How to Play Basketball Blog – Sometimes You Gotta Fight Part 3
Everybody gets in a situation in their life where they have to fight. Well on defense you get that chance every time your opponent tries to set a screen on you. You have to fight to get past that screen so your player does not get an open shot. Fighting does not mean that you will be literally running through screens like you are tackling somebody. It is still basketball not football. But you have to be willing to fight for position. The position you are fighting for will depend on who you are guarding and where they are trying to go.
In Sometimes You Gotta Fight Part 1 we looked at how to play ball screens. In Sometimes You Gotta Fight Part 2 we looked at how to play off the ball screens. Now let’s look at the 3rd of the 3 situations: ball screens, off the ball screens and guarding a shooter.
So now you have drawn the assignment of guarding the best shooter on the court. Uh oh! You just witnessed them light up the other team with 4 bombs from deep. What should you do?? Well when it comes to playing a shooter off screens you have to use a different approach then trying to shoot the gaps. If you shoot the gaps a good shooter is going to flare and get a wide open shot. So what should you do?
The first thing you want to do when guarding a shooter is maintain close contact with them. Now depending on how fast they are and how fast you are that might mean you can be 5 feet away from them and still be in good position. It could also mean that you need to be so close to them that you can smell what they had for lunch…yesterday. Regardless of how close you are to them you just want to be more cautious about floating too close to the midline for too long. If you are too far away it will make it impossible to execute the next part of your defensive strategy.
The second thing you want to do when guarding a shooter is follow in their footsteps through screens. So when your shooter comes off a screen you will literally follow right behind them as if you were walking in their footprints. The reason you do this is not to deny them the catch but to play the shot once they have made the catch. As you play better competition it will be harder and harder to deny somebody the basketball. When you are guarding a shooter you cannot gamble because it could end up costing your team 2 or 3 points. So you want to be in front of them with a hand up once they catch the ball. This technique is also called shadowing. If you can shadow a shooter I bet they will not have a bright game when you guard them!
Be sure to check out the other 4 areas of defense you can improve by ordering a copy of the book here How to Play Basketball: A Guide to Getting Better By Playing Pick-up Games
You are your only opponent
Coach Wilkins
Coach/Owner of Hoops Education
Former D1 Player/Former AAU Coach/Former HS Coach
Author of How to Play Basketball: A Guide to Getting Better By Playing Pick-up Games
P.S. Make sure you follow us on twitter @HoopsEducation
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