How to teach zone defense in basketball

How to Teach a 2-3 (2-1-2) Zone Basketball Defense

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Summary

This zone is similar to the 2-3 zone that Jim Boeheim uses at Syracuse. This is can be a very effective zone defense, because it still covers the 3-point arc as well as the inside game.

Youth Coaches: Even though, you CAN win more games, AVOID playing any type of zone defense, because it can teach bad habits and hinder the long-term development of your players. Our advice would be to focus on Man to Man Defense. If you would like to read a detailed explanation of why we advise youth coaches to avoid zone defenses, click here.

Our Gift to You: We had this post turned into a PDF for your convenience! (Download Now!)

Helpful Zone Defense Resources

If you'd like to dig deeper and get more information about developing an effective zone defense, we highly recommend Al Marshall's Zone Defense. In our opinion, he runs one of the best zone defenses in the country and it gives you the most thorough explanation of zone defense we have seen.

Zone Defense Concepts & Tips

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Zone Defense is Terrible for Youth Basketball

A coach sent me an email last week that said this (summarized):

“Hi. This week we’re playing against a team that runs a tight 2-3 zone all game. They have much taller players than we do and they barely ever leave the key on defense. What should we do?”

Do you want to know what my reply was?

“Pray that your team makes outside shots.”

Obviously, that wasn’t my whole reply, but it was the overall thought of the email I sent back in response.

I wrote a post on how to beat a 2-3 zone defense not too long ago, but admittedly, a lot of the strategies require that the defense is stepping out and respecting the outside shot (I’ll talk about this a lot throughout the article).

If the defense plays close to the ring at all times and doesn’t challenge the shot (like most youth teams do), these strategies become incredibly hard to implement.

So I decided to create this post that shares with you why zone defense is effective in youth basketball, why coaches use it, how it’s hurting the game, and also to answer any arguments that coaches in favor of zone defense have.

I’ll mostly be referring to the 2-3 zone defense for this article since that is by far the most popular zone to play at a youth basketball level.

If there’s one point I’m not going to argue in this article, it’s this:

Zone defense is incredibly effective at a youth basketball level.

That is a 100% indisputable fact. Coaches use zone defense because it flat out works against young teams and players.

Here are the 2 main reasons why…

How a 2-3 zone will usually set up in youth basketball.

We all know that most of the points scored in youth basketball come from layups and shots taken from close to the ring.

By implementing a zone defense, the defensive team packs the paint and takes away the driving lanes to the hoop.

What’s option does this leave the offensive team with? The outside shot.

Therefore, since the offensive team can’t get to the basket and take a good shot, you’ll see a bunch of young players chucking up long-distance shots and praying they’ll go in.

As I’m sure you can imagine, not many of these shot attempts are successful.

Most of these youth athletes are simply not physically developed enough to make outside shots consistently. They lack the strength required to shoot the basketball properly.

But since that’s the only open shot they can get, they take them anyway.

Young players don’t have the strength to make this skip pass.

To put it simply, a ‘skip pass’ is a pass made from one side of the court to the other ‘skipping’ other offensive players.

When the offensive players aren’t physically strong enough to make this pass, it allows the defense to flood one side of the court without needing to worry about shooters on the other side.

Doing this makes it even more difficult for the offensive team to find gaps in the defense to penetrate.

Now that you understand how it works, let’s talk about why coaches use it…

In my opinion, there are three main reasons why coaches implement a zone defense in youth basketball.

And, surprisingly for an article completely against zone defenses, they’re not all terrible reasons.

Here they are…

This is the number one reason why coaches use zone defense in my opinion. Because they want to win.

The reason for why coaches want to win can vary greatly. Some reasons nobler than others.

Here are a few of the reasons why coaches want to win:

1. To fuel their ego.
2. To keep their team competitive.
3. To gain recognition from others.
4. To keep players from leaving their team.
5. To keep the players and parents happy.

As you can see from that list, not all reasons are negative reasons.

I’ll openly admit that I had this exact feeling when I first started coaching.

When your team runs a zone, you look like a much smarter coach simply because it takes advantage of the offensive team’s major weaknesses.

Players look organized on the court, the zone is effective, the opposition struggles to score, etc.

It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in appearing like you’re a good coach when all you’re really doing is putting every player in the limited area that the opposition can shoot from and instructing them to stand there.

If you run a man-to-man defense, the defense doesn’t look as organized, it’s much harder to play help defense, and the opposition will score easy baskets while your team gains more experience.

All coaches want to look like they’re having an impact on the game, but it’s important that we all keep in mind what’s best for your team’s long-term development.

Whether they want to or not, some coaches do feel forced to use a zone defense just to stay competitive with the other teams in their league.

This reason I can understand and it’s a decent argument in favor of playing zone defense.

I think we call all agree that no youth basketball team should ever lose by any number close to 50 points.

Using a zone defense can turn a would-be blowout game that’s embarrassing for the players, into a closer and more respectable game.

But if you are forced to resort to this zone strategy just to stay competitive, one thing is very clear…

Your team is playing against the wrong competition.

