In the Zone

Zone defense is a key tool in sports.  What is it, and is it a good option for the young kids?

While playing zone defense, the defensive player guards a space or area instead of a particular opponent.  This is different than a man-to-man defense, where a defensive player guards a particular opponent.  One of the main advantages of zone defense is that it can be "simpler" to implement, and it is a different look, which may confuse some teams in some sports.

Zone defense is an option in basketball, football, and soccer.  In a previous post, I talked a little bit about implementing a functional soccer defense...  This is not necessarily a "zone" scheme, more of a reacting-to-the-ball scheme...  but it is certainly more zone than man-to-man.  It may be better to avoid man-to-man defense because offense and defense are inter-twined in soccer, and if you're playing man-to-man defense, it's likely that the defenders will be closer when your team has the ball.

For flag football, I completely advocate zone defense for the young (and old!).  Why?  It is difficult for young defenders to keep up with receivers, given the options of running and passing, and the different schemes that can be used by offense to confuse the defense.  I've found that defenders tend to be in better position if they are in an area, and then react as the ball is played.  There's probably a whole post on this...

For basketball, I know there's a whole post on defense.  I suggest man-to-man in this case.  It is easier for the kids to understand finding their "man" and standing between their man and the basket than it is for them to remember which area they have and how to react appropriately.  So - 3 different sports, 3 different strategies?  Yes.  And for good reason.

I encourage you to experiment on your own, and go with what works for your team... 

Defensive Strategy: Soccer

One of the key elements in coaching the 4-5 year olds in soccer is establishing which goal is which.  The concept of "our goal" and "their goal" is one of the most important things to discuss early in the season.  Call the goals what you'd like - so long as it is clear which one to kick the ball in, and which one to keep the ball out of...

After the kids understand which goal they're trying to kick the ball into, the next concept is to always try to kick the ball in that direction.  This can be confusing, because if they watch soccer matches in person or on TV - or maybe they see older kids playing - in those games players are kicking the ball every which way.  Clearly, these youngsters do not need to be so fancy as to be arbitrarily kicking the ball backwards at the opponent's goal.  To encourage directionality - I like to use a drill called Turnaround.  This drill literally involves dribbling the ball, and when I yell turnaround, the kids do a 180 and start going in the other direction.  This conditions them to repeat the same activity in the game (and this is a wonderful tool).

When the kids understand which goal is which, and can turn the ball around you're ready for the last step... guarding the goal.  Most leagues under 5 or 6 don't use goalies, so it's up to your team to plug the middle in front of the opponent's goal when the ball gets close.  I try to teach that the closest player to the ball attacks, and the others play between the ball and the goal in a straight line.  The astute among you might say, that's great, but you're leaving the passing lanes open.  This is true - and if a 5-year-old can make the pass to an open teammate on the wing for a goal, so be it.  The "plug the middle" strategy is very effective until the advent of goalies in the 6-7 year old leagues.

Good defense will lead to good offense - like it does in a lot of other situations.  The kids will respond well to the other team not scoring - especially if they are able to get a few goals...  Use defense as your key strategy to a successful season.

Anatomy of a Practice: Basketball

I've used a few different formats for basketball practice, and it certainly varies with age.  For the very young (kindergarten) set, I typically focus on fundamentals for the first half to 2/3 of practice, and then talk a little about offense and defense.  The offense and defense portion literally is stuff like "here's our basket" and "stand between the person you're guarding and the basket" on defense.  There is very little strategy involved.

Practices for the kids as they get older are much the same, although the offensive and defensive portions get more sophisticated.  I always teach defense first - the kids work harder when they have offense to look forward to at the end of practice.  That, and if the other team can't score, they can't win...

So, what does a typical practice look like?

After stretching, the first 10-15 minutes is always ball fundamentals.  Speed dribble drills, crossover dribble drills, Butch Lee, etc.  For the older kids, you can begin to introduce behind-the-back and between-the-legs switches.  To do this before 8 or so though is kinda silly...

Next is either defensive work (agility drills or rebounding drills), and/or passing drills.  Passing drills always involve a partner, and sometimes involve a third person for defense.  Of course, Monkey in the Middle is also a possibility - even for the older kids.  

Now that the kids are getting a little tired, it's time for defense - defensive techniques and strategy.  Always teach man-to-man before zone defense.  More about defensive strategy details in a future post...  Unlike football, I think zone defense in basketball is a more difficult concept to master.  

Finally, it's time for offensive strategy and techniques.  I prefer to implement a "base" offense first, and then introduce set plays later - along with perhaps another base offense if you see a lot of different defenses (older kids).  You'll need at least 1 inbounds play to start the year, so keep that in mind (for older kids).  Offensive strategy - like defensive strategy, involves a lot of walking through first, then live action afterwards.  Obviously as the season goes along, there's less walking and more doing...

