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Against Zone Defenses
Hey coaches!
I sent this over to Rick last night and wanted to add it to the forum as well. And he gave a great answer. Thought we can share ideas in the subject on the forum.
I coach 5th Grade Boys for a traveling team. Most of the kids in my area play zone. Sad to say but since this is the case, I need to prepare. How can I use the fusion system against zone defenses? How would you apply the rules against zone defenses at practice?
Coach Steve
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9 Replies
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I feel your pain but to answer your question yes you can sir. We use the zone attack offense and the go to and counter move get the lay-up and the other player work on player development.
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Thank you sir! I coach 5th grade boys that have a mixed basketball IQ’s. The pin and skip counter move is something that I am so anxious to get going. However I do not want to over whelm them. In your opinion do you think the baby pins and upward pins are too young for them to pick up on a consistent basis?
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Hi Steve
I coach girls (school & travel). We see a lot of zone in my area of New York as well. We use the zone attack with a permanent short corner. We get a lot of layups to the nail cutters initially. As the defense starts to squeeze the lane we get a lot more short corner jumpers and inside out 3’s. We will change our permanent short corner player to a permanent nail player and move the cutters to the short corner. It changes up the look and we usually get a good amount of layups because the zone gets confused trying to pass off the cutter as they move down the lane to the short corner. -
Hey Ron!
That is slick! I like all of those ideas. Do you usually have your permanent nail and flank have specific skill assets? For instance great passer, great shooter, y’all player etc?
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FUSION: Create your own zone offense REHEARSAL STEPS and put the zone defense in DRIBBLING MODE. Start with 2 ball dribbling so that the offense can see open players and make successful passes. As your offense improves, switch the defensive mode to ONE BALL DRIBBLING. It gives the defense one hand to deflect passes. Eventually go to TUCKING and 2 HAND HOLD. When it looks like you want, go to WILD SCRIMMAGES and test it.
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Thanks for the great suggestions Rick. I was wondering about using the fusion method with the zone attack.
Steve- all my girls are about the same height so i usually use one of my better passers and mid range shooters. They get quite skilled at driving by taller traditional post players. I have used the permanent nail and flank position in the past for players who were not as skilled at handling the ball on the perimeter. It allowed them to maximize their strengths while improving their ball handling. They eventually would start escape dribbling to “prime the pump” and by the end of the season were more confident. That’s what i love about the Read and React, it’s great for player development.
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Ron W
“Prime the pump”? I’m not as much of a vet as you guys…. could you explain?
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Hi Steve
When your flank player escape dribbles to the corner they can dribble at the wing sending the wing to the nail and the nail player to the now open flank. It’s a great action because it pulls the zone defender in the flank out to the corner and forces them to decide how high they are going to go to when the ball is dribbled to the wing. After dribbling at the wing, our permanent flank would pass back to the nail player who filled the flank, cut to the nail and get a return pass for a shot. The Zone Attack video has a section that shows this action. Hope this helps. -
Ron,
I just went to that section for creating 2 on 1. Genius! This is exactly what I want to drill for my boys to create because of their abilities to pass off of the dribble. Thank you for your insight on this! Talk soon!
Steve
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