Youth Defense Preference

I have talked with a number of coaches on their philosophy for youth defense. The old debate as to whether or not youth programs should be able to play zone defense. I am not sure whether there is a definate correct answer to this debate.

My preference is to have my youth programs to play man to man defense. I have ran zone defenses in the past and will continue to do so in the future. However, I feel that when teams learn to play fundamental man to man defense, it will improve their zone defense in the long run. Here is why:

1. I feel that it is easier to teach man to man defensive progressions than it is zone progressions. I am not saying that you can not teach zone progressions, but I feel that that at the youth level, it is easier to build up to 5 on 5 defense (start on 1-1 drills, 2-2 drills, and so on). To many times I have seen youth coaches simply teach zone defense from a 5 on 5 perspective, and never teach any fundamentals. However, the same thing could be said about some coaches who inappropriately teach man to man defense.

2. I prefer to play match up zones instead of traditional zone defenses. I think traditional zone defenses require certain players, usually guards, to cover to much ground. Match up zones allow you to apply MORE of a man to man defensive concept from all 5 players on the floor.

3. As a coach, I am less concerned with how may games my youth programs are winning and more concerned with their progress on fundamentals. It does not take a great defensive team to sag in the middle of lane and force the offense to shoot 20 footers. You might get the win, but I feel that the players are not truly learning how to play defense. However, a sagging man to man defense would accomplish the same thing as a sagging 2-3 zone. Therefore, I feel that the youth programs should learn how to get into passing lanes, apply appropriate ball pressure, help, and rotate. In my opinion, it is easier for a team who is used to playing pressure denial defense to play sag / pack defense rather than a team that plays sag defense then have to go get into passing lanes at the end of the game.

4. There is also a misconception that when a you are playing a team with a big post player, that a zone defense is the only solution to containing that post player. I see this as a great opportunity to teach how to teach team man to man defense. I am not saying that a zone defense is not a good approach, I just feel that at the youth level, some coaches are quick to to pull the zone trigger rather than making some simple man to man adjustments.

These are just my opinions and philosophy to the this particular element of the game. By no means am I saying it is the right or only method. I am sure that there are a lot of programs out there who effectively can teach zone defense to youth programs. My hope would be that all youth coaches talk with their upper level coaches and ask "what type of defense do you want me to be working on?" so that they can adequately prepare these youth players for the next level of play.

Best of luck with whatever approach you use.

Greetings

Greetings,

After about a year of deliberation, I finally broke down and decided to start a blog. As a computer science teacher, one would have thought that I would have dived in a long time ago.

As a basketball enthusiast, I hope to share some of the things that I have learned over my short 6 years of coaching basketball. I spend a lot of my spare time studying basketball related items (clinic notes, X's and O's.....). I really enjoy the ability to network with other coaches through the Internet. It has made me a better coach, as well as helped me appreciate the various basketball philosophies that are out there.

One of my favorite things to do is to pass along coaching notes to other coaches. There a number of coaches out there that have been nice enough to pass along things to me, so I see my passing along my basketball resources as a way to give back to the coaching community.

One of the things that I learned early, while networking with other coaches through forums, is that the coaching community is a pretty close knit community, even if we don't all know each other. We all go through the same highs and lows in some form or another, so it allows us to appreciate those trials and tribulations when we go through them.

In closing, I hope to give back to the basketball coaching community some of my limited knowledge on the game of basketball.

Stay tuned.