You shouldn’t have to use a zone to be competitive. If your team does, you need to find a new league, improve the players on the team, or figure something else out to solve the issue.

Playing a zone defense isn’t the best long-term answer to your troubles.

All coaches must remember that our focus should be on the futures of the athletes we coach.

I assure you that in a few years no one will care that you won the under 10’s championship by implementing a zone defense and forcing the opponents to shoot from outside. No one.

The first three reasons I talk about are the same that Tyler describes in his article here. I’ve added a fourth reason, but completely agree with the first three and wanted to share my thoughts on them also.

Here are the 4 main reasons why zone defense is terrible for youth basketball.

Before all the pro-zone coaches jump at me with lines similar to:

“A good zone defense still teaches man-to-man principles!”

I’m not saying that there’s nothing a player who runs a zone will learn from a zone that will assist their man-to-man defense. They still need to close out, still need to communicate, still need to play help defense, etc.

Please know that I understand that.

But there are many poor defensive habits that will also come with running a zone that players will also develop.

And let me be clear… these really are habits.

Ask any coach that receives the unenviable task of trying to convert a life-long zone player into a man-to-man defender. Some of these habits are really, really hard to break.

Tyler, whose basketball knowledge I respect a great deal, came up with this list of 15 poor defensive habits that a zone defense promotes…

1. Lazy on-ball defense
2. Standing and watching off ball
3. Poor closeout technique
4. Little accountability
5. Lack of communication
6. Minimal defensive movement
7. Fewer opportunities to guard different positions and areas of the floor
8. Fewer opportunities to practice communication in defensive transition
9. Fewer opportunities to practice decision-making in defensive transition
10. Reduced accountability on box outs
11. Fewer decisions while playing help defense
12. Decreased defense-rotation repetitions
13. Fewer opportunities to learn what constitutes acceptable defensive risk-taking
14. Minimal opportunities to defend a screen
15. Fewer opportunities for bigger players to guard the ball.

Quick note: If winning is your number one priority, this point will be incredibly hard for you to comprehend.

By running a zone defense in youth basketball, you’re also doing a large disservice to the offensive team, too.

But is that something you should have to worry about? After all, your task is to stop the other team from scoring, not help them. Right?

Coaches have to understand that we’re all in this together for the development of the players.

Do you really want an 8-year-old team chucking long-distance shots at the ring because they can’t get any closer so that you can win an 8-year-old basketball game?

Because, unfortunately, that’s the only thing a zone defense allows them to do.

Please don’t think I’m saying that you should sit back and allow the other team to score… because I’m not at all.

But I do think that we need to give the offensive team a chance to make smart basketball plays and experience different offensive opportunities that a zone defense doesn’t allow.

They won’t get to practice moving the basketball while being pressured, their cuts are useless because the paint is flooded with 5 defenders, setting screens to get open is pointless because the defense is leaving them open and waiting for them to shoot anyway, and there’s plenty of other lost opportunities for offensive development.

Again, similar to the point on defensive habits, I understand that the players will still learn and grow against a zone… but they won’t learn half as much that will prepare them for the future as they would if they were playing against a man-to-man defense.

One of the most important tasks of a youth basketball coach is to prepare their players for the next level of basketball.

Here’s a super important fact that has been echoed by many great coaches…

A player that is taught man-to-man defense when they’re young will have a much easier transition to playing zone defense than a player who plays zone defense exclusively at a young age will have transitioning to a man-to-man defense when they’re older.

So this comes down to a case of ‘do you want your players to be better prepared for the future or do you want them to win now?’

Another thing you’ll notice is that as the competition gets better and the players more skilled, the less zone defense you will see implemented.

This is because zone defense works great against young teams with no skill but struggles against players with a lot of basketball experience.

So to give your players the best chance of success at the next level, it’s imperative that they’re competent playing man-to-man defense.

This is probably the most disappointing reason of all…

By playing a zone defense, you rob the players of all the fun that basketball should be providing them.

Barely anyone is able to make a basket, both teams are throwing turnover after turnover, and every player is forced to throw up long-distance shots that have no hope of going in!

Does this sound like a fun game of basketball to you?

Because to me, it sounds horrible.

We need to give all players a chance to fall in love with the game of basketball like we all did when we were young.

I’ve heard every argument in the book from coaches in favor of running zones. Some of them are legitimate, others I find to be ignorant nonsense.

Here I’m going to share my thoughts on some of the arguments coaches use that are in favor of using zone defense.

The first thing that coaches must understand about zone offense is that although not all shots taken out of a zone offense are three-pointers, zone offense relies on the defense respecting the three-point shot.

This is because if your team can’t shoot the basketball from the outside (and most youth teams can’t), then the defense won’t extend out to respect the shot which will open up gaps in the zone.

Instead, all 5 defenders will stand back in the key and wait for you to miss the outside, uncontested shot.

This would be a decent argument at a higher level, but definitely not at the youth basketball level.

The coaches that preach that ‘the issue is zone offense, not zone defense’, will often give you the following two pieces of advice…

a. “Your team needs to learn how to move the basketball better!”

