Girls House Basketball: Defense Using the 1-2-2 Trapping Zone

If you are coaching girls basketball at the house level, and looking for a simple, effective defense, this is a defense that works. If you are not satisfied with the traditional 2-1-2 defense, try this. The 1-2-2 is a good change from the usual defense. Get the instant edge on defense.

This is a defense that puts pressure on the ball up top. It makes it hard for the other team to get the ball into scoring position. It might not work as well in select ball or high school, because the players are better drilled at getting the ball past traps and presses. But in house ball, if you can keep the ball near center court, you have the advantage from the start.

This defense sets up as follows:



Let’s call it the "swarm" defense because the idea is to swarm the ball, like bees at a beehive. Here is the scheme:

1. The point stays with their point guard (or whoever has the ball up top) but doesn’t back up any deeper than the foul line.

2. Our point directs their point guard to one side, where our wing guard steps up and we trap.

3. The other guard and the forwards get into the passing lanes looking to steal.

4. If the ball gets into the key, the forwards trap and the guards fill the passing lanes.

5. If the ball goes to the corner the guard and forward on that side trap, and the other players fill the passing lanes.

6. Whenever the ball is on ONE SIDE of the court, our players on the OTHER SIDE move toward the ball AS FAR AS THE MIDDLE OF THE KEY and look to plug up the passing lanes.

The big idea is to keep pressure on whoever has the ball. If they make a good pass to someone open, we need to QUICKLY get to the ball. So the girls in the passing lane need to be aware of any opponent in their area, and the girls who are trapping need to be able to QUICKLY get to the ball or their spot in the zone.

The idea is to put big pressure on the ball as it crosses the half-court line...



...and double-team any opposing player in the key.



What if the ball gets to the corner? Again, we trap.



On the outside, the idea is to trap the ball; we are going to make it hard on the ball-handlers all the time. If the ball gets in the key, we are going to be all over it, making it tough for the opponent to find a teammate with a pass. This carries risk -- someone on the other team will be open. We are banking on the pressure making it too tough to find the open player.

For the coach this is an easy defense to explain and to diagram -- and to practice. And it keeps ‘em moving.

That pretty well does it: a pressure half-court defense that relies on a lot of running. It also depends on good man-to-man defense -- even though it is a zone, all defense eventually gets down to covering your opponent. Remember: the player with the ball stays balanced and constantly moves her hands and feet. We don’t have to steal the ball and block the shot; we just need to interrupt their dribble and change their shot.

What does the 1-2-2 do for you? It gets the girls working together. It gets the kids running. It helps the kids win. This pressure defense is easy to learn. But it still requires teamwork and hustle. You want to see both in your team. This matches up well against their point guard, making it hard to pass the ball inside uncontested.

Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach: Lesson #4 Plan, Plan, Plan

For a youth baseball coach, one cannot emphasize enough the importance of a little bit of planning prior to a game or practice; it makes all of the difference for a smooth running event. Advanced planning for practices makes the time fly for the players. Good planning also makes it more fun; the players are kept busy and are not bored. Baseball practices are notorious for one coach and one player going through a drill, while the rest of the team looks on in boredom. Game planning keeps players from being short changed on playing time and overlooked for the positions they might want to play. It also speeds up a game; coaches no longer have to gather the team outside the dugout to divvy up the positions every time they take the field.

During practices, don’t be shy – draft as many dads and moms as you can to be assistant coaches, then put them to work. Give each assistant a drill and teach them the way you would like it taught. Break the team up into groups that will visit each drill station. Keep the stations busy and keep the players moving between stations. Typically coaches will see plenty of parents standing around watching your players practice. But, there are drills even the most inexperienced mom or dad can run. And face it, the parents are probably bored also by just sitting around watching.

In addition to your practice parents, you will need two full time assistant coaches. The three of you will have distinct and special roles: one coach will be the hitting coach, one coach will be the pitching coach, and the third coach will be in charge of teaching team defense, base running, and defensive scenarios. It is very rare a coach does not have two parents capable of filling those roles. As the head coach, assign each assistant to the duty he or she is most comfortable with, and take on the remaining duty, yourself.

To help keep games organized and running smoothly, splurge for two dry erase boards (8.5 X 11) to hang in the dugout. One board will have defensive positions for the upcoming inning and the other board will have the batting order, substitutions, and the score, by inning. It is hard to overstate how much this helps keep things organized and running smoothly. It gets rid of the delays that occur when coaches change the defense. It also gets rid of the confusion regarding the player that batted last. Just make a mark next to the next batter and the confusion is alleviated when your team returns to the dugout to bat.

I believe that the head coach belongs in the dugout. That’s the only way he or she can truly control the game. Teach your assistants how you want them to coach first and third base. Delegate and put some faith in some of your parents; they won’t let you down and on the flip-side, the more your parents are involved in practices, the less complaining you will hear from the crowd at actual games.

We will cover game and practice planning in more detail in upcoming lessons.

