Defensive Teaching Progressions

Once a coach decides upon the “what” they soon shift to the “how.” For example, once a coach decides to teach man-to-man defense they shift to how they are going to install it. In what order do we present the concepts? What drills or games do we use? What are our teaching points for the various skills and concepts?

There is a feeling among coaches that there must be a “right” way to implement something such as man-to-man defense. I’m not sure about that, but I will share the method I landed upon: building the defense from the ball out.

On-Ball Defense

The first question to consider is how are we going to guard the ball. Right or wrong, who knows? But this is where I began. Decide upon the teaching points that fit with the “how” of your defensive philosophy. Some thoughts to consider:

Stance: what are the teaching points of our on-ball stance? Cushion? Angle? Stay in front or influence a certain direction?
Pickup Point: Where will we begin to guard the ball?

There are surely more technicalities to consider when guarding the ball, but resist the urge to be a technique junky. A lot of guarding the ball is game-like effort and figuring it out.

My belief is that the ability to guard the ball is second only to shooting on the list of premium skills to develop in basketball. It is for this reason, we begin our defensive teaching from the ball out.

One Pass Away

Working outward from the ball, one pass away defense is next. More questions to consider:

Will we deny passes? Using what stance? How far out? How far up the line?
Will we plug gaps? Help one pass away?
Stunting or staying home?

Your “one pass away” defense is a big driver of the pressure vs. containment level your defense exerts. Denial equals more pressure and disruption, but exposes you to dribble penetration. Sitting in gaps protects against dribble penetration, but allows for ball movement.

Helpside Defense

Working even further outward from the ball, when a player is two or more passes away from the ball they are on helpside defense. The word helpside is important here. I trained myself to stop calling it “weakside” or “backside” because I wanted the players on that side of the floor to know their priority is to help. Some questions to consider:

What stance should help defenders be in? open? Semi-closed?
When we are on the the helpside, where are we? Where are we when the ball is above the free throw line? Below? Do we get to lane line? Midline? When? When do I have one foot in or two feet in the paint?

When we get to the helpside level of the defensive buildout, there are two important components to include: closing out and defensive rotations.

We execute a closeout when we go directly from help to on-the-ball defense. There are multiple technique considerations when teaching closeouts. There are also outcomes we are hoping to influence with our closeouts.

Are we running a player off the line? Are we closing out short to absorb drives? Do we care more about technique or outcome? These are among the many technique and outcome questions to consider.

When we help and help the helper we will have to address rotation on the pass out of these situations. Who goes the ball? X-ing out? Who stays? Who rotates? Defensive rotation matters as it is how you reorganize your defense after successful help.

There are more elements to address when building out your defense, of course. Defending common actions (ball screen, dribble handoffs, off-ball screens) and post defense come to mind. But when scaling up your defense beginning with guarding the ball, expanding to one pass away then two or more passes away (helpside) can be an effective way to outline and sequence the teaching of the introductory steps.