Ball movement doesn’t achieve much.

Most youth teams have no problem passing the basketball against a compact 2-3 zone. In fact, it’s often too easy!

If the offensive player is at the three-point line to space the court, there’s often no defender anywhere near them. All the defenders are still inside the key or a step or two out of it. But they’re definitely not pressuring the basketball.

Why should they? The defense knows they’ll miss the shot.

The defense doesn’t particularly care how quickly or how well you move the basketball around the perimeter either. You can swing it from side to side 5 times and the only thing that’s going to move on the defense is their heads while they watch.

They’re going to stand back in the paint and wait until you shoot it so that they can get the rebound.

And there’s no chance your fantastic ball movement is going to penetrate the zone since all 5 defenders are inside the key and can basically touch hands if they all put their arms out.

b. Try screening the zone. That always works!”

Screening the zone doesn’t help much.

I’ve heard numerous people advise youth coaches that they should start screening the zone and I still can’t see how it would benefit the offense.

Maybe screening one of the top players to get an open shot on the wing would work, but the offense is definitely not going to get a layup out of it.

Down-screening one of their players and cutting outside isn’t going to achieve anything at all. The defense isn’t going to follow them and create a gap in the defense. They’re staying inside the key.

The offensive team isn’t having any trouble getting open anyway.

Once again, screening the zone relies on the offense being able to hit outside shots so that the defense is forced to chase and contest the outside shot.

I talked about this previously in the article so I’ll make this quick…

This is the only decent argument in favor of playing a zone defense.

If your team is losing by such a wide margin every game, it won’t be long before the parents and players are sick of it and move along to another team.

And, unfortunately, it’s often the best players that go first.

If you are losing by a wide margin every game, you’d be far better off finding a new league or competition to participate in than you simply conceding to playing zone defense every game.

The problem with this argument is made obvious by this simple quote from the great Don Meyer.

“When you add, you must subtract” – Don Meyer

By teaching an extra defense to your players, you’re stealing time away from skill development or opportunities to work on other aspects of their game.

Do you really think implementing a zone defense is the best use of the limited time that you have with your players at practice each week?

Coaches already have barely any time at practice with their players.

When teams don’t have any practice time, they often resort to using a zone defense.

I get it. It’s far easier to get a player to stand in one position close to the basket than it is to get them to stay between their player and the basket for an entire possession.

But if you don’t have time to teach them man-to-man defense now, when will they have time to learn it?

It’s imperative that we let players experience man-to-man defense as early as possible.

To me, this is a prime example of putting winning at a young age over future development.

It’s not difficult to instruct your players to stand next to one of the offensive players and stay between them and the basket.

Sure, they’ll get lost a couple of times and your team will give up a few easy baskets, but they’ll gradually gain more experience and improve their defense.

Once they’re getting a grasp of defending their own player, start introducing them to help defense.

Teaching your players these little concepts can all be done during games and in the huddles you have before and after games.

I have a feeling a lot of coaches will cringe when reading this argument… I know I did when I first heard it.

How is hiding a poor defender in a zone going to help them with their man-to-man defense in the future?

This is a clear-cut case of a coach putting winning before development.

Allow the poor defender to gain more experience defending. That’s the only way they’re going to improve.

In fact, they’re probably a poor defender because their previous coach only ran a zone and didn’t focus on their future development too.

I discussed this topic earlier in the article but let’s quickly go over it again so that my thoughts on the topic are clear.

Zone defense does teach some man-to-man principles, that’s correct.

But, obviously, a man-to-man defense teaches those man-to-man principles a lot better than a zone defense does.

So while the zone defense isn’t all bad, there’s a far better alternative.

To me, this argument is used as an excuse to play zone defense when the coach wants to win.

What a terrible argument this is.

Let’s remember that many of the players either using or competing against the zone defense will be in their first couple of years playing basketball competitively.

How long does it take to become a consistent outside shooter? A few years at the very, very minimum.

How long does it take to implement a zone defense that stands in the key and barely moves? 1 – 2 minutes.

Let’s also not forget that, depending on age, many players physically can’t shoot the basketball consistently yet no matter how much practice they put in!

We’ve all heard those coaches that believe they can predict a players’ future at 8 years old.

“They’ll never be good enough. They’re too short” or “See that kid, he’s going to be a superstar in 10 years.”

How a coach can come to such confident conclusions when players still so young is beyond me.

Basketball is littered with stories of late-blooming players who went on to have amazing professional carers.

Michael Jordan failed to make his high school varsity team as a sophomore and is now known as the best basketball player who ever lived.

Hakeem Olajuwon didn’t pick up a basketball until he was 15 years old and is now regarded as one of the greatest centers to ever play the game.

Tim Duncan made the transition from swimming to basketball in high school and is now arguably the greatest power forward of all time.

And there are plenty more similar stories.

No coach can predict which players are going to fall in love with the sport and work their tails off to improve. No coach can predict a player having a massive growth spurt in their later physical development.

Don’t rule any player out!

As we’ve talked about many times in this article, zone defense in youth basketball isn’t played the way a real zone defense should be played.

