Trust is the core of chemistry, and a zone defense is the essence of what a team sport should be. You have to rely on your teammates to be there to get your back when you need them the most. A basketball team can build more trust from practicing and playing a zone defense more than doing traditional trust exercises. Trust in your teammates is needed to win, and a polished zone defense will build trust in your team.

Communication is an additional key to success. Not only will it allow your team to build; communication will improve your team’s play on the court. Going back to the zone defense example, you can use communication to build trust. In the zone defense the team must communicate to ensure every gap in the zone will be filled. Not only will your team be communicating, but additional trust will be developed. If you are able to develop this within your team at an early stage it will help your team’s game in other areas of the court as well.

Trust must be, for the lack of a better term, beaten into the team’s heads. If your team has trust in one another, they can focus on their specific functions in the team and know their teammates will be fulfilling their responsibility as well. Ultimately, the trust will lead to the team playing stronger and playing like a well-oiled machine.

If practicing the zone defense is not enough to develop trust within a basketball team you may want to try some additional proven exercises to build trust. Trust is essentially all about accountability. Implement an accountability exercise in your team. Have each team member make a promise to each

other. The promise can be related to on or off the court. Make sure you stress the importance of the exercise to the team members. If some players fail to meet the promise it could cause some temporary turmoil within the squad. Do these exercise successfully a couple of times and you will soon see the results.

By implementing these exercises your team will know what is expected of everyone, and they will strive to meet these expectations in order to become one team instead of a number of individuals on a team.