f the post is one of the most difficult yet critically important parts of any defense. You must have a sound philosophy for both contesting the pass to the post area, as well as how you will defend the ball should it be caught in the post. The high post area is often overlooked or at the least not emphasized enough with many teams. In our offensive system, one of the primary goals of our offense is to get the ball to the high post. We believe it is the perfect ball location for attacking. When the ball is in the high post area, there is no helpside or ballside for the defense. This often leaves isolated low post play. All of which puts tremendous pressure on the defense. Therefore, we want to spend time in practice during both part and whole-method teaching to concentrate on how we will defend the high post.We defend the high post by being down in our stance and tightly guarding the offensive player. Our termino
logy for this is “ear in the chest.” This tells us how low and how close we should be in our stance. Another teaching point is that we want the lead foot in the passing lane (Photo #1) — as opposed to having a hand in the passing lane (Photo #2). By having a good stance in the passing lane, we have our body positioned between the ball and the high post receiver. Often, if you teach hand in the passing lane, a defender will be caught behind the receiver if she seals her out properly. This can lead to a cheap foul as well as an easy step and seal for the high post player to create a receiving lane.
