"Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships." This is usually true because to win a championship, you have to win many games in succession and your offense may not always show up, but your defense will never let you down if you work hard.
So why is it that you never see kids practicing their defensive drills in their driveway? Because they are either too flashy or do not know any. These individual defensive drills will make you the player your coach puts in to shut down the other teams stud.
Building quickness drills:
Lines-Jump side to side and back and forth over the half court line or any line with one foot at a time and then both feet at a time. Go as fast as you can. You want little quick jumps.
.Dots- In this drills, make 5 dots. Have 4 in a square and 1 in the middle so that they will look like an x. Do every combo jumping dot to dot on them. Do this with each foot or both feet.
Bounding- This drill trains you to bound on defense and not just run everywhere. Start this drill out on one foot and then jump as far as you can in a random direction an another direction landing on your other foot. Keep on doing this, but only do it for a short period of time. You are wanting to train your muscles to be explosive so go hard for a short amount of time.
Game Situations
Shuffle- Use the push slide step technique, not overlapping your feet. (The push slid step technique is push with one leg; slide the other one next to it, and the step.) Go back and forth across the lane staying in the defensive stance. While doing this, you must have one hand inches from the ground and one hand up. The one hand up is to be in the players face in game ready to block/distract shot while the low hand is the pesky hand preventing the crossover and therefore forcing the playing you are guarding one direction and always making him uncomfortable.
Closing Out- Start out of bounds and put a cone at the free throw line. Imagine the cone as an imaginary person. Run at it and then chop step when you get close with your but down and hands up being ready for the shot and drive. Practice like it is a real game, or you will get burned in a real game.
Shuffle Drill- To do this, you must shuffle along the a wall in a defensive stance. While doing that, pass a ball along the wall. Remember technique in all of these basketball drills because it is so very important. It is what separates good defenders from great ones.
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