Discover six basketball defense tips. Learn how to apply pressure and keep your opponents from scoring

Six Basketball Defense Tips - Defending the Basketball
By Matt Zavadil

What stands out most in the minds of basketball fans around the world is the flashy T-Mac drive, spin and dunk or the fierce dunk over three defenders by Shaq, but it has been said that defense wins games. The Detroit Pistons of recent times were a prime example of that. Although they definitely could score, it was their swarming defense that won them the NBA title.

Basketball Defense Tip #1 - Defense is a state of mind, an attitude. Your desire, hustle and level of energy are as much important if not more than your skill. You should be a proactive player, not a reactive player.

Your main focus is always an urgent “get that ball back”. The attitude, concentration and teamwork you bring to the game are key elements to success. The skills of defense can be taught; only you can develop the desire to win.

Basketball Defense Tip #2 - Transition play is one of the essentials of defense. You must get back to your defensive assignment quickly. Avoid letting the offense beat you down court. All too often players get lazy or waste time arguing a no-call; don’t let that happen to you. Hustle back down court and get that ball back!

Basketball Defense Tip #3 - Another essential is defending with a purpose. Mainly, prevent easy shots and get that ball back (heard that somewhere?) through steals or rebounds. Make the offense earn their points. Make them score under pressure.

Basketball Defense Tip #4 - Always apply pressure and stay low. Usually your head will be level with the ball-handler’s chest. Keep yourself positioned between the basket and the ballhandler. Wave your hands, make noises, anything to distract your opponent. You can even fake body movements such as pretending to charge the ball. The main thing is to stay low and apply pressure.

Basketball Defense Tip #5 - When guarding a player with the ball, always be ready. You should have one foot forward, the foot opposite of the ball-handler’s most dominant hand. If he is right handed, your left foot will be forward along with your left hand extended out, palm up. This will allow you to quickly flick at and steal the ball.

Usually you will keep that lead hand at whatever level the ball is; if the ball is low, so is your lead hand. If the ball is being held high, turn your palm so it facing the ball. You should also be waving your off hand so you can prevent the passing lane.

Basketball Defense Tip #6 - Position yourself between the ball-handler and the basket at all times. Cut off his path by maintaining your position between him and the basket by sliding over and staying in front of him. Don’t cross your feet.

If the ball handler gets by you, sprint to reestablish your defensive position between the ball-handler and the basket. A player without the ball should be able to sprint faster than a player dribbling the ball. Keep a cushion between you and the ball-handler. If he tries a spin move or reverse and you are too close, you could end up with an unnecessary foul. Always prevent penetration first, then pressure the ball.

If he stops his dribble, attack the ball while staying in your defensive stance. Try to force a bad pass or you can back off a little if the ball handler is out of shooting range, but always avoid the unnecessary fouls.

There are a number of different basketball defense tips, techniques and drills. Each position has its own special requirements, but the one common denominator is to prevent the offense from scoring easy or uncontested points. Always apply pressure by staying low and positioning yourself between the ball-handler and the basket. If you can master that you will be well on your way to earning a nickname like “The Glove” (Gary Payton) and winning defensive player of the year!

Matt & Dave run http://www.basketball-plays-and-tips.com/bbdefensetips and enjoy teaching basketball players and coaches more about the plays, drills, fundamentals and coaching tips that result in individual and team success. For our free report, "5 Keys to Discovering the Successful Coach Inside You", plus two additional player/coach reports, send a blank email to basketballtip@aweber.com

Basketball, Shoot Like a Pro

African Americans currently dominate the game of basketball. Our natural gifts and physical atributes were taylor made for the game. Running, jumping quickness and powerful yet graceful moves tend to set Black players apart form the rest.

Unfortunatly, there is one area where almost all players fall short and that's in the shooting department. Now don't get me wrong, there are a few pure shooters in the NBA that come to mind like, Kobe, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash. Doug Christie and Mike Bibby but for the most part, everyone needs help.

Here is an article, published a while back in the San Francisco Chronicle that talks about the "Jedi of the Jumper" Mr. Tom Nordland. Tom has worked with hundreds of basketball players to improve their shot, including several NBA stars like, Dale Davis and WNBA player Kate Starbird.

Tom offers a shooting How To Video that you can get by clicking the article title at the top of this posting or, by visiting the following link to enhance your shooting skills.

