We play a team that uses a dribble hand-off type offense, sometimes throwing in a screen. This is the best example I could find on YT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goxuRYNxw6c

I'm thinking we should treat this as a ball screen and either trap the hand-off or switch. Trying to come up with something solid so my players don't have to think about it too much trying to defend this. I'm assuming that if we decide to trap the hand-off, they will start rolling as the player that executed the hand-off will be open if we trap.

Would you just pick one way to defend this and stick with it or let the kids decide on the court? These are 8th grade competitive boys, so they're pretty savvy, but it would be nice to have triggers for trap vs. switch.

I have toyed with a number of different ways to defend ball screens at the freshman level, so I would imagine your 8th graders will react in a similar way.

Some of the guys on the team were used to hedging. But with hedging you have to really practice a lot and get really good at identifying the screen and having help defenders their rotations to stop the roll to the basket.

So I tried the Jam and Go Under technique thinking that would be simple and at this level how many kids can actually hit a pull up jump shot off the ball screen? Nobody at this level can hit it consistently. So I thought this would be simple and going under the screen would be a good way to handle it.

After practicing this for a while I realized I was wrong. The biggest problem is guys were used to hedging and it was hard for them to stop coming out on that. I also realized all the other techniques I considered (trap, jump and switch, and hedge) were quite different than the go under method.

So ended up going to the following ways to handle things this year (but I still keep hedge in back of my mind in case we want to go to that instead). I would handle "hand offs" the same way...

Communicate. Call out the screen and the way you want to guard it. "Go under". "Trap". "Switch".

Primary method - Jump Switch
- yell "screen, screen, screen!"
- As soon as the screen is set, defender jumps above the screen right into the ball-hander's path, switches, and prevents the dribble move around the screen and contains the ball. The screened defender must fight hard to cover the screener by stepping over and around their leg and aggressively having a hand up, denying the pass.

Option 2 - Trap ball screens
"Screen coming. Double".
- Hands up. Don't foul. Move on the pass out (quick recovery).
-Has to be aggressive and constant.
-Can add a look where the screener's defender gets off after the pick up.
-On ball has to push the ballhandler into the trap.

So if I were you, I'd take into account my personnel and what they are already used to doing. I have found the Jump Switch, Trap, and Hedge options are 3 fairly complimentary ways to handle ball screens because they guy guarding the ball screen is always coming up aggressively so it's easy to change between the 3 methods (simple adjustment for the players).

BTW, this is just me, but I would do it the same way and you decide how your handling it. Changing it up on the fly might be tough for players. Maybe other coaches have made this work but for me it didn't work. Our players always know ahead of time how we're handling the ball screens / hand offs.

I like this option Jeff -

Option 2 - Trap ball screens
"Screen coming. Double".
- Hands up. Don't foul. Move on the pass out (quick recovery).
-Has to be aggressive and constant.
-Can add a look where the screener's defender gets off after the pick up.
-On ball has to push the ballhandler into the trap.


The first thing I would do is to take the dribbler to the sideline and trap it there.... help D is already decided and you can be aggressive about looking for steals of IF nothing else, you will disrupt their offense.

I never played against this offense, but after watching it, I decided that this is the way I would handle it.... at least until they proved they could beat it easily. Other than that.... we ran a 1-3-1 match up zone, (Varstiy boyd HS) that would be my Plan B. You are coaching 8th graders, I wouldn't do that with them. JMO

Appreciate the input. Most of the handoffs occur up top right near the 3 pt line. I like the option of trapping, but concerned about the player handing off being open after the trap. I think we'll talk about trapping weaker ball handlers and jump switch on the stronger ones. I'm not concerned about mismatches since their guards aren't very tall. Maybe I watch for a few minutes to determine the weak and strong ball handlers, then call time-out and predetermine who gets trapped and who we jump switch.

K I S S :-)