot)
Being a good defender means playing great on-ball defense, and also getting a hand up on shots (to put additional pressure on the offensive player).

Start in one corner of the court (where the sideline meets the baseline), in a good defensive stance, and slide quickly and powerfully to the elbow (where the free throw line meets the corner of the lane). As you get to the elbow, imagine that the player you are guarding is going up for a jump shot. So as you near the elbow, gather yourself and leap up to block the shot. After you come down from your jump, turn to block out the shooter. Do this drill five times from each side of the court.

There will be lots of times where you have to quickly transition from a defensive slide to a jump (either to block a shot or grab a rebound). So practicing this will translate into being a better defender in game situations.




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Slide and jump (pressure the shot and jump for the rebound)
This drill is similar to the one above, but adds another level of complexity, making it even more game-like and realistic.

Start in one corner of the court (where the sideline meets the baseline), in a good defensive stance, and slide quickly and powerfully to the middle of the lane. As you get to the lane, imagine that the player you are guarding is going up for a jump shot. So as you near the lane, gather yourself and leap up to block the shot. After you come down from your jump, turn to block out the shooter. Now, imagine the ball is coming off of the rim, so take a few step towards the basket, and leap up high for a rebound. Come down on balance, and turn as if you are going to make an outlet pass to start the fast break. Do this drill five times from each side of the court.

Combining multiple movements (the defensive slide, the leap to distract the shot, the jump for a rebound, and the turn to throw the outlet pass), you're more realistically practicing game-like situations. This will really give you an edge when you get into actual games and have to make these types of plays.