Make a bet, right now, with anyone that will take it. You go to any regular recreation league basketball game and at least 1 team will be playing zone defense. Probably both teams. But since you are betting, let's be safe. WHY are they playing zone at these young ages? Time to wake up coaches!

Zone defenses are predicated on the idea that a group of individuals (5 - to be exact) can work together to protect an entire basketball court. Can you think of any kid under the age of 13 that is keenly aware of everything happening around them? My son is now 12 years old and a very smart kid. He walked out of the house the other day, on his way to his soccer game, with no cleats, no shirt, and no soccer ball! He did have his cell phone, of course. He's lucky his head was attached or he'd forget that, too. But can we seriously expect kids to understand the intricacies necessary to play a zone defense effectively? Of course not. So why do we do it Coaches?

The answer, unfortunately, is because a lot of coaches are being lazy! Man-to-man defense is one of if not THE most fundamental parts of the game. For a coach to force a team into a zone is to say to their team - "I don't want to spend the time teaching each of you, so I'll just put you in the way of the other team." And that's all I see most kids do. Stand in a place and hope they are in the way of the other team.

If anyone happened to see the NCAA championship game this year, hopefully we can agree that it was one of the best played and most enjoyable games to watch in a championship setting in a long time. Both Duke and Butler were playing aggressive man-to-man defenses. And playing fantastic. You've heard it before. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. It is proven year in and year out. These are the role models that our kids look up to. Let's teach them what their role models are doing on the court. Do we show our kids the smartest,and most successful people in our society only to turn around and tell them to do something completely different with their lives? It's silly. The best players know how to play man-to-man defense. If we teach our kids zone defense before they know how to play man defense, their life in the sport is going to expire faster than they would have liked.

There are lots of creative ways to teach young kids how to play man-to-man. It really isn't that hard. I'll get into some of those strategies in another posting. In the mean time, take me up on that bet. And watch what happens to those kids in the future. The ones that learn man-to-man will excel and play the sport much longer. The kids that are products of zoniac coaches are more than likely headed for a future on XBox.