How to Box Out in Basketball

Video Transcript

"Coach Rudy, here. I've won championships both as a coach and a player. Defense wins championships. Defense equals rebounding, rebounding equals boxing out. Boxing out, you have to have a lot of courage to box out. Whoever said basketball wasn't a contact sport has never played the game. In order to box out, you're going to have to go up against guys that may be a little bit bigger than you, may be a little bit stronger, but you still have to get the job done. The key is using your hips. Establishing a low center of gravity. You're not able to push on people, or get your arms up. You keep your arms right at shoulder level, right, and you establish a wide base. People start pushing on you, use your hips to establish leverage, and push back on them. Make sure that you have enough space in between yourself and the rim, so when the ball comes off, you can rebound it easily. A lot of young guys make the mistake of boxing out too close to the rim. Ball comes out over their head, and they don't get the foul called because the player that they're trying to box out is easily able to get the rebound. So, make sure you're not too close to the rim, at least two feet away as you're boxing out. Low center of gravity with the hips, establish the base with the arms. You're not throwing elbows, but you've got them out there. Ball comes off the rim, it's position first, contact first, you're making sure you feel the other guy first, and then you go for the ball. If you box out, you want to make sure that you're feeling contact first before you go for the ball. If you just go for the ball without establishing contact, a really smart player, like myself, will slide in front of you, and be able to establish the position. Boxing out. Wide base, arms out, establish contact, low center of gravity, ball comes off, you're at least two feet away from the rim, establish contact first, then aggressively get the basketball. If you can box out, if you can rebound, you can play on any team. I promise you that."