Man to man vs zones -

I had a coach on my staff tell me the reason he was teaching zone defense was that they need to know how to play a zone before they can play a good m2m defense.

I told him that he has that backwards.... you CAN'T play a good zone without man principals... oh yea, he wasn't on staff the next year. Those freshman had a wasted year.

We played our first game of a tournament last night, played only m2m defence limited their offence to 35 opportunties scoring only 26 points, 15 true turn overs (throw aways, clock ran out). I think my guys are getting it finally that when your offence dries up in the ebb and flow of the game (emotions, luck) that your defence will pull you through NOT INDIVIDUAL play. Today we play a quicker, very well organized transition team, so we will see if they keep learning.

Congratulations on the W..... Hopefully your defense will come thru again... be patient on offense and get good shots - the longer the shot the longer the rebound which results in run out baskets.

Designate 1 or both of your guards to go back as soon as the shot goes up IF stopping the transitio is going to be a problem - you can also have the nearest player JAM the rebounder to slow down the outlet pass.

Getting high guard back to protect and being aggressive to thier rebounding stopped their transition. m2m worked eliminated any outside shots. However, rebounding our own boards and communicating their backpicks did not go as well as planned. By half time we were down 23.

Needless to say, my assistant and I kept at them about their M2M defence and being aggrresive on loose balls and especially our own boards. Finding that loose man and put a body on him and backing them up. Late 3rd and 4th quarter I saw more confidence, maturity and team work than any other time this year. Caused more turnovers in the fourth quarter than they had all game thusfar giveing them the opportunity to get back into the game.

I am very proud of my team, today was a great learning day for all. We play for 3-4 tonight. Challenge is to keep the momentum from last game to this one!!

With 7 seconds left our inbounds halfcourt, got it in uncontested, had a great open look for a 3pt shot to tie and missed it. Got the rebound and buzzer sounded before it went through.

I told my boys, no matter the loss, in my opinion we won the game by being able to dig deep, keep with the game plan defensively, being patient

Well now playing for 3 or 4th in the tournament, we played a team we've met previously and always seem to struggle but win. Knowing that my guys worked very hard in the last game and were low on gas, I had a few parents ask what defence I was planning. I said m2m, with surprised looks our team took the floor. My guys were tired, third of three games - second of the day and a dog battle for the first game. That said they stuck to our offence, played good defence not great but did limit their offensive efficiency to 18 of 40 scoring opportunities and caused 10 turnovers. We were 27 for 50 opportunities and most were inside.

Completely gas'd, my guys get to enjoy a day off before next practice. Thanks for listening and the help.

Way to hang in there coach... and stick to your guns... the Varsity coach will love the kids you move up... they will be fundamentally sound in m2m principals.

2 games on the same day is tough for the lower level kids... but they are resiliant.. they will bounce back. Good luck!

I use m2m only. There are millions of tape and books on offense but only a stack about defense. What I do is breakdown any defense into 3 sections of the floor and defend it 2on2 and 3 on 3. Post area, wing area and point area. Then i throw in screens to try to defend. Pick n rolls and give n go's. We learn to defend scenarios that may happen in any game. this way we teach defense aswell as offense. I try to focus most of our practice with basic fundamentals at any level.

If you look on the left hand side of this page, under DEFENSE, Jeff & Joe have several drills regarding m2m defense.
IF you type Basketball M2M defense in your search engine you will find a ton of stuff... if you add a coaches name you will find more.... its all out there.

Go to Sysko's and click basketball - man to man defense...

Good luck.

golfman: that's a great story, some referees need to define their own roles out there and leave coaching to the experts.

Rob: the term i use for the help side man or weak side man is "get in the box" which means that square in the paint. If you see your guard playing his man to closely and he is on the weak side or help side of the floor, simply yell "Johnny, get in the box" they soon get it.

as far as the blog on m2m vs. zone for young players this site has many strong opinions on the subject from many knowledgeable coaches. good luck Coach Mac

We just called it HELP LINE.... you can run various drills to teach that... we called it PISTOLS - pointing both fingers at the player with the ball and your man - seeing both / butt to the end line.

Some people call that the Sherrif Drill

As for zones vs m2m for youth players... lets just say it how we really feel Mac...... MAN 2 MAN is the ONLY way to go for YOUTH players. You are cheating your players if teach them zones. JMO