Press & Press Break
The press has a shelf life. By middle school, a well-coached team will carve up a press every single time. Players physically develop the composure to handle traps. A skip pass over the top of your press suddenly turns into a three-on-none fastbreak the other way.
For this reason, there are differing opinions on pressing and the time spent focusing on teaching kids how to press. At the highest elite levels on high school you almost never see it.
That said, if you don’t coach it and decide to entirely focus on man-to-man, your team may not develop the press break capability. Understanding princples of pressing, help teach principles of press break. Also, there will be moments in games, when you need to apply pressure and hope for a quick bucket. For these reasons, we post this content in hopes you’ll use it wisely.