Hi,
At a tournament tonight I had a coach complain that our team was using a zone. I am looking for clarification. I have taught my players not to chase their opponent all over the court. In youth basketball I see no reason for my players to chase other players around the three point line and if their opponent wants to try and shoot a three to let them. I have emphasized to my players to worry about the paint penetration. To just maintain their area and pick up the closest man to them. Not to chase across the court. Instead let their man go and pick up the new man. They are not moving as one unit in the direction of the ball. I consider this a switching man to man defense. What do you think?

Thanks

Since a very good man to man defense can look like a zone defense (great help side positioning, etc), you can occasionally get accused of running a zone.

If that happens, you just tell them to have a cutter run through and they will see it is not a zone and each player is indeed guarding a person.

In your case, since everyone is switching, that won't work.

In my opinion, since you are switching, I think that is closer to a match up zone defense. It is a fine line and you'll get differing opinions.

Personally, I think you should focus on teaching man to man principles and you should not switch to the closest player. Teaching players how to switch is something you'd teach quite a way down the road (other than maybe when they set ball screens).

If you run fundamentally good man to man defense, defenders would not chase weakside players to the 3pt line and they would stay in good help position. Teaching 1 and 2 pass away positioning. That is an important fundamental concept to learn.

I agree with Jeff. If they have pick-ups and are communicating which man they have, but are guarding a man within a spot on the court, then yes, that is a match-up zone.

Man to Man defense, does not require you to chase your man all around the court, everywhere he goes.

There are three facets to man to man defense:
Defense on the ball.
Defense one pass away.
Defense two passes away.

When the ball is two passes away (aka on the wing one side and your man on the other), then you shouldn't have to chase. Instead they should be in the lane on the help-line and mirroring where their man is, with one hand pointed at their man and one pointed at the ball.

What you are describing is at best a zone defense and at worst just a pure zone. They are responsible for a man, which is good. But they aren't really working at adjusting to new positions of an offensive player within their offense.

There are ways to run man to man in order to protect the paint more. Running a gap or pack style defense would accomplish this, and players would still have to maintain ball-you-man relationships with players more than one pass away. What you have described here does not really rely on any of the normal principles of real man to man defense.

I would echo Jeff in regards to teaching man to man principles in how you play. A good man to man defense has elements of zone in it, but should have players still able to pick up their man wherever they are are on the court.

I ran man to man when I coached feeder in a no-half-court-zone-allowed league. We were often accused of running zones. But we always were playing man to man. When players went 5 outside, we always had at least two and sometimes 3 in the lane, on the help-line. They always had pistols pointed at their man and at the ball. One coach even went so far as to pack all of his players into the corner opposite of the ball. My players all ended up in the lane, still pistols pointed. That was good man to man.

What you are running is a reasonably sound defensive philosophy, though I hope you work very hard on closing out and stance relative to the position of the ball. It is a reasonably effective defensive strategy, But it is a match-up zone, not really man to man. If you are not switching screens and just switching responsibility as players move into new areas, then that is a zone principle. If you are switching screens and/or switching hand-offs, then that would still be man to man to me.

Look into some of the breakdown drills for teaching man to man defense. The shell drill is one of my favorite.

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/shell-drill-sucks.html

The above is a great guide for the shell, with explanations on the proper way to run it.

Thank you for the comments. I have been running the shell drill a lot lately and hopefully it will transfer. The coach that accused me of running a zone was also packing four players in a corner and expecting us to surround them. My players just got confused and were like what are they doing?

Thanks for the clarifications.

Great advice from both Jeff and Brian on M2M. Assume your league doesn't allow zones and this is why the other coach was complaining? If that's the case, then the officials should have stepped in if they thought you were playing zone and that isn't allowed. On a side note: I wouldn't get too twisted up about what the other coach says or you'll drive yourself nuts overthinking things.

Actually the official did step in and kept questioning my players about who their check was. The weird thing was that I talked to the next official that called our next game and asked him if he thought we were playing a one and he said no, just good defense.

Any suggestions to reinforce man to man concepts when you have players who can not move quick laterally and get beat off the dribble very time. We work hard on this but they still have a lot of trouble staying with their check and become confused.

There are also teams that will deliberately stack their players in corners or along the sideline and then expect my players to follow them. Unfortunately by the time my players follow them over there the other team has run back to positions and my players are left trying to chase them back and can't keep up. Any suggestions as to what my players should do in these instances?

We won the tournament by the way!

It takes repetitive hard work to become a good defender. It's not fun for kids. most of them would rather be dribbling or shooting. You need to expect and reward good defense. If your kids know defense is extremely important to you, they'll work at it. Here's a great intro drill video. Push then step, stay low.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s46bufWWJ6c

You could also have the more developing players stay off their man rather than player super tight defense.

To me, this is a team trying to find a loophole and they're really not catching the spirit of what the league is trying to accomplish by playing M2M. I wouldn't worry about it as the refs should see what's going on. If you defender does what Brian suggested and keeps one finger pointed at their man and one pointed at the ball, you should be good. If an opposing coach complains about your kids not following to the corner you could explain if the refs call you on it.

Maybe I missed this but is help defense allowed?

congrats!

I have a couple of tips for players who are not quick laterally. The obvious is the more often you practice the skill, the more intensely you perform the skill, the quicker you become.

But there are a few other tactics I would suggest as well.

1.) Teach the players to move "on air time". Often times slow recover on closeouts are the result of watching the ball instead of moving with the ball. I always hold the ball aloft and run my hand under it, over it, and around it. I do that to emphasize to my players that the ball is not on a string, it can't be pulled back once it is let go, so when you see it leave their hand, you should be sprinting to adjust.

To teach this is a simple two on two drill. Have the player with the ball drive the gap between the two defensive players, then kick out when the off-ball defender helps. On the kick out, the off ball defender must recover to his man.

2.) Anticipation: Players should be sensitive to what a player can do from a certain position. Players should know what the body does when it is about to pass or drive.

Have a player throw a pass. Ask the players what it looks like. That is anticipation. If you see the player is about to pass, you can recover from your help line position a little early. Same with the drive. If a player looks like he is getting ready to drive, you can sink to help a little early.

Have players describe how they know when a player is going to pass or drive. Tell them they can use that in a game to make themselves quicker. Does this make them more susceptible to fakes? Yes. But that is a learning experience for them. Anticipation and moving when the ball is in the air are great ways to increase your on-court lateral quickness.

In the shell drill, a buddy of mine had a call he made called "GAP". When he ran the shell, he would call "GAP!" and whoever had the ball would try to split their defender and the closest help defender. If they closed in time, it was kick-out, recover, and then 4 on 4 scrimmage until a stop. It was pretty effective at the help and recover situation you described.

Just never let them respond with "I can't do that." They can, but it takes hard work, practice, and repetitions.