Pick and Roll Coverages play
Coverage: Hedge and Recover
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 13 steps
About this play
Hedge and recover, the coverage you will see most often at the high school level: the screener's defender jumps out above the screen, high and wide, hips square to the sideline and knees bent, calling it before the screen lands, and turns the handler back toward half court for one or two dribbles; the on-ball defender fights over the screen and gets back in front of the handler by going between the hedging big and the screener, so he never loses contact; once the handler is turned, the big peels off and gets back to the screener with his hands up in the passing lane, and the weak-side corner defender tags the roller. What it concedes on purpose: a four-on-three behind the hedge for one beat, and the weak corner if the rotation is late. Why that trade: the hedge is for a quick handler who turns the corner but does not shoot, and its advantage is that the handler never gets downhill, and the whole coverage lives or dies on the hedger being early, because a late hedge is a handler already past the screen with a big chasing him. The offense's counter is the slip and the short roll: the screener slips to the rim before contact as the big steps out, Coach's Clipboard's Jet-Back, or rolls only to the free-throw line to catch the pocket pass over the hedge and play four-on-three. The coverage's answer is that the big hedges only until the handler is turned and then sprints to the short roller, the weak wing stunts at the nail catch, and the tag comes early so the dunker is covered. Common mistakes: hedging with space between the big and the screener so the handler splits it, the big staying out too long, and no weak-side rotation. The hedge here comes from Jim Huber's ball screen defense clinic on Breakthrough Basketball and Basketball For Coaches' four-step hedge guide, with Hoop Coach's late-hedger rule and Coach's Clipboard's Jet-Back; give them a look for the breakdown drills.
