DEFENSIVE HABITS - Part I

PLAYING BEHIND THE POST

This is when you play behind the offensive player positioning yourself between the player and the basket. You are basically conceding the pass inside and trying to force the post player to score over you.

Advantages?

There aren’t many... conceding the pass to the post is rarely a good idea. Most decent post players are going to score or get fouled if they catch the ball in the low post. Defensively it is important to find ways to prevent this from happening.

Despite efforts to prevent the pass to the post, every team will end up giving up that pass from time to time. Work to recognize the offensive players’ tendencies on the block.

For example, most post players at and below the high school level tend to make their moves in the same direction most of the time. If you are defending a player who makes a move to her left

every time she catches on the block, then you should try to “sit on the left shoulder” when the offensive player catches the ball in order to disrupt her timing and rhythm.

Obviously, if you play behind the post consistently you will find yourself in this situation more often, so you might want to spend extra time practicing “sitting on the post player’s favorite shoulder."

(thanks Josh Stinson)