Man to Man Pressure

Today we did some work on full court man to man pressure. I will explain the main concepts we have used individually and then how we integrated them into a team of 5.

We have done a lot of individual work in the past on what we call "mirror" drills, where one player has to mirror the movements of the other player. Fundamentally, this is individual defence. We gave them two different ways to guard a ball handler in full court defence. "Channelling" is sometimes referred to as "forcing" by a lot of coaches. This is when the defender tries to influence the ball carrier to only go in one direction (in this case a sideline is preferable). We use the word channelling because as Mike McKay would say "you can't really force a great player to go one way or the other." The other option, "turning" is used when you think you are quicker than the ball handler and you can beat them to a spot and get them to turn.

We taught these concepts emphasizing the various footwork that you need to match the speed of the offensive player. If the ball handler is walking or jogging, the defender can usually slide or backwards gallop with them. If the ball handler starts to sprint, the defender will have to use a cross over step.


To integrate the individual play into team play, we used a one on three drill. The offensive player would start in the corner of her backcourt with the ball and a defender on her. The defender would start in position to channel the ball handler. The second defender is at half court, guarding an imaginary offensive player, and the third defender is in the middle of the back court, also guarding an imaginary player. When the offensive player starts to dribble, the ball defender must try to either channel her or turn her. If she plans to channel, she gives a verbal signal to her teammate on the sideline (Channel!, Kelsey, I'm channelling!) as well as a visual signal of an open palm to that teammate. If she plans to turn her player, she gives a similar verbal signal to her teammate in the center of the court and uses the "hang loose" signal with her other hand as a visual. When either trap is accomplished, we taught them a "jump switch" where the trap stays for one second, then the trapper will switch players with the ball defender, and the ball defender will run back and rotate to the open player.


The next step in the progression is to play four on four full court with the ball out of bounds on the endline. We set the four offensive players up in a box formation to make it easier to understand the trapping and rotation by the defense. We worked on influencing the guard to catch the ball going towards to corner so that it was easier to channel her to the sideline when she caught it. If the ball defender decided to channel her, the sideline player would come for a trap (we weren't specific about when or where) and the other two girls would rotate. If the ball defender decided to turn her player, then the her teammate would come to the sideline and do a blindside trap.

The main problems that we had were in communication (this takes a lot) and rotation. Specifically, girls defending weakside players were not close enough to the ball to be able to rotate if there was a trap.

I love the way we taught the pressure because it is completely strategy independant. These concepts of turning or channeling will fit in where ever you play under any system. So to me, the girls added some things to their toolboxes that they can take to team and fit in right away. Basketball Canada has a really good approach here of focusing on teaching concepts.

Tyler

If I had more time I would have written a shorter post.