Thoughts From This Week

I have a million ideas, but can't really find the words to express many of those thoughts in a way that I'm satisfied with.  We're going to try to get a couple of them out here though today and hopefully I can find the words for the others to keep my weekly posting schedule.

For starters, my team is playing very well right now.  It was like the break between the Holiday Slamfest tournament and our first game of 2012 really inspired them.  I mean, I did challenge them to play better defense, but we've made serious strides on the offensive side of the ball as well.  We're making that one extra pass to go from a good shot to a great one, and it's gotten us on a pretty good win streak which included a solid win against a team that we struggled with and lost to twice in 2011.  We're hitting our stride at the right time, as we have 'the gauntlet', a trip to Boston, league playoffs, and a Tournament of Champions coming up within the next 8 weeks.  I'm really happy with what's going on, and we're still growing.  The last two winter teams I've had I waited until about this time of the year to really stress man to man defense, which they seem to be picking up, but I'm not going to do that anymore.  I'll explain why in a minute.  It was good to see them picking up some of the concepts quickly.  We still have a lot of work to do, but it's a tough defense to learn because you have to process a lot of information and that's a lot to expect of 10 and 11 year olds.  I'm happy where we are, and tomorrow we have a game where we should be able to continue to fine tune it and then a second where we can put it to a real test.  I am definitely happy that I was able to arrange for 8 of my 10 players to watch the William Paterson Men's Basketball game today, because it gave them the opportunity to see someone else doing what my assistant and I are asking them to do.  Of the 8 that went, I definitely feel like 5 took something away from it that they will look to add to their skill set, and parents are interested in taking the kids to other events because they saw how helpful it would be to their child's development.  So we're moving in the right direction.  If we keep this pace through the gauntlet - 7 games between February 1 and February 11 - and have a strong showing in the Boston tournament, we will be a force to be reckoned with heading into the league playoffs.  The team is hungry, I'm hungry - we just need to get our seat at the table reserved.

I made the decision today that I will be starting all my future teams out with man to man defense only.  I did some reading on zone defense one day while looking for variations that I could add to my playbook, and came away wondering if I was helping these kids by teaching zone over man.  I admit, I fell into it because that's what the competition was doing and it was getting us wins.  After yesterday's game showed how much we struggle with man to man and how instrumental it is in upper levels of basketball, that article came back to my head.  Perhaps I am stifling their defensive growth by teaching zone first.  Here's what the article brought up -

1. Man to man (shortened to 'man' from here on out) requires you as a defender to know where everyone else is on the floor
2. Man demands you be energized and active or you'll get beat constantly
3. Man needs for players to see and close passing lanes and react while the ball is in the air
4. Man creates an accountability system

Zone defense doesn't necessarily require those things, but if they ARE there, that zone is exponentially improved.  Imagine a zone where 5 guys all react to every pass as if their man had the ball, one where once the ball enters a players zone he puts such intense pressure on it that the opposition has no choice but to either shoot a tough shot or pass it back out.  Some of you are saying, that's how a zone is supposed to react.  I'm telling you, go to a youth basketball game and watch the zones and tell me that is happening everywhere.  I admit, my guys play decent zone defense, but it's not very active, no matter how much I try to energize it and yell to "move your feet and rotate quick."  I honestly think it will be much better once man defense concepts are grasped and applied.

I actually have seen this first hand with my AAU team in the fall.  We started out with nothing but a full court man defense, simply because I had the speed and athleticism to do it.  We were pretty good with man, and they were putting good pressure on the ball most times.  Then I introduced a zone.  That was probably the best zone I've ever had.  It was fast, and the only way you were beating us while we were in it was with a kid on fire from long range.  Did I teach that zone any different?  No.  I did have a true center, but even when he was on the bench we were strong.  I'm absolutely convinced that if I'm going to be a coach at this level, my job is to start these kids with a solid defensive foundation, which starts with man defense.  Zone comes second.  Will it cost me some wins, probably.  But everyone loses, and its about what you do at the end of the season.  I'd gladly lose in the early goings, learn to play defense and dominate when there's a trophy that says 'Wayne PAL - NJJBL Conference Champions" at stake.