For The Frustrated Coaches That Turn to Zone Defense

By Joe Haefner

This article is meant for coaches at all levels, especially youth, junior high, and junior varsity.

If you have ever gotten frustrated with your man to man defense and decided to use zone because it was easier to implement, I had an experience early in my coaching career where being persistent with the fundamentals and using the long-term approach paid off.

When I was a senior in college, I had an accounting internship close to my hometown and decided to become an assistant coach for the freshmen basketball team at my former high school.  I was an assistant to my Dad.  

At the beginning of the season, he had gotten frustrated because he couldn’t get the kids to play man to man defense and decided to go play some zone. Haven’t we all been there?

At the beginning of the season, we played a team called Marion from Iowa that was quite talented. We got trounced by something like 67-22. The funny thing is that it could’ve been much worse.

So my dad and I met, because we wanted to figure out what was best for the team.  We decided when we modified our short-term and long-term plans that we would always ask ourselves…

What can we do to prepare this team for the varsity level?

Who cares about wins and losses, how much we get beat by, and what any of the parents and spectators think.  What can we do to make this team better in the long-run?

We knew that we had to focus on man to man defense and fundamentals of the game.  We also had to spend time TEACHING the game rather than just running tons of drills.  

We knew even if they wanted to play zone at the varsity level, they needed to have these fundamentals pounded into them in order to be successful.

There’s a saying that goes “If you can’t play man, you can’t play zone.”

Some coaches believe that they can hide poor defenders within a zone. Sometimes, this is true, but when you face a quality opponent, they will exploit your poor defensive players.  Also, a zone isn’t very effective if you can’t stop the ball. 

So, we knew that man to man defense was the right way to go.

Day to day we saw little improvements and all of the sudden those little improvements turned into a huge improvement over the season.

Well, it comes to the end of the season and guess who we get to face. The same undefeated Marion team that smoked us by 45 points at the beginning of the year. This was a totally different game.  We were staying between the man and the hoop when playing the ball, communicating, rotating on defense, and forcing low-percentage shots.

All of the sudden, it’s the 4th quarter and we’re winning by 2 points!! Unfortunately, some balls didn’t roll our way and we ended up losing by 4 points. It was like 46 – 42 or something like that.

When I was riding home, I just got goosebumps all over, because it felt so good to see that team which had such little confidence at the beginning of the year learn that they could compete with anybody by playing the right way.

Four years later, the same group of kids ended up beating that same Marion team for the first time! I believe Marion was ranked 6th in the state at the time.

Was part of that rooted back to when we pounded the fundamentals in them when they were Freshmen? I like to think so.

Stay persistent and focus on the fundamentals of the game. It may not pay off today. It may not pay off this season. It may not pay off next year, but it will pay off in the long-run.

If you would like to learn more about defense and how to build your defense from the ground up, take a look at our Man to Man Defense System.

What Is The Right Age To Focus On Wins and Losses and Start Playing Zone?

By Joe Haefner

On a page where we discuss defense at the youth & junior high level, I recently received these two questions from a junior high coach:
 

Do you believe there is an age where it is appropriate to play a zone?

Is there an age where you should start playing Win-Loss basketball?

These are very good questions and these are the conclusions I have come to:
 

Conclusion #1 - Zones should NOT be allowed until the second half of the Freshmen year in high school (typically 14 to 15 year olds).

Even at the junior high level (12 to 14 year olds), I’m very skeptical of playing zones for development purposes. Some coaches may argue this, but when I coached at the high school level, I dealt with so many kids that played zones at the lower levels that formed some terrible habits. We would spend entire seasons just trying to break bad habits that were formed by teams that trapped, played zones, junk defenses, and pressed when they were at the youth level. Sometimes, we never could break the habits.

When I was coaching a freshmen team, we scrimmaged against another team in the area that was in a league that did not allow teams to play zone until the second half of the season. I thought this was great.

1. Coaches get to spend more time on the fundamentals and building the player’s foundation, because they don’t have to worry about preparing for zones, presses, junk defenses within the first 10 practices.  Without a solid foundation, it doesn’t matter what you do, you are not going to be as successful.  
2. Coaches are forced to teach man to man principles before they go unto zone defense. So many coaches skip man to man principles and go straight to zone. As skill level and strength increases, these zones are ineffective because they don’t know man-ball principles, can’t stop the ball from dribbling by them, and some other bad habits (swarming the ball, going after every steal, etc.) that helped players get more turnovers at the youth level do not work anymore.

In other words, the zone that works at the youth level and junior high level won’t work at the high school level, because an effective zone defense at the youth level is not an effective zone defense at the varsity level for reasons listed above.

Conclusion #2 – I believe Win/Loss basketball should start around 7th grade (Age 13).

However, I think it’s a much lower emphasis on wins and losses than a high school varsity team. Your focus would still be on the developmental portion.

When you get to high school varsity, is when I believe that it truly becomes a win-loss philosophy. At the same time, some years you may be a better zone team, but it’s still a good idea to teach man to man defense, because you don’t want to have a player that doesn’t make it at the college level because he doesn’t know how to play man to man defense. It could literally cost them thousands of dollars through scholarships.

