Youth Basketball Defense: Denying a Pass

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, and what we're talking about right now is to become the best defensive player that you can, you've got to be sound fundamentally. And, what we want to talk about right now in this drill is denying the pass. That is very, very important, especially if I am the offensive player, and I've dribbled the ball, and I've picked the ball up, that's what we call "dead." And, what that means is, I can no longer dribble, therefore, I have to pass it either this way, or that way. So, anytime a player picks up the ball, this guy has to jump on his man, in a dead ball situation, and what we call that is denying. You always deny a pass, one pass away. I'm one pass away right now. If I had the ball on the other side of the court, I would not be one pass away, he would be in help side. So, we want to learn the proper mechanics here, of how to deny the pass, and the way you want to deny the pass is first of all, you don't want to play him straight up, you're not denying him. Instead, we know where the ball is coming from because the ball was up there, so he's going to step to the inside, and when he puts his hand out there to deny it, he wants to make sure and have his outside hand turned inside, so that he can slap the ball away, so that he can reach without getting way off balance. You never want to deny coming through this way, trying to knock the ball away, so if he's trying to deny my pass, he's going to cover it up, as I pass to the outside, he's going to step through, he's going to knock the ball away, and hopefully, we're going to force a turnover. If you want to become a good defensive player, you need to learn how to deny the pass."