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Take Back the Ball with Defense
As important as playing on your side of the court is having the ability to play on the opponent's side of the court.  Making sure that the defense is strong on your basketball team can help to stop the other team from making baskets and from having an easy game.  When you are building up your basketball skills, you don't want to leave the defensive skills out of the court. 
There are two major ways to organize defensive positions in basketball.  The first is a man-to-man defense.  This means that every player will be in charge of blocking another player in order to keep them from shooting the ball.  The second type of defense is zone defense.  This means that every player will stay in a specific area when they are in one side of the court.  No matter what opponent has the ball in that area, they will block them.  Of course, these can be changed and redefined as the game goes on, depending on how the other team is playing. 
Not only does the defense include blocking opponents or zones on the other side of the court, but it also means trying to get the ball back onto the other half of the court.  This can be done in several ways, all which will keep the game moving back to the other side.  One of the popular ways to do this is to simply steal the ball from the opponent that you are blocking.  This is completely legal to do and can help the opponents to get the ball away from the wrong basket. 
Another way to get the ball back is to rebound.  This is done when the ball is lost by the other team and the other team picks it up and takes it to the other side of court.  If one of the players rebounds, they want to make sure that there will be no technical fouls associated with it and that the ball is good for grabs.  If they take it when they are not supposed to, there will be problems with the opponents getting a foul and giving the ball back to the other side.  Another defensive way to take the ball is by creating a full-court press.  This means that the defense will be on both sides of the court, blocking the other team from having the ability to get to the ball. 
No matter what defensive position you decide to take, it is most important to train the players into thinking defensively.  The more chances that a team has at a ball the more they will have the ability to score and make the baskets that they want for their own team without giving the other team the ability to get in the way. 
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