The KEY To Beating Your Defender - Attacking Closeouts

The ability and the knowledge of how to score is very, very important. But what's very much overlooked by most players, the ability and the knowledge of when to score. This is essential to being a scorer because if you don't know the right situations to attack and the right situation to shoot the basketball, you're going to be inconsistent, you're going to struggle to score. One of the biggest questions that I'm asked by players is how they can get better at driving by their defender. And the thing they need to understand about driving by your defender is that there are certain situations you need to take advantage of if you want to get better at doing this. One of the situations you should take advantage of is attacking closeouts. If you watch any form of basketball, the majority of the times when guys get downhill, it's either going to be coming off of a screen or attacking a closeout. We're going to break down exactly how you can attack closeouts, what to look for, little subtle moves you can add in there to make it even more effective. And once you guys understand this, you're going to be able to beat defenders easily and get downhill into your pull ups, into finishes at the rim, and you're going to be able to create plays for your team. Let's get into it. One of the best and easiest ways to consistently beat your man is to attack when he's closing out. Now, as you're going to see in these clips, the reason that attacking closeouts is so effective is because your defender is moving towards you to try and take away that shot. And because their momentum is moving towards you, going to be hard for them to stop and then keep up with you. If you're able to attack and get by them, really this is the best way to create separation, because if you do it well, you're going to be able to get by your guy almost every single time. When we look at this clip right here, it's really all about using the defender's momentum against them. So they're closing out to try and take away that shot. They're rushing forward. If you attack them going the opposite direction, their momentum is going to be carrying them forward. Therefore, they're going to have to completely stop and then turn to try and cut you off. And most of the time you'll be able to get a shot or a layup or some sort of good look for your team out of that. Not only is it going to create scoring opportunities for you, but it's going to cause the rest of the defense to have to rotate as well. Taking a look at this clip right here, Eric Passl is going to catch this ball, attack the closeout, and that help defenders going to have to step up, which is going to leave Demir, Cosby Roundtree wide open for a dump off in a layup. Attacking closeouts effectively will help you make more plays for your team in general. One of the best opportunities you're going to have to attack a closeout is on a driving kick from one of your teammates. As you'll see in this clip right here. When this happens, it's going to force your defender to close out from a help position. A lot of times in the paint coming from a help position, meaning that they're going to be moving full force towards you, which is going to give you an ability to drive right by them. Another thing you should recognize about all of these is the angle that they take when they drive. A lot of times players simply need to drive in just straight line angles right, right by the defender's hip. And a lot of times that is the case. But when it comes to attacking a closeout, you're going to want to attack the open space, which might mean you're going to take a wider angle. And this is because a lot of times you'll be able to get to a pull up out of this and you want to make sure that your defender can't slow you down by grabbing you or hitting you with their leg or anything like that. Another one of the best times to attack a closeout is coming off a quick swing around the perimeter. As you're going to see right here. When your defender is going from help to having to guard you, the going to be the perfect opportunity for you to attack. Looking at this clip right here, we're going to watch Mikel Bridges get an easy finish at the rim just by attacking this closeout, coming off this quick swing. The reason that this is such a great time to attack a closeout is because if the ball swings from one side of the floor to the other, your defender is going to have to go from help to sprinting out to guard you, meaning they're going to be moving towards you, you're going to be able to attack them and get downhill quickly. As you see in this clip right here, their help was late rotating over. So a lot of times you go quick enough, you're going to get a wide open attempt at the rim. There's a couple other subtle things you can do when attacking closeouts that in certain situations can make it way more effective. The first we're going to look at is just a subtle shot fake when you catch the ball to get your defender to raise up, to create even more of a gap between your momentum and his momentum. When we look at this clip right here, we see the power of what the shot fake can do, especially if the defense respects your shot. Melly's gonna catch this ball and he's gonna go into a shot fake, making sure that he truly sells it. And the way you sell a shot fake is by not rushing through it. A lot of players think that to sell a shot fake, they've got to go 100 miles an hour. But the key is you want to go slow, you want to be relaxed, you want to sell that you're actually shooting the basketball. And then your defender is going to raise up, in some cases even jump, and you can attack and blow by them. But there are also cases where you don't even necessarily need to raise the ball that high to get that defender to raise up. As you see right here, Melli's going to catch the ball, he's going to give just a little subtle look at the rim, and he's going to start to go into a shot a little bit. As soon as the defender raises up, he's able to quickly get downhill and finish. You don't always have to go up with a full shot fake. A lot of times you'll be able to get guys to go just by looking at the rim and giving a subtle fake. Another great way to attack a closeout is with a quick jab as soon as you catch it. This is going to freeze your defender, and a lot of times it's really going to open up a lane for you to attack. We talked about attacking space as opposed to attacking right next to your defender. When you hit him with that jab, a lot of times it'll create more space for you. The key for this, though, is you want to make sure as soon as you catch the ball, you go immediately into the jab to make sure that you sell. You're going that way. Your momentum goes the way your defender takes his momentum that way. And then you bring yourself back to the other side. Get downhill. If you guys enjoyed this video, make sure you drop a like. And if you're new, make sure you subscribe. And if you found this video helpful, make sure you share it with a teammate or a friend. Make sure you guys follow me on Instagram visiondrivenbasketball and click the top link in my description below to get my free elite perimeter score workout where we're gonna target all the skills that you're going to need to be an elite perimeter scorer. So go ahead and check that out. I'll send it to you for free. Go ahead and drop a comment below. Let me know what you want to see next. That's it, guys. Peace.