Deciding How Much Defensive Pressure Is Good

Ask the Coach Q1

Dear Coach I will be coaching for the (first time) a girls 8th grade basketball team and of course I'm reading as much material on the subject of basketball as I can. I'm somewhat confused regarding some of what I have read and hoping you could answer a few questions. I just finished reading a book by Jack Ramsey called Pressure Basketball. Coach Ramsey believes the 3-1-1 zone press is the most effective and strongly believes in trapping at every opportunity. I read an article by Ralph Miller on the Basketball Highway who is just the opposite saying trapping is not effective and often leads to easy baskets by your opponent. What's your opinion?

Well the very first thing you want to do before deciding what offenses or defenses to play is to realistically evaluate your players athletic talent, intelligence, skill level, and learning ability of the players. Whichever defense you decide to play, the defense must fit your players physical abilities, and you must be able to teach it in a reasonable amount of time based upon the amount of practice time you have. Don't forget as well that your players must be motivated to learn and play a given defense.
In Dr. Ramsey's case, I suspect he has had a great deal of success with the 3-1-1 or Diamond Press as it's sometimes called. This can be a very good press "if" you have good quickness, and players who can recover quickly back to half court defense without giving up easy baskets.

Having had the good fortune to work at Oregon State before Coach Miller's retirement, I got to experience first hand Ralph philosophy. "Coach" as well called him would almost certainly say, that most teams that play the press, trap poorly, and give up a greater percentage of easy baskets compared to turnovers resulting in points. Coach Miller's teams always played very basic offenses and defenses but played them exceptionally well. It was not unusual for a Coach Miller team to have less than 10 turnovers in a game. So here are two different ways to wrestle a bear. Coach Miller recruited good man to man players and his philosophy was to use man defensive pressure to force opponents into unwanted dribbling or passing mistakes, without giving up the "FORT". Maybe less steals, but in comparison a lot less easy baskets as well.

Part of your decision must be to decide what type of individual defensive skills your players will require to progress to the higher levels of basketball. I think this is especially true at the Junior High levels. You can play a fancy trapping defense, but if the basic defensive footwork on the ball, and ball-player-passing lane relationship is not properly developed at an early age, you will actually retard the development of your players. This is one of the reason some youth leagues outlaw zone defenses. Having worked with young players of this age, I feel it is critical to build a foundation of skills upon which more complex basketball systems can be built. At this age I would work on developing very solid man to man full court defensive skills with help principles. Then possibly proceed into "run and jump" defense on a limited basis (such as only a specific location on the court like the sideline or only when a player turns their back in the first quarter of the defensive backcourt). Being able to read and perform a jump is a stepping stone for players to make good judgments on trapping or rotating defense at higher levels of play. From there you can proceed to add more jump locations or rules. When your players have gained a good knowledge of court positioning and and are fundamentally sound on man defensive principles, you can proceed to a become a good zone press team. That would be my suggestion.

The important thing to remember is you are the coach. You must make your own decisions, based on your talent, and their capabilities. No other coach can give you the answers which will best suit your team. Even with all of your planning you may find that after two or three months of work, a system you are running just isn't working. This is not the best situation to find yourself in, but you have to adjust sometimes. Maybe a key player to your press is injured, or you find you are not as quick as a team as you thought in the preseason. This is why it's crucial to have thought out considerably the offensive and defensive goals of your team, and how you might best accomplish them.

What type of a full-court zone press would you recommend with this age group? 3-1-1, 2-2-1, etc?

As I have just suggested. I would spend a considerable amount of time teaching pressure man to man defense. You can't play a good zone defense if you are not fundamentally sound in man to man pressure. If you feel your team is already fundamentally sound for their age group, then The decision on a zone press might be, do you want to trap because your teams have superior speed and quickness than most of your opponents, or do you want to play a little more conservatively with a 2-2-1 press.

Remember that Coach Wooden at UCLA had great quickness, and athletes during his championship years, but also enjoyed a tremendous amount of success by slowly suffocating their opponents with the 2-2-1 containment press. Teams would stay close, and then...boom....three or four consecutive steals or turnovers for a 10 point lead in less than a minute. Execution is much more critical than in a general sense what press you play.

This is a strong group of girls who have a record of 38-0 if that makes much difference however, we have no bench.

You might consider using the press for only shorter periods of time (such as: after made baskets, after made free throws, or late in each half when the other team is more tired or playing their substitute players). Rene Portland at Penn State used the press as a great motivational tool for her bench in past years by creating a "special press team" with the bench. They would only get a few minutes each half, but boy where they ever motivated to show their stuff. Opponents knew it was coming and still had problems against less talented players. John Thompson at Georgetown has also had great success using a two team system to keep constant pressure on teams.