BEHIND THE CLIPBOARD: Pressing Matters

There’s this one really good team in our league, and they press all the time. It’s really hard to play against them, and we just keep turning the ball over. My dad wonders why we don’t press, because it works so well, and I do too. If a team keeps winning doing something – like the Warriors shooting 3’s – why shouldn’t other teams do the same? –H.G., Oakland 

   This is actually a very complicated question to answer, as there are issues about coaching philosophies and styles, talent levels and following the fashion, but I’ll stick to just one aspect.

   Most pressing teams have to press pretty much all the time to be successful. Players have to have it ingrained that as soon as their team scores, they’re applying pressure all over the court. It’s very difficult to press effectively if you only do it every three or four games. It has to be a mindset as much as a strategy.

   So if a team presses all the time, it’s going to press against bad teams and good ones. Every night, the opponent knows what’s coming (just as with almost every team), and tries to counterattack. To deal with a pressing team, the opposition needs to 1) have a ballhandler who can dribble through the press pretty much by himself; 2) be superior athletically (quicker, taller, faster); or 3) be extremely organized.

   And those three attributes are the reason that many coaches don’t press regularly: Opponents only need one of the three to break the press, and sooner or later, your team is going to run into an opponent who can do two of them.

   A brief digression: Every team has preseason goals, and most of those goals involve getting into postseason play. Eventually, then, to reach the goals, a team is going to have to do more than just beat the teams in its league, or teams similar in athleticism or experience. Or to put it another way, the system the coach employs must be able to work against good teams with a variety of skill sets.

   So here are some questions: For your team to reach its goals, will it have to beat a team with an elite ballhandler who can dribble through the press? If yes, that’s an issue. For your team to reach its goals, will it have to beat a team that is superior athletically (quicker, taller, faster)? If yes, that’s an issue. For your team to reach its goals, will it have to beat a team that is very disciplined and won’t be fazed by pressure? If yes, that’s an issue.

   For almost all teams, the answer to at least one of those questions is “yes.” For a majority of teams, maybe a vast majority, the answer to two of those questions is “yes” — and if your teams falls into either of these categories, pressing is probably not the best option as a full-time strategy.

   After all, you’re going to beat the bad teams anyway, pressing or not. The goal is to beat the good teams, and in general, good teams in postseason will have no problem breaking anything less than a spectacularly good (and consistent) press.

Clay Kallam is an assistant athletic director and girls varsity basketball coach at Bentley High in Lafayette. To submit a question for Behind the Clipboard, email him at  HYPERLINK “mailto:clayk@fullcourt.com” clayk@fullcourt.com