Press Defense

I'm coaching a 6th grade boys recreational league team. Our rules do allow for the teams to press (not that I necessarily agree - but those are the rules). Does anyone have a suggestion for setting up a full court or 3/4 court press? We've tried just going M2M full court pressure with very limited success - as we do not have any exceptionally quick boys who can steal the ball 1 on 1. My thought is to utilize the press occasionally; e.g., if we are behind in the game or late in the game and need to pressure after a score or timeout to have a better chance to get the ball.

Coach,

1/2 court 1-3-1 trap press works at times. Forcing player with ball to sidelines trapping either just before or just past the half court line. Trapping just before 1/2 court line forces a 10 sec call. Trapping just past 1/2 court line can create back court violation. Either trap does allow opportunities for stealing soft floating passes, resulting in easy layup.

I teach my kids to scream DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!! as loud as they can when an opposing player picks up his/her dribble and is trapped. This causes panic for player with ball.

Fullcourt zone presses that are effective are 1-2-1-1 and 2-2-1. Have your players fall back to a zone if press is broken by other team.

Throw these presses on and off during game to keep other team guessing. Also use fullcourt M2M press to creat havoc and double teaming just before half time and when you're down by a few hoops late in game.

Important that you also have to understand the matchups of the other team, size, ballhandling and athleticism of your team and other team before you consider any of these presses.


Good Luck,

Coach A

Here is my response from another forum post: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=327

"Personally, I dislike zones and presses below the high school level. I just think that working on man principles every day and working on fundamentals and offensive concepts will benefit the players much more when they reach the varsity level. Even if the high school coach decides to play zone, the man principles that pounded into them from an early age will make them much better.

I've never seen a 13 & 14 year old team that was so good at shooting, passing, dribbling, rebounding, half-court offense, & man to man defense that they should work on pressing and junk defenses. It may get you a couple of extra wins, but working on the basics now will get you more wins in the future.

However, I understand some coaches are in different situations and these kids may never play high school basketball. And some coaches think that developing a winning attitude is more important. "

One thing that I forgot to add is that I have coached at almost all levels at the youth level. I have pressed, but it was only when we were losing in the last few minutes of the game. The only press I ever used was a full court denial man to man defense. I probably practiced this for 5 minutes in 2 practices. There are just too many more important things to work on.

JoeHaefner wrote:Here is my response from another forum post: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=327

"Personally, I dislike zones and presses below the high school level. I just think that working on man principles every day and working on fundamentals and offensive concepts will benefit the players much more when they reach the varsity level. Even if the high school coach decides to play zone, the man principles that pounded into them from an early age will make them much better.

I've never seen a 13 & 14 year old team that was so good at shooting, passing, dribbling, rebounding, half-court offense, & man to man defense that they should work on pressing and junk defenses. It may get you a couple of extra wins, but working on the basics now will get you more wins in the future.

However, I understand some coaches are in different situations and these kids may never play high school basketball. And some coaches think that developing a winning attitude is more important. "

I couldn't agree more - there are too many fundamentals to teach young players.. ESPECIALLY this age. You never know IF the kid is going to play high school ball or not, so you would be doing him a much better service teaching m2m and all the other important fundamentals..

Let me add this also -

I had kids come in to our school who didn't make their Jr. High team.. or were B team playes, some who played and others who sat most of the time..... and through persistance and hard work, they became Varsity players, some became All Conference- there ARE diamonds in the rough out there, it is up to us to dig them up and polish them.

Thanks for the responses. Again, my intent was to use a press sparingly and just in certain situations where we would need to possibly cause a turnover. Our practice focus is on skill development and we are only playing M2M (even though some teams are using a zone).

Addressing the 1-3-1, are there specific assignments, ideas, or concepts that can be taught to the boys to help them understand what we hope to achieve? E.g. do you guard or contest the in-bound pass? is there a certain rotation or movement of defensive players?

If you look at the Defense on the left side of this page it addresses the 1-3-1 defense... Hope this helps.

Thanks, I guess I would just try to extend the defensive set to a 3/4 court in order to try to get a trap in the back court.

That could work...

our best press was a 1-2-2 3/4 court where we just kind of floated in front of them and IF they brought the ball across on the sideline we would trap them right over half court.

OK - I think I get the idea. Hopefully, it will be easy to implement.
Thank you for your helpfulness and prompt replies.

Coach: I have never understood why coaches use the press only when they are behind late in the game and not from he very beginning of the game to establish a lead. I press constantly but pick my spots. My presses are keyed off the shot that has been taken and made. If its a lay up we go either to m2m or 1-2-1-1 full court. anything inside the arc including free throws result in a 3/4 2-2-1 zone press or m2m depending on the teams we are facing. Outside the three point arc, will result in either 1-2-2 or a 1-3-1 1/2 court press. If we use a zone press we fall back into a zone but stay in it only for the first penetrating pass then we establish our man to man again. Now, that may be a little too complicated for the age of the kids you coach however, you can do some things out of your m2m press that can confuse an opponent. One example is to pull your defender off the inbounder and bring him/her back to a position near the free throw line to act as a line backer to either intercept an errant pass or be in a position to trap the ball. Finally, make them keep finding ways to beat your press. what i mean by this is, if they beat you be reversing the ball back to the inbounder, take that away from them then next time you press and make them beat you in other ways. The more times a team has to think to beat you, the better it is for you..Goodluck Coach Mac

Thanks - for the reply. That is a great idea to mix things up during the game.

As for our situation, we are a little limited with our "quickness." I like the idea of pulling off the inbounder and having the "linebacker" try to steal the pass or immediately help with the trap.