Hi -- I coach a 6th grade girls team and I have heard that when guarding a baseline out of bounds play under your basket, a team should play a compact zone instead of man. Our defense is always man in regular half court sets and I have not taught them how to play a zone because I believe man teaches the game better. But is there any good school of thought of making an exception to the man rule and showing the girls how to play a zone only in this area? If so, would it be a 2-3 or a 2-1-2? I know it may be risky because it is under our basket but at this age, there aren't that many good outside shooters and I would alternate between man and zone on these plays to keep the opposition always thinking. Later in the season and for the playoffs, I may introduce a type of trapping zone as I do have several very quick athletic players.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!

This is a great question and if you talk to 10 coaches, you'll likely get 10 different takes.


I personally think an out of bounds defense under your hoop should be dictated by who you're playing. This is rather advanced since we're talking about 6th graders but here goes.


If the opposition has a strong post player with size and some scoring ability near the hoop, I would either go man or box and 1. This player has to be denied the inbounds pass. There are too many seams in a zone on either side of the hoop for a skilled big player to take advantage of. I'm 6'9". I loved it when they went zone. Kids don't know how to play D as a rule, they either turn their head on the ball or their man. That's a ticket to an easy hoop if the passer and big player recognize this situation.


Now even if this big player is denied effectively, she'll still get the ball if the passer has any skill. Teach your perimiter defenders to "help and recover" on the post player (this applies to all defensive schemes, not just an out of bounds play). Perimeter defenders must NOT cross their feet as they "stab" the big player, allowing them to recover to their man effectively.

If the opposoition does not have this skilled big player, I think going zone has it's merits on out of bounds plays. Pack it in, get your hands up and let them shoot the jumper. It's tough to box out on a zone.


Depending upon your team's communication and recognition skills, maybe they can run a match up zone on out of bounds plays. Pack it in initially. If the ball is inbounded and goes free throw line extended or higher, MATCH UP QUICKLY. This will confuse the heck out of the opposition if you do this well.


Good luck.

Thank you very much! I love the idea of starting in a zone and then perhaps switching. I will certainly scout the opposition during warmups and then see if they have a good low post player during the game to determine if man or a zone is better.
I appreciate your insight and perspective!
Thanks again!

I think this all has to do with your talent and what you think they are capable of. I always ran a zone early in my career.... and we would trap the first pass. Thats an option.
Then I felt like teams were getting easy looks so we switched to m2m and had a lot more success. Of course there are going to be times that teams will score, regardless of what type of D you play.... but I liked my chances better with the man D.
You play man all the time so I think that it would be an easy task to execute that. We had the person covering the inbounder just inside the paint and he had one responsiblity... stop any pass to the back side, once the the pass was made he jumped that player. Everyone else forced ball side and we covered from the inside out. I wouldn't try to get to fancy, especially with that age group.
Like coach jm said.... everyone has their own ideas as to how to cover that situation. Those are mine.

Ken

thank you - another great suggestion! It'll be a good variation to use the inbounds defender as you described to surprise the offense, especially at this level. But I agree, the simpler the better.
Thank you for your time in replying!

At that age level I never ran into a team that could execute an inbounds play very well. In fact, when I was coaching 9th and 10th graders, I rarely played teams that executed inbounds plays very well at that level either. At least well enough for me to justify much time preparing for that situation in practice. We usually played 2-3 zone when inbounding the ball under the basket (so we didn't get caught on an switch or easy shot under the basket). Everything else was 100% man to man (including sideline out of bounds).

We just spent a few minutes explaining the zone inbounds and made sure we covered the area near the basket. That's it. Just a few minutes. We chose to spend our time doing other things like fundamentals, half court defense & offense, etc. That's just my opinion and experience. Then again, we never faced any 6'9" kids at that level either. :)

I suspect that at the 6th grade level, you're getting hurt more often by other things. I bet turnovers, rebounding, half court execution, poor fundamental skills, poor shot selection, and things like that are having a much bigger effect on your teams wins and losses. Although at 6th grade, wins shouldn't be a priority. Player development, having fun, and teaching life lessons should be the TOP priority.

That's my two cents. Good topic!

P.S. For future development, teaching your players half court execution is better than teaching trapping. Sure, it will be effective now. But when they get older those habits they learn now turn into bad habits later on. I've seen too many players rely on trapping at a lower level, then when that doesn't work against stronger more skilled players in high school, the players fail miserably because they have bad habits and can't execute half court fundamentals. Time is better spent on that in my opinion.

Thanks Jeff! Great insight and you are on-point on each item. I have spent the majority of my practice time this season and last working on fundamentals because they are truly the basis for a successful years of basketball development and playing. Thank you also for the suggestion on not teaching a trap. I will definitely work on the principals and foundations for a successful half court defense.

Thanks again!