Suffocating Pressure Defense

with Tyler Whitcomb,
Kuyper College Head Coach of the Developmental Team/Assistant Varsity Coach;
former West Michigan Aviation Academy Boy's Basketball Head Coach;
inventor of the Elevation Offense;
former pro basketball GM and scout;
over 100 high school coaching victories;

Great teams can work through offensive struggles or an off shooting night by playing fundamentally sound defense.  When all things break down, defense is what can hold your team together.  Coach Tyler Whitcomb takes great pride in his team's defense.  He has had teams that have created 32 turnovers a game by using immense pressure defense and doubling the ball handler.  In this excellent video, Coach Whitcomb demonstrates the drills and concepts he teaches everyday in practice to build his style of suffocating pressure defense. 

Concepts

Pressure defense is built by learning how to defend even the best ball handlers and starts with not allowing good ball handlers to see the floor.  Coach Whitcomb teaches his players how to properly faceguard an opponent and deny them the ball helping to build a full court and half court defense.  When the ball handler catches in the corner, players work to run and double making it tough on the ball handler to see their teammates and the floor.

Drills

Coach Whitcomb will demonstrate a lot of simple and easy breakdown drills you can use in your practices everyday to teach pressure offense.  In Faceguard Drill, players are working on keeping their opponent in front of them and not allowing them to step over the top getting a good angle towards the ball.  In 2v2 Switch, players are learning to switch the screen in the open court and how to jump back and deny the roller.  This puts a lot of pressure on the offense to get open. 

In 3v3 Linebacker, players are working through 3 different full court situations.  In having a free safety and not guarding the inbounder, players are learning when to run and double once the ball gets in.  Finally, learning to double the best point guard and not letting them catch will help your defense keep the ball out of your opponents best player’s hands. 

5v5 Live 

Putting all of this together in 5v5 situations will show your players how to apply all of the concepts they have learned in the build up drills.  Coach Whitcomb will demonstrate how to guard baseline out of bounds sets to best double the inbound pass and prevent your opponent from getting an easy bucket.  Being able to guard sideline out of bounds sets and force your opponents to catch in the deep corner will create great traps and trapping angles.  Creating suffocating pressure defense in the half court will start with how you guard the ball handler and align your help side defense.  Being on the line and over the line forces your opponents to try and go back door where your middle defense is there to help take away any backdoor passes.  This style of defense creates such a suffocating defense that your opponents will struggle to find an open player to pass to. 

Suffocating defenses can create a lot of turnovers.  Forcing your opponent to play out of their rhythm and style of play will create havoc every night.  Coach Whitcomb’s suffocating defense has helped him average 32 turnovers a game.  This style of play will help your team turn the tables on your opponents and force them to spend extra time focusing on how to beat your defense rather than focusing on their style of play.   This is a video you will want to add to your library today!

54 minutes. 2022.