Illustrated: Help defense

Good defense is often the combination of positioning and athleticism. Man-to-man, pressure defense can be played many ways, and today we are illustrating defending away from the ball, and contesting rather than denying. Here, with the ball at the top (arrow) and in Loyola Marymount's possession (vs St. Mary's), there is an LMU player between the ball and James Walker’s man (Walker is circled, and his man is in the corner). This is referred to as being two passes away, as in order to get it to Walker’s man it would either take two passes or one long skip pass, in which time Walker would have the ability to get there. So Walker is cheating underneath where he can help with any action in the middle. Once the action (arrow) moves closer to his man, Walker is now "one pass away" which causes him to step up into proper help position. The line between the two players is the one that the ball would travel on a pass. Help (contest) position means he’s one big ste...