Beating a man to man trapping press

Facing aggressive full court man to man defensive pressure can be a challenge for any team. This is especially true at the youth levels, where ballhandling skills are less developed, and where players are only beginning to learn the principle referred to by Coach Wooden as “Be Quick, but Don’t Hurry” - meeting Pressure with Poise by consistently utilizing simple fundamentals like catching the ball and reading the defense.

For teams to be consistently successful advancing the ball against man to man pressure, perimeter players must develop the ability to advance the ball to the frontcourt with the dribble against a one one one defender.

There are other ways to attack a full court man to man, but at the end of the day, if a team doesn’t have at least one player who can dribble the ball up the floor one on one after everybody else has cleared out, that team is going to have serious problems. This skill is developed through focused work with the guards on controlled dribbling and on simple change of pace moves.

Right now I want to focus on how to consistently create one on one situations for ballhandlers. Most man to man presses are looking to do more than just put a little pressure on the point guard. What they want to do is disrupt your rhythm, and force you into turnovers or rushed shots.

If you can clear out, bring it up the floor and get into your offense every time, you’ve created an offensive tempo that neutralizes the effectiveness of the press.

More than a few pressing teams will try to keep this from happening by trapping out of the man to man. Many press offenses that aren’t prepared this for the surprise end up committing several turnovers or playing too fast and taking bad shots. - or both.

The maneuver is called “Guard in Front”.

• All “guard in Front” means is that any time we face a man to man
  press, we have a guard (2 or 3) inbound the ball.
• When we clear out on the inbounds pass , all we do is make sure
  that the inbounder crosses in front of the ball
  before clearing out.
• If they trap with the man guarding the inbounder (this is the
  player that traps in the great majority of man to man pressing
  schemes), we hit the open man and attack with a numbers advantage.
• If they don’t trap, we clear out, the guard brings the ball up
  the floor, and we get into our offense