Press Defenses play
Run and Jump Press: Jump the Sideline Dribbler
- Court
- Full court
- Length
- 9 steps
About this play
The run and jump, a full-court man-to-man press with rules that encourage jump switching and sideline trapping, drawn as a whole possession. Why it works: every dribbler has a plan for his own defender; the run and jump sends a second one from his blind side while he is running at full speed, and makes him solve that with the ball already in his hands. The on-ball defender gives the first step toward the sideline and forces a speed dribble; every helper stays above the ball; the next defender up the line leaves his man and jumps the dribbler head-on, and the on-ball defender keeps his momentum and sprints to the man the jumper left. A sideline dribbler gets trapped; a middle dribbler gets a jump switch, never a trap. What it forces: the dribbler to pick up the ball and throw a hurried pass to the man he thinks is open, where the switching defender is already waiting. What it gives up: the retreat pass, which the press concedes because the count is its leverage, and the layup if the deepest defender ever jumps. Counter shown: the offense reverses to a controlled dribbler who keeps the ball in the middle; the press answers with a jump switch in the middle and the goalie reading the lob. Rules: the ball has to be bouncing before two defenders go to it, and a player who has just caught a pass is guarded, not trapped; when the ball leaves a trap the two trappers leave with it, at a run, to the open men; and the defenders behind the ball stay even with the deep receivers, never behind them, so no pass goes over their heads. The run and jump here is Forrest Larson's simplified version as Coach's Clipboard published it, with A.W. Hamilton's clinic on Championship Productions for the chaos it is meant to create; read them for the breakdown drills.
