Coach Sonny Lane taught us that winning follows fundamentals not trickery. Yet we regularly changed defenses, partly a function of having eight seniors on the team.
Name that defense. The first digit represented type and the second extent of defense.
10 series (man) 1 quarter court, 2 half, etc. 12 = half court man
40 series (1-2-2 zone)
50 series (1-3-1 zone)
70 series (2-1-2 zone)
80 series (2-2-1 extended), e.g. 83 = 2-2-1 UCLA press
Red = run and jump full court
Diamond = 1-2-1-1 full court defense
Changing defenses adds value executed well. A large menu of poorly cooked entrees doesn't make a great restaurant.
What? What defines your defenses? What can you execute? That depends on people - size and athleticism, aptitude, and experience. Speed advantages translate to extended defenses. Elite size favors half-court defenses.
Results. Changing defenses helped our middle school team win a playoff game. We lost seven times, most close, to a team over three years. We switched to a triangle and two with the "two" assigned to deny threes to a pair of shooters. We stopped their best SLOB with a counter.
Another time we faced a team averaging 62 points a game in 7th grade. We had a triangle, one player denying their 'star' and another as a 'rover' who brought help to whichever side the 'star' lived. We held them to 45 points. We had poor offense and still lost by about 15.
When? Good times to change defenses can include after timeouts, after made baskets, and after free throw attempts.
Caveats? If we have a low-skill offensive team (common during development), we can't spend the lion's share of time on defense. Teams must learn to score. Prepping players for high school requires building skill not just playing fast trying to win.
You've heard the story of the team in Gladwell's "David and Goliath" that won a sixth grade championship by only playing "hair on fire" pressure defense. Applying that to your higher level teams playing against more skilled teams might be an 'ambitious try'.
"The best man-to-man defense pressures the ball and resembles zone away from the ball."
The best zone defenses pressure the ball and cover areas away from the ball." They are more alike than different.
Older readers remember Jerry Tarkanian's "Amoeba defense" at UNLV and Dale Brown's "Freak" defense at LSU. The latter defense varied according to where the offense attacked.
Caveats.
- Simplify. Don't confuse players with too much information. I introduced the "run and jump" (I called it "trap and go") and our players didn't get it, so I scrapped it.
- Too many defenses result in poor execution with young teams.
- "Kill your darlings." Fall in love with what works not trendiness.
- Special considerations. Some players have learning issues like ADD or dyslexia. We don't know that automatically. We may need to tell a player to force to the curtain or to the stands instead of left or right.
Lagniappe.
Lagniappe 2. Watch how teams combine actions. One player looks lost here. SLOB stagger entry, high ball screen.
Lagniappe 3. Beautiful simplicity.