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Cliff Ellis: Pressing Options Out of a 1-2-1-1 Will you be ready to press your opponent when you absolutely have to? Coastal Carolina head coach Cliff Ellis has over 850 career wins, six conference coach of the year awards, and a national coach of the year award (1999) under his belt. In this video, Coach Ellis teaches his patented 1-2-1-1 full-court press. He does an outstanding job of describing each individual responsibility and role within the press as well as all the details that make the press a great strategy. The press is for both cautious and more aggressive coaches. Those that are cautious will find security in the many effective ideas that are taught on how to avoid being beaten down the court in transition. Aggressive coaches will learn how to get into multiple trapping opportunities and how to press off of a missed shot. Coach Ellis shows you how to start the press in a more conservative manner to begin. The full-court press can also morph into a three-quarter court press that will keep opponents off balance. The press becomes very aggressive as Ellis teaches players how to trap on the first inbound pass. Wings learn when and where to trap as Ellis tapes off sections of the court. This helps players understand how to move when the ball is passed. He teaches both the middle man and the safety how to “lie in the weeds” in order to force ball movement for a trap. The most important part of any press, according to Ellis, is the recovery. Coach Ellis goes deep into demonstrating and teaching how to recover from the press. The final part of the video is where Ellis explains a number of different situations to put players through right from Day 1. He talks about a “multiply” situation where players must scramble into a secondary press if a steal occurs and a basket is made. You will see how to defend the four basic passes out of the initial trap. Coach Ellis also shows you how to switch from a conservative 1-2-1-1 full-court press to a more aggressive three-quarter court “12 Press” when the ball is passed backwards in the press. These pressure concepts will create panic in your opponents and allow your team to capitalize on their indecisions.