I've been looking over a lot of the 1-2-2 stuff and was wondering if you had anything on paper or film that I could look at? I was looking at some Xs and Os somewhere online and it had your name on it. I go with a 3/4 quarter press, a trap at half court, back into a 1-2-2 zone. Just doesn't seem to be working too well lately. Not sure if my girls are just lax on sprinting to the spots or what... I'm looking to learn more about it. Anything you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!! Ken

Ken -

We had a lot of success with that press.... just using it to control the tempo of the game and looking for the trap just over half court. Really good teams aren't bothered by presses.... they work on it a lot... I know we did.

Our goal was to control tempo and invite them over half court where we could initiate a trap. Doesn't always work but the tempo part always worked. Your players have to buy into this and try and make it work. They have to understand that you won't always get a turnover, but you WILL take them out of their game and that is more than half the battle.

Your players have to learn to anticipate what the other team is doing and try to move before or at the very least, on AIR TIME. Move when the ball is in the air.... and remember what you are trying to accomplish.
I'd be more than willing to help you with this... break it down and let me know from the start where they are having problems. Its hard to tell without me seeing what they are doing ... maybe a movie clip??

Ken
aka Coach Sar

Coach,

Thanks for the response. I try to do the following:

1) One call where my PG forces their ball handler to the side and denies middle... inviting them to cross half-court on the side. The the middle 2 players in the 1-2-2 either trap or deny middle. If they break that we go back into a standard 1-2-2 zone.

2) Another call for the same as above but we move it up to a 3/4 type press. Trap the ball once it is inbounded to the corner OR sometimes have a call to trap once the ball is put on the floor.

We've been working lately on waiting to rotate when the offense swings the ball from one side to the other... my girl in the middle was leaving too early, leaving the middle wide open. So I've been emphasizing waiting to get "bumped" before rotating.

Clip one is our 3/4 press... hard to see what we're doing because of the close up on the camera.

14:30 mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-HO-JPm1H8

Second clip is the first call I explained.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAPl6WDg7iw: 4:50 mark.

Our attention to detail isn't great... I was a first year varsity coach and all this was brand new to them,

Any insights/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Ken

This takes some communication by your players..... like the player covering the middle staying until the next player coming over tells her to GO.

Your PG seems to be very aggressive which is a good thing... she caused that TO. Remember, like you said, you were a first year coach. Things only get better. I tried a lot of different presses early in my varsity career before I settled on the 1-2-2. Playing teams like Quincy with coach Jerry Liggit and Collinsville and Vrigil Fletcher.. They both used that press. After a couple of years I decided that using that would help us a lot. I just tweaked it to fit my personnel and philosophy.

Hang in there, it only gets better.

The second clip wasn't bad, she was only a little late. The key is to jump to the help line as they reverse the ball and she might get that steal or deflection. One thing for sure, you WERE dictating the tempo.... which is a good thing. You slowed them down and foreced them to think a little.

Have your second two players squeeze the middle a little more to begin with, see if that helps.

Any other questions?