Choosing to play a zone defense at the youth level is incredibly selfish and shortsighted. I doubt many coaches have considered this point. Zone defense robs the opponent of the opportunity for offensive development. Every good coach will tell you that the toughest zone to play against is a well-taught matchup zone with players who have sound defensive habits like the ones listed above.ģ. Man principles, taught first, create good zone defense. Well played zones are based on man principles. It is built with VERY GOOD individual defenders.Įach successful zone is based on active, communicating defenders who understand the positioning, movement, vision, decision making and on ball habits developed from years training how to guard. Youth basketball should be about developing players for life long success, not winning meaningless games played in front of a few parents.Įvery zone that is played at a high level and works well is based on man concepts. Zones work better against less talented players. And while you’ll see even more zone in high school games, it’s nowhere near as much zone as you see at the youth levels. You see more zone in college than in the pro’s, but it is still played less than man to man. When you have shooting at multiple offensive positions, players that can play in space and know how to move intelligently then a zone is not the most efficient defense. Let me say that again.at the highest level of play, with the most skilled players on the floor, you see the least amount of zone defense. Zone defense doesn’t prepare athletes for long-term success.Īt the highest levels of play you see the least amount of zone defense. wins) without first building these key habits.Ģ. Instead of teaching players good habits, some coaches choose to play a defense that allows them to be successful(i.e. Some decide to remove decisions from players, which allow them to get away with poor habits. Some coaches want to hide weak players rather than developing them. While some see the above situations avoided by playing a zone as averted disasters, instead, I see each of them as missed learning opportunities. Fewer opportunities for bigger players to guard the ballĮach of the above reasons not to play zone are also many of the same reasons some coaches choose to play zone.Fewer opportunities to learn what is acceptable defensive risk taking. Decreased repetitions of defensive rotations.Fewer decisions while playing help defensive decisions.Fewer opportunities to practice decision making in defensive transition.Fewer opportunities to practice communication in defensive transition.Fewer opportunities to guard different positions and areas of the floor.Let’s list the poor habits zone defenses in youth basketball tend to promote: This results in poor off ball positioning, inadequate defensive awareness, diluted on-ball habits, less accountability and little to no communication. There players will be guarding a weaker second-string player on their own team. The decision to play zone is even worse in practice. A zone defense does not demand the individuals in the zone to give effort or learn sound defensive principles. Therefore most youth coaches and their teams tend to default into a zone in order to get cheap wins against teams that are playing with a three-point line that is too far out for the age and stage of the athlete. Most youth players on youth teams have yet to develop a strong skill set, let alone the physical strength to execute those skills. It takes a much more experienced coach to teach an active, communicating, moving, aware, physical zone defense. The other four players end up standing still, upright, plugging the lane and ignoring the other four offensive players who aren’t strong enough to shoot from outside the three point line yet. However, in youth basketball zone defense turns into one player jumping out of position and going for steals while their teammates stand and watch that happen. A zone defense should be one player guarding the ball and four players helping guard the ball. In youth basketball there are usually one or two strong players on a team. Zone defense doesn’t teach good defensive habits.
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