Pick and Roll Coverages play
Coverage: Switch Everything
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 11 steps
About this play
Switching the ball screen, the coverage that has spread fastest over the last five years: the screener's defender steps up to the level of the screen, and on contact he takes the handler and the handler's defender takes the screener, both calling it loud and early. The handler's old defender jump-switches to the roller's hip and fronts him under the rim; the low man helps on the roller only if the front is sealed, then gets back. What it concedes on purpose: mismatches, a guard on a big and a big on a guard, and no help on the ball. Why that trade: a switch needs two players and never puts the defense in rotation, and its advantage is that no screen ever creates separation; it only works with defenders who can guard more than one position, and it is the wrong call when the screen pairs your point guard with the other team's center. The offense's counter is the seal and the hunt: the screener seals the smaller switched defender on the block and the handler throws over the top, and if the first switch does not create the matchup the offense wants, the screener re-screens the same handler to hunt the slowest defender. The coverage's answer is the pre-switch and the triple switch: switch before the screen arrives so the matchup never flips, and rotate the weak-side defender onto the sealed roller to erase the small-on-big. Common mistakes: the switching defender coming out too high so the handler turns the corner, the small defender playing behind the roller instead of fronting, and a late call so both defenders guard the ball. I learned switching from Jim Huber's switching clinic on Breakthrough Basketball and Coach's Clipboard's switching defense page; read them if you want the drills that teach the calls.
