Youth "No zone rule" looking for examples

[snorman75]

Do a 6th grade and down youth league. I have no problem interpenetrating "No zone defense" rule, but I have 15+ years experience. Some times I reff with kids not much older them 15. So there was a problem with interpretations.

What happened was some reffs let the offense set up out side the 3 point lane and play a NBA isolation play, with the rule stating the defense needed to be within 5 feet, there was no help. A team road this offense to the finals were they ran into me, well all year I called it like this; when your person is 25 feet from the rim, my 5 feet is closer to 15. Where you should be playing man to man.

Well this year they wrote in to the rules (with no imput from reffs) if your man is outside the 3 point line you have to be too. OK, this is funny, in last year rules, must had blocked it out, know I did not call it

I looked around the net and found all the places I looked at just leaves it at no zone and leaves it up to interpretation.

So my question: Does anyone use a expanded "no zone defense" rule and what is it and how does it work? Let me know level too.

Thanks
Happy New year too

[Juulie Downs]

The only blanket no zone rule I've worked with allowed a double team, but no triple, if the ball was in the paint. This way, even if the the offense used an isolation play to take one defender out, they were also taking out a weapon of their own to use in beating the double team. I thought that worked pretty well.

The ball handler in the paint could draw a double team, but all other defenders had to stay on their person, and that meant facing their person, or within about 2 feet. If a defender tried to sort of slither off and pretend to guard while actually guarding the ball handler, it was a defensive violation, and we had the option to call it, and put the ball back in with a throw-in. When the refs enforced it strictly, it pretty well put the kibosh on the isolation play.

[BillyMac]

The one and only year that my daughter played recreation basketball, there was a "you have to play man to man defense" rule. Whenever one of my daughter's teammates would get beat, she would leave her man to help on defense, and was told by the officials (parents/coaches/volunteers) that this was not allowed. Also, there were no free throws in this league. She was a pretty decent player, and every time she would drive to the basket, she would get hammered, and the only penalty was that her team would get to inbound the ball. She became quite frustrated, as was I, and the next year we both decided that she should try out for the travel team, and play "real" basketball.

[just another ref]

Does anyone else think the no-zone rule for kids is a really bad idea? It has a strong tendency to turn the game into a one on one contest. It is difficult to enforce, no matter how it is worded, because with young kids, it is often difficult to tell what kind of defense they are playing. Let them quadruple team the stud. This will teach him to pass the ball.

[Mark Padgett]

I think Juulie may be referring to the local kids rec league in my town. Years ago, we didn't allow zones at any grade level. If an offensive player was within 20 feet of the basket, they had to be guarded. Over the years, we changed that for three reasons. One - it was incredibly difficult to teach to new, young refs. Two - experienced refs who worked our league had difficulty with it because it was different from everything else they worked so they weren't used to recognizing it. Three - it came to pass that we felt zone defenses were a more accepted part of the game.

Now we only disallow the zones in 3rd and 4th grade games. They're OK in everything from 5th grade through HS. The change hasn't had a negative effect on the games and there's no plans to change it.

[refnrev]

Ah yes, the memories of youth rec league ball. Man, how hard I try to forget! Great kids, wanna be coaches, and stupid parents. I remember once having a parent scream "3 seconds in the lane." To which I looked at her and replied, "OK. I've got ten girls in the lane. Which one do you want me to call it on." The head of that league was a truly great D1 player who later played for a while in Europe. I remember him shaking his head in disbelief at some of the things that he saw or heard.

[fullor30]

Originally Posted by snorman75

Do a 6th grade and down youth league. I have no problem interpenetrating "No zone defense" rule, but I have 15+ years experience. Some times I reff with kids not much older them 15. So there was a problem with interpretations.

What happened was some reffs let the offense set up out side the 3 point lane and play a NBA isolation play, with the rule stating the defense needed to be within 5 feet, there was no help. A team road this offense to the finals were they ran into me, well all year I called it like this; when your person is 25 feet from the rim, my 5 feet is closer to 15. Where you should be playing man to man.

Well this year they wrote in to the rules (with no imput from reffs) if your man is outside the 3 point line you have to be too.

I looked around the net and found all the places I looked at just leaves it at no zone and leaves it up to interpretation.

So my question: Does anyone use a expanded "no zone defense" rule and what is it and how does it work? Let me know level too.

Thanks
Happy New year too

I ran into this several years ago with a travel game. Coach with a lightening fast point guard would spread floor almost doing a four corners, then run an iso play. I did as you did and allowed defenders to play off their man a good ten feet. Coach kicked and screamed........I would hear nothing of it. He was only interested in playing 1 on 1 and ran the play ad infinitum.

These were 7th graders. Hey, they're guarding their man, nothing says you have to be closely guard your man.