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PostPosted: 11 Oct 2012, 13:31 

Posts: 2
Hi everyone,

I would like to hear from folks on what kind of playcalling schemes they use? What are they calling for their plays designed against zone defense? Man to man defense? Their own defenseive schemes?

I'm currently trying to find something that not only works for me, but also is easy for the kids to pick up. I coach 6-8th graders.

Any help/advice, as always, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!


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PostPosted: 11 Oct 2012, 13:40 
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I'm not sure I can be much help on this one because what we run is so simple. I'm a big believer in keeping things simple and spending tons of time on fundamental skills with young kids. So we don't spend any time learning plays or running any schemes or changing things up. We just have motion and run that against everything, although we make a few simple adjustments when facing zone. Works pretty well. We one run defense (man to man) and get really good at it.

We have a couple really easy set plays used for end of quarters, etc. Sometimes we'll call it by name or use a color.

We do spend time on inbounds plays because they are like "special teams" and can pay big dividends.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/plays/baseline-box-plays.html
We keep the defense guessing on those by coming up with a letter or number for each out of bounds play you will run. Here is an example below:
1 or A = Cross
2 or B = Up Screener
3 or C = Diagonal Screener

The players rotate the plays in order. If needed, the inbounder can call out the play. But even if the inbounder does not call out the play, everyone should know what play they are running.

Once you get this down, you could even have your inbounder give hand signals that mean absolutely nothing. Just something to throw off your opponents.

What we do is very simple, even at the high school level. Works pretty good for us. The easiest thing for kids to pick up is one offense and one defense that never changes. That way there is nothing to remember and they will get really good at it.

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PostPosted: 11 Oct 2012, 16:58 
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Great advice Jeff -

Cant get much simpler than that.... and the KISS method always works better, especially with younger kids. JMO


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PostPosted: 11 Oct 2012, 17:10 

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I run two motion offenses against a M2M, a zone offense for a 2-3 zone D, and another one against the 3-2. Kids know what to do against a 1-3-1 zone or I remind them so they can adjust. Each of those has a number and the kids know when to call it most of the time. I remind them if they aren't reading the defense correctly. We seem to face a lot of zone D's, so my main concern is making sure they set up correctly and move the ball looking for certain predesignated open spots. We have a few plays and they'll run them, however, I'm more in the camp of letting them "read and react" within a specific framework. We have a few simple rules for our motion and zone offenses and other than that, I let them rock 'n roll. We almost always play a M2M defense, but I do switch into a 2-3 occasionally if we need to change things up.

Where I like to have some fun is with our presses. I have numbers for our full court and half court presses. I run a full court M2M trapping press and a half court 3-1-1/3-2 press. I also use code words to cancel those presses. I'll call the press as we're bringing the ball down the court on offense so they know to set up the press on a made basket. I'll cancel the press the same way or during a free throw. Sometimes I yell out garbage like Peyton Manning that means nothing, but I doubt it ever has any effect.

I have a few random code words like "VCU", which means I think the other team can be pressured a lot more. I also have a keyword to shut down a specific kid on the other team. Let's say #22 is killing us on shots, I'll yell out, "#22 X!" which means the person guarding him goes in full denial on that player.

The long and short of it is, most teams figure out what you've yelled by the second time around. It boils down to skill level at that point.

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