Defenders don’t close out, defenders all shadow towards the basketball because they know a skip pass won’t beat them, defenders don’t leave the key, etc.

There’s not much any player will learn about a good zone defense when it’s run in youth basketball.

And this fact alone does not justify taking time away from other things the players could be working on instead.

Another classic case of a coach putting winning above development at an age when winning should never be the number one priority.

If your players can’t play man-to-man defense at their current level, what chance are they going to have playing it at the next level?

Because remember, as players develop and reach higher levels of competition, they will play far more man-to-man defense.

We need to give all players the opportunity to experience man-to-man defense so that they’re prepared when they get to the next level.

Yep!

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing and talking about all different types of zone defense. I especially love breaking them down into simple guides that coaches can use to help their team.

But these guides must be used age-appropriately and I don’t recommend them for any coach before the high school level.

I haven’t done a great job of making this clear in the past and I will strive to do so much more diligently in the future.

Whatever happens surrounding this topic, one thing is for certain…

There must be a consistent, easy to understand rule.

I’ve seen too many leagues try and implement zones sparingly with guidelines like:

• A team can only use zone defense when they’re losing by 10 points.
• A team can only use zone defense with 10 minutes to go in the second half.

I don’t like these kinds of guidelines nor do I think they’re best for youth basketball overall.

I agree wholeheartedly with Bob Bigelow’s opinion in my article on improving youth basketball (I encourage you to go and read his entire thoughts).

It should be compulsory in all games before high school level for players to defend man-to-man half-court.

As stated in the article, Bob has asked over 1000 high school, college, and professional coaches the same question…

”At what basketball grade level should we start teaching/coaching defenses that are not man to man. In other words; zones, presses, traps, box and ones, triangle and two’s, and any other variations our future Hall of Fame youth coaches can devise?”

The answer has been consistently (99%) – High school Junior Varsity… which is approximately 15-16 years old for readers who don’t have kids in the American school system.

I completely agree, Bob.

I questioned whether the internet needed my opinion on the ‘zone defense in youth basketball’ topic since there are other fantastic articles on the same topic already published with much the same points.

Specifically this post by Tyler Coston and this post by Breakthrough Basketball.

The reason I felt compelled to do so is because:

1. I think there were a few vital points that were missing.
2. I wanted all BFC readers to know my thoughts on the topic.
3. I wanted to address the arguments made by coaches in favor of zone defense.

If you do agree with the thoughts expressed in this post and are planning on becoming only a man-to-man coach (thank you), I encourage you to download this article and share it with other coaches, the parents on your team, and the players.

By doing so, everyone will understand your reasoning behind not playing zone defense and will also be reassured that you have their child’s best interests at heart.

Admittedly, you’re going to lose more games than you would if you ran a zone. That’s something we all have to accept. But take comfort in knowing that in a few years, your players will be much better prepared to continue pursuing their basketball dreams.

And remember… As we always say at BFC: play to win, but understand winning is not the most important thing.

Zone defense is bad for kids basketball

March 2, 2016 Coach Mac

The coach emailed me last week and asked (briefly):

"Hi. This week we will be playing against a team that plays a tight 2-3 zone the whole game. Their players are much higher than ours, and they will not give up this defense. What should we do?" Do you want to know what my answer was? - "Pray your team can hit the basket from a distance." Obviously, this was not my whole answer, but it was his main point.

Not long ago I wrote about how to beat a 2-3 zone defense, and that the strategy for attacking a zone requires the defense to react to and defend against long throws (I will talk about it throughout the article).
If the defense plays close to the rim all the time and is not concerned with defending against long shots (as most kid teams do), then these strategies become very difficult to implement. Therefore, I decided to create this material, and share with you my thoughts on why coaches find zone defense effective and therefore use it, and ... how it harms the game of children's teams. In addition, I am ready to discuss all the arguments used by coaches in favor of zone defense. In this article, I will mainly refer to the 2-3 2-3 zone defense because it is by far the most popular zone in children's basketball.

Why zone defense is effective in children's basketball
I'm not going to argue that zone defense is very effective at the level of children's basketball. This is a 100% undeniable factor. Coaches use zone defense as it works great against kid teams.

Here are the two main reasons why:
1. Players are forced to shoot from long distances
We all know that most of the points scored in children's basketball come from shooting from under the basket.
In zone defense, the defensive team packs all of its players in the paint (into the 3 second zone) and removes the run lanes to the basket.
Which attack option is left for the attacking team? Long and medium throws.

And since the attacking team cannot get to the basket and make a good shot, most young players try to shoot the ball from a distance, while praying that the shots will be successful. You understand that not many of these attempts will be successful, because in order to make a long shot technically correct, most young players are simply not physically developed enough, they do not have enough strength to shoot from a distance properly.
But since that's the only way to make a free throw against the zone, they do it.
2. Players cannot make long side passes
Young players do not have enough strength to make this pass because a "side pass" or "flip" is a pass to a teammate that is made from one side of the court to the other.

The offensive players are not physically strong enough to make this long pass, and this allows the defense to move to the other side without problems when the offense uses only short passes.

