UPPTEMPO8387 wrote:
I'm assuming you're talking about basketball and not football so I'll give advice in terms of basketball. The most important thing you can do defensively in basketball is know your opponent. If you know that person's strength is shooting jumpers and isn't too good at driving to the basket, then press up on them and force them to play to their weakness. If they're the type to drive to the hoop aggressively and aren't big jump shooters (i.e Rajon Rondo) you give them a little bit of space to entice them into shooting a jumper and to prevent from getting burned once they put on the jets.
Force them to their weak side. If they're the type of player to drive to the left or always shoot lefty, then position your body in a way that they would be forced to drive right. And vice versa if they prefer to shoot with their right hand.
Don't reach in on a ball handler unless you know they're not great at it. If you try to steal the ball from a good ball handler, you'll most likely miss and then they'll just blow right by you.
Box out whoever it is that you're playing defense on. A lot of people play defense on their guy but once another player puts up a shot, they're either staring at the rim or heading up court for the fast break. This just allows your opponent to grab an easy rebound or get a put back layup. It's essential that you block out unless you wanna give up easy points, especially on long rebounds.
Play defense with your feet, not your hands. Keep moving your feet because an opponent will lull you to sleep and once you plant your feet, you're susceptible to getting burned on a drive. Keep shifting your feet and try to predict where your opponent is going to make their move and try to cut that lane. Another thing is you must have good help defenders. Even on man defense, you can't be expected to lock down your defender on every possession. This means you have to be vocal on defense, calling out screens, calling out switches on picks, etc.
I agree with everything and would add the the following:
- Build up your conditioning. Every athlete should be able to run a steady paced 5k and every basketball player should be able to run a steady 10k. There is no excuse for a lack of conditioning.
- Become more athletic. Obviously genes play a big role in how fast and quick and coordinated a player is, you can build become more athletic through hard work in the weight room and through plyometrics. Go into the weight room and try to make your core (that means not only your abs but the muscles beneath them), posterior chain (your lower back, hips, butt and hamstring), quads and calves are all as strong as possible. On top of sheer lower body and core strenth, run suicides and do plyometrics.
- Develop your balance, take up boxing or kick boxing or Muay Thai and/or use Swiss balls (the big plastic balls in the gym), demi Swiss balls (the half ball that has a solid disk on the otherside) and balance boards. Balance is oft neglected and that is how you transfer good results in the weight room into practical athletic performance. I once worked on my ball handling skills by doing basic ball handling drills, while standing on a demi Swiss ball. For defense, you could have two teammates pass the ball by you and try to stay balanced on a demi Swiss ball while you try to deflect those passes.
Like uptempo said, play as smart as possible. In addition, try to make your body as strong and quick and as well conditioned as possible because foot speed can make up for mental lapses (which will happen to every player), it makes it so you call for help less often and it makes you less of a liability when your man is very athletic himself. Endurance and conditioning are vital in order to play good defense on every possession and that is key because some players can play tough defense be they get tired and/or lazy and give up a bunch of easy baskets and that negates what they had been doing well in the first half or the first three quarters.
