Athletic Position: To be alert physically with a readiness to respond. For the game of basketball this means your body is kept low by bending at the knees with back straight.

• Feet are shoulder width apart or slightly wider to give you stability and strength
• Tail is down
• Back straight
• Chest out
• Arms up with hands at eyebrow height
• Hands are kept about a foot away from face with fingers spread with a slight bend in the elbows so your arms can serve as shock absorbers when the ball is received
• Your eyes are straight ahead allowing your peripheral vision to help with court awareness.

Terms used for team who has possession of the ball

Triple Threat: This term refers to the three options you want to have available to you when facing your opponent and when your team has the ball. When you receive the ball and have not yet dribbled it you are in triple threat position. You have available to you the following:

• Shoot
• Pass
• Dribble

You want to look for those options in that order.

Your opponent has a disadvantage when you are in this position. If you give up your dribble indiscriminately, your opponent can close in on you making even a pass or a shot more difficult to take. Take care before you begin to dribble to maintain triple threat position until you know what your best option is.

Screen: Term used to describe an offensive maneuver in a man-to- man or zone defense.

A player can set a screen for either a teammate who has the ball or a teammate who does not have the ball.

• Player with the ball can move past their opponent who’s path is blocked by the screen.
• Player without the ball can move past their opponent who’s path is blocked by the screen to receive a pass.

A screen is set when a player on offense moves into position just behind and to the right or left of their teammate’s defender. The player the screen was set for then moves past their opponent who is blocked by the screen and unable to follow their opponent. For this to be effective it is important that the player the screen was set for moves to the same side the screen was set up on. The person setting the screen must have feet planted when the opponents moves into them or an offensive foul will be called and that is referred to as a moving screen.

Man-to-Man Defense: Players are responsible to guard a player wherever they move around the key.

Zone Defense: Players are responsible to guard an area on the floor around the key. Rather than being responsible to guard one opponent, they are responsible for any of the opponents who enter their areas.

Cross-over: Can be used anytime a player has possession of the ball receiving it by way of rebound, pass, or off the dribble with a two foot jump stop. From there the player then brings the ball up to chin level, elbows out to protect the ball, and rotates bringing either leg forward and through to step past and across their other foot. This is an effective way to move past your opponent to either shoot a lay-in or to pass the ball.

Stop and Go: This offensive move happens off the dribble where the player with the ball moving towards the basket at a moderate speed, hesitates and rocks back with head and shoulders while keeping the dribble active. This hesitation move is intended to fool the defense into thinking you are going to pick up the ball to shoot. This freezes the defender just long enough to blow by them having never lost the dribble. (Hesitate and Go is another term used for this move)

Terms Referring to Violations

Over and Back: This is a term used when the person with possession of the ball crosses from the back court into the front court,(the center line) and then the into the back court again without the opponent having touched the ball. Possession of the ball is lost and ball goes to the opponent.

Double Dribble: When the person with possession of the ball picks up the ball from a dribble and then begins to dribble again without the opponent touching the ball, possession of the ball is lost and given over to the opposing team.

Travel: The person who has possession of the ball must not take more than one and a half steps, before either passing or shooting the ball or a travel violation is called. (See Pivot Foot)

Pivot Foot: Person with possession of the ball establishes a “pivot foot”. (Imagine if the toe of your shoe was nailed into the floor and you could only rotate around the nail without picking up that foot – that is your pivot foot) If you are not dribbling and you pick up your pivot foot, it is a travel violation resulting in loss of possession. Pivoting allows you to move into better position to take a shot or pass but the foot itself cannot be lifted or dragged.

Carrying the Ball: When dribbling the ball, the ball handler cannot place hand on the underside of the ball as they dribble down the court or a loss of ball will result.