Now that you understand how this works, let's talk about why coaches use the zone...

Why do coaches use the zone defense?

In my opinion, there are three main reasons why coaches play zone defense in children's basketball. And surprisingly, they are not all very scary:

1. To win games.

This is the number one reason coaches use zone defense in my opinion.
The reasons why coaches want to win can vary greatly. Some reasons are nobler than others. Here are some of the reasons why coaches want to win:
1. To feed their egos.
2. To keep your team competitive.
3. To get recognition from others.
4. To keep players from leaving their team.
5. To make players and parents happy.
As you can see, not all reasons on this list are negative.

2. To feel that they affect the game.

I openly admit that I had this feeling when I first started coaching. When your team plays the zone, you look much smarter than the coach on the other side simply because it shows the weaknesses of the opposing team's offense. Your players look organized on the court, the zone is active, the opposition is trying to score, etc.
It's incredibly easy to get caught up in the notion that you're a good coach and everything you do is a big deal that puts the opposing players in a limited area so that the opposing player can only shoot from a distance and you made them stand there. If you play player versus player defense it doesn't look like well organized and it's much more difficult to play assist defense with it and the opponent will score easy goals into the basket, but still your team with this defense gets more useful experience for its further development.
All coaches want to show how they affect the game, but it's important that we all keep in mind what's best for the future development of your team.

3. To stay competitive.

Whether you like it or not, some coaches really feel compelled to use zone defense to stay competitive in their league with other teams. This reason, I can understand, and this is a weighty argument in favor of using zone protection. I think we can all agree that no kid's basketball team should lose by close to 50 points. Using zone defense can change a great opponent's game that hurts your players into one that's more even and more comfortable for your team.

But if you're forced to use this zone strategy to stay competitive, one thing is clear: your team is not competing at your level.
You don't have to use the zone to be competitive, and if your team is playing like this, you need to find another league, improve the technique and physical condition of the team's players, or figure out what else is needed to solve this problem. Playing zone defense is not the best long-term answer to your problems.

4 reasons why zone defense is bad for kids basketball.

All youth coaches must remember that their focus must be on the future of the players they coach. I assure you that in a few years no one will remember that you won the 10-year-old championship by using zone defense, forcing opponents to shoot from a distance. Nobody. The first three reasons I'm talking about are the same ones Tyler writes about in his article here. I added a fourth reason, but I fully agree with the first three and would like to share my thoughts on them too. Here are 4 main reasons why zone defense is terrible for kids basketball.

1. Zone defense develops bad skills in players

Before amateur zone coaches jump in front of me and say, “Good zone defense also trains players in personal defense principles!”, I will say: “Believe me, I understand this is!" But I will add that zone defense also introduces a lot of bad skills that players, playing the zone, will only exacerbate, and I am not suggesting that the player playing the zone will not learn anything that will help him in personal defense. They still need to take the defensive position in time and correctly, they still need to communicate, they still need to play defensive assistance, etc. And let me make the point: these are all skills, really. Ask any coach who is given the unenviable task of turning a life zone player into a lifeguard and he will tell you that some of these habits are really, really hard to break.

TYLER, whose knowledge in basketball I respect very much, came up with a list of 15 bad defensive habits, adults in zone protection ...

1. The player’s defense with the ball
2. Stand and monitor the ball
3. Bad technician 3. entering a defensive position (closeout technique)
4. Little responsibility
5. Lack of communication
6. Minimal defensive movements 7. Weak defensive skills in different positions and against different players
8. Weak communication skills in the transition from offense to defense
9. Weak skills in defending long shots
10. Decreased responsibility when placing the back in rebounding
11. Fewer decisions during the game on the help side


13. Fewer opportunities to know acceptable defensive risk
14. Minimal screening opportunities
15. Fewer opportunities for big players to defend against the ball carrier on the perimeter.

2. Zone defense also hinders the development of attacking team players.

Quick note: If winning is your number one priority, then this point will be incredibly difficult for you to understand.
Playing zone defense in children's basketball, you do a disservice to the players of the attacking team.
But why should you worry about that? After all, your job is to stop the other team and prevent them from hitting your basket, not to help them. Correctly? But… Coaches need to understand that we are all here to help develop players for the future. Do you really want to send 8-year-old opposing players to shoot from long range so that they can't shoot into your basket from close range and thus win the game? Because, unfortunately, that's the only thing zone defense allows them to do. And please don't think I'm saying that you should sit back and let the other team kick your basket, I'm not completely crazy. But I think we need to give the offensive team a chance to play smart basketball and try different offensive opportunities that zone defense doesn't allow. When playing against the zone, players cannot pass with the ball to the basket, their dashes are useless because the paint is occupied by 5 defenders, it is pointless to put up screens to open up because the defense leaves them open on the perimeter and waits for them to shoot balls from a distance, and many other lost opportunities for offensive development. Again, defensive skills - I understand that when playing against the zone, players will learn and grow, but they will learn things that will prepare them for the future in half as much and slower than what they would have learned, playing against personal defense.

