Split the floor in two with a line from one basket to the other. The side the ball is on is the strong side. The other side is the help side, and the two or three defenders over there are not really guarding their man any more. They are guarding the rim, with one eye on the man they are responsible for.
The position they are taught is ball-you-man: stand so you can point one hand at the ball and one at your man without turning your head.
Some staffs say help side and some say weak side. They mean the same thing. What matters is whether your team knows how far in they are supposed to be, which is a separate instruction.
Why coaches use it
Because one defender cannot stop a drive on his own, and the ones who can get there are the ones with nothing urgent to do. Help side is where a defense stores its spare bodies.
The teaching cue most gyms use is the split line, sometimes called the “I”: the middle of the floor from rim to rim. The far defenders are told to have at least one foot in it. That gets them close enough to help and far enough to be seen, which is the whole balance.
Early help works because it is bluffable. Late help does not, because by the time you arrive the only thing left to do is foul.
How to attack it
- Make them choose. A drive one way with a screen the other way is the trap. Hammer and Chin are both built so the defender who helps is the defender who then has to close out across the floor.
- Skip it. A skip pass travels farther than a help-side defender can run.
- Lift the corner. A corner shooter who lifts to the wing pulls his defender out of the split line and thins the help before you drive.