I will be coaching 8th grade boys this year for tourneys. We run motion offense and man to man D. Most teams that we play, play a 2-3 zone. I would appreciate if some of you experienced coaches would share your practice plans in general terms and what to work on to beat 2-3, 1-3-1 or 3 -2 zone.

Thanks much

All this depends on how much practice time you have... you have fundamentals to cover, offense and defense along with shooting.

We used a 1-3-1 vs a 2-3 zone D........ a college coach once told me this... its not rocket science, put em where they aint. Make sure your player are in passing lanes ( meaning, you can see the person with the ball and there isn't a defender between you.

Check this out - http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/motionoffense.html#zone

Couple more links to check out:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/3-zone-strategies.html
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=545

For a practice plan I generally follow a format like this:

- defense (M2M drills, shell, etc)
- rebounding
- skill development (footwork, shooting, dribbling, passing). this is in the context of the motion offense so you work on two things at once -- you use drills that work on small "pieces" of your offense (like a down screen or flare screen) and practice skills like footwork and shooting at the same time
- team offense
- game situations and/or scrimmage (if time permits)

Conditioning is all done in the context of the drills and practice. The things that I believe are most important are done first.

Basically to break down zones you need spacing, quick ball movement, penetrate the seams and use of ball fakes when reversing the ball. Overloading one side helps too.

Best of Luck!!

Coach Appleby

High low works well vs m2m and zones.... make sure your players are in passing lanes / gaps - get somebody behind the zone too, that worked for us..... here is something I picked up from a college coach.... when we are all talking about reversing the ball - from one side to another.... sometimes pass fake the reversal and go back to the original side...... think about it this way... D players are shuffling their feet and its easier to keep moving if you pass opposite... BUT IF you pass fake and then return to the player you got it from, they have to STOP and recover, then go back. Just a thought.

Would you care to share specific drills you guys do in practice?
For-
M2M Drills
Shooting
Footwork
Ball Handling
Rebounding

I'm not sure if others experience this, but I would like to hear ways of building a team mentality instead of "me". We have several good players that have a hard time playing team ball.

I always like to hear what others are doing to learn more. This is for 7th and 8th grade boys.

Thanks much, love the site and the feedback!

I did this a lot to develop team work.....

* Play a game to 5 and everyone must score before anyone can score the game winner... or you can pick out who you want to make that last shot.
* You can play a half court game NO DRIBBLE. ( we did that full court but I'm not sure your age group could handle that )

Lets talk about Defense first.... do you play On/Up the Line DENIAL? Or do you play more of a pack style?

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/ballhandling.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/btshooting.html