“Great defenders don’t allow
themselves to be screened”
themselves to be screened”
This is the basic thought we instill in our players for every screening situation that could possibly occur during the course a game. If they have this thought in their mind they expect to be able to handle anything any offensive scheme may be trying to attack.
Along with this thought, we provide them with terminology that we call our LANGUAGE. That terminology allows us to effectively communicate with our players and them to communicate with each other at game speed.
With the language in place the responsibility of evaluating the personnel involved in the screening falls back to us as coaches so we can properly communicate our LANGUAGE to the players.
Guarding the Ball or a Cutter
The very basis of our language is a numbering system… SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH
This numbering system refers to what position the defensive player place themselves in relation to the screen and the ball… the player they are guarding is always 1 or First in our counting system..
So, if we coach our defender to go SECOND, that tells our defender that the ball is 1 and they should be going over or on the ball side of the screen to put them in SECOND position in relation to the screen being third…
If we coach our defender to go THIRD on a screen, that tells them they will go under the screen but over the top of her teammate who is guarding the screener.
If we coach our defender to go FOURTH on a screen, this tells the ball defender that they will be going totally under the screen and her teammate guarding the screener. In a FOURTH situation, this also tells the defender guarding the screener that we are going to SQUEEZE THE SCREEN giving the on-ball defender extra space to sprint under the screening action.
SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH can apply to any situation on the court. Down screens, back screen, double screens, stagger screens, flare screens, flat screens, slam screens, rubs, etc
