Coaching-defending the post

[Coachpete]

Hope everyone else is enjoying the discussions..........I am.

How do you guys handle defending the post?We have 2 methods and it's important to know your opposition. Against dominant,quality post players we half front when the ball is above the free throw line and full front when the ball is below the FT line. We work really hard to deny the catch. Vital ingredients are great pressure on the passer and agressive and vocal split line help to stop the lob.
Against post players that aren't very good we play behind and actually allow the catch. We then double down with the weakside guard and actively and agressively shoot the gaps in the passing lanes. We get a LOT of steals this way from gumbies who crap themselves when the double comes.

[Hulk Hogan]

Full fronting always puts pressure on as well. You just need to have players with guts on the split line to take the charge or jump for the intercept

i'm sure enjoying it all Coachpete

the post, i love coaching against great post players and teams which revolve around the post,
I favor guard play alot, so i usually have 2 pg's on the floor and 2 more wings, and then a forward...

alot of teams will think that because they are bigger, they have a advantage inside... as alot of teams found out when i had bottom age kids, thats sadly mistaken....

I don't tend to front unless in a zone,


In man to man, i always want some denial on the post,
if the post player is dominant i like to double team the wing player giving him the ball.. and because we have some denial on the post, a pass will be slow and weak so can be picked off,

the other 2 simply cover the weakside and top to make sure no easy shot is givin up.

similar to coachpete, with big gumbies, i like to let them cacth the ball and then double team or fake a double team and watch them throw the ball away.

[Hvyro]

When Playing Zone, It's important your 1's and 2's force the ball and ballhandler to the sidelines. Hopefully he pushes the ball to the corners and usually there it's very difficult putting the ball inside because you try and trap that guy on the wing.

It's also important to make sure the gaurds out on the perimeters are aware to use the whole spectrum of there arm movements. They got to be ready to jump high and have arms extended so that the Offense might just have to apply a very high arc on the pass, Which gives more time for your Defense inside to get better position for some form of denial.

It actually all boils down to effective inside Defense is from Effective perimeter defense on ballhandlers.

[Mr Book]

I dont like to double a lot on this unless we are fronting.

Last season i had a small team so we always fronted the post with strong ball pressure and help position.

I think pressure on the passer is somthing that isn't drilled enough as I think most players are fairly weak at feeding the post.

Most intercepted or deflected post entrys are intercepted or deflected by the passer's defender not the post defender...

[Mr Book]

That is why I emphasis it to my teams in plenty of drills.