

If you keep competing against players who are bigger, stronger, and more skilled than you are, I promise that you’ll walk away from the game a better defender every single time.īalance is one of those areas that coaches constantly emphasize the importance of but players often consider unimportant. This goes for practice, pick-up games, regular games, 1-on-1 games, everything.Ĭonstantly seek out the best offensive players and challenge yourself to play great defense against them. Make the decision that from this day forward you’re committed to becoming a great defensive player.ģ. Always Defend the Opposition’s Best Playerīy far the best way to become a great basketball defender is to play against highly skilled offensive players. So, before anything else, you must start with a change in mindset. It’s only the hardcore basketball fans who appreciate and understand how important the defensive end of the floor is.īecoming a great defender starts with embracing and loving the challenge. The fans want to see the ankle-breaking crossovers and the thunderous dunks. Most players would prefer to take the easiest matchup possible so that they don’t have to work hard on the defensive end of the floor.

It takes a tremendous amount of toughness and heart to commit to the defensive end of the floor. You’ll never become a great defender without consciously deciding that becoming a great defender is important to you. There will be other times when you play terrible defense for an entire possession and your opponent misses a shot or turns the basketball over.įor those reasons, it’s important to focus on the process of playing great defense and forcing the opposition team into a low-percentage shot instead of judging your defense on whether the shot they attempted was successful or not. There will be times when you play fantastic basketball defense for an entire possession and your opponent hits a tough fadeaway jump shot. Whether the shot they attempt is made or missed is irrelevant. The most important thing for a player to remember about defense is that the goal is to force the opposition to attempt a difficult shot. I challenge all coaches and players to place more importance on the defensive end of the floor in games and practices.īelow I’m going to provide you with 47 basketball defense tips that all players must know. It’s the crossovers and dunks that make spectators stand up from their seats and cheer and get players excited.īut it’s defense that will have a bigger impact on the amount of success you have individually and as a team. Rarely do you see players down in defensive stance entire possessions anticipating passes and offensive movement. If you go to the park or the gym, most of the time all you’ll see is players working on their offensive game. How important is basketball defense to you?
