We always played man, except when up big, or when pressing/coming out of a press.

 

I'm more a man to man fan, but feel a good matchup zone is pretty good at incorporating the principles of both.

My coach always said a good man defense looks like a zone defense and a good zone defense looks like a man defense, so this thread puzzles me.:ohbrother:

 

Hum...never heard that, and personally I dont know that I agree with it completely. Maybe initially, when D first sets up on a trip back down the floor they could be in one and looks like the other and there are ways to try and disguise it, but after a couple of passes, sending a cutter through the lane and/or sending a baseline runner down the base line you should see pretty quickly what the d is running. Now there are man to man principles in every zone of course, and a matchup Syracuse 2-3 style zone has a lot of man play in it, but a zone is not man and vise versa and they are played differently.

 

I do not think they are saying that they are trying to disguise the defense.

 

I believe he is saying that zone defenses has man to man principles and man to man has zone principles.

To me a good coach will teach his kids to play both effectively and will use both in every game. Not to mention a good coach will teach his kids what to do to attack a zone properly on offense.

Once kids reach the jr high age group no matter what league they play in all forms of zone should be taught. Zone is a big part of the game. Kids cant head off and expect to play ball in HS and have no clue how to play different types of zone D. It also helps knowing how to play it on D so when you have the ball and another team plays a type of zone you have an idea of what to expect and how to operate against it.

Just saw this thread and I have yet to read a post. When I saw the title my first thought was that in middle school 98% of the kids can't play proper defense period so it doesn't matter if they are in zone or man to man. The defensive fundamental skills at middle school are horrendous.

Not a fan. Teaching kids to be lazy defensively. Man to man is the only way to go except on out of bounds plays on the baseline.

:thumb:

Teach man to man principles, but also teach zone. Our high school uses a ton of zone, and with the girl's program there are several middle schoolers that come over to the high school and play. If they aren't taught zone then they are behind, very much so.