Upcoming lessons will include detailed planning for practices and games, choosing the right glove and bat, fielding, base running, philosophy, and a myriad of baseball subjects. Baseball Armory sponsors Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory is an online store that contains quality Akadema baseball and softball gear. Akadema produces high quality baseball and softball equipment, including infield and outfield gloves, catcher’s mitts, metal and wood bats, cleats, turf shoes, youth batting gloves, sunglasses, apparel, equipment bags, glove care products, and miscellaneous baseball and softball accessories.

Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach: Lesson #3 Practices are for Teaching Mechanics – Games are for Having Fun

Hitting a baseball is considered by many as the most difficult skill in sports. It’s brutal because even the most successful baseball player, fails most of the time. That’s why it is important to let the kids play and allow the game be fun. During games, there might be opportunities to teach the mental aspects of the game. Mechanics, though, should be taught and corrected at practice (unless, of course, there are safety concerns). We’ll cover pre-game, soft-toss, and cage work, which should be considered an extension of practice, in future lessons. When game time rolls around, let the players concentrate on what they have learned and try to put them in a position to succeed. Praise them on attitude, hustle, “keeping their head in the game”, and determination. Don’t dwell on the mistakes. Help the players get past the mistakes; help the players have a “short memory”. Most mistakes in baseball are obvious to the players and the fans. As a coach, make a mental note of the mistakes and work on the solutions in practice. Every player knows when they have made an error or struck-out. Pitchers don’t need to be told to throw strikes. Every pitcher wants to throw strikes; that’s what they are trying to do on every pitch.

Baseball relies heavily on something called muscle memory. The more mechanics are practiced, the more they become second nature. They become part of the player’s muscle memory. Baseball players use repetition to hone their mechanics. Things happen so fast in baseball, a player will revert back to whatever mechanics are set in their muscle memory. That is why it is important to save mechanics for practice and fun for the games. The absolutely worst time to be coaching mechanics is when a player is up to bat during a game. At that point, muscle memory is going to take over. If a coach or a parent tries to correct mechanics, it only distracts the player and ruins their concentration. I have had to control many a parent that tried to change mechanics while their son or daughter was at the plate during a game. I only try to communicate positive expressions while a player is at the plate. My favorite expression is “it only takes one”. It means that out of a possibility of six, or more, pitches, it only takes one pitch to make contact and get a hit.

Players punish themselves plenty after making a mistake at the plate or on the field. It is the coach’s job to keep a positive attitude. It is a coach’s job to let them know that mistakes happen in baseball and all players have to have a short memory. Coaches need to understand that baseball is very much a game of momentum. Good hitting and good fielding are contagious; mistakes are also contagious. The more a player dwells on past mistakes, the more they will be affected on future plays. It is essential to let the players play and have fun; if players play not to make a mistake, then mistakes will happen and the fun will disappear.

Upcoming lessons will include planning, choosing the right glove and bat, fielding, base running, philosophy, and a myriad of baseball subjects. Baseball Armory sponsors Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory is an online store that contains quality Akadema baseball and softball gear. Akadema produces high quality baseball and softball equipment, including infield and outfield gloves, catcher’s mitts, metal and wood bats, cleats, turf shoes, batting gloves, sunglasses, apparel, equipment bags, glove care products, and miscellaneous baseball and softball accessories.

Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach: Lesson #2 Coach for the Right Reasons

It is important that every baseball coach starts coaching for the right reasons. Every coach should have three primary goals: 1) increase every player’s skill set so they are better players by the end of the season; 2) strive to make every player’s time with the team a fun experience; and 3) be fair in both positions played and innings played. If a youth baseball coach can accomplish these three things, the season was a success.

As I stated in Lesson #1, it is not where the player starts, but where he/she finishes. It is a coach’s duty to make each player better. I have run into many coaches that use their talent to win ballgames, but don’t necessarily put effort into improving the skills of their players. For example, if a ballplayer has problems swinging the bat, some coaches will put that player at the end of the order and only have them only bunt. So, instead of spending the extra practice time trying to make the player a better hitter, the coach will put the player up there to bunt and hope for a walk. In addition these coaches will also, often times, try to hide that player defensively. In other words, they will try to place the player in a position where they will not have to field a ball. This cheats the players and diminishes the sport. This sort of thing harkens back to the old days when coaches assumed players either “had it” or didn’t. Those that didn’t played the minimum and sat on the end of the bench. But with today’s coaching techniques we know that players, given the chance, can improve; they can learn to hit and field, given the proper instruction and the opportunity. And they deserve that opportunity.

Many coaches coach for two reasons: 1) for the ability to play their son or daughter for as many innings as they like at the positions they want and 2) to win ballgames. These are the wrong reasons. For some reason, there are many coaches at the youth level that only care about winning ballgames. Why? Maybe because these coaches feel like failures if they lose and, in addition to that, most youth leagues will pick the coach with the best overall record to coach the all-star team for that level of play. So, it comes down to prestige; it is more prestigious to win ballgames than to teach baseball. And it then comes down to maturity. How big of a deal is it to be the country’s youth baseball coach with the most wins (woo woo!), compared to being a coach who truly looks out for all of his players and their personal development?

