Four corners feeder style

[BillyMac]

The very first year that my daughter played basketball, after taking dance lessons for several years, she played on a town recreation team, that insisted on man to man defense, at all times. My daughter had good basketball instincts from the get go, so when her teammates would get beat, she would drop off her man to help on defense. The officials kept telling her that this wasn't allowed. She kept on questionning me about why she couldn't help her teammates. This league also, for some unknown reason, didn't shoot foul shots. If you were fouled in the act of shooting, your team got the ball back. My daughter, as I said earlier, had some potential, she would often get offensive rebounds, and quickly shoot the ball and score, so her opponents would simply foul her when she rebounded, or shot, the ball. Again, as an official, I got a lot of questions from her.

The next year, at my suggestion, she tried out, and made, the town travel team. I'm not a big fan of travel teams, especially when there are same age school teams available, but thank God, she made the travel team, because if she didn't, she would probably go back to dancing, which for you with nondancers in your family, is very expensive, and boring to a "basketball Dad" like myself.

[BillyMac]

From A Pennsylvania Coach: "If the protesting coach wants to determine or demonstrate if the defense is playing a zone, he should have a player or players off the ball cut through from one side to the other. If one defender shifts due to the cut, that's a man-to-man defense. If more than one defender shifts due to the cut, that's a zone."

When I was coaching middle school, that's the first play we ran to find out what kind of defense we were facing.

[Coltdoggs]

My rec league has adopted no zone for 3rd and 4th grade league and has an isolation rule in place as well. In addition, they do not allow high screens above the top of the 3 point line extended.

5th/6th can play any D and there is also an isolation rule...no high pick rule though

The iso, high picks and zone Ds are lumped as "violations" that get 2 warnings then on the third infraction and on, we issue Team techs (2 FTs and ball)

The iso can be called in one or two players work together in half court sets and do not involve other team members. It can also be called if one player, on a third possession in a row in a half court set is the shooter without involving other team members.

The exception to this is when the isolating player is on a fastbreak...we let those go.

[Forksref]

As a coach at the JHS, HS and college levels for over 15 years, I understand the levels.

First of all, any coach worth anything will teach "help" defense within the man defense. So, don't penalize a team for learning good help defense at the JHS level. Hopefully, league organizers will understand this.

Secondly, when I started out at the JHS level, we were allowed to teach and coach a zone defense. I believe that the kids deserve to learn to work offensively against a zone. This requires good ball movement, ball fakes, driving and penetrating the zone and, of course, good shooting. There are those who will say that you need to concentrate on teaching man to man defense. Well, my experience tells me that I can teach good man defense in 2 weeks but I can't teach good shooting, ball movement and all the other components of good zone offense in 2 weeks. Defense is a whole lot easier to teach than offensive skills.

As a side note, I think I have seen more illegal screens in JHS ball this year than ever before. The main reason for this is coaches not teaching the players to USE the screen. The player with the ball dribbles so far from the screener that you could drive a truck through the space. The poor kid setting the screen has to move 5 feet laterally in order to get close to the defender on the ball. This is just poor coaching and the kids get penalized. The player for whom the screen is being set must take their defender into the stationary screener. I always told my players to brush shoulders with the screener. This rarely happens.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Forksref

As a coach at the JHS, HS and college levels for over 15 years, I understand the levels. The player for whom the screen is being set must take their defender into the stationary screener. I always told my players to brush shoulders with the screener. This rarely happens.

Coach: Good coaching, When I was coaching I would tell my players the same thing, "brush shoulders". If more players would listen to coaches like you, we officials would probably have to call fewer illegal contact moving screens. Very often the screener will move, and make contact, illegally, because the player using the screen didn't come close enough to the screener.

[Coltdoggs]

Originally Posted by Forksref

I always told my players to brush shoulders with the screener. This rarely happens.

This is what I've tried to teach my daughter's team that I am coaching....they are only 7-8 year olds and really don't get the screen concept or what it does for them but I introduced it (with much frustration ). It's not the screener I'm having trouble with...the girls will stand still...it's the dribblers that like to work sideline to sideline in stead of driving to the cup!!

The times I coached my son's team or helped out at the Dad's club or travel teams, or my nephews' teams...that's the way I always presented it to them. Shoulder to shoulder is the best means for teaching.

Easier to teach the older kids for sure!