Practices shouldn't probably go more than 1/2 hour for the 5-6 set, and 45 minutes to an hour for the 7-8 year olds.  Good luck organizing your practice!

FUNdamentals!

One of the things I've noticed is that some coaches try really hard to be fancy. Fancy is not a bad thing, but it's not as effective when you haven't covered what's essential.

My first experience with this was a few years ago when my son was playing soccer. He was probably 5... The kids on the other team had the most amazing choreography on kickoff plays - making all kinds of bizarre moves, but not really accomplishing anything. As it turns out, they had plenty of time to do what they did on kickoffs, because they couldn't score or defend at all! Frankly, the kids really seemed to enjoy the little kickoff dance (as I named it in my head) - which is great, but was that really the best thing for the kids?

Since my first experience with coaching 15 years ago, I've seen the value in stressing the basics of the game. If you can't hit the ball, catch the ball, and make accurate throws, you will struggle with baseball - regardless of your knowledge of the infield fly rule. If you can't dribble a basketball, forget about a full court zone-trap press.

Coaching younger kids gives you a tremendous opportunity to make a huge difference. Not only is teaching fundamentals fairly easy, there is huge benefit. The kids will get frustrated running plays if they aren't able to perform the skills that are assumed in creating the strategy. The basics are different per sport, but here's my suggested foci (focuses? focus? ...I mentioned I really wasn't a writer - you were warned).

Basketball: Dribbling (with head up, with one hand, while moving), Passing (bounce, chest pass), "Triple Threat Position" - more on that in another post, Shooting (w/ proper form), Defensive position (man-to-man).

Soccer: Dribbling (both feet), Ball control (stopping, starting, changing speed), Defensive position (including goalie play, if applicable)

Baseball: Contact hitting, ground-ball fielding, basic throwing and catching. For baseball, I'd throw in a quick discussion about baserunning, if applicable.

Football: This one depends a lot on how you're playing the kids - fixed position vs. playing all positions. I focus on throwing with proper form, catching (with hands), and defensive positioning. For flag football - focus on flag pulling, which you'll find to be vitally important. For tackle, obviously tackling technique would be important.

Don't out-fox yourself with the youngsters. Focus on the basic skills first. If they've mastered that, you're ahead of the game and have free reign to do whatever else you'd like.

Drill of the Day: 3 on 2, 2 on 1

I am still wrapping up the current football/soccer seasons, however I couldn't help but think ahead to one of my favorite drills (for basketball).

3 on 2, 2 on 1 is a fast break drill which teaches decision making, and stresses quickness.

Setup: You'll need a full-court with hoops on both ends. Line up at least 3 kids on one end across the baseline - they start out with the ball. Two kids will start out on the far end of the court playing defense. Line extra players up behind the 3 along the baseline - they will make up the next group.

Drill: The three players head down the court on a fast break. The defenders attempt to stop the break. After a basket is scored or the defenders get the rebound (or the coach calls time), the defenders take the ball down the court the other way for a 2-on-1 break. The defender is the middle player from the original 3. The two remaining players from the 3 stay on the far end of the court to play defense as the drill continues.

In thinking about this post, it could work for soccer, too - maybe kids 7 or 8 and up. For the basketball version of the drill, I'd recommend it for 7 and 8 year olds, but it might be a little rough for younger kids. An alternative for the younger kids may be to remove the defenders.

Encourage your offensive players to make quick decisions and take the best shot available to them. On defense, you can stress how you'd like players to react to fast breaks. The most common reaction would be to have one defender commit to stopping the ball, and have the other pick a passing lane and/or choose an offensive player to guard. On a missed shot - stress to both sides the importance of getting the rebound.

Good luck with this one. It's fun to see it in action when it keeps rolling...

What to do when...

As a coach, you will eventually have a blowout game. Hopefully, it is your team piling it on, and not being piled upon. This can be a difficult situation either way. If your team is having a great day, it may be difficult to encourage them to keep playing hard - even if you're not keeping score, they "know" how the game is going. If you're getting stomped, it may be quite a chore to keep the kids engaged in trying and playing when they "know" the score.

There's a few things I stress at every opportunity throughout the season. Number one is to play hard - try your best - all the time. The second is forget about the last play because, good or bad, it's in the past and the next play is at hand. I also emphasize defense over offense at every turn. If you limit the other team's ability to score, it makes your job on offense that much easier.

You can see where these can be in conflict with a blowout score... it's not easy to forget that you've scored 8 (or was it 9?) goals, and the other team hasn't scored any. It's also not easy to keep working hard when the other team is beating you in every aspect of the game. And who needs defense on either side of a blowout?

If you're getting beat handily, try a few things. First - don't be calling timeout and stopping the clock. Get the game over as quickly as possible. Next, try to focus on the positives - try to get a few quality possessions, or get a few plays in to move the ball effectively. If the kids are younger, you might arrange a little "success" with the other coach. All of these are avoidable - is it obvious that you should try to NOT be blown out?

