Basketball faceguarding!!!

[mlatsko1]

1st post on the forums, so hello to all.

I was also taught to "faceguard" in HS. This tactic was specifically used in a full court press situation, where we were looking to deny entry to the guards. It allowed us to focus specifically on them and hope for the inbounder to throw the ball over the top. When they tried this, we used our secondary coverage/defenders to attack.

As for "fronting," that is the act of defending between the post player and the perimeter player. You are not "facing" the offensive player in this scenario, you're just trying to defend the passing lane.

Concerning the reason that the term "faceguarding" came up, it's probably from watching football. Faceguarding in football is very common among defensive backs. (I don't like it personally, but oh well) It allows for the DB to react to the movement of the WR and attempt to interrupt the pass by throwing their hands into the expected location of the ball, based on the WRs hand position. It takes excellent reaction to do this effectively.