Here is an article by Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle about Tom Nordland and his amzing abilities to help your shot:

Jedi of the Jumper

The Johnny Appleseed of jump shots is on the road as we speak, spreading his simple gift to the world, even if the world isn't always ready to receive.

Take LeBron James, for instance. A recent discovery has been made about James, the NBA's teen wonder who recently graduated high school. He can't shoot. On mid-range jump shots, James has the deft touch of a grizzly bear trained to repair watches with a mallet.

Man, would the Johnny Appleseed of jump shots -- his name is Tom Nordland -- love to get his hands on LeBron. Explain to him why he shouldn't be cranking the ball so far back, waiting until the top of his jump to release the ball. Show him how he is greatly complicating one of nature's simplest movements.

It pains Nordland to watch most NBA guys shoot. The pure jump shot is a lost art, like cave painting. It's been pushed aside by the power game, lack of good shot coaching, apathy.
Baseball pitchers and hitters continually tinker with their form.

Most NBA guys work on their facial hair more than they work on improving their jumper.
A few NBA players have a pure stroke, Nordland says. Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash. Doug Christie and Mike Bibby, at times. But to watch what Chris Webber tries to pass off as a jumper, or to ponder Erick Dampier's release point, is horrifying.

Nordland can help them. It's easy! But they don't hear him.

He worked with Dale Davis some years back. After about eight sessions, Davis went from a 46.5 percent free-throw shooter to 61.8 the next season. That's huge. Davis paid Nordland $5,000 and stopped returning his calls.

Nordland worked briefly with ex-Stanford star Kate Starbird, and she credited him with re-inventing her faulty J and reviving her pro career. He worked with Dampier a couple of times: "I helped him a lot. He never thanked me, never called back. He got better, then he slowly lost it."

What drives Nordland crazy is that it's so simple. The jump shot isn't like the golf swing, which he also teaches and which has more moving parts than the Rockettes. Maybe that's what scares the NBA players away -- they don't understand how it could be so simple.

Kids listen, so Nordland takes his gift to them, one gym at a time. Clinics for coaches, clinics for kids. He's a missionary. He didn't choose the work, it chose him.

Nordland was born with a golden arm. As a kid he practiced shooting, relentlessly, and made himself a prep superstar. In 1957, he scored 27 points per game and led his Minnesota high school team to the state championship.

He was a shy, insecure, skinny kid, but give him a shot from 18, and he was cool and graceful as a hood ornament, because he had the secret of the J. Then he lost it. He went to Stanford to play ball, mysteriously lost his shot and spent three years on Howie Dallmar's bench. Nordland played rec ball for another 14 years, with his iffy J, then quit the game.

At age 50, working at Apple Computer Inc. in Cupertino, Nordland wandered onto the company court, took a few shots, couldn't miss. In an instant it all came flooding back. The prodigal jump shot, decades in the wilderness, had come home to papa. Nordland recognized the old feeling, only this time he broke it down, analyzed it, captured it like a lepidopterist bottling a rare butterfly.

When Apple laid him off four years later, that was Nordland's summons to his life's mission.
He wrote a pamphlet, made a video, started a Web site (swish22.com) and hit the pavement.
Clueless kids walk into his clinic in the morning, hoisting jump shots like they're trying to throw suitcases onto the top bunk. By lunchtime, they're swishing 15-footers with their eyes closed.

The main deal: Catch the up force (or as Nordland trademarked it, UpForce). The jump, the ball hoist and the release are one smooth upward piece. There's a Zen component, though Nordland says, "It's more like non- thinking." Or as he says in his video, "Trust yourself. Let it fly!" Hey, it worked for Dumbo.

Nordland works nonstop, hyperspeed, because he's 64, and he doesn't have forever to teach the world to shoot. He would still love to work with NBA players, or a team, to give his method a higher visibility. But he's happiest working with children and their coaches.
"I can use basketball shooting as a way to reach kids' heads, teach them life skills," Nordland says. "They're learning hard work, concentration, focus, a different level of self-motivation.

If you learn to shoot a jump shot, you learn how to learn." Kids, hell. What about me? I want to do what Nordland says on his video: "Discover the great shooter within each of you."
The great shooter within me has, over the years, eluded many search-and- rescue parties.

He appears in public as often as Elvis. But after a short Nordland clinic, I'm confident that if I can find two good surgeons, plastic and knee, I can be a decent high school player.
Then I'll skip college . . .

E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com
View article here

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This is where you will facts and information relating to the game of Basketball and how African American's have influced the game.

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