Solent Suns Coaches's Blog

Beating Zone Defence March 13, 2011

Posted by solentsunscoach in Uncategorized.
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On the 13th March 2011 I presented a session on “How to be Zone Defence and penetrating against the zone” at the Southern Basketball Conference, Southampton, England. The irony of this is I had spent many hours over the previous months extolling the short comings of zone defence and its appropriateness in school level basketball with one of the conference organisers. As a coach teaching players how to play the game, I agree we cannot avoid zone. It has a valid place in the game at the U18 and senior levels. Zone defence can be used with great effect for a number of purposes, which include: -

• tempo control – changing the tempo of the game
• protecting the key – sagging in order to provide early strong side and weak side help

Zone, in my opinion, should not be used to: -

• disguise individual player weaknesses
• disguise tactical or coaching weaknesses
• provide rest or recovery for players
• to teach young players how to play defence

Anyways, whatever the reason a team decides to deploy zone there are a number of ways to combat the zone. None of these ways are particularly new or innovative and I must credit a number of coaches for the ideas included in this post. Neither can I say that the ideas are fool proof. In order to combat zones you must understand the fours Ps: -

• philosophy: how do you want the game to be played – running game, half-court game
• personnel: what kind of players do you have and what are their strengths and weaknesses
• penetration: the application of passing, cutting and the dribble to score inside the key
• preparation: drills, small-sided games and tactics relevant to your philosophy and personnel
• spacing: the use of space to create isolations inside the key and open shots on the perimeter

Philosophy – Full court penetration means the defence doesn’t have time to set up its zone defence

For me I love the running game (the main reason, I myself don’t play basketball anymore). I want the game to be played fast, at an almost hectic pace, but under control. For my teams I want them to PUSH the ball in transition. Therefore we spend a lot of time trying to understand how to maximise transition. This means understanding the the various points of transition, which include: -

• when the ball goes through the hoop
• on a defensive rebound
• on a live steal

Understanding these points of transition allows your team to get into their fastbreak quickly and effectively. For my teams that means: -

1. Early push – pass early and make decisions in the front court
2. Early speed – drive phase running mechanics; run hard and wide in the back court, open to the ball in the front court
3. Fill the lanes – understand how to balance the floor filling primary wing lanes and secondary/trailing lanes
4. Lead pass – use passes to lead your teammates to the basket

Philosophy – Half-court offense

There are a host of tactics which can be employed to beat zones. In the half-court my teams are drilled on the following concepts: -

• the high-low game – the twin principle (if one inside player is high the other is low)
• use of the short corner – used to drag out the centre of the zone to creating cutting lanes and remove shot blocking
• gapping the zone – don’t allow yourself to be marked by any one player (though, there are some exceptions for inside players playing against the centre of the zone)
• spotting up for outside shot

Personnel – develop players skills sets to maximise your options and flexibility against the zone

In my teams I want to have players who can: -

• shoot the perimeter shot – 20-22 feet at 40% or above (sometimes referred to by coaches as “zone busters”)
• dribble penetrate – create their own offence and offence for others by creating dribbling lanes and passing lanes
• play with their back to the basket – score near the basket in a number of ways, including control and reading space
• offensively rebound – create second chance opportunities

Penetration

Penetration isn’t something done off the dribble. The best penetrating teams understand how to: -

• penetrate with ball – creating dribble lanes and passing lanes
• penetrate with the pass – passing inside the heart of the zone i.e. high and low post entry, high low post passing, pocket pass
• penetrate off the ball – cutting into key or from in front or behind the zone

Penetration should always beat at least the primary defender (the defender pressuring the ball). If after beating this player you have the space to pull-up and shoot, then shoot the ball. Alternatively you can keep penetrating until you reach the basket. Lastly, if you manage to draw another defender – or in other words your driving lane becomes a passing lane – then you can make a weak side pocket pass or strong side kick-out. In either case, penetrators should avoid passing in the air. Land in a solid stance, which gives you the option to make a secondary move i.e. pump-fake and step through or spin, or a pivot and pass to a free teammate.

Preparation

It took me about 10-years of coaching to connect the value of creating your own drills and small-sided games that underpin how you want to play the game. For the first ten-years of my own coaching career I experienced a reasonable degree of success just by working my players hard. I drilled and drilled and drilled my players, but with very little connection between the drills and the skill sets required to effectively deliver our tactical philosophy.

After reading some stuff from australia and working with Michael Ball, the current England U18s Head Coach, I learnt how to connect drills to the game, by including small-sides games, which are designed to help players practice their individual fundamentals (shooting, passing and penetrating and spacing) under limited opposition and numbers before moving to the full-game. Games like Rabbit (a full-court 3 on 2 + 1 game) allows coaches to teach transition [and half-court] offence and defence, focus on spacing, team fundamentals (the give n go, tandem defence, driving and passing lanes etc) and emphasise decision-making.

However, the point here is that whatever your teams do against zone you must practice, practice and practice some more. Make sure you consistently practice at game speed and under game pressure to ensure your players can execute the right skill at the right time.

Spacing

Spacing is basketball and basketball is spacing. Players who understand how to how to create space for themselves and others, and use space effectively will play basketball for a very long time…just like those who can shoot the ball well will tend to extend their careers! Principles like gapping (not allowing yourself to be defended by one player), high-low, use of the short corner and overload, are all about spacing. Repositioning yourself so that you can always be seen by the ball (a point made by Damian Jennings in his draw and kick clinic) is equally important in zone offence. Taking advantage and anticipating defensive rotations and on penetration in order to break down the defence.

Obvious omissions in this post is the use of the overload principle, ball reversal (and use of the touch pass and skip pass). All of these are used in my own zone offence philosophy, but require more time and space to explain than we had time for at the conference.

Whether you employ an early push fastbreak offence, a rule-based offence or a continuation-based offence, then you need to practice every aspect of your tactical planned, underpinned by solid fundamental skills, executed at game speed against multiple zone defences. An understanding of how to use a variety of offensive tools to break down the defence and create high percentage shots will give your teams the confidence to beat zone defences and possibly even make them think twice about playing the zone you at all.