Triangle Defense - The Basis For Teaching Team Defense

Triangle defense describes the floor position of each defensive player in relationship with the player they are defending, with the ball, and with the basket.

The defender on the ball has only one rule and that is to maintain a body position that will block a direct path to the basket by the dribbler. I call this "Ball-Me-Basket".

The other four defenders' floor positions can be described by two triangles. These are: "Ball-Me-Man" and "Man-Me-Basket".

The triangles of each of these players are constantly changing shape as the balland offensive players move about. The closer one's man comes to the ball, the tighter the defender is to their man, and the flatter the triangle becomes, until we are in over-play, one pass away from the ball. The farther one's man is off the ball, the farther off that man the defender can play. This will make the triangle wider andprovide the defender in this position better vision on both the man and the ball. Thisalso puts this defender in a position closer to the ball to be able to react if help should beneeded to stop the dribbler from penetrating. Also, by being off the offensive player, thisdefender can better react to counter any move their man may make. This position alsoputs the defender closer to the basket than the man being guarded, giving an edge forrebounding.

7 Points Why Triangle Defense Works

1. It puts pressure on the ball and the offensive players closest to the ball.

2. It allows defensive players off the ball to play in "help".

3. No defender is blind to the ball. All basketball know where the ball is and their man at the same time.

4. It teaches principles for both man and zone defenses.

5. It provides built-in automatics for stopping all kinds of cuts, flashes and dribble penetration.

6. It provides a true team, "selfless", defensive style of play.

7. It gives confidence to the player defending the ball knowing that "help" will be there if it's needed.

We need to understand the rules regarding the relationship between the defensive player, the ball and the basket, and teach these by constantly drilling and evaluating their enforcement. The closer the ball is to the player you are guarding, the closer you are to that player, and the tighter the triangle. The farther away the ball is, the farther off your man you can play, in "help" defense. The triangle is looser as the ball goes away. For every pass the ball is away from your position, you are one step off your man, toward the ball and toward the basket.

If you are guarding the wing or a post player on the ball side, you're right there in overplay on your man, up against the offensive player's body. However, the wing defender on the other side of the floor is 2 to 3 passes away (wing to guard, guard to guard, guard to your wing) so that defender will be approximately three steps off the man toward the ball and the basket. basketball the ball defenders will draw two triangles: "Ball-Me-Man" and "Man-Me-Basket". Weak-side defenders, on the side of the floor away from the ball, will not cross the imaginary mid-line of the court (that line would be drawn from basket to basket). Doing so would unbalance the defense and the defender would be too far away from their man to be able to get back. The only exception would be if a defender were near this line and was needed to help another defender who was being beat off a drive to the basket.

Coach Ronn Wyckoff has spent more than fifty years in basketball. As an international consultant, his programs have reached hundreds of players and coaches around the world. He has coached four national teams and conducted national player camps. In forty-plus years of coaching boys, girls, men and women, from the playgrounds to national teams, they won over 70% of their games. The international club teams he coached won over 80%. His 4-hour teaching DVD, "Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing", has received high praise. His soon to be released book of the same title has received accolades from those who have reviewed it, as being unique in it's detailed approach to teaching life lessons through the teaching of the game, as well as teaching coaches how to teach fundamentals.

For more info go to http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com.

What Does It Take To Become A Tennis Coach?

Being a tennis coach is a great life; you need to be sociable, able to interact with people but above all to be able to help others to learn the great game basketball tennis. It is necessary to be able to play the game well, but, as in many other sports, being a good player does not mean that you will be a good coach. You will need to have an in depth knowledge of the game, basketball acquire skills that you will not necessarily have understood as a player.

It is my contention that the coach who starts players off on the path of playing, particularly if teaching juniors, needs to be a coach who understands and can coach every aspect of the game. This includes technical and tactical skills, strategy, mental skills, fitness training, periodisation and nutrition.

A prospective coach will learn a number of these areas during the coach qualification period; however, it is again my own view that a newly qualified coach should work together with a pro. For at least 3 - 6 months after qualifying.

A coaching course can be taken with the LTA in the U.K. the USPTA in the States and the largest coaching organization worldwide the USPTR (known as PTRUK in
The UK). There are naturally national coaching organizations in each country.
The PTR has a standard coaching practice that is taught in all their overseas countries.

Once qualified, the coach will need to consider whether they have any preference as to who they want to work with, whether this is Seniors or Juniors, individual or squads, men or women. Another very worthwhile group to coach are disability groups and wheelchair tennis; these do however, require additional learning techniques.

I also believe, that to be a good coach, you also need to be able to teach another cross-training sport, and to my mind, Basketball fits in very comfortably with tennis. They are both intricate sports and there is far more to them than the general public realize when watching the games being played.

The great satisfaction from teaching tennis is that a good coach can take almost anyone and give them this game for a lifetime, and the big payoff is seeing them succeed at whatever level.

To find out more about the great game of tennis and to subscribe to a monthly news letter, visit http://www.tennisatthenet.ws

John Hoskins is an L.T.A. and a PTRUK qualified licensed tennis coach working at a number of facilities as head coach in Kent, England.

Not Quite So Mad - Managing NCAA Distraction

The last few years, there's been a rash of coverage around this time in March about how the NCAA men's basketball tournament is a productivity killer. I haven't seen such a glut of coverage this year- perhaps because I imagine the the actual impact of employees watching and talking about games basketball been wildly overstated by productivity experts and such looking to piggyback on the days' (or weeks') big news item.

I did find a release today from a company named Streamcore that is promising to help manage your bandwidth and ensure that key applications (of course) stay up as your employees watch games on Internet video streams.

I am in no position to comment on the virtues of Streamcore's technology, but it does seem to me that the one real concern- or at least the concern that a business is in any position to do anything about- is the risk to your network of too many video streams.

My solution?

Be flexible and let your folks go catch the big game on that arcane 20th Century tech, a TV. There's probably a pretty good-sized one in an establishment near your office. If you have a break room, roll in a set and let folks watch the action there, in a somewhat controlled environment.

In exchange, let everybody know that streaming video at their stations is off limits, or strongly discouraged, or however your IT department communicates such issues to users. And then follow up with a stern e-mail if usage monitoring makes it clear that folks are watching games at their desks.

Understand, my fellow VP Jeff Yocom and I scheduled a pretty important meeting last week around a conference tourney game for our beloved alma- and #1 seed- the Louisville Cardinals This morning, our CFO stopped by my office to chat hoops (she's a Kentucky fan, but at work you have to let these things ride).

There are just some situations in which you are not going to win if you try to be a hardliner and demand unwavering focus on work. Employees are going to shop online during work hours; they are going to make personal phone calls during work hours; and at this time of year, they are going to watch basketball games during work hours. Our Ann All noted last year that the average employee was projected to spend 13.5 minutes a day keeping up with the March Madness, by one analysis. Seriously- do you think they don't spend that much time on Facebook or YouTube in August?

Just rolling with it will help you contain that distraction, so that it does not consume an entire work day, or bring down your network.

And really, how much faith basketball you put into spreadsheet analysis done by somebody who has a basketball game playing in the background on their PC?

Read Ken's article, "Twitter for Business: Smaller Is Not Always Better" - http://bit.ly/CVxPo