Stealing the ball in basketball is a deceptively simple move. The actual process is straightforward -- swipe the ball away from someone when they’re dribbling, grab the ball as it’s in the air during a pass, or swat the ball away from the other player so that another of your teammates can grab it. But knowing when to try to for the steal and when to avoid the risk of a foul is difficult. Target players who are sloppy with the ball or who are showing you what they’re about to do.
Look for players who are sloppy dribblers, or who expose the ball when they pick it up. Someone who doesn’t seem to have a very tight grip on the ball as he prepares to pass -- especially if he’s holding the ball away from his body -- could be a suitable target if you’re fast enough. Loose dribblers who don’t keep that ball under control might be unwittingly offering you extra time to snatch the basketball away mid-dribble.
Watch players to see how their bodies move before they make certain plays. Some players telegraph what they're about to do. For example, if someone is about to turn to the right and throw the ball to a teammate, she might keep her arms still but turn her shoulders a bit. She’s attempting to fake you out by leaving her arms still, but her body is giving out clues that she’s going to turn. Looking at the player’s torso and shoulders can help you spot such moves.
Act a bit lazy yourself as you zero in on a ball you want to steal. In a January 2014 article on top defenders in college basketball, players told "Sports Illustrated" that they try to seem like they’re “off-guard” or “resting,” when in fact they’re watching the ball and waiting for a moment to strike. These tactics can make the player with the ball assume you’re not much of a threat, and he might be less likely to protect the ball carefully.
Keep an eye on where nearby offensive players are standing. You might have an opportunity to intercept a pass. If the player holding the ball decides you aren't looking and throws the ball to another player nearby, you'll be in a better position to dart in front of the intended target. Instead of trying to snatch the ball out of the air from the side, be ready to place yourself in the path of the ball so you're the one who gets it.
Tips
Practice defense with a friend to increase your ability to tell when to try nabbing the ball. One of you can practice dribbling -- and making it harder for someone to steal the ball -- while the other tries to take it away. If you can get a group of three people together, the third person can practice defending the dribbler, and you can try getting past the defense.
Also try to practice speeding up your reflexes. For example, "Sports Illustrated" noted that UCLA’s basketball team practices covering a flashing sensor on a wall to work on speed. In the same article, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Briante Weber said he would also try to drop and catch pens or swat bugs as additional practice.
Warnings
Don’t touch the player who has the ball when you try to steal it, or you'll likely be called for a foul.
Basketball Steal
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A steal in basketball is a turnover that happens when a defensive player takes or intercepts the ball from the offensive player or dribbler. Steals can happen when a defensive player uses his hands to swipe the ball out of the dribbler's hands. Another way to steal the ball is by picking or intercepting a pass from another offensive player. Steals or any turnovers are looked at as a huge advantage if your team can come up with them, this is because it puts the ball in your offense’s hands more often.
You must be careful not to make contact with the ball-handler's hands, body, or forearms. This is called a personal or reach-in foul and will result in free throws for the other team.
Table of Contents
How To Steal In Basketball
Cons of Steals In Basketball
Pros of Steals In Basketball
Basketball Press Defense
Basketball Steal Percentage
How To Steal In Basketball
If you're looking to incorporate more steals in your game, follow these steps.
Know the offense and what players are weak dribblers.
Play press defense and force the offense to make mistakes by setting traps.
Get low and bend your knees on the court to stay with the dribbler.
Trust your instincts and anticipate where the dribbler is going.
Focus on your speed and practice quick agility exercises in the offseason.
Be aggressive but not too aggressive as you don’t want to take fouls
Cons of Steals In Basketball
There are a few cons and risks of attempting to steal in a basketball game.
steals can leave the court open for breakaways if unsuccessful
steals can result in personal fouls or “reach-in” fouls
attempting too many steals can make a player foul out of the game
Attempting too many steals can force the offense to adjust and change their gameplan
Pros of Steals In Basketball
There are lots of pros to attempting a steal in a basketball game.
steals result in turnovers if successful
steals can intimidate the offense and change momentum of the game
Keeps the ball out of the hands of the opposing team
Steals put the ball in the hands of your offense
Basketball Press Defense
A press defense is a type of defensive formation and strategy that applies pressure on the offense to force turnovers. On a press defense, the defense will set traps on the court to make it easier to steal the ball. They also play tighter defense than usual and on larger parts of the court than usual.