3. Zone defense does not prepare players for the next level.

One of the most important tasks of a children's basketball coach is preparing their players for the next level of basketball. Here is a super important fact that has been shared by many great coaches: It will be much easier for a player who was trained in personal defense when he was young to move to the zone than a player who played exclusively in zone defense in a young reward, to move to personal defense, when he gets older. So it comes down to a question; do you want your players to be better prepared for the future, or to win by any means now? There's one more thing you can't help but notice: the more competitive the game gets, and the more skillful the players get, the less zone defense gets involved. This is because zone defense works great against kids teams that don't have the right skills and conditioning, but is often helpless against players with a lot of basketball experience. Thus, in order to give your players the best chance of success at a higher level, it is necessary to be competent in man-to-man defense.

4. Zone defense does not make basketball attractive

This is probably the most compelling reason: By playing zone defense, you are stealing from players the enjoyment that basketball can give them. With zone defense, there are few - one of the attackers is able to score the ball into the basket, both teams make loss after loss, as the players are forced to shoot from long distances, having no hope of hitting the basket!
Does it sound like basketball fun to you? It sounds terrible to me - we as coaches need to give all players the chance to fall in love with the game of basketball the way we did when we were young.

10 Reasons coaches use for zone defenses and why they are wrong.

I know every coaching argument in favor of playing zone defenses. Some of them are quite reasonable, others I find to be ignorant nonsense. And here I want to share my thoughts on some of these arguments.

1. "The real problem is not the zone defense, but that coaches need to teach better offense against the zone."

The first thing coaches need to understand about offense against the zone is that not all shots against the zone will be 3-point shots, although zone citation is built with the assumption that they will be used against it. About three-pointers, of course, this is a weighty argument, but for a higher level, and not at the level of children's basketball. And that's because if your team can't shoot from the perimeter (and most kid teams can't), then the defense won't expand to counter those 3-point shots that open gaps in the area. Instead, all 5 defenders will stand inside the 3-point line and wait for you to lubricate the next roll without resistance. And coaches who advocate zone defense will say "it's an offense against the zone, not a zone defense" issue, giving you two pieces of advice:

a. "Your team needs to learn how to move the ball better!" But moving the ball doesn't accomplish much - most kid teams have no problem passing the ball against a tight 2-3 zone, and in fact, they often do it too easily!

If an attacking player is on the three-point line, there is often no defender next to him, all the defenders are in the box or one step behind it, and they certainly will not put pressure on the ball. Why should they? The defense knows your 3-point shots are off target and don't really care how fast or how well you move the ball all around. You can pass him side to side 5 times and the only thing the defense will move is their heads - they will just stand there watching the passes and wait in the paint when you throw to pick it up on the bounce. So, there is no chance that your fantastic movement of the ball will help him penetrate the zone, because all 5 defenders are located inside the penalty area so that they can even touch each other with their hands.

b. Try using screens against the zone. It always works! "

Screening against the zone doesn't help much. I've heard a lot of advice for kid coaches to use screens against the zone, but I still can't figure out exactly what they do. Maybe a screen will help one of the the best players will get the ball for an open shot on the wing, but the offensive player will definitely not get the opportunity to go to the basket and shoot from close range. who use the screen and will not create a gap in the defense, they will continue to stay inside the box, and the attacking team will still have no problem getting the ball for an open long shot. but the players of the attacking team are unable to successfully hit the basket from these positions.0003

2. "Using the zone allows the team with less talent not to lose the game by 50 points."

I've talked about this earlier in this article, so I'll be brief: it's the only valid argument for zone defense. If your team loses by such a wide margin in every game, both the players and parents will get tired of such losses soon, and they will start moving in the direction of the other team. And unfortunately, the best players will leave first, so if you're losing by a wide margin every game, it would be much better for you and your team to find a new league to compete rather than play zone defense every game. .

3. "Zone defense is just another defensive option in basketball. Young players need to learn all defensive formations."

The weakness of this argument becomes apparent if you remember a simple quote from the great Don Meyer. "When you add, you must subtract" - Don Meyer
By teaching your players additional defensive options as a child, you steal from them, and from yourself, valuable time that could be used to work on other aspects of the game and develop many players other useful skills. Do you really think that implementing a zone defense is the most efficient use of training time each week? But it, time, is practically always limited - coaches always experience a lack of it to solve their problems with the players.

4. "I don't have enough time to teach the players about personal defense."

When teams don't have enough practice time, they often resort to using zone defense. I understand this: it's much easier to have a player stand in one position close to the basket than it is to force the players to position themselves correctly between their player and the basket for the entire duration of the game.
But if you don't have time to teach players personal defense now, when will they have time to learn about it? It is very important to teach players personal defense as early as possible, that is, from the very beginning of their training. In my opinion, this is a prime example of how important it is for the future growth of your players to instill the necessary defensive skills in him at a young age. And explaining to your players how to take a defensive stance against one of the attacking players and stay in a position between him and the basket all the time is not difficult.
Of course, they will get lost many times and your team will miss some simple shots to their basket, but gradually, with experience, they will improve their defense and become more confident in their defensive actions. And after they get a clear understanding of the protection of their wards players, you need to start leading them to an understanding of helping partners in defense. Teaching your players these little concepts should be done during small games and during pre- and post-game conversations.

