Youth Basketball Defense: Trapping

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Sean Hobson, and what we're talking about right now is how to be the best fundamental defensive player that you can possibly be. And some things that we use on the court defensively to stop our opponents. One of the things that we use more times than any defensively is the trap. We set a lot our full court presses to the trap, and we set a lot of our half court defenses to the trap. And what we're talking about with a trap means that we get this offensive player in a situation where he's got two defenders that come up and are going to converge on him. Now, there's a particular way in which you do that and you cause the trap. If he's dribbling, and this is a defender and this is a defender, we want this guy to get on one side, this guy to get on the other, and keep him from being able to go right or left. Once he gets into it, what you've seen these guys do right now is called a trap. Now, in order to trap a--let's spin around so we can see, just spin your trap around. There you go. In order to trap correctly, you've got to have both of your feet together, you've got to have your hands up and be able to trace the ball. If they don't come together enough, this offensive player would be able to squeeze through the trap, so you've got to be able to close it. That's what we call the trap. And the way that we use it, is we use it to get people to come out to the wing, we trap the wings, and we also trap this particular area down on the floor. If they enter the ball into the post area, we also trap this area down here. It's a good way to get two defenders on one to overwhelm this guy, and to cause him to force a turnover."