Basketball Steal Percentage
Steals are important to the outcome of a basketball game, so it's recorded for each player as a statistic. Steal percentage defines how many offensive possessions result in a steal. Steals are always recorded for the player that initiates the steal play. Players with high steal percentages can be a nice piece to have on defense.
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Pages Related to Basketball Steal
Defensive Rebound In Basketball
Basketball Turnover
Basketball Possession
Basketball Scorebook
Does Height Matter In Basketball?
Basketball Rebounds
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Interception (basketball) - frwiki.
wiki
For articles of the same name, see Interception.
Intercepting (or stealing in English) is a term used in basketball to define the action performed by an opponent's ball, either by taking it from his hand (without making a mistake) or by catching an ill-fitting pass from him. The International Amateur Basketball Federation (FIBA) defines how intercepting the catch of the ball to a direct opponent, for example on a dribble, pass interception, deflection of the ball, this one then arrives directly at a teammate (the interception player is credited to the player who deflected the ball, not the one who received it after this action) or the player who lost the ball to the opponent. A good interceptor must be fast and agile in order to anticipate his opponent's play.
The big ones are usually not very gifted in this area, leaders, defenders and wingers appreciate themselves most easily.
This statistic has been officially recorded since the 1972-1973 seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and since 1973-1974 in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Game best score of 11 by Larry Kenon of the San Antonio Spurs against the Kansas City Kings at , performance imitated by Kendall Gill at in his franchise win for the New Jersey Nets over the Miami Heat 88-77. John Stockton is the player with the most career steals (3,265), ahead of Jason Kidd and Michael Jordan. Michael Ray Richardson and Chris Paul finished at the top of the Interceptors table four times ahead of Jordan and Alvin Robertson. The latter is the best interceptor in history, NBA and ABA combined, with an average of 2.71, ahead of Michael Ray Richardson (2.63), Fatty Taylor (2.40) and Jordan (average of 2.35). Best season average for Don Buses with 4.12 in season 1973-1974, 3.67 ahead of Alvin Robertson in the 1985-1986 NBA season.
In Europe, Theodoros Papaloukas of Greece is the player with the most steals in the Euroleague with over 320, ahead of Pablo Prigioni and Dimitris Diamantidis. The best performance at the meeting was by Jeff Trepanier with 11 points. v. KK Partizan Belgrade. Second in this classification is Stefano Mancinelli with 10 steals off Climamio Bologna on .
In the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), Tamika Catchings is the player with the most steals of her career, 775 goals ahead of Ticha Penicheiro and Cheryl Swoops. Catchings is the player with the season's best interceptor title, five ahead of Teresa Weatherspoon. The latter is the only player to have 100 steals in a season, a scoring mark achieved in the 1998 season. Tamika Catchings, with a career steal average of 2.48, also dominates this statistic. Teresa Weatherspoon has the best season average at 3.33 to 1998, ahead of the Catchings (3.14 in 2007).
Notes and links
↑ [PDF] (in) " Guide to Basketball Statistics " on fiba. com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " Gill's record-setting efforts help networks steal victory" on article.latimes.com, (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " Career Leaders and NBA and ABA Steal Records " on Basketball-reference.com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " NBA and ABA Annual Steal Leaders and Records " at Basketball-reference.com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " NBA and ABA career leaders and theft-per-game records " at Basketball-reference. com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " NBA and ABA individual season leaders and records for steals per game " on Basketball-reference.com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " Euroleague - Statistics - Thefts" on euroleague.net (accessed 14 April 2012)
↑ a and b (in) " Euroleague - statistics - Steals - Singles " on euroleague.net (accessed 14 April 2012)
↑ (in) " Career Leaders and WNBA Steal Records " at Basketball-reference. com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " WNBA Annual Steal Leaders and Records " at Basketball-reference.com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " WNBA Season Leaders and Steal Records " on Basketball-reference.com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " Career leaders and WNBA steals per game record " on Basketball-reference.com (accessed April 14, 2012)
↑ (in) " WNBA Annual Leaders and Records in Steals Per Game " at Basketball-reference. com (accessed April 14, 2012)
See also
List of NBA Top Interceptors by Season.
List of top career interceptors in the NBA.