5. "I have a weak player and I need to hide him in the zone."

I have a feeling that many coaches will cringe when reading this argument... How can hiding a bad defender in the zone help him today and especially in personal defense in the future? This is a clear example of when the coach considered today's win more important than the development of the player. Give a bad defender the opportunity to get this experience as early as possible, and this is the only way he will be able to improve. He is poor defensively, most likely because his previous coach only played the zone, not caring about his future development.

6. "Good zone defense teaches the principles of man-to-man defense. Players still close out, players still have to help, etc."

I have previously discussed this topic in the article, but let's quickly go over it again to make my thoughts clearer. Zone defense does teach some principles of personal defense, rightly so. But it is clear that personal defense teaches defensive principles much better than zone defense does. Thus, if things are not so bad in the zone, then personal protection is a much better alternative. To me, this argument is only used as an excuse to play zone defense when the coach wants to win the game.

7. "Teach your team to shoot the ball better and then we wouldn't be able to play the zone."

What a terrible argument. Let's remember that many players, when using a zone defense and attacking against a zone defense, will need to do so for the first couple of years of their basketball career. How long does it take to become a good long range sniper? At least a few years. How long will it take to implement a zone defense that stands in the penalty area and moves little? 1 - 2 minutes. And let's also not forget that, regardless of age, many players simply cannot physically shoot the ball from a distance, no matter how much practice they have had!

8. "My players probably won't play college or university basketball, so it doesn't matter."

We've all heard of coaches who supposedly think they can predict the future of 8 year old players: "They'll never be good enough. They're too short" or "Look, this kid could be a superstar in 10 years." I don't understand how a coach can so confidently draw such conclusions about very young players. Basketball is replete with tales of players who looked weak or mediocre as children but went on to great professional careers. Michael Jordan didn't achieve great success on the team in either his high school or sophomore year at university, and is now known as the best basketball player who ever lived. Hakeem Olajuwon couldn't successfully pick up balls until he was 15 years old, but is now considered one of the very best centers to ever play the game. Tim Duncan came to basketball from swimming in high school, and now he's probably the strongest No. 4 of all time. And there are many more such stories. No coach can predict which players are going to fall in love with basketball and work slavishly to improve. No coach can predict which player will have a huge surge in their subsequent physical development. I'm not excluding any player!

9. "By learning to play zone defense, players will learn how to use it, which will help them when they play against the zone in the future."

As we have said many times in this article, zone defense in kids basketball is not played the way real zone defense should be played. Defenders don't really get into defensive positions, they fake out on the ball because they know that shots won't work, cross passes won't reach their destinations, etc. Not many players learn good zone defense by playing it in kids basketball. And this fact alone does not justify taking time for other necessary things that players could work on at this time for their development.

10. "We play the system that works best for our players. "

Another classic case of a coach who puts winning in any way above individual development in childhood when winning should not be the number one priority. If your players can't play personal defense at the current level, what chance will they have of playing it at the next level? Remember, as players develop and reach higher levels of competition, they will play much more personal defense. We must give all players the opportunity to try out personal defense so that they are ready to defend well when they rise to the next level of the game. And don't get me wrong, I love writing and talking about all types of zone defenses and especially love breaking them down into simple guides that coaches can use to help their team. But these guides must be used according to the age of the players and in the proper way. And I don't recommend them to coaches up to the high school level.

In the past, I have not done much work to make my thoughts clear, but I will strive to do it much harder in the future.

Looking ahead, what should be done with zone defense in youth basketball?

I've seen many leagues try to fix zone usage issues with restrictions such as:

• A team can only use zone defense when they are down 10 points or more.

• A team may only use zone defense for 10 minutes in one of the game periods.

I don't like these kinds of restrictions and I don't think they are suitable for children's basketball. I completely agree with Bob Bigelow in his article on improving children's basketball (I encourage you to read his thoughts in full). In all games for players up to the high school level, only the player's half-court player must defend.

Bob asked professional coaches in over 1,000 high schools and colleges with the same question: "At what basketball level should we start teaching non-personal defense. In other words; zones, pressing, traps, boxes, triangle and two, and any other defensive options that kid trainers, our future Hall of Famers, can come up with?"

The answer to this question was unequivocal (99%) - High School and Junior Age (these are 15-16 year olds, note for readers who do not have children in the American school system. ) And this should be mandatory in all games for players up to the level of high school - to defend with personal protection in half of the court. I completely agree with you Bob.

Conclusion

I asked if my opinion on "zone defense in kids basketball" is needed, as there are already other excellent articles on this topic and mostly with the same points, such as this post by Tyler Coston or this post by Breakthrough Basketball And was forced to do so because: 1. I think there were a few vital moments that were missing 2. I wanted all BFC readers to know my thoughts on this 3. I wanted to argue with the arguments made by the coaches in favor of the zone.0003

If you agree with the thoughts expressed in this material and are considering becoming a personal protection coach, I encourage you to download this article and share it with other coaches, parents and players on your team. By doing so, everyone will understand your reasoning; do not play in the defense zone and will also be sure that you have the best intentions for their child in your heart. Admittedly, you are going to lose more games than if you were playing the zone. This is something we all need to accept. But the consolation is that in a few years, your players will be much better equipped to continue pursuing their basketball dreams.

