Bub

Well, this response is a little late, but I just joined this site and it's a worthy topic. 1. I coach for the local YMCA (San Antonio, TX). At the 7th/8th grade level that I coach in, you can play either defense and you can press. However, once the score gets out hand, one team leads by more than 25 pts (or maybe 20), you can't press or play zone for the rest of the game. Although, they still leave some room for the two coaches to mutually decide. 2. Simple man-to-man is probably the easiest to teach, but I prefer help-side M2M, which is harder for the kids to get the hang of. Zone, while it may seem easier to learn, takes a while for the kids to get the hang of. 3. In our league, we only have one hour of practice a week. In my opinion, you teach them enough to be competitive as quickly as possible. When I helped coach my daughter's AAU team this past summer, the head coach did not want to play, nor teach, zone defense. He wanted them to strictly play help-side M2M. It took a while for the girls to really get it down, and they suffered in their weekly tournaments. We played teams that played both and that really hurt. With the abundant practice time we had and the length of the season (all spring and summer) there's plenty of time to teach both. One hour weekly practices and 8 games, teach what you can. Long season and as much practice as you can get, teach both. 4. I agree. Not knowing one or the other is a disadvantage. Football teams don't play just one type of defense. True, there are many more offenses to play against, but the concept is the same in basketball. The plays you would run against a M2M don't work against a zone, which is why you want to switch to zone if the other team's offense is beating your M2M. Being able to switch up on defense forces the other team to switch, if they're prepared. Every sport benefits from one simple tactic, but success in basketball depends on it: deception. From one little move a player makes to get open all the way up to the coaching decisions, deception is vital to your success. It is the great equalizer. Playing more than one defense will always keep the other team on it's toes, or preferably, back on it's heels.

Coach7, I agree with what you said about a good defense will always be on the ball, that's what we want from our own defense. On offense, if the players are spaced properly and moving and screening properly, you'll reduce the likelyhood of a double-team and will probably get the ball into somebody's hands with nobody around them. The key is to minimize the number of defenders around the ball. Screening the ball puts two defenders in the area of the ball and can create less than desireable results. To make screening the ball successful, you need good ball handlers, obviously, but you also need good passers. And not just someone who can make an accurate pass, but someone who can quickly recognize the open players under duress. Typically, kids at this age get flustered and find themselves double-teamed and nowhere to pass to. That's why I discourage ball screening. I agree with your scenario, with the post back screening, but the ball carrier has to know this is going to happen and know how to instantly react and to quickly recognize their options. And the other players need to recognize this and move accordingly. Again, at this age level, that can be hard to do. Coaching at the Y, we get 2 practices before the season starts and one practice a week. Each practice is only one hour. I know this is a special situation, but that's why I try to teach high percentage concepts, so they can be as successful as possible, as quickly as possible.

I couldn't agree more. I've been coaching 7th & 8th grade boys, summer and winter, for 4 seasons now, and I helped coach my high school daughter's AAU team this past summer. The best way to get them productive is to teach a concept and not a specific play. All four movements PGee suggested are basic building blocks to set plays. Once they master these movements, they're ready to start learning scripted movements. The only other thing I would suggest is to teach them to NOT screen the ball. It's the most common mistake young players make. A good moving offense should be keeping the defense away from the ball, not bring them to it. Good Luck.