Basketball vocabulary
Players
Position : Chief (1) combo guard Rear (2) Swingman Winger (3) Power forward (4) Pivot (5) Five core Sixth Man Big Three Franchise Player Rookie Prep to -pro
The victory that was stolen from basketball Petersburg
Mikhail Grigoriev
Thirty years ago, basketball "Spartak" from our city won the CIS championship, a tournament that was held for the first and last time. Petersburg Diary recalls how the team of Vladimir Kondrashin achieved this success and why they were unable to take advantage of its fruits
Photo: personal archive of Dmitry Tumanov
This year St. Petersburg basketball fans celebrated Zenit's victory in the VTB United League championship. This triumph was not the first for the team from our city in the competition of the best teams in the country. The last victory was won in 1992, but it is remembered less often than it deserves. Petersburg Diary found out why the 1992 championship is almost forgotten.
Dream team
National championship win in season-1991/92 was the last success in the career of the great coach Vladimir Kondrashin. As Dmitry Tumanov, who worked as his assistant at Spartak for many years, recalls, by the early 1990s a team of young talented players had formed.
“There were also Leningrad guys – Vasily Karasev, Andrey Maltsev, Gennady Shchetinin, Valery Korolev. But we found many at youth competitions and invited them to our place: Andrey Fetisov came from Dushanbe, Evgeny Kisurin from Novosibirsk, brothers Evgeny and Zakhar Pashutin from Sochi, Eduard Soobtsokov from Maykop, Mikhail Mikhailov from Zlatoust, Sergey Panov from Ryazan, Vasily Mishnev from Velikie Luk, Andrey Potapov from Asbest, Sverdlovsk region, Andrey Dolopchi from Ufa. I remember how the Leningrad youth team played at a tournament in Holland. We won all the matches against the youth teams of the European countries of Belgium, Germany, Holland with a big advantage. Coaches of other teams said that we are playing basketball of the 21st century! All the guys were fast, light, jumpy. At the Spartakiad of students, Vasily Karasev scored an average of 34 points per match! When they began to play for Spartak, at first the guys did not have enough physical training. Often it turned out that we won the first half with a difference of three or four points, and then we “blown away” and lost. But the boys grew up, in the last normal USSR championship at 19In 1991, we won silver medals, losing first place to Kalev from Tallinn,” said the basketball specialist.
An unusual championship
The next season turned out to be the most unusual in our basketball. Dmitry Tumanov says: “Before the start of the championship in September 1991, representatives of the clubs, and I was the head of the Spartak team, gathered in Moscow at the USSR Basketball Federation. They announced that the championship of the USSR would be open, because the union republics were declaring independence, and in such conditions the main thing was to keep the unified championship. And all the representatives of the clubs then spoke in favor. But politics intervened - Zalgiris and Statiba from Lithuania and Estonian Kalev, Dynamo from Georgia refused to play.
Andrey Fetisov, a former basketball player, champion of the CIS, winner of the world and European championships, said that young players were not very interested in political events at that time. “We were young, born in 1969 to 1974. Then we played for the Russian national team almost until the end of the 1990s. The main thing for us was to play, but what the championship is called, what the opponents are called, is not so important. I remember that some teams were renamed during the season, I had to urgently print new posters.
A confident victory
15 teams entered the season. The organization of the championship required a lot of effort. Dmitry Tumanov recalls: “There was a lot of confusion, transfers of matches. Then, after all, crazy inflation began, every day the prices for tickets for flights, accommodation in hotels, for food jumped.
After the first stage of the championship, the top eight had to compete for medals, but by that time the USSR ceased to exist, the Commonwealth of Independent States was formed. We decided to finish the season as a CIS championship, but clubs from Riga and Kyiv refused to participate. As a result, only seven teams from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan played at the final stage.
Spartak won the CIS championship with an overwhelming advantage, recalls Dmitry Tumanov. “We had such a strong line-up, such talented players, that the fight for the championship did not work out. We were in the lead after the first stage, won the second stage, in 26 matches we won 24 victories. The second place was taken by the team from Alma-Ata, the third - by Dynamo Moscow, and CSKA only fourth. For the victory in the CIS championship, as I remember, the players were awarded medals on a red ribbon with the inscription "Champion of the USSR", and Kondrashin and us, assistants, badges "Coach of Champions of the USSR", that is, no new medals and badges were made.