And remember... As we always say at the BFC: play to win, but remember, winning is not the most important thing in children's basketball.

V. Melnychuk translated December 23, 2016.

1-3-1 Zone Package

This is the last post from Coach Rory Hamilton on his team's 1-3-1 Zone experience.

Once you have decided to run zone 1-3-1 with your team, it is very important that you use drills that reinforce the basic defense parameters. In this article, I will share with you the drills we use to teach players how to move into defensive positions according to ball position and rebound the ball in the 1-3-1 zone. I believe in the whole part of the whole teaching method, so it is important to show the whole defense to your team as a whole and then use the exercises. I would recommend that you and your team watch videos where teams successfully use the 1-3-1 zone defense. This gives players a great visual message on how to play this defense effectively.0009 I would like to once again remind you of the names of the defenders and their role in the arrangement of the 1-3-1 zone. In the exercises that we offer you today, X4 and X3 have switched roles compared to our previous calculation (now X4 is the guard, and X3 is the pusher).

Watchman (X4) - We are trying to put in this position a player who has long arms, good mobility and a talent for reading the game of basketball. This can often be your tallest perimeter defender or an athletic and agile center player. The caretaker's main responsibility is to make passing the ball difficult and to "keep" the ball on one side of the court for as long as possible. The watchman should also lead his team in rebounding due to the fact that he is well positioned to read corner and wing shots and rebound.
Pushers (X3 and X2) - The most important place in this protection due to our requirements we assign to them. As a general rule, we place our very best rebounder/center on the left side of the field (x4) due to the high number of shots being taken from the right side of the field. We want our top lifter (our Michael Jordan) to be the pusher (X2) on the right edge in our original setup. We like a short defender on the right side who can put pressure on the ball, block the first pass to the right wing, and also be able to trap the Dribbler in half the court, and intercept the pass in an arc from the left corner on the baseline.
Wall (X5) - Wall is usually our tallest center player or physically developed winger if you have a small team. A wall must be able to do several things well in order to be successful. First, and most importantly, to keep the ball away from the high center position (on the SB line). Second, he should always defend with his hands high to help block diagonal passes to the bottom center. And finally, he must not allow passes with the ball into the penalty area.
Warrior (X1) - Warrior is usually our point guard, but any defender can play in this position. The warrior must always be in a vertical line with the ball. He must not allow anyone to block him. He must cover both corners with speed, quickness and great skill and instincts required in this position. He must perfectly read the actions of the attack and anticipate his actions. We should first of all talk about our most important defensive concept when playing this or another zone defense. Our players always take positions in relation to the ball, regardless of the offensive schemes of the opponent.
Exercises: No. 1 Foresight. The first set of exercises we use is the "Foresight Exercise". These drills reinforce defensive movements according to the movements of the ball with the use of jumps and jerks. We wanted every player to go through each of these foresight exercises at the start of the season.

No. 2 Piston: On the diagrams below -

This is by far the most important exercise in training our 1-3-1 zone. This exercise involves the actions of a pusher and a watchman working together in a piston. They must announce who is coming on the ball and who is in a wide open position, blocking the line of passing the ball. In this exercise, the coach has the ball 2: x2 with his arms raised high, goes to the ball. x4 cuts off the passing line to coach 1. x3 on the help side, or as we call it on the weak side, cuts off the passing lines to T1 and 04. In diagram #2 below: T2 passes the ball to T1: The pusher x3 comes out with arms high to T1 with the ball . Guard x4 retreats and closes the transmission line back to T2. x2 on the weak side cuts off the transmission line to 05. In Diagram #3: T1 sends back to T2. Defenders x4, x3 and x2 react to this pass according to the established team defense rules in the 1-3-1 zone.

#3 Warrior: In the diagram below - This exercise simulates situations where the x1 warrior gets screens along the endline, which is a common type of attack that the enemy uses against our 1-3-1 zone. The coaches pass the ball back and forth and the warrior has to contend with continuous screens on the baseline. We teach him to pass these barriers from below. The drill continues for 20-25 seconds, or when a certain number of interceptions or deflections of the ball have been completed. The aim of the training is that X1 must always be in line with the ball.

#4 Rebounding :

Diagram #1: If the throw is from a corner, we are vulnerable to rebounding on the weak side of the defense, so we should send our defender x4 from the weak side of the field to the basket to help the pusher x2 . Statistically, 7 balls out of 10 will bounce to the weak side, so we must attack the weak sides of the shield. CLogger should turn around and get to the low center position and block in that area as well. Diagram #2 and 3: In Diagram #3, we see the reaction and rotation of the five defenders to the pass from 01 to 03. Diagram #4: After the pass from 01 to 03, the throw is made from the wing.

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