Notes by Scott Bullock

Vance Walberg
Full Court Pressure: Defensive System
Notes by Scott Bullock

Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................2
Court Geography and Terminology ....................................................................................................................2
Defensive Keys ....................................................................................................................................................3
Player Responsibilities ........................................................................................................................................3
Controller ........................................................................................................................................................3
Gapper ............................................................................................................................................................3
Taker ...............................................................................................................................................................3
Reader.............................................................................................................................................................3
Teaser .............................................................................................................................................................4
Important Terminology ......................................................................................................................................4
Stupid Fouls ....................................................................................................................................................4
Active Hands ...................................................................................................................................................4
Traps ...............................................................................................................................................................4
Air Passes ........................................................................................................................................................4
Terrible 3’s ......................................................................................................................................................4
Controller ........................................................................................................................................................4
Bad Beat..........................................................................................................................................................5
Hugger and Sniffer ..........................................................................................................................................5
Punch Out .......................................................................................................................................................5
Move on the Pass ...........................................................................................................................................5
Vertical Trap....................................................................................................................................................5
See it and Fix It................................................................................................................................................5
Cushion Zone ..................................................................................................................................................5
Phasing............................................................................................................................................................5
Eyes .................................................................................................................................................................6
Quarters ..........................................................................................................................................................6
Defending Different Formations.........................................................................................................................7
1 Guard Front..................................................................................................................................................7
2 Guard Front..................................................................................................................................................7
3 Guard Front..................................................................................................................................................7
4 Across...........................................................................................................................................................7
Running the Baseline ......................................................................................................................................7
Middle Flashers...............................................................................................................................................7
Live Play ..............................................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................................8
 Notes by Scott Bullock

Introduction
Coach Walberg has been coaching 31 years. He was at the high school level for 24 years. It has only been
the last two years where he has been at the division one level. He was first at Pepperdine as the head
coach and now at UMass as an assistant. Coach Walberg is primarily known for his famous “Dribble Drive
Motion” Offense. In this video he will discuss his full court 2-2-1 press. He believes the defensive strategy
here is better than his offense and that the two complement each other. The biggest key to any full court
defense is pressure, pressure, pressure. Everything in their practice is about pressure. If you came to one
of their practices you would hear that word a lot. To him there is never enough pressure on the ball. One
of the reasons they implemented the dribble drive offense was to deal with their pressure in practice.

Court Geography and Terminology

Coach Walberg divides the floor into vertical quarters. There are basically four full court lanes on the
court. He uses the volleyball lines to easily identify the outside quarters on each side of the floor. Anytime
the ball is in one of the outside quarters they want all five defensive players on that side of the floor. If the
ball is on one of the inside quarters then all five defenders must be on the inside quarters. The only way
you can afford to be this aggressive with your positioning is if you have a lot of pressure on the ball. Each
defender is also at least to the level of the ball and then splitting their man and the ball. Horizontally you
have 3 different zones (pressure, cushion, and umbrella). They will each be discussed.

Outside and Inside Quarters Zones Player Spots

Pressure Zone

Controller
Gapper

Cushion Zone Reader

Taker

Teaser

Umbrella Zone
 Notes by Scott Bullock

Defensive Keys

1. Pressure, Pressure, Pressure

2. Get to your “Quarters”
3. Defense begins when the man puts the ball on the ground. Actually, it’s when they start an attack
dribble that the defense begins. It does not start off a standing dribble. We do not want them to go
one dribble and pass. We want to see dribble, dribble, dribble. That lets the whole defense cook.
Extensive work off the dribble also wears down the offense.

Player Responsibilities

Controller
Person on the ball in the back court. He is usually your toughest player. He is the only person in this
defense guarding only one person. Responsibilities in order of importance: 1) Does not let his man see the
floor; 2) Get his man to put the ball on the floor ; and 3) Get one turn in the back court. If you get one turn
you did your job. If you get two turns so much the better. If you get no turns you sub out. Not so much
about speed but being smart with angles.

Gapper
This is the defender horizontally across from the ball in the back court. Main responsibility of the gapper is
“Do Not Get Gapped”. This means don’t get split with dribble penetration up the middle. The “Gapper”
subs out if he gets gapped. Gappers become trappers once the ball is put on the ground. If the ball gets
dribbled up the sideline the gapper comes hard from behind as a trapper. Controller and Gapper can
switch sides of the court to help each other as the ball is reversed horizontally. First one to get to the ball
becomes the controller. They work in a tandem.

Taker
Defender up the line from the ball. He has one responsibility. When they come down his side he has to
take the pass away up the line in his area. He plays a few feet on his man on the sideline but needs to
always take pass away. Taker does not come up to trap. That’s the job of the gapper. Taker would never
play deeper than mid-court initially; only after a dribble up the sideline. On a dribble up the sideline the
taker must sprint back hard up the sideline preventing any passes up floor.

Reader
The reader is the defender that takes the diagonal passes in the mid-court area. This player is usually your
best anticipator. An aggressive player that is good at picking off passes. They must take away the pass to
the middle of the floor. The teaser has the long opposite. On a “Bad Beat” the reader gets back and
protects the umbrella zone. He forms part of the top of the umbrella with the taker. Doesn’t allow easy
passes ahead but doesn’t come up and create a terrible 3. On a dribble up the sideline where he sees a
 Notes by Scott Bullock

turn and trap coming he anticipates to the middle of the floor to take away the horizontal pass across the
floor. He doesn’t aggressively attack backwards passes but horizontal passes. On a backwards pass across
the court, the reader then becomes the taker and the taker the reader.

