- Defence is a team sport
- Defence is everything your team does when you don't have the ball
- The most important aspect of defence is "reading" the development of and the point of attack correctly. Defence starts before the opposition contact the ball
- Being on your toes means you're ready to move
- Being low means you buy time to intercept the ball, and increases your ability to intercept the ball before it reaches the floor
- Defence should be aggressive and controlled
- Have the mentality that nothing will hit the floor at any time. Your pursuit of the ball should be relentless
- Play with the philosophy that "every ball is coming to me" and be in a position where you can make the play when it comes to your specific area
- Combine hard work, discipline, concentration, perseverance and motivation
- Players defend an area, not one spot, but often ask "am I in the right place"; If you can defend your area then you're in the right place
- It's easier to move into the court from the edges than out from the centre
- Players must consider the position of the ball, the block and the direction of the attacker's approach
- You can't cover all of the court, so consider what you are defending and what you are sacrificing. These should be decided by what your team is capable of and the opposition's strengths and weaknesses
- The block is the foundation of the defence, dictating the position of the back court defence based on:
- the area covered by the block
- the number of players blocking
- the position of the blockers (cross/line)
- Determine a blocking system:
- Honest block: disciplined positioning and technique; they can hit over or round the block but they must never hit through the block
- Hunting block: The block aggressively goes after their attack
- In all defensive systems, you need to assign responsibilities (main passer, main blocker) for roles and defensive areas (tip cover, line cover etc)
- Base positions: the players are observing the opposition continually whenever they have possession of the ball
- Reading: the players read the set and move to the position dictated by that attack. At this point they should know the area and attacks they are responsible for
- Intercept: the player adjusts their position to where they will intercept the ball
- Emergency: the player has to move more than 3 feet to chase down a ball that has deviated after the first defensive touch
- Perimeter defence, where all of the passers are on the edges of the court. This can work well with teams that have a strong high block
- Up defence, where one of the passers pushes up to the attack line to cover the tip. This is much more common in the women's game
- Rotation defence, where the passers all move (rotate) in the same direction (they may go "with" the set or "against" the set). This is a good system to teach developing players