Teaching Skills — Footwork: Close-outs

Being able to close out well is a must for any defender. I think it’s one of the most vital defensive skills. All good defenses involve help and rotation and require defenders to be able to get out to their man, on balance and ready to move.

David Salisbury

Mar 12, 2018

Teaching Skills: Footwork - moving feet on defense

My previous post was about the foundation of defensive skill — defensive stance. But players can’t just stand in a great stance and stop their opponent. Players have to be able to move and keep the player they are guarding in front.

David Salisbury

Feb 28, 2018

Teaching Skills: On ball defensive stance

There is this great myth in many basketball circles that defense is all about heart. It’s argued that if you just try harder on defense you can be a great defender. Undoubtedly, players who don’t want to play defence or don’t put their heart into it will…

David Salisbury

Feb 13, 2018

Teaching Skills: Footwork — Pivots, jab steps and cross steps

I believe all great players have great footwork. Last week I posted about finding ways to stop effectively, this week I’m posting about footwork when players are stopped. Coaching players to be able to pivot of either foot…

David Salisbury

Feb 5, 2018

Teaching Skills — Finding ways to stop

At the recent NBA London game coaching clinics Don Showalter emphasized footwork as something that needs working on in every practice (see number 2 of the 5 musts here). I also watch a tonne of lectures and coaching clinics online. Something that always…

David Salisbury

Jan 28, 2018

What I Learned From: The NBA London Game Coaching Clinic Part 3 — Sixers Assistant Coach Billy Lange on offensive…

David Salisbury

Jan 19, 2018

Coaching Concepts — Whole-Part-Whole

I still have notes to write up and share on the NBA London game coaching clinic but I thought I’d take a quick break from that this week. It’s not entirely unrelated though given that this years game featured the Celtics…