Teaser
This defender is in the back safety position. Teaser always also always has long and opposite. He wants to
play in a position though that teases the in-bounder into throwing a full court pass. He has the teaser
almost come to half court initially especially if the in-bounder lacks arm strength. If the ball is not even
cocked then the teaser can be most aggressive. Key here is to be smart. Don’t be a hugger. You don’t
want to come to half court with squared shoulders though. You need to retain vision of the opponent’s
basket as well as the in-bounder. Once the ball comes in bound you can continue to tease. The more
pressure on the ball the more you can tease. If the ball is being dribble up the weak side of the floor you
should know that you can cheat or tease even more. How could is the ball handler at throwing a full court
pass with their left hand.

Important Terminology

Stupid Fouls
Don’t commit stupid fouls and bail the offense out. He really emphasizes this point especially on traps. Do
not bring the hands down. Fan the basketball but don’t reach!

Active Hands
He loves active hands. They want to get tips. They record and track tips / deflections.

Traps
Two sins in a trap. Never foul and never get split.

Air Passes
Anytime you see an air pass or lob pass during the press it means you are doing your job. Anytime you see
a straight line pass it’s not a good sign. It’s the controller’s job to make sure there is never a straight line
pass.

Terrible 3’s
You never want three people on the ball in this defense. If the taker comes up to trap on a sideline dribble
it will create a terrible three situation. The other terrible three is that you never want three defenders
behind the level of the ball.

Controller
This assignment is usually not given to your best offensive player because this player is more prone to get in
foul trouble working the ball.
 Notes by Scott Bullock

Bad Beat
This situation occurs when the controller gets beat easily up the sideline or back to the middle of the floor.
The reader does not come up and stop the dribble. He back peddles and protects perhaps faking help but
does not come forward. The controller and the gapper look to get a punch out.

Hugger and Sniffer

These are two things that you do not want to be -- a hugger and/or a sniffer. Example of a hugger is when
the taker plays right up against the man on the sideline. He should be a few feet off him acting as a threat
to the dribbler. A sniffer is someone who gets beat and just chases casually behind the ball. You must
chase aggressively and look to get the punch out (tip from behind).

Punch Out
This is a tip from behind. If you run this defense right you will get more steals from behind than the other
way.

Move on the Pass

Good players constantly move on the pass. Great players move on the pivot and sprint to the pass.

Vertical Trap
On a pass up the floor to one of the side lines in the cushion zone, the controller or gapper will come up to
set another trap called the vertical trap. The taker or reader plays a cat and mouse game with the ball
handler until the trapper comes. Taker doesn’t want to apply too much pressure until the trap comes in
order to avoid getting beat to the basket and putting three defenders behind the ball. Rule is that
whenever they catch in the cushion zone you play cat and mouse until the vertical trap comes. We prefer
they don’t catch in the cushion zone but if they do we can’t go crazy with defensive pressure.

See it and Fix It

On a vertical trap, the opposite up front defender (controller or gapper) does what he calls a see it and fix
it. If there is a strong trap he aggressively defends the perimeter pass. If the trap is weak he may drop back
farther to protect the basket.

Cushion Zone
Any time they catch in cushion zone, we play cat and mouse on the catch and look to vertical trap with the
opposite up front player in see it and fix it mode.

Phasing
He uses this terminology for cutters through the zone. This mostly applies to diagonal cutters. You only
follow them so far and hand off to next player in the zone. In most cases this would be the reader. He
takes away the diagonal pass. The teaser would cover the long diagonal.
 Notes by Scott Bullock

Eyes
The taker, reader, and teaser must read the in-bounders eyes.

Quarters
If you get to your quarters you solve 99% of your problems.
 Notes by Scott Bullock

Defending Different Formations

1 Guard Front
The defender on the side of that guard denies the heck out of that one guard. They don’t double team but
do handoff as the player switches sides of the floor.

2 Guard Front
Both defender’s man up and try and force inbound to the corner or sideline area. Defender on ball side is
called STRONG and defender on opposite side is called WEAK. The weak side defender does not want to
follow their man to the corner though or else they become a hugger. They need to be responsible for the
in-bounder after the ball comes in to the strong side. They split the difference and use the backboard as
another defender. Backboard prevents them from throwing up the floor diagonally.

Weak’s Responsibilities:
1) Must play high side and phase with your man on the weak side
2) Must be ready to take the in-bounder on the pass to the strong side corner.
3) Weak becomes strong when the in-bounder runs to his side.

3 Guard Front
They would defend the strong side of the floor with STRONG and the middle of the floor with WEAK and
leave the true weak side player open for the entry pass. Again, it’s a very difficult pass with the backboard
in the way.

4 Across
They would cover the close 3 players to the ball by bringing the reader up. They would leave the man
farthest away open.

Running the Baseline

As the in-bounder runs the baseline the two up front players need to switch between STRONG and WEAK
quickly and intelligently. The taker and reader need to switch quickly as well.

Middle Flashers
These are the responsibility of the reader.

Live Play

He has the circle the hoop as 10 players. He will throw the ball through and they quickly get to their spots
and go live. They only run this zone press after scores. On a dead ball they man up defensively.
 Notes by Scott Bullock

Conclusion

1) Pressure, Pressure, Pressure – Great ball pressure.

2) Get to your “Quarters”
3) Defense begins when you get them to go with a hard dribble. Don’t bring the trap on a soft or
sucker dribble.

They filter this defense down and continue to use in the half court. They keep the pressure coming. They
only do this off a make.

He believes this defense gives him a chance to win even when they don’t shoot well.