I have a two part question. In our league (5th grade girls travel) defenses are allowed to play a half court trap but are not allowed to play a zone (the rule specifically states “trapping and help defense is allowed but no zone”). When I am on offense, how can I tell (or better yet demonstrate to the refs) if the defenders are playing a trap or a zone?
Secondly, can you recommend anything to beat this trap since we play the 5-out open post?
Stan

First part is difficult .... IF a m2m team traps, everyone has to rotate, just like in a zone - so I guess you can disguise that in many ways, I don't like the idea of trapping at that age, but that is just me.

The first thing I would do is make sure your kids are ready for the trap... we played the open post also at the high school level. Our rule was this..... better to cut early than late, especially IF they are a trapping team.

Make sure that you have a player flash into the middle from the weakside, back pivot and look to the basket... and then that backside player on top can cut to the basket..... should be open. This is how we tried to attack traps out of the Open Post.

I Hope I explained this clearly enough.

I agree that I do not like the trap either at this age but the rules are the rules. The key is recognizing the trap…which does not readily occur at this age.
For the first part, I was thinking if I say lined up the other 4 girls without the ball to say the left and had the point bring up the ball to the right then the trap would be apparent from a zone…if girls are in the lane then it is a zone, if they line up with their girl then it is a legitimate trap. However this pulls us out of what we normally like to do.

But for the second part I am not 100% clear on your answer.
Ignoring what I just said about lining up and say we are in the open post with the point guard having the ball at the top of the key. The trap would form on the point guard and are you suggesting a cut to the foul line or to the lane? What next?

Do they trap all the time? IF so, that is a different problem....... that is going to take you out of the Open Post since you need someone in the middle to help break the trap for baskets.

Its like a 2-1-2 set. We were pretty small so this is what we did. We attacked the right sideline like we were going over the half court line... we had a player behind him on the other side of the court... we passed to him and we looked to the middle. Once you get it there... you should be able to score, the middle person pivots and sqaures up to the basket looking for the lower players who should be heading to the block.

http://www.coachesclipboard.net/HalfCourtPressBreakers.html

Thanks Coach, that makes a lot of sense. I knew the trap makes the defense vulnerable to quick (and accurate passing) but the 2-1-2 seems like a good way to force a team out of a trap. You can actually still run a lot of the same cuts out of this formation. I guess the passing sequence depends greatly on who is the second defender in the trap...but regardless one player has to be open. If we can get the ball to around the foul line everything else should open up for cuts/passes.