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Establish Yourself as a Defender Inside

As an inside player, you have a lot of responsibilities on defense.  Not only are you expected to guard your own man (if you're playing man-to-man defense), but you're expected to provide solid help-side defense as well.

In short, your job is to patrol the middle of the court, playing great individual and help defense.  But to really establish yourself as a great inside defender, you have to really go above and beyond just playing good D on your man, and helping out.  I'm a firm believer that inside players have to establish a defensive presence as a stopper or enforcer on the inside.

What does this mean exactly?  Read on.

If you watch the best inside players, or the best teams, you should take notice of how big of a defensive presence the inside players have.  They don't just guard their opponent well, or just provide good help-side D.  It really goes further than that.  Great inside defenders basically close down the lane with their positioning, shot blocking, and rebounding.

If you watch the best inside defenders, they do the following types of things:

• Force the player they are guarding out of their comfort zone
• Never leave their feet to block a shot until the offensive player jumps
• Have quick feet to slide into help-side defensive position
• Have great balance which allows them to move quickly, jump quickly, and always be in good defensive position
• Block out and go after rebound with passion
• Pressure the opponent when they shoot, and either force bad shots or block shots

If you put all of these things together, you have what would be an ideal inside defender:  a quick, powerful, explosive, on-balance player who is constantly moving, always pressuring the opponent, and one who pressures every shot taken in the lane, and snatches up just about every rebound.

If you play the game in this way, the opposing team is going to think twice about coming down the lane for an easy shot.  They'll think twice about going after the offensive boards.  They'll think twice about making a post move against you.

As an inside defender, don't just think of yourself as a "defender".  Think of yourself as a defensive force.  A stopper.  The last and best line of defense.  Take pride in being an inside force and you'll be amazed at how much you'll be able to help your team win games.

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