Author: Rick Torbett

02 Jul Bubbles, Close Talkers, and Dynamic Defense

Part of effective teaching is putting techniques in terms that are easily transferable and easily remembered. Dynamic Defense helps you do just that. In order to make proper one-on-one defensive spacing easy to understand, I've defined it in terms of a conversation with the help of a personal space bubble. We all enjoy our personal space and when people operate outside of the societal conventions of that space, things get weird quick. Those conventions can help players quickly recognize appropriate defensive spacing (depending on the situation) while allowing you, the coach, to quickly communicate what you want. First, use your imagination to picture a translucent bubble surrounding the offensive player. It should be just large enough that if the offensive player extends their arms in front of them, they'll be touching the edge of their bubble. This is that personal space bubble that we are inherently familiar with. Now, with the bubble as a guideline, let's discuss conversational defensive positioning. Conversation Distance: Most of the time, we want players to play on the surface of the bubble. In other words, they should be stuck to the bubble at all times - close enough to discourage a shot, bother the dribble, and deflect passes. This would be the correct distance to shake hands with another person, or to have a normal conversation. Most well adjusted people instinctively know the appropriate distance socially required to have a one-on-one conversation. That's conversation distance.

18 Jun Dynamic Defense Level 3: the Post Feed Situation

To understand Level 3 in the Dynamic Defense, you must first understand Situations. So, what's a Situation? Put simply: a situation is an offensive action that demands a switch or a double-team in order to stop the ball. That means if help and recover techniques (Level 2) are not enough to stop an offensive attack, that attack has just been escalated to a situation and now requires a Level 3 defender. A Level 3 defender can recognize situations and either switch or double-team to stop the action. Well, as you can imagine, it would be difficult to list every Situation so instead I've focused the lens on a typical action that creates a Situation for many teams: Feeding the Post. The video below is an excerpt from Dynamic Defense, our newly released DVD series on taking your defense to the next level… literally. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwCTNrSydVc&feature=youtu.be Now, feeding the post doesn't always create a situation. If the post player can be defended one-on-one, then there’s no Level 3 Situation. But, oftentimes that offensive post player demands the attention of a double-team.