Photo: personal archive of Dmitry Tumanov
Schemers stole the triumph
For the victory in the CIS championship, which was the first and last in history, the St. Petersburg team was rewarded with a trip to a commercial tournament in the Emirates. While Spartak was playing in warm regions, its competitors hastily organized the Russian Championship. Dmitry Tumanov recalls that everything was done so that the strongest team in the country would not play in it. “We had already bought tickets to the Emirates when we were informed about the Russian championship. We suggested rescheduling so that we could participate. I am sure that Spartak would have won this championship. But they did not meet us halfway, the leaders of CSKA had great authority, they pushed through their decision. The Russian Championship was held without us, CSKA won. When the question arose about participating in the European Champions Cup, FIBA answered that there could be only one participant, and who - in Russia, sort it out yourself. And it turned out that CSKA played in the Champions Cup. This decision greatly disappointed both the players and the management,” Dmitry Tumanov is convinced.
By the way, there is almost no information about the CIS Championship in the boundless ocean of the Internet. Neither on specialized basketball sites, nor on popular reference resources. And in a solid basketball encyclopedia published in Moscow, the victory of the club from the Northern capital was not mentioned at all. As if after the collapse of the Soviet Union they immediately began to hold the championship of Russia.
Commerce beat basketball Much to the chagrin of St. Petersburg basketball fans, the age of the great team turned out to be very short.
Andrei Fetisov recalls: “In Spartak we were coached by Vladimir Petrovich Kondrashin, a great coach and a talented psychologist. But the club couldn't do anything for the players. The biggest salary with bonuses that I received during my performances was $80. I asked for an apartment, but I got a room with an area of 11 meters, that is, a three-room apartment was given to me and two other basketball players.
Dmitry Tumanov is sure that this was the strongest squad in the history of Spartak. “I think that this team is higher in level than the one that won the USSR championship on 1975 years old. Then there were several national team-level basketball players and one world-class star - Alexander Belov, and in the early nineties there was a whole galaxy of international-class players. Almost all of our players, eight of the twelve CIS champions, played for the Russian national team, became silver medalists at the 1993 European Championship, then took second place at the 1994 World Championship, where they lost only to the US team, for which NBA stars played. In 1993, Spartak became the silver medalist of the Russian Championship, this was the last success. Already after the European Championship we lost almost the entire basis. Players couldn't stay at a club where they were paid forty dollars a month, yes, exactly the equivalent of that amount.
Instead of trying to snatch the ball out of the air from the side, be ready to place yourself in the path of the ball so you're the one who gets it.
wiki 
Game best score of 11 by Larry Kenon of the San Antonio Spurs against the Kansas City Kings at , performance imitated by Kendall Gill at in his franchise win for the New Jersey Nets over the Miami Heat 88-77. John Stockton is the player with the most career steals (3,265), ahead of Jason Kidd and Michael Jordan. Michael Ray Richardson and Chris Paul finished at the top of the Interceptors table four times ahead of Jordan and Alvin Robertson. The latter is the best interceptor in history, NBA and ABA combined, with an average of 2.71, ahead of Michael Ray Richardson (2.63), Fatty Taylor (2.40) and Jordan (average of 2.35). Best season average for Don Buses with 4.12 in season 1973-1974, 3.67 ahead of Alvin Robertson in the 1985-1986 NBA season. 
The best performance at the meeting was by Jeff Trepanier with 11 points. v. KK Partizan Belgrade. Second in this classification is Stefano Mancinelli with 10 steals off Climamio Bologna on . 
com (accessed April 14, 2012) 
com (accessed April 14, 2012) 
com (accessed April 14, 2012) 
com (accessed April 14, 2012) 
At the Spartakiad of students, Vasily Karasev scored an average of 34 points per match! When they began to play for Spartak, at first the guys did not have enough physical training. Often it turned out that we won the first half with a difference of three or four points, and then we “blown away” and lost. But the boys grew up, in the last normal USSR championship at 19In 1991, we won silver medals, losing first place to Kalev from Tallinn,” said the basketball specialist. 
But politics intervened - Zalgiris and Statiba from Lithuania and Estonian Kalev, Dynamo from Georgia refused to play. 
And it turned out that CSKA played in the Champions Cup. This decision greatly disappointed both the players and the management,” Dmitry Tumanov is convinced. 
I asked for an apartment, but I got a room with an area of 11 meters, that is, a three-room apartment was given to me and two other basketball players. 
