Keith Dambrot: Full Court 1-2-1-1 Pressure Defense & Breakdown Drills

With a full court press at the ready, your team can more easily play catch-up, play more players, and control tempo when it needs to. Now, you can learn from one of the best Mid-Major pressure coaches in the country!

Keith Dambrot has compiled an impressive resume as head coach at the University of Akron. Under his leadership, the Zips have won at least 22 games each season from 2005 to 2013. One reason he has been so successful is his smothering, full-court pressure defense.

Coach Dambrot uses the whole-part-whole approach to teach the system, talks about the main elements involved, and examines the rules for any trapping system as it pertains to structure, alignment, and individual responsibilities.

Using on-court demonstrations, Coach Dambrot teaches the strategy behind his full-court diamond press. He breaks the diamond press into eight easy, teachable parts: trapping, fundamentals, anticipation fundamentals, positioning, flicking, run back, transition defense and outnumbered situations. He also ventures into the 2-1-2 press when discussing trapping angles, responsibilities, and overall alignment contained within both the base and "Blitz" package. Defensive adjustments when facing a three-player offense-compared to a four-player offense-are also analyzed.

Learn how to make decisions when pressing that lead to turnovers and scoring opportunities. Get drills that can be practiced daily to develop an effective pressing team and that can also be used to break any press.

To safely secure a late-game inbounds opportunity, Dambrot shows three plays you can use against a heavy dose of man-to-man full court pressure. All three utilize a deep option in order to capitalize on an overly aggressive defensive front, and all three incorporate safe options off various screening actions in order to securely get the ball inbounds. Also demonstrated is an offensive set for taking on a trapping 1-3-1 half-court defense that utilizes the deep corner option to create indecision on the part of the defense.

This is a great video for adding weapons to your defensive arsenal and forcing opponents out of their comfort zone.

Produced at the Spring 2013 Las Vegas (NV) clinic.

77 minutes. 2013.