Teach your team to become a defensive unit and how to defend correctly with the right technique to handle any offense.
This handout is fully packed with concepts and technical notes that will get your team set up in the right positions, reading the game and opponents' movement to anticapte play and make it difficult for opponents to score points.
Use this to teach your players(weak-side) how to position themselves on the court to mark their offensive player without the ball whilst making it difficult for the ball carrier to pass the ball to their marked player. This is one of many situations in this handout that you'll be able to teach your players how to deal with correctly.
Your players will also learn how to read players' body movements, knowing where to place their hands and move their feet and what to look for to avoid being tricked and improve their decision making when on defence.
Offence sells tickets, defence wins games!
- Bear BryantThe ball screen produces almost half of all professional offensive possessions, yet most teams still teach it as a memorised play. The modern approach trains the read - giving players a framework to decide based on what the defence does, not what the coach called.
The closeout is the most repeated defensive action in modern basketball. With fouls per game climbing in the 2025-26 season, coaches must teach defenders to contest the three without surrendering the drive or putting shooters on the line.
The 2-3 zone defence remains one of the most effective defensive systems in basketball when coached and executed properly. This guide covers the fundamentals of running a 2-3 zone, including player roles, rotations, and when to deploy it for maximum impact.