Breaking the Half-Court Press

Just coached my first 5th-6th grade basketball game. It was exciting, but a little frustrating. Not with the boys--I am very proud of them.

You see, we had a fairly basic read and react offense in place, but it begins with a pick and roll at the high post, which we could never get to because the other team met our guards at half court.

We overcame this "half-court press" by setting higher picks, but then our offensive scheme just fell apart. Does anyone out there have any plays designed to break the half-court press?

I have Bob Bidelow's Youth Basketball videos and his 72-Drill and 32-Play books, but I can't find anything to help with this particular problem.

Thanks in Advance!

Don C

Coach, were they trapping you at half-court or just picking you up at the Half-court line?

Just picking us up at the half-court line.

I always tell my point guards that when they are trying to get that far up on you and are that far away, then you DRIVE by them. Make an aggressive attack towards the basket. If he beats his man, he will either score (which is good :P) or the help will rotate to pick him up, in which case he can throw the entry pass.

The tougher part comes if the on-ball defender is good. You can try to shift to a two guard front and throw a pass across. Additionally, this takes a defender off the help-line and opens things up. Also, you can have the point guard dribble at your wing (depending on your set-up) and perform a dribble hand-off. This will invert the position of you point guard and wing, but it will be an alternative entry option if the defense at half-court is too good for your pg to beat off the dribble.

Just my thoughts.

Brian Sass

I would also add to what I have before that there are "moves-on-the-move" that can be worked on and executed with proper technique to get by a defender. Concentration should be given to the actual dribbles (crossover, shake, behind the back/ with either hand), but I found that an overlooked part of these moves is the footwork. Getting the lead foot across the defender is the key to beating them off the dribble. The moves themselves, while meant to cause hesitation by the defender, are more geared towards ball protection. Rarely does a good defender get completely "faked out" by a move. But a good guard should be able to get an edge (shoulder to shoulder) on his defender to beat him and get the entry pass initialized if he is being picked up at half-court.

Just felt the need to add that. Not sure why.

Brian Sass

Is it a half court zone press? For example, a 1-2-2 half court press with traps?

Here are some press breaker ideas against a zone press:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/press-breaker.html

But if it's just man to man and they are trapping around half court, just have your PF keep the ball in the middle. If you have decent ball handlers, you should be able to beat a middle trap easily. That is a really bad place to trap and you should be able to get lay ups of they do that.

briansass wrote:I would also add to what I have before that there are "moves-on-the-move" that can be worked on and executed with proper technique to get by a defender. Concentration should be given to the actual dribbles (crossover, shake, behind the back/ with either hand), but I found that an overlooked part of these moves is the footwork. Getting the lead foot across the defender is the key to beating them off the dribble. The moves themselves, while meant to cause hesitation by the defender, are more geared towards ball protection. Rarely does a good defender get completely "faked out" by a move. But a good guard should be able to get an edge (shoulder to shoulder) on his defender to beat him and get the entry pass initialized if he is being picked up at half-court.

Just felt the need to add that. Not sure why.

Brian Sass

You just hit it right on the head. If you can get kids to buy into the footwork of the attack, you're going to have a fun year. I'm working with our 5th grade girls on the idea of the lead foot. Some of them have it down, some it's a struggle. They want to fall back on old habits and take more of a sidestep in an attempt to dribble around the defender as opposed to through the defender.

My daughter is tall and skinny and has pretty good ballhandling ability. She amazes me the way she is able to create a drive out of nothing simply through footwork. Yesterday she drove baseline and I thought she was going out of bounds but she had "skinnied" her way past the defender with a nice step through on her drive. Her LOOOOONG legs probably don't hurt when it comes to driving to the hoop.

Thanks, guys. I do have one PG who can beat the press, especially with the help of a screen by our PF, but when our one and only ball handler is out, we're in trouble.

The footwork is something I hadn't thought about, and I will definitely work on it. The screen only works so long, so if we don't always need it, the better.

I've also come up with a play that posts my center on the defensive side of the half court line (a full-court press isn't allowed until the last 5 minutes of the game). He's passed the ball, and our two guards break for the basket from the left and from the right. The center either throws the ball over the half court press--really, more of a blockage--and we make them pay with a lay up, or if all of the defenders retreat, the center dribbles across the 10-second line until he is met by our PG to set up our regular offense.

