3 Defensive Tips to LOCK Up ANYONE 🔒 Basketball Defense Techniques

Hey, what's good? Coach Collin Castell. And today, I'm going to give you defensive tips to lock anyone up. So a defensive tip that a lot of players don't realize is what we call cross step, right? We've all been to a basketball clinic before where we sit in a defensive stance, and the coach points one way. They go, slide, slide, and you're not supposed to cross your feet, right? We've all heard this before. The problem is the game has changed, and athletes, to be frank, are super freaking fast. And so to be able to stay in front of a ball handler who's got all sorts of moves in his bag or whatever, you need to be able to cross step or cross your feet to be able to run with them. Now, this is something that I see happens over and over again, especially at younger ages once they're taught to slide. They think that even when they start to get beat, maybe an athlete goes by them, they've got to slide to try to continue to cut them off. The general rule of thumb is once an offensive player's hips are close to beating your hips, that's when you've got to open, and you're going to need to start running and crossing your feet. Now, the whole key here is that we don't want to get long extended with our steps, right? If I go, and I cross, and I go a long step like this, that's a prime opportunity for them to snatch it back, cross it back over, and go the opposite direction. So with these cross steps, what we want to do is we want to get them short and choppy and then get back in front as fast as we can, right? It's not something you want to do for an extended period, if at all possible. But don't be afraid to cross your feet. You'll watch the best defenders over and over and over again in the NBA crossing their feet because they have to to stay in front of the ball handler. A massive thing that can help you lock a player up is just to get physical and use your chest to bump them. A lot of times, players don't want to pick up fouls, right? So they give a little bit of space. The offensive player starts to drive into them. They try to get out of the way. But most of the time in basketball, it's more of a contact sport than people give it credit for. And most defenders who are great use their chest to initially knock the drive off balance just slightly and get them to go at a separate angle, right? So most of the time, players who have a hard time defending somebody are also not very physical when they defend, right? And the chest bump is a huge way to do that. Another great way to do it is to get physical and use your arm to guide their hip, right? If an offensive players, you know, setting up their driver driving. I don't want to shove them like this or I don't want to fully hand check them. But if I can give them just like a little bit of hand on the hip and just a little bit of bump and pressure, sometimes that's just enough to knock them off their line and make them, you know, maybe turn it into a pass rather than turning the corner and getting the layup. So long story short, you've got to get aggressive. Even if you pick up a couple more fouls, that's OK, because it's going to make a huge difference in the long run. So a concept that can be massively helpful and seem self-explanatory, but can work all the way even up through the pro ranks is what we call lock left. And I first learned this from my buddy Tyler Costin from Savvy Basketball. He's the one who kind of coined this term and coined this concept. But basically, it's just the idea that most players are not as good going to their non-dominant hand, right? So you've probably always heard a coach say, hey, force him left, force him left. And that's actually a trick that works really, really well. Now, the key is you don't want to get overexposed, right? If I've got a really good ball handler and, you know, they're left side, this side, I don't want to get so exposed that the second he goes by my top foot, I'm way out of position and in trouble, right? But I want to kind of get up the line and guide him that direction just a little bit more, because most players and most teams don't work on reps going to their non-dominant hand near as much as their dominant hand, right? So if they're running through plays, they're used to going to their right. If they're used to driving, they're used to going to the right, right? So think about what dominant hand your player is and don't get so aggressive that you give them a wide open lane, but just get enough that you start to push them that direction, because even if they're 10 percent less confident going that direction, you're 10 percent a better defender just by doing it. So think about lock left and try to keep everything flowing to a non-dominant hand, and that will help you out of time. If you want to shoot like a pro, you've got to train like a pro. So click the top link in the description down below and get instant access to the pro shooting pack brought to you by our guys at Pro Class. Now you can work out with some of the best shooters in the world. Guys like Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, just to name a few, to ensure that you're getting your jumper on point. And also, if you're new to Shot Mechanics, hit that subscribe button, ding the bell notification, because we're bringing the best videos on the Internet to help you get better that you're not going to want to miss. Again, I'm Coach Collin Castellaw, and until next time, splash on. Buckets!