Day 26: Defend your territory

By Darren Gorton on September 26, 2010 in Resources

This article is part of the series “30 days to being a better basketball player“.

"Tough Defense" by Wil C. Fry, via flickr

Defense. Boom boom. Defense. Boom boom. Defense.

You can hear the crowd chanting already, can’t you.

There’s an art to defense. Defending well, that is. Playing good defense is a hallmark of most great players, and all great teams. The reason for this is simple. On offense, some days you’ll be on fire, and others you won’t. Defense is different – if you can play good defense, you can always play good defense.

It’s the ace up your sleeve when your opponent is trying to bluff (or force) his way to a win.

A defense state of mind

Defense requires physical strength and athleticism. It requires a lot of skill, a fair bit of luck too. Most of all though, it requires a clear state of mind – determination to play defense!

Without this key ingredient, chances are you’ll never be a great defender.

So to today’s challenge: make a decision now to be a great defender.

Here are a couple of good reads with more detail on being a better defender. Once you’ve made the decision, start with one of these, then make sure to keep defense a priority as you go through your normal practice routines and games.

Remember – it doesn’t matter how many points your team scores as long as you make sure the other team scores at least one less point than yours does.

Just stop them!