Defensive Basketball Drills

These defensive basketball drills focus on the basketball skills necessary to stop your opponent from scoring. Defense is probably the most important, under-appreciated aspect of the game of basketball, the part of a player's skill set that he practices the least. But any basketball coach will tell you, there's always a basketball jersey to be found for a good defensive player.

And yet it is so often so difficult to get our players to sign on to that idea! Playing good defense rarely gets your name in the newspaper. They don't show great defensive plays on the NBA highlight reels, unless you want to count the occasional blocked shot (but if the defender had done his job to begin with, his man wouldn't have been able to get the ball to shoot it!)

The emphasis in most of the defense drills that follow is not on building a game-like situation as much as it is on performing the skills with the best form and proper concentration. Proper form should be enforced throughout, so that the movements eventually become ingrained.

Defensive Basketball Drills

When you are teaching defense, you need to run drills that cover various aspects of the defensive part of the game. Of course, you need drills that focus on fundamental defensive movements, such as the Slide and Sprint drill and Charging the Ball. These drills teach the very basics - how to move on defense quickly, how to approach an opponent with the ball. If a player can't move quickly and in control, he can't play effective defense. Anticipation is another drill that develops basic defensive skills such as agility, reaction time and balance.

Many defensive basketball drills focus on one-on-one situations, such as the Full Court 1-on-1 and Deny Across the Key drills. Regardless of the style of defense the team plays, every player will need to know how to play man-to-man basketball, and these drills develop the skills to do this effectively.

Having said that, while every player needs to be able to play individual defense, basketball is not an individual game. It is a team game, and so players need to understand how their individual defensive work fits into the team concept. Drills like Deny and Help incorporate more of a full-game situation that helps players not only develop their individual defensive skills, but also helps them to see how they can contribute to overall team defense.

Remember to keep players focused on performing the basic skill as best they can - i.e., they should always use proper form and movement every time they run these defensive basketball drills. The better their form is in practice, the better it will transfer to the game.