Need a good offense for a youth basketball team

November 22, 2006 7:33 AM

I am coaching my 11-year-old daughter's junior level, instructional league basketball team. I would like to implement two basic offenses - one for use against a man-to-man (girl-to-girl?) defense and one against a zone defense. Can anyone help me out with a simple, successful offensive play or set to use against each defense?

A little more background: These are girls 10-12 years old, with at most 2 or 3 years experience playing park district ball. This is the first year that most of them will be encountering zone defenses. I am having a heck of a time coming up with basic plays for my speedy youngsters, who have short attention spans, limited shooting ranges, and not much ability to "see" the court.

Can anyone help me out with basic offenses that have been successful(*) for you? I have searched for info online, and even dug out the materials from a coaching class I took in college, but it's hard picking through the more advanced high school- and college-level stuff to find ideas that will work for young kids with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and not a lot of ability.

* By successful, I guess I mean easy - easy for the kids to run most of the time, easy to teach, easy to remember, and results in a scoring opportunity most of the time, if not an actual basket.

posted by SuperSquirrel to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 comments total)

(I'm sure someone with more basketball knowledge will be able to help more than I can, but here goes...)

More than likely, the teams you play against will not have mastered "switching" in man-to-man, so you can exploit that by running simple screens. If you have a player with a decent shot from about the foul line, have her start out beneath the basket. Put your best screener (probably the biggest player) at the foul line, then have her run down the key to set a pick on the "good shooter's" defender. As the pick is set, have your shooter run to the foul line. If everything works correctly, she should get the pass immediately and be open for a shot.

The advantage of this play is that the point guard only has to make one decision: if the shooter is free, get her the ball at a specific point. Of course, it might only work once or twice before the defense picks up on it, but you can run variations on it all around the court (e.g. have two post players "cross" in the lane, with one of them coming free on the other side, etc).

If your players can pass well they can defeat a simple zone pretty easily, but this can be difficult at that age level. If you have a fast point guard, have her drive the lane with the express intent of passing the ball once the defense collapses on her. In other words, have two good shooters set up around the perimeter on one side, then have the point guard drive to the basket from that side. The defense should collapse on the ball handler, leaving one of your shooters open for a shot. Also, get your players used to being trapped in a double-team and to helping teammates who are trapped, because often younger players get flustered by zones that trap well and then turn the ball over.
posted by arco at 8:04 AM on November 22, 2006

It's been years since I played basketball, but when I was that age, I distinctly remember our team having the most luck with really simple picks across the bottom of the key, 3 person give-and-gos (which we did drills for endlessly) and simply parking our tallest, strongest person at the bottom of the key and getting the ball to her. Mind you, we weren't allowed to play zone defense at all, so I don't know how helpful that would be in that scenario.

Regardless... thanks for bring up the memories. Playing organized basketball at that age was one of my best experiences as a kid.
posted by cgg at 8:43 AM on November 22, 2006

The main offense against man-to-man is the "motion" offense. Against zones, it's typically some sort of 3-2 (against a 2-3 zone) where the players fit into the gaps in the zone, switch with each other, and pass the ball faster than the zone can rotate.
posted by callmejay at 8:47 AM on November 22, 2006

I'm a guy, but from what I remember of playing park district basketball at that age, screens were not allowed... too dangerous or something, but that might just have been a function of living in wussy, overprotective suburbia.
posted by notswedish at 8:57 AM on November 22, 2006

At that age I wouldn't focus too much on distinguishing between zone and man defense in terms of plays. Unless you're practicing all the time, you want to give them tools that they can use in many different situations - they will be easier to remember, practice, etc.

I would teach three mini-plays:

give and go (pass the ball and cut to the basket)
pick and roll (set a pick for the ball handler and roll to the basket)
pass pick away (pass the ball and set a pick for a player in the opposite direction)

these are tools that can be used to set up close shots or layups, spread the floor well and don't require excessive synchronization (all important factors at that age). You can also keep running them over and over throughout a posession until you get a good opportunity and at worst you will have had good ball movement.

obviously this has to be combined with some emphasis on fundamentals.

if you wanted to teach them one strategy to deal with a zone defense in particular, I would try to teach them to penetrate and pass - i.e. make the zone collapse and then kick out to a wing player. ultimately though you don't have shooters (i assume) so you're going to have to rely on good fundamental skills (cutting, ball movement, rebounding) to get a good scoring opportunity out of that sort of play. It can be helpful though as a way of initially approaching a zone for players that have not seen it before.

good luck, and kudos for being a coach - I know I owe alot to the many volunteer sports coaches that I had.
posted by aquafiend at 9:34 AM on November 22, 2006

I would stress movement and picks. Its so easy for players (of all ages) to just stand and wait for the ball. Movement is key to mixing things up and getting free looks at the basket.

Also don't forget to instill good behaviors for what happens after the ball is shot. At that age when most players aren't good shots, rebounding under the basket will give you a big leg up if your players can get into good position.
posted by mmascolino at 9:43 AM on November 22, 2006

This website has all sorts of coaching information and has several offenses to choose from. It also has information for all levels (including videos of all the fundamentals), so it should have good info for a youth team.
posted by chndrcks at 10:37 AM on November 22, 2006

Zones are usually defeated by fast passing around the key as the zone tries to respond, but can't. The typical approach is to overload the zone by having putting 3 playes on one side and one near the point, pass the ball around looking to draw the zone in close to one side, then pass to point and to the free player on the weak side who should have a much closer shot.

Push the passing, passing, passing, passing and more passing. You can and should teach motion offense, but I'm willing to bet that pick and roll and give and go will not work so well. Against younger players, driving against a zone is near impossible.

Here is a link to a PDF on playing against a zone, but it's probably too complex for this age level.

If you're teaching zones for defense, most teams at that level will use 2-1-2, but 3-2 is also a nice zone, especially if you have two tall players to put at the baseline.

Zones will start to fail when the offense team has a really good shooter. In this case, you want to switch of a box-and-1 defense. Your fastest player will be doing 1 on 1 with the shooter and the rest will be playing a zone.

If you have two tallish players, you can also put three people around the zone and your tall players run in circles from the foul line to the bottom free-throw positions and clap or shout when they get to the low position, arms up. They are now a target for a pass for a (hopefully) easy shot.

Second on handling rebounds. Boxing out is an essential skill and many kids need to be taught to have the right level of aggression to make it effective. You can't be afraid of contact and you can't be afraid of ramming your ass into another player to get them out of the way.

Similarly, when a player has been trapped by a zone, young kids often collapse around the ball to keep if from being touched, making themselves smaller and prone to throw elbows in panic. This will result in either a jump ball or a turn-over. In direct opposition, if a player is pinned by two others, s/he should become as big/wide as possible and take up as much room and his/her pivot foot, forcing the defense to reach over or around, which will turn into a foul in your favor.
posted by plinth at 10:39 AM on November 22, 2006

Thanks to all of you!!!! Lots of great suggestions. I chose the answer I did as best because Animated! Basketball! Play! Diagrams! made me squeal.

Now to regain my stern coach's demeanor, and work up some ideas for practice on Monday.

And to those of you with fond memories of youth ball, please, if so inclined, write me privately with what made your memories good? I'd love to hear your stories.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:47 PM on November 24, 2006