2-1-2 Press

I feel that a great compliment to the 2-2-1 press is the 2-1-2 press.  We often will run this after a free throw situation.  We always put our guards in the lane when we are shooting a free throw.  This allows us to get into our full court pressure immediately.  Some coaches like to keep their bigs in, but we tracked figured that the number of offensive rebounds we actually got off of free throw situations did not outweigh the benefit of being able to get into our pressure defense immediately.

The 2-1-2 is not really that much different that the 2-1-2 in my opinion and we are able to run the same trapping schemes out of it.  We simply put our best combo defender in the middle of the defense.  This play needs to be athletic, but more importantly, a really good decision maker as to when to trap and when to stay home or even fake trap.

I hope that these 2-1-2 resources provide some good ideas as to what you can do with the talents and skill sets of your players.

Vance Downs 50 Press

Crowly County 2-1-2 Press

Vance Downs: Press Topics

Why Press?
1. Aggressive mind set
2. Speed up tempo
3. Create offense
4. More and easier shots
5. Keep other team out of offensive sets
6. Combat good big men
7. Create depth   Rotation Notes - we can vary the pick up the points
- the offense can determine our alignment
- we want to control where the ball goes and our pressure
- we want to break down spacing
- we encourage non players to make plays
- we trap decision makers and get it out of their hands
- we do not trap non decision makers we just pressure them and force them to play fast

Trapping Notes

- Stay down in stance and still have hands and arms raised
- Trap foot to foot locking legs

Effective trapping

- two defenders attack the ball handler, while the remaining three immediately move into zone coverage
- It is the responsibility of the second defender to the trap to lock legs
- the second man coming into the trap uses the last two steps to control his speed and slide into the trap
- players in the trap should have elbows behind their ears ( over teach)
-The only pass that should come out of the trap are bounce or lob passes

Anticipating the pass out of the trap

- read shoulders

Interceptor note

-When in doubt cover from the inside out, shortening the box will not beat you

Keys to press

1. Scout opposition & prep vs press break
2. Personnel
3. Encourage non players to plays
4. Put non decision makers to make decisions
5. Match up to their initial alignment and then follow your plan
6. Fundamental trapping techniques must be used to make most of our opportunities
7. Do not let offense split traps
8. Do not foul in tap
9. As ball leaves both defenders must sprint out
10. We do not give up easy baskets, pressing can be effective just by fatiguing the other team
11. 2 trappers, 2 interceptors, goal tender everytime
12. Keep constant pressure
13. Adjust