Ask the Coach: beating an odd front zone press

Coach Darren posted this question on 5/7/2008:

Q: Hi, I coach an 8th grade team and we are struggling to beat a 3/4 3-2 zone defence. In essence, the defence have 3 players lined up as follows:

1) one in the centre top of the key (3pt area) and two spaced either side just above the foul line extended.

2) remaining 2 players are on each side line near the centre.

The team allows the inbound pass and waits for the player to dribble and then traps him on the wing. They then cover the next pass to the centre etc and so on and our teams seems to panic, make bad passes. It easily costs us 10 points every time we play this team.

Can you assist me here?

Kind regards,

Darren (all the way from Tasmania, Australia)

A: Coach I’ve got a couple of concepts/ideas to share with you:

1. I recently put up a general zone press breaker that you might find useful at: http://www.perfectpractice.net/index.php/2008/zone-press-breaker/

2. I attempted to make a rough visual of what you described to me with the flowing three diagrams. If this is incorrect, please let me know what your opponent is doing differently and we can work for a solution. It sounds like the opponent is waiting for the dribble, then trapping the ballhandler and taking away the reversal, sideline, and middle passes.

• A couple of teaching points you might consider regarding how to handle the ball in the trapping areas:
  • When a player gets to the trap area, they should know exactly what to do. The player should only pick up the dribble to pass or to make a ball fake and a pass. Ball handlers need to be aggressive and make quick decisions.

Are you automatically dribbling to the trap and picking up the dribble. You might want to consider working with ball handlers on executing the back-dribble and crossover maneuver. This is a ballhandling move to beat a trap. The ballhandler dribbles towards the trap. Keeping the dribble alive, the ballhandler takes two or more dribbles directly backward (drawing the two defenders forward), executing a crossover while changing direction and dribbling forward.

This move works by forcing the inside defender (#2 in the diagram) to do the impossible: slide forward to set the trap, then:

a. stop his forward momentum,

b. reverse pivot (swing step)

c. Slide backward …all at the same time.

For this to work, the ballhandler needs enough space for the back dribble (i.e. if the trap is set on the end line, this wont work because you would dribble out of bounds). The ballhandler
should be low (knees bent) when executing the backwards dribble, and should explode into the crossover (change of speed, change of direction – a critical fundamental skill).

Note: I am not saying that you should try to dribble through zone presses. If an opponent sticks with their press for any amount of time – and you consistently try to dribble through it – at some point you’ll end up turning the ball over more than you’d like, or you’ll wind up taking a ton of rushed shots. It is, however, important to stay active, and to not pick up the dribble in trap areas.
This isn’t something I would use every time, but it is something I would work on to overextend the trap. Some presses are only really designed to set the first trap. Against those defenses, if you can escape the, the rest of the press will break down

Some other thoughts:

	I like to set up in alignments that allow us to pass the ball quickly –before defenders can make their rotations. Setting up in a 2-3 alignment like this lets you attack with the dribble and look for the quick pass to 5 in the middle – before the press can rotate to cover
	It is important the guard without the ball get behind the ballhandler at a good passing angle – always have a player behind the ball! As the ball is reversed (1 passes to 2), 2 attacks the other side with the dribble and 1 gets behind the ball
	This diagram illustrates how the back dribble and crossover might be used against a zone press
	One principle that holds true against all zone defenses is the principle of sending cutters from behind the zone. Zones are ball-oriented by nature, and this is often even more true for zone presses than for standard quarter-court zones. If the defense consistently covers a stationary player in the middle, it might have more trouble covering a player cutting to an open space in the middle from behind. With this approach, it is important for cutters to work on timing their cuts. In this example, 4 would want to cut into the middle when the ball reaches a side, so that 1 can execute a quick pass before the defense is able to completely cover him or her up on the trap.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas that you can put to use with your team. If you’re looking for something more specific, feel free to email me.

If you’re facing a team that presses over long stretches, your greatest challenge is going to be staying consistent with your attack. My only advice on this is to make your press attack an area of focus coming into the game so that your players feel comfortable executing it. On game day, keep an eye on how individual players are handling the pressure and/or executing your game plan. Try to fix potential problems before they become real…i.e. if you see a player mis-time his cut to the middle, make a substitution – and tell the player going in exactly what you’re looking for (what you want him or her to do that the player coming out is not doing) . Have the player comes out have him sit next to you on the bench – let them know why they came out and what you’re looking for. I’ve pulled players out and put them right back in on numerous occasions – the substitutions aren’t necessarily punitive in nature – the tone is more educational than disciplinary – we want to be executing as well as we can at all times, since all it takes is one or two minutes of confusion to give up a 10 or 15 point run.

Good luck, Coach!