Pressbreak Tips
Read these 14 Pressbreak Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Basketball tips and hundreds of other topics.
Don't Stop in the Corners
The whole objective of the Press is to get players in trapping situations, one of the worst mistakes young players make is picking their dribble up in the corners. By doing so, you are essentially adding two extra defenders to the press. Whether you're in the baseline corner, or right before the half-court, or right beyond the half-court line, NEVER PICK YOUR DRIBBLE UP IN A CORNER. You are a trap and turnover waiting to happen. Get the ball to the middle, if you give up your dribble it should only be to pass.
Come to the ball
Make sure your receivers come to the ball! They should attack each reception with the same intensity that the defense does. This cannot be overemphasized. Have them come and meet the ball before they stop. Then catch with two hands, hop stop, and establish a pivot foot. This gives them much more latitude to attack the defense.
Fake a Pass to Make a Pass
Use V-cuts to get open and ball fakes to avoid telegraphing the pass. Have your cutters move in straight lines, either toward the ball or toward your basket. Wide arcs and side-to-side cuts favor the defense.
Inbound the basketball in quickly
Get the basketball in quickly! Drill your kids to pull the ball out of the net and fire it inbounds before the defense can set up. Don't run any other drills that result in scores where they are not required to inbound the ball. On your 3on2/2on1 drills have them inbound the ball after made baskets. On every shell drill, have the defense inbound the ball after every score. The dividends are huge.
Be calm
The coach, can do a lot to help the team break a difficult press. If the coach panics, the team panics. In the first half, the team will be breaking the press right in front of their bench. Call out instructions to them. Remind them to go to the ball, cut, to post up, to spread the floor, etc.
Middle of the floor
Keep the ball in the middle of the floor as much as possible -- and away from the trapping zones.
Discourage the dribble
Discourage the dribble -- particularly the speed dribble -- against a zone press. Do as much as you can off the pass. Any dribbling should be controlled dribbling, head up, reading the floor.
Attack the Press
Once you cross half-court, attack, attack, attack. The press is broken. You should have numbers(see basketball terms). Make them pay for trying to press the likes of you. Attack the basket and get some easy buckets.
Advance the basketball up the floor
Too many teams spend time passing the ball back and forth horizontally, instead of vertically. You should advance the ball up the floor UNTIL you feel pressured(this may be different for every player!), then REVERSE the ball to a teammate, and CUT according to your teams designed pressbreak. Repeat until the press is broken.
Post up in the open floor
Players should "post up" in the open floor, then cut to the ball to get open. Most kids have a tendency to avoid the defenders, thinking that this is the solution to getting open. However, bodying up to the defender and then cutting toward the ball, will obviously preclude the defender from beating the receiver to the pass.
Keep your dribble alive!
If you use your dribble, don't lose your dribble! Once your players start to dribble, make sure they keep it alive if at all possible. Do not stop the dribble until you are ready to pass or shoot.
Clear out!
When facing a man-to-man press, you should clear the backcourt and let your point guard bring the ball up one on one. That's obviously sound advice. But we sometimes like to invite the trap by having our 2 or 3 man linger in the backcourt with the point, staying 10 or 15 feet ahead of him. As soon as the forward defender jumps to trap, the point kicks the ball to his teammate, who pushes it up the floor 4 on 3 against
the remaining defenders.
Stretch the defense
Stretch the defense. It doesn't matter whether you start out of a stack, run four across, send guys to the midcourt corners -- just get that floor spread.
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| Ray Lokar |