If you focus too much on the win-loss at youth and junior high level (and some would even say the junior varsity level), it could be detrimental for different reasons:

1. Undeveloped kids don’t develop because they don’t get any playing time. That’s why it’s key to get everybody fairly equal playing time. You have no idea who is going to be the best when they get older. A 5’10 kid who already matured may dominate now, but the 5’8 skinny kid who hasn’t hit puberty yet and grows to 6’8 by the time he is a senior may be the best chance for success as they get older.  How is he going to get any better if he’s not playing?
2. Tactics that work at this age (organized presses, zones, traps) won’t work at higher levels, because the foundation (fundamentals) has not been developed. On average, these presses are NOT run correctly. They just swarm the ball and the player that is 1 pass away, because the players are not strong enough to throw down the court and have not developed the ball handling skills to quickly react.

The truth is that COACHES and PARENTS are WAY more concerned about winning than kids under the age of 13. Most kids just want to play. They want to have fun. They are thinking about their own little world, not winning. And even if they think about winning, it’s not nearly as important to them as it is you. By the time, the game is over, they are just thinking about where they will get some pizza. Kids move on really fast. But parents and coaches dwell on the loss for days and hours. That’s too bad.

Trust me. A high school coach would much rather have you work on fundamentals and build a great foundation. If they have a great foundation, it’s relatively easy for them to throw in an effective trap, press, or zone. Not the other way around.

High school coaches please leave your comments on this as well, so youth coaches understand your perspective as well.

Are You Spending Enough Time on 1-on-1 Defense?

By Joe Haefner

I hear so many coaches say, “My defensive help is great, but I can not seem to get my on-ball defenders to stay in front of their man.” I’m not going to lie. I’ve said this, too.

Think about it.  If your on-ball defense is below average that means your constantly playing the game 4 on 5. It doesn’t matter how good your help defense is, it’s going to eventually break down, because you can not play the game 4 on 5 and plan to be successful.

So why does this happen? It’s not like you don’t teach your players how to guard the ball.

1. It all goes back to what you emphasize.

Personally, I found myself drilling 1 on 1 defense, but never really emphasizing it during scrimmages and other drills. I was always concerned with the help defense. If the defender got beat off the dribble, my first reaction was “Where is the help?” In reality, I should’ve been holding the on-ball defender more accountable.

I also found that my 1 on 1 drills weren’t competitive enough. I would do some full court 1 on 1 stuff, but I never really applied drills with real game-like situations that would occur in the half court defense. I didn’t use any drills that would make the defender really stop the ball in a half court setting.

2. Players have a sloppy defensive stance and/or defensive slide.

A lot of coaches forget to spend time teaching and correcting a player’s defensive stance and/or slide. If you have kids off-balance and/or they don’t know how to move properly, your team defense will suffer as well.

The defensive stance is the starting point. Once the defensive stance looks good, you can focus on your players slide defensively. Make sure to spend some time every week breaking down the stance and the defensive slide until your players can recite everything back to you about the defensive stance and slide.

Besides, using your typical 1 on 1 defense half court and full court drills, you can use some of these competitive 1 on 1 drills.

One on One Moves Drill

Top 1 on 1

Wing 1 on 1

These drills were written with the emphasis on improving offense, but with a tweak here or there, you can make it defensive oriented. For example, allow the offensive player to take a few extra dribbles.

If you would like to learn how to build your defense from the ground up, check out our Man to Man Defense System.

It doesn’t matter if you have short and slow or tall and quick players. We break things down and will show you what type of defense is best for you.

Win More Games With This End of Game Defensive Tip for Players & Coaches

By Joe Haefner

In our Man to Man Defense System, we discuss situations and options when playing with the lead at the end of the game.

One of the options we discuss is to overplay the outside shot and force the players to dribble penetrate when you are winning by 3 points with minimal time remaining.

When doing this, it is important to have no help defense from teammates! All of the defensive players stay around the 3-point arc in the area of the offensive player they are guarding. Even if the player gets an uncontested lay up, you are still winning the game.

Here is the tip that can dramatically increase your chances of winning the game: When forcing the player to dribble penetrate, force them to the direction of their non-shooting hand. If they shoot with their right hand, force them to dribble to the left. Now, let me tell you why. If an offensive player is covered and can not attempt a 3-point shot, the player will often take one hard dribble and pull up for the 3-point jump shot or dribble inside the arc and use a step-back move to create separation to get the 3-point shot off. If you have forced the player to his weak hand, you are on the shooting side of the offensive player. Now, you are in great position to take away or disrupt the offensive player’s shot. This can result in: - A deflected or blocked shot. - A shot where the offensive player hitches or double-clutches, which dramatically decreases the chance of the shot going in.

By johntrainor

- An offensive player panics and turns the ball over.If you are not on the shooting side, you have to reach across the player’s body to disrupt the player’s shot which can often lead to a foul.

As a coach, if you do not feel comfortable with your players’ decision-making, have them put their arms straight up instead of trying to block the shot.

There are times that players will make miraculous shots, but this approach will help you win more games in the long run!

A great way to get your players to perform in the clutch is to use this End of Game Drill.  This drill is great for all levels, because it is also a fun way to end practice.

If you are a youth coach, I would NOT bother covering this situation in depth.  There are more important things to cover!

New Article: 10 Keys to a Great Basketball Defensive Stance

By Jeff Haefner

Ball pressure is a critical component to a tough defense (especially for man-to-man).  If you back off the ball too much, it’s easy for the offensive player to make the perfect pass in the post. 

Ball pressure is a very subtle thing that can seriously affect your defense!  It’s something you must constantly watch.  In order to pressure the ball and avoid getting beat, you MUST have great balance and a great defensive stance.

We posted a new article giving you 10 Keys to a Great Basketball Defensive Stance.  These tips should help you improve ball pressure and one on one defense.

Have a look and let us know what you think.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/stance.html