What do you find is the best 1/2 court defense to get into after applying a full court zone press? Does it depend on the kids? I have talked to other coaches and some go to man and some say it\'s easier to play zone because some times its too hard to pick their man up on time. So far I just drop into a zone and even then the kids (sophomores in high school) have a hard time in transition. Our full court zone press has been effective. What\'s your overall take and experience on this? Thanks for your time.

I think its all about what you practice... of course it is easier to drop back into a zone during the game... but let me ask you about this scenario -

It is the 4th quarter and you are down by several points... you are full court zone pressing... do you drop back into a zone once they beat the press and allow them to run valuable time off the clock?

I don't know what your press is and how long you stay in it... but you better practice getting into your m2m so that doesn't come back to bite you. Your match ups might not be perfect... but you can still apply a lot of pressure and switch to the assignements that you really want as soon as possible. JMO

By the way, we did both... zone to our match up and zone to our m2m.... boys varsity high school team.

I realize the type of players you have dictates a lot of what a coach can do. However I believe any player can be taught to play defense. I personally prefer to teach man to man full court and half. Whether you play it alot or not, it teaches the fundamentals of how to play defense. You can teach different types of m2m based on your players. You can play a pressuring up the line style or a pack line defense. Either way you have to be able to apply pressure at throughout the games.
I have coached elemantary, middle school, and high school players. I believe players at all levels must learn the basic principals of man to man in order to be able to play a pressuring m2m or a zone. Even coaches such as Jim Boehim states that he spends most of his practices with m2m principals even though he is a zone defensive coach.
I would say that if you get into m2m after a zone press you may have to tell your players to match up with the closest player as opposed to a particular player. Open players will get you beat, mismatches don't cost you as much, depending on the level you are coaching.

Coach Sar and nhayden, thank you for the info. Coach Sar you have a good point and I agree with what you have to say about playing m2m defense after full court zone press when you are down late in the game. I also agree with both of your principles about teaching m2m defense first before any zone defense. Defense is the first thing I stress to the team and the first drills we run in practice every day. We run a 2-2-1 zone press and go back into a 2-3 zone which seems to be very effective. If it's a loose ball or missed shot we go into m2m. This seems to confuse the offense throughout because they are first trying to identify what defense we are in before running a play. Sometimes we throw in a full court man press. It does all depend what kind of kids you have on the team. Thanks for the info.

Good luck Coach,

I hope you found our suggestions helpful... and something that will work for your team.