DON’T FOLLOW THE RULES – Part I

In high school basketball, when we think of offense vs. defense, we usually think of the defense setting up and patiently waiting for the offense to start their play and then attempting to stop the offense from scoring. That’s the way it’s always been… but that’s not the way it has to be.

Offensive players usually have an advantage over a defender… they know what they are about to do next and the defender does not, and the defender is therefore forced to “react” to whatever move the offensive player makes next.

Great defenders understand that they cannot allow the offense to dictate what will happen next. The best defenders don’t really defend at all, instead they attack the offense and try and take away as many options as possible before the offensive player can use them.

Great defense starts with good footwork (quick feet) and body positioning (using angles) and is not necessarily about your hands and trying to block a shot or steal the ball from your man. I think that is the absolute wrong way to look at it.

What you want to accomplish is forcing your man into having to handle the ball with their weak hand. Forcing your man into having to make hurried and risky passes instead of comfortable passes. Forcing your man into playing under the type of pressure that they are not used to playing under. That’s where the steals come from.

And that type of pressure ultimately forces the offense into rushing everything they do, including their shots. For most teams, rushed shots are low-percentage shots. Low-percentage shots are shots that are rushed, off-balance or outside of the shooters normal range.

When an offense is rushed, hurried and pressured… they are no longer playing “their game” at a speed and comfort level they're used to. When that occurs, two things happen quickly… frustration and loss of confidence. Both are hard to recover from.

If you want to be a great defender, you have to focus your energy on good defensive positioning and forcing your man to react to you, rather than you reacting to your man.

4:13