The Coaches’ Corner: Coming Out of Time Out on Defense

Coach Bob Anderson- Williamsfield

Coming out of a time out and you are on defense. Here are some things to think about:

1- Do you want to stay in the same defense or change defenses?

2- Do you want to trap?

*** Trap continuous for entire possession.

*** Trap one time, then drop to something else.

*** Trap but wait for the offense to make 2-3 passes then trap. 

3- Do you want to try and deny the ball inbounds?

4- I have also read where a lot of coaches think this is a great time to use some form of combination defense. I go along with this idea. 

We all know you can’t put 10 or 12 things in a kid’s minds during a time out. So here’s my advice to young coaches… 

When you come out of a time out, you better know your defense, your offense, and be ready for a change in defense. 

Coach Evan Massey- Galesburg

Coach Anderson’s idea of coming out to change defenses after a time out or quarter, can throw the other team off. Especially if the other team took a time out to get their offense organized, and now you are in another defense. 

Coach Mike Reynolds was a master at this concept of changing his defense after a time out. Either coming out at the beginning of the second quarter, or after a time out in the second quarter, he switched defenses. He always played man to man defense as his base defense, after the time out he came out in an extended 1-3-1 zone. If the other team didn’t score, then he would stay in the defense as long as he thought it was effective. 

This brings up a valuable point from Coach Bob Anderson’s thoughts on changing defense- you need to decide if you are going to do it for just one possession or multiple possessions.

Another strategy coming out of time outs is to look at what you want to do when you get the ball on offense….

1- If team has to set up next offensive possession, call the play in the time out. This would not allow the other team to hear a play call. It is a great time to set up a trick play or a back door call. 

2- It is a great time to “chain plays.” You tell the team whether going into fastbreak or just a set— run a secondary then run the play you want to score. 

3- Set up a press after the score on the next possession. 

The point of this conversation is that a coach can use the time out not only to correct problems but to throw a change at the other team.