How to Teach Children Basketball Defense

Running and shooting in basketball is usually the first part of the game a young player understands. Coaching basketball defense to children, as early as possible, helps them see there's more to putting the ball in the basket. Emphasize the importance of keeping the other team from scoring just as much as getting your own points in the basket.

Instructions

1. Get the team to see the importance of defense. Ask some high school or college basketball players to demonstrate how defense works. The children will buy into what the older players are saying long before they agree with you.

2. Do knee-bending exercises. Many children play basketball standing straight up and you want them to get used to moving with knees bent so they are slightly crouched.

3. Bring in the defensive shuffle. Make it fun by asking the children what kind of animals they are when they shuffle and seeing how low they can bend their knees and still move. Emphasize that feet are not hopping, but rather they are sliding across the floor and turning on a pivot.

4. Start a simple drill. Have two lines of six each (or four lines of three each) across the floor from each other. Have players shuffle to the middle one at a time from each line, touch hands and shuffle back. Emphasize the side-to-side shuffle not the hop.

5. Introduce a more complicated shuffle drill that goes around the outside of half the court and crosses on a diagonal through the center. This forces the players to change foot direction and stay in a defensive crouch.

6. Practice straight up defense under the hoop. It may seem this should be limited to the taller players who will be playing in the paint, but every player should understand how to put hands straight up in the air and avoid touching the player with the ball.

Tips & Warnings

• Always keep it positive. Most children don't get the finer points of defense, especially footwork, until they've played a few years.

• Take a timeout in a game situation to praise a defensive combination. If you can spare the timeout, seize a positive teaching moment by getting everyone over and saying, "See what good defense can do?" It's the best praise children can get.

Resources

• The Winning Drills website has diagrams for teaching basketball defense to children.