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

• 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.

• 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.

To beat a zone press, I would aim for a simple approach that focuses mainly on spacing and ball fakes.

In any trap situation, we want the following 3 options available: 1. Reversal pass (pass backwards to 1). In my opinion, this is the most important piece. Always have a safety available behind the ball. 2. Gut pass - The pass to the middle (to 5) . This is the pass that breaks the press 9 times out of 10. 3. Forward pass - The pass directly up the floor. This formation of 3 players around the trap is called the ‘cup’ by most coaches.

• If we are trapped and we are set up in a cup formation the defense can’t cover all 3 passing options without leaving the basket area open. (3) - spacing is critical.

• Ball Fakes. More often than not, 2 defenders will be assigned to the 3 players in the cup. This illustrates why ball fakes are critical against zone pressure A good ball fake to 4 or 5 will cause X2 and X5 to react and shift, leaving 1 open for the reversal pass.

• If you’re facing denial against the inbounds pass, you can start 2 and 3 on the elbows and pop them to the wings (or screen for each other and cross).
• The wing that doesn’t receive the pass (3) floats downcourt to provide the deep pass option
• When a wing catches, the weakside halfcourt player cuts to the ball. Some times a pass directly in to 5 will ‘gut’ the press before it even begins.
• The most important points here are:
  • 2 must immediately catch and read - look up the floor and survey. Younger kids in particular might tend to shy away from a trap by turning away instead of catching and reading. This will kill you every time. Get into the habit of catching and quickly reading. In the best case scenario, 2 would catch the pass and immediately hit 5 on the cut from behind the press.
  • 1 must step inbounds quickly to provide a reversal option. If the defense traps the pass immediately., we want to have the reversal pass covered just as quickly. 1 should step; to the ball, as most defenses that trap the inbounds pass will look to steal this pass

• The ball is reversed as 3 slides back up.
• When the ball hits 3 on the side, the middle player (5) makes a diagonal cut to the sideline.
• At the same time, the weakside midcourt player (4) cuts to the middle from behind the press.

• 4 and 5’s roles are identical - When the ball is reversed back to 2, 4 makes the diagonal cut to the sideline and 5 cuts to the middle.
• Note: The diagonal cut is very often open; however, the receiver also catches the pass at an awkward angle (if 2 passed to 4 here, 4 would be heading out of bounds). 4 has to catch and read before doing anything else - fundamentals!

• Any pass that breaks the defenses perimeter (up the middle or down the sideline) cues the team to follow simple fast break rules.
• On a pass up the sideline, everybody dives toward the basket.
• The middle player (4 here, 5 if the ball was on the other side of the floor). looks for the pass on the dive, then posts up on the low block - just like a secondary fast break.

• If the post pass isn’t there, we look for a quick reversal - just like a secondary break.

• On the gut pass, the sideline players break to the basket.
• The receiver faces the basket and looks for the pass to the sideline cutters.

• If the player receiving the gut pass has guard skills, he should also look to push the ball just like a fast break.

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