The Ultimate Guide to Help Defense
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Time to read 5 min
Help Defense is one of the most important parts of any Man to Man Defense. When one defender gets beat, another defender is there to take up the slack and make sure the ball gets stopped. If your team doesn't understand how to help each other on the defensive end then your team's success is in trouble.
With this in mind, it’s time to go to the drawing board and we are here to help. In this article, NBA Assistant Coach Lloyd Pierce of the Philadelphia 76ers teaches you the basic defensive principle of Help Defense.
Step #1: How to Guard the Basketball
First and foremost, it’s about how do you guard the basketball. When the basketball is on the left side of the floor that is called the downside. If it is on the right side of the floor it is on the upside of the floor.
When the defense comes to close out on the downside of the floor, the mentality is to take away the middle. You do not want the offense to dribble or pass the ball to the middle of the court. The defender closes out with their left foot up and left hand up to influence the offense away from the middle with their dribble and their right hand is up to take away any passes.
When the offense does try to make a move you have to know how to react:
RIGHT WAY
If the offense jabs or drives, the defense always uses their back foot first when taking a step in their defensive stance. This allows you to take a step to move with offense but keep your left foot forward to prevent the offense going to the middle.
Back Foot First
Still in Position
WRONG WAY
We never open up with our top foot because that opens up the middle. You can see the difference when you open up with your left foot how wide open that makes the middle of the court. It’s hard to recover on defense when you make this mistake so be sure to start with your back foot first every time.
Front Foot First
Out of Position
Check out a full clip of how to closeout and guard the basketball...
Step #2: Top Dribble Penetration to Middle
Set-Up
- Black Player 1 (BP1) and Black Player 2 (BP2) are on offense
- Red Player 1 (RP1) is on defense starting on-ball
- Red Player 2 (RP2) is on defense and starting in help-side
Set-Up
Actions
- BP1 takes a dribble to the middle of the court and RP1 guards them
- RP2 is on the help side and stays helping until BP1 passes out BP2
- RP2 then closes out on BP2 and RP1 is now in the help side position
Actions
Check out a full clip of how to help on-top dribble penetration to the middle
Step #3: Baseline Dribble Penetration to Middle
Set-Up
- Black Player 1 (BP1), Black Player 2 (BP2) on the wing, and Black Player 3 (BP3) in the corner are on offense
- Red Player 1 (RP1) is on defense starting on-ball
- Red Player 2 (RP2) is on defense in high help-side
- Red Player 3 (RP3) is on defense in the low help side with one foot in the middle
Set-Up
Actions
- BP1 takes a dribble to the middle of the court and RP 1 guards them
- RP2 is on the help side and stays helping until BP1 passes out BP2
- RP2 then closes out on BP2 and RP1 is now in the help side position
- RP3 reacts on the pass to get into one pass-away defensive position which puts them in position to help on the dribble and recover on the pass
Actions
Check out a full clip of how to help with baseline dribble penetration
Step #4: Basketball Goes to the Corner
Set-Up
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Offense (Black)
- Black Player 1 (BP1) and Black Player 2 (BP2) are on the wings
- Black Player 3 (BP3) and Black Player 4 (BP4) are in the corner on offense
-
Defense (Red)
- Red Player 1 (RP1) and Red Player 2 (RP2) are on defense and in one pass-away defensive positions
- Red Player 3 (RP3) and Red Player 4 (RP4) are on defense and in two pass-away defensive positions
To start the drill...The coach starts with the basketball and will pass into an offensive player. In our example, Coach passes the ball to BP2.
Set-Up
Actions
Frame 1
- Coach passes the ball into BP2 and RP2 closes out to protect the middle
- The Defense shifts...
- RP3 shifts on the pass to one pass-away defensive position which puts them in a position to help on the dribble and recover on the pass
- RP1 shifts over a few steps so they're nearly in the middle of the lane which puts them in position to help on the dribble and recover on a pass
- RP4 doesn't shift much on the entry pass because they are still two passes away from the ball on the help side ready to help if the ball gets to the middle and recovers on a skip pass
Frame 2
- BP2 passes the ball to BP3 and RP3 closes out to protect middle
- The Defense shifts...
- RP2 shifts on the pass from on-ball defense to one pass-away defensive position which puts them in a position to help on the dribble and recover on the pass
- RP1 shifts a few steps to two passes away defensive position which put them in the middle of the lane ready to help on the dribble and recover on a skip pass
- RP4 doesn't shift much on the entry pass because they are still two passes away from the ball in the help side ready to help if the ball gets to the middle
Check out a full clip of how to help when the basketball goes to the corner
Step #5: Dribble Penetration and Cutters
Here's a quick video breakdown and demonstration on how to help against dribble penetration and cutters
Dribble Penetration
Cutters
Learn More
This Help Defense Guide should cover everything you need to know about helping on the defensive end, but there's always room to grow. To learn more start browsing through our vast selection of Coaching DVDs right now.
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You can watch them over and over, take notes, and then rent another DVD over the same topic, and very quickly your knowledge of a specific topic will reach mastery level. Using basketball training videos as a coach can change your entire coaching style.
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