What do you think? It works in practice...

Thanks again.

Don C

My thoughts....

It will probably work. That's not an issue.

But I think working on footwork is the bigger thing to work on. Moves-on-the-move. Getting the edge on an aggressive man to man defender and beat him.

These are skills that a player needs to perform competently if they are going to be successful when they get to high school. The plays will change. The skills necessary to turn plays into points will still be there.

Having one guard able to beat that pressure is good. Trying to make up for the shortcomings of your tertiary ball-handlers is understandable. But I would advise against merely solving the problem with a new play or scheme, but instead make sure the fundamental improvement is there to beat that pressure on their own.

Just my thoughts.

Brian Sass

Good point. I will work on them getting that foot and shoulder ahead of the defender. Thanks again. Don C

Coaching 3rd grade boys and we had problems with a great on ball defender that met the pg at half court line. Defense cannot press or guard the defender before half court. I have been working on the pg getting his shoulder and foot across the defender and just drive past, but again this defender is a year older (4th grader) and actually very good.

We play the same team again the following week and I have prepped us by:
1) having the other off guards prepared to try to beat his man instead of the pg
2) have pg throw a long touchdown pass from behind halfcourt to a teammate near the free throw line/post
3) Introduced how to give a screens, but not too confident it will work... (Another reason we had trouble is that all our players converged at the halfcourt line and allowing the defense to build a wall... We have a young, and under developed team. They know how to spread out and get to their spots for a 5-0 offense but just fell apart against this opposing team.)

I do like the idea of having the pg hand off the ball to a teammate at halfcourt. I feel so bad last game as the coach because I was not prepared to handle this and I was embarrassed. I really under estimated how difficult it might be to bring the ball up court for kids this age. I really doubt it would be a problem because there is not a press and our pg is decent ball handler. Our team did not have an alternative PG that day so we were just exploited by this weakness.

I have learned my lesson and am putting together a list of scenarios to prepare for in a game for this age group. I learned that different scenarios can happen that you would not expect for different age groups and developmental levels...

In my opinion, whoever you designate as point guard should advance the ball. That's how you do things in that situation (guarded man to man) at higher levels and that is how you develop fundamental skills that are necessary for basketball.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/haefner/should-you-use-the-popular-high-ball-screen-play-for-your-youth-team/

A drill we run every single practice for all levels is 1v1. We might play 1v1 full court advancement, 1v1 half court, or even go against two defenders (1v1 with double teams). But we play some type of 1v1. We also teach players basic dribble skills... dribbling with eyes up with either hand under pressure, changing speeds, changing directions, retreating out of trouble, control dribble, and protecting the ball.

For those reasons all the players on our 3rd/4th/5th grade teams can be PG and advance the ball against 1v1 full court pressure and often times against 1v2 full court pressure.

To me this is one of the most basic skills and the first place to start with young kids. Not to mention the 1v1 drills develop defensive skills, agility, and quickness.

You might not have enough time to solve the problem by game time. But you can at least start. To me that's the right way to do things.

Good luck!!

All my players spend time doing 1vs 1 full court with pressure defense every practice. PG usually does well except for the one game with an exceptionally good defender. Which was why I was caught off guard and shocked. We did not have a back up plan or players skilled enough to take over.

I disagree with your article. If you need to use a high screen then use it. No point in letting your player get beat by himself especially in a live game. Basketballs a team game and coaches should use all parts of the game to help them succeed including high screens.

I do agree that you should not use high screens EVERY TIME and see how that can be bad for development. But for a one off game I don't see the harm. I have made a mental note to have other players bring the ball up court in the future, and try to give them that opportunity. Though, in our league that would be an exception. Usually teams stick to the same point guards throughout. Even in blowouts...

Thanks.

These are great suggestions. I think bringing your PF up to help is a great idea. It would help draw some pressure off the PG and possibly open them up for a cut to the basket. It would also set your PF up for a one on one in the middle if the defenders don't come help, assuming he/she can handle the ball.

I like the idea of perfecting or at least improving on the footwork. I think some coaches, myself included, have asked kids to beat a defender that is playing them close but have never clarified for the player how to go about doing that. This technique would be essential to work on for that purpose.