Newsletter #149

December 5, 2018

 
 

Today's Quotes:  "A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." — Bernard Meltzer


Today's Theme... Half-Court Presses/Traps

Half-court presses start at the half-court line (or just beyond). A half-court press is less of a gamble, since all five defenders are back in the half-court. These defenses try to trap the ball as it comes across half-court, in a half-court corner on either side (the red or yellow boxes in the diagram below, and also sometimes in the blue boxes).  The other defenders look to intercept a poor pass made out of the trap. These presses are fairly easy to teach and conditioning is less of an issue. 

Trapping press

Viking 1-2-2 Half-Court Press
Encountering (attacking) this 1/2 to 3/4 court trapping press has given us problems in past years. If you have three quick athletes (X1, X2 and X3) who play aggressively, this press can work really well for you, with only a minimum risk of giving up a lay-up.  It's a matter of keeping the ball out of the middle, and trapping it along the sidelines... read more.

2-2-1 Half Court Press
This trapping half-court press can be especially effective against teams with mediocre, inexperienced guards. Remember, any trapping defense always carries some risk of giving up the easy weak-side lay-up... read more.

Coach Sar's "76" Half Court Press
This press is similar to the Viking press above, but can be used in conjunction with Coach Sartini's "80" and "70" presses, so you can mix things up a bit.... read more.

To simplify things, you can just run your usual half-court pressure man-to-man defense and make a call from the bench or in a timeout.  Here are two actions we might use (more details in the Premium Members section):

"Red" - trapping the point guard as the ball is dribbled across the half-court line... a surprise tactic.

"Side-Fist" - trap the first pass to either wing.

 

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