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Man to Man Defense Basics: Part 3

We have come to the last part of our M2M Basics section, concerning basketball defense, and SYB wants to say again that we know that the particular movements shown here are not completely typical, but only represent some of the most common ball movements of most youth basketball teams.

We hope it works to give you a better knowledge of how players should shift, the basics of "help and recover", as well as the goals of any M2M defense.

This last diagram shows the ball being passed to the corner area, and how all other defensive players are working to "help off" of their man to make the defense work effectively.

If there is one thing that we wish we would have done differently in the drawing of this diagram it would be that we would have had our offensive forward on the off-side low-post flashing to the high-post or low-post on the ball-side. These are very common moves in most any offense where there are two forwards playing low. If this were to happen the only thing that D4 would have to do is to close off on their man while still playing ball side.

Remember we spoke of "one pass off help" and what that means if defender is guarding a player far away from the ball? This is exactly what we have now in the situation with three of our defenders: D1,D2, and D4. The person they are guarding is so far away from the ball that they do not have to play close on him/her, but can help off farther and still be able to cover them by simply dropping off so they can still see "man and ball".

D5, who is playing the ball has pulled out on their man, and is playing straight up defense protecting the easy baseline shot or drive.

D3 has dropped back toward the lane a little and off to ball-side of their man to help.

Notice that every man is still covered, but that there is plenty of help in case a offensive player happens to slip by.

We will be definitely trying to add more situations, more scenario's, and more M2M tips in the near future. But for now if you need some further instruction into the M2M defense, we have some good Man to Man drills that we have began adding to our site that should help you out a lot. Be sure to check them out too!

DON'T FORGET! Anytime we have new drills, tips, plays, or points of interest concerning our site, updates will automatically be posted in our blog. Also, if you would like even more benefits without the hassle you can subscribe to our newsletter completely free at the top left of this page and receive a heads up on any new, fresh, and relevant information that we have.

Wishing you all the best!Coach Tim

SBI!

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