So, I am asking all coaches to buck the system. I had a very simple system. I played my regular season games to teach baseball. I played my tournament games to win ballgames. But, even when striving to win, I wanted to allocate fair playing time. Why shouldn’t all the teammates be able to participate in the challenge of play-off baseball?

I am also asking leagues to buck the system; leagues should make it more prestigious to teach baseball than to win ballgames. I want to win as much as anyone. But there is a right way and a wrong way. Coaches at the youth level shouldn’t have winning as their top priority. Prestige is defined at the group level; leagues define what is prestigious within their ranks. If youth leagues start recognizing their coaches as teachers, then teaching baseball becomes prestigious, and a new trend in youth coaching will begin.

Baseball Armory sponsors Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory is an online store that contains quality Akadema softball and baseball gear. Akadema produces high quality baseball and softball equipment, including Infield and outfield gloves, catcher’s mitts, metal and wood bats, cleats, turf shoes, batting gloves, sunglasses, apparel, equipment bags, glove care products, and miscellaneous baseball and softball accessories.

Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach: Lesson #1 First Steps in Coaching

I was a youth baseball coach for many years. I entered the coaching arena because my son started playing the sport late and I found that his first coach did not give him enough playing time to increase his skill set. I was also frustrated by the way his first coach ran practices. I found that he was only making progress when he worked directly with me. So, out of frustration, I became a head coach his second year in baseball.

The first thing I realized very quickly was my inability to transfer my knowledge to the players; I knew how to play the game, but I didn’t know how to teach the game. My assistant coach and I began to attend all the coaching clinics possible. Coaching clinics can be a little frustrating because you will find they are not consistent in the mechanics they teach. I found that the mechanics that came with the simplest instructions and the least amount of movement were the best; simple instructions alleviate frustration for both the coach and the player. In addition, simple translates into success faster. Success translates into fun.

The second thing I learned very quickly was the style of coaching has to be molded directly to the age group you are coaching. The younger the players, the shorter the attention span. For example, a coach should not spend more than 5 minutes on any one drill for 7 or 8 year old players. Show them the proper technique, let them practice that technique a few times, and then move them on to another drill. Do not be frustrated and think that there is no way they can pick up any technique that quickly. Young players will constantly amaze you if practices are organized, fast-moving, and fun.

The third thing I realized very quickly was the importance of having fun yourself. The more fun you have coaching, the better coach you will be. Fun is contagious; players will learn quicker if they see the coaching staff having fun teaching them. A coach’s job is to teach baseball, make the game fun, so players will stick with the sport, and to be fair with playing time. Youngsters practice to play; so, reward practice with playing time.

The last thing I learned very rapidly was fairness. Be fair with the players and be fair with your own son or daughter. Make an effort to treat your son or daughter no different than you would treat someone else's son or daughter. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have someone, not attached to coaching staff, observe, and give you feedback. In that respect, I was lucky. I had a spouse and grandparents that never missed a game. I had real time feedback immediately following every game. If I was too hard on my son, I heard about it after the game. Remember, you want your son or daughter to have fun and stick with the sport because of the fun and not because you want them to get a college scholarship. In addition, be fair with playing time for all of your players. Mistakes are a reality of baseball. The only way to alleviate mistakes is playing time. So be fair. Remember that it is not where a player starts that is important, it is where they finish.

About Baseball Armory - "The Baseball Blog"

This blog is sponsored by Baseball Armory. Its purpose is to provide information to the Baseball Armory community. The information can be anything related to baseball and it is meant for everyone. So, please keep it clean. The editorial staff reserves the right to remove, or edit, any posts they feel are inappropriate for the Baseball Armory community. The editorial staff also reserves the right to correct the spelling and/or grammar for any post on the blog. If anyone reads what they interpret as an inappropriate post, please send an email to customer-service@jvva.com immediately.

This blog is meant for entertainment purposes only. Baseball Armory - "The Baseball Blog" and its editors are not responsible for the safety or effectiveness of any information, or claims made, within a post. It is the total responsibility of the reader to do his/her homework with regard to any information contained within a post. It is the total responsibility of the reader to make sure they have all of the proper equipment, attire, and instructions to ensure the safety of all participants. It is also the total responsibility of the reader to understand that all posts are solely the opinion of the author and it is the reader's responsibility to ensure all information is correct and accurate before they use the information for any purpose.

Baseball Armory proudly offer a large selection of Akadema Professional Baseball and Softball Products including baseball and softball gloves by field position, size or design series, wood and aluminum baseball bats, youth baseball and softball gear, batting gloves and baseball apparel and accessories at a discount price. This is the best place to buy a professional level baseball glove without paying the price of a custom made glove.