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PostPosted: 13 Oct 2015, 14:58 

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Hi everyone! This season I am coaching a 2nd grade girls team in addition to my 7th grade girls team. I started coaching my 7th graders in 4th grade. We played 100% man to man defense until the end of last season. In the short term that strategy was tough (we took our lumps) but long term it has turned out to be by far the best way to go. I want to repeat the strategy of going 100% man to man with my 2nd graders but need some feedback/help from the group. Since I started in 4th grade with my current team, I am unfamiliar with 2nd graders and what they are capable of grasping.

Can 2nd graders remember who they are guarding during a 4-5 minute span on the court?
In 4th grade the most challenging concept to teach was responsibility for a specific player when that player was on the court. My concern with 2nd graders is that they will constantly forget who they are guarding. Coaches: Do you recommend having 2nd graders guard the same player every possession or would you recommend having the team "mark up" every possession?

*Note: Not really looking to play a match up zone, but thinking that calling "mark up" may be effective and help them work through being 7 year olds! :) Once they are marked up they would stick with that player through the entire possession and would be expected to start to learn basic help concepts (tailored to 2nd grade). My thought is that it would be so much easier to have them just mark up each possession to take the confusion of remembering their player out of the equation.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Scott


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PostPosted: 13 Oct 2015, 16:37 

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Whew! That's a tough one at 2nd grade. In our leagues, they have colored wrist bands and match-up before play starts. If there's a time out and subs are made, the refs make them match-up again. It was around 3rd grade they dropped the wrist bands.

When you say "mark-up" do you mean match-up?

Back in 1st grade, I brought some bread and peanut butter one practice. I took the peanut butter and spread it on the bread and asked if it was going to come off if I did anything to the bread (e.g. turn it upside down, blow on it, etc.). Of course the answer was, "no", so I used that concept during the game.and anytime I yelled "Johnny! Peanut Butter!" - he knew to find his man and get on him.

I told the kids that I wanted them to guard their person so close that even when they went to get a drink, you follow them and stay with them. Of course I told them I was joking, but actually had a few kids who thought it would be funny to follow their opponent to the drinking fountain.

I've found adding some keyword that the kids can relate to along with some over emphasis helped them get the concept. I added to that using the same principles with other concepts like staying between their person and the basket.

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PostPosted: 13 Oct 2015, 19:55 
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In 1st and 2nd grade our teams only played variations of 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3. And maybe a little 4v4. I didn't see a point in 5v5.

I think 2nd graders are capable or remembering who they're guarding. But it will taking lots of effort to get them to actually find that person. The key is to get them in the habit of calling out the players numbers and pointing to the person they are guarding each time down the court. We had them do that every time... by the second half of the season they start to remember on their own.

I'm not sure we ran any shell drill or did much for "team defense". It was pretty much all skills, coordination, and teaching them how to play 1v1 defense. Drills like the mirror drill, etc are great.

Here's a blog post I wrote a while back about our 3rd graders remembering who to guard.
http://jeffhaefner.com/coach/youth-defense-how-to-make-sure-young-players-know-who-they-are-guarding/

In any case, I recommend lots of 1v1 and 3v3. I still prefer that with our 4th and 5th graders. You get way more touches and develop much faster playing those small sided games.

Good luck!!

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