If your team has the good fortune of being on the right side of a lop-sided score, it is your obligation to show sportsmanship. These are 5, 6, 7 year olds - not in high school, not pro athletes. When you're up 3 or 4 touchdowns, think twice about calling reverses and other gadget plays. If you're up 5 or 6 goals - tell the players to focus on passing to teammates. This will both kill time and keep you from scoring a lot more (even if scoring is inevitable).

I hate telling kids not to play hard, because that goes against what we've talked about all season. But, in some of these cases, it may be effective to distract the kids by suggesting you'd like to see other aspects of the game.

However the game turns out, be sure to send a positive message to kids at the end. There's nothing wrong with doing a great job. That's exactly what you've worked for... And if the other team got you that day, it gives you (obvious) talking points for the next practice. Few things have motivated me more as a coach than getting it handed to you. I am always prepared the next time...

Anatomy of a Practice: Flag Football

The 6-8 year olds are 6 games and 7 practices into the 8-game season, and we've established a pretty regular routine. Here's a brief overview of how we spend 45 minutes once a week.

Stretching and Running - Each practice starts up with a brief warm up period, followed by some sprints. Keep in mind, these are little kids, not high schoolers. I'll usually have them do 2 sets of sprints, and then we'll get started with the rest of practice.

Next up is route running practice. I have installed a basic route tree, with 9 patterns. We spent much more time on this for the first few weeks as the kids were learning the routes. Now, we go over them as a review, and to try to run them more precisely. I'll talk more about the routes and plays later on.

Now that we're probably 15 minutes into practice, it's time for a break. I like to stop every 10-15 minutes so that the kids aren't distracted by needing a quick rest of being thirsty. There's plenty of other distractions for them.

For the next 10-15 minutes, it's usually a drill or two. In earlier practices, we did basic throwing and catching. At this age, it's important to stress the mechanics of throwing, and watching the ball all the way in on a catch. I also try to stress catching with hands (if they can), versus catching against the body. This will help them later on, but may lead to a lot of dropped passes in the present. In practices later in the season, I've also run center-quarterback snapping drills, as well as some flag-pulling drills. As you can imagine, pulling flags is vitally important...

After another quick break, the last 15-20 minutes is on offensive and/or defensive strategy. We've installed a zone defense scheme (more on that later), because the kids struggled with 1-on-1 responsibilities. We've also had some difficulty running plays correctly, so it was important to me to get 2-3 plays down. I'm not sure we did, but it was worth a shot.

Running through all of this can easily consume an hour. If the kids seem distracted, move on to the next activity - or - if they are acting up, you can always have them run more.

Football is a strategy-based sport. There's a lot of teamwork involved... be sure to use practice time wisely to give yourself and the team the best shot at success during the games.

Which sport should my kid play?

Everyone has a theory about which sports their kids should play and why. I do too. I'm not an expert in child development, but I was a kid and I am a parent - and I can tell you what worked for me...

First off, I'm a believer in encouraging your kid to get involved in something at a young age. It doesn't matter if it's ballet or basketball or basket-weaving. Activities allow them to be engaged, interact with others, and gain confidence as they have success. Once the activity is chosen, it's important to stick with it through the commitment - usually, that means the season. Quitting early, or not giving full effort sends the message that sticking with something isn't important.

For really young kids, maybe up to at least 3 years, I think it's best to play informally. Maybe put them in swimming lessons, but play ball in the backyard, kick the soccer ball around and help them develop basic motor skills. But at some point, they're ready for soccer.

Soccer is great for 4 year olds and up. There's really 2 things to think about - kick and run. Yes, the games are usually a pack of kids surrounding a ball in close proximity... but it's cute. During the practices and games, the team bonds, and learns the basics of sportsmanship along with the actual game. It can be rough going, but it sets the stage for enjoying soccer further, or playing other sports.

It was difficult for me to explain "offense" and "defense" to 4 year olds. I gave up on that, and instead talked about kicking the ball toward "our goal" and away from "their goal". That's probably another topic.

My son was able to play basketball as a kindergartner. Of course, you have 6' hoops, and there's not much dribbling or passing, but there's only slightly more to think about than soccer (run, shoot, and then anything else they can remember). With basketball, offense and defense is a little bit clearer, because you're doing different things.

When I was a kid, I played tee ball in first grade, and so we tried baseball (coach pitched) with Alex at 6. This added the next step in complexity - when batting, you just swung the bat and ran when you hit it... easy. But what do you do in the field? Usually the rules are set up so that baserunners stop either at first base, or at the base they're on after the ball is touched by the defense - so for fielders, you can tell them to "throw it to first" all the time, and that's pretty safe. But, baseball has lots of complex rules about force outs, tag outs, etc. It takes a little bit of practice and playing the game for the more advanced concepts to begin sinking in...

At 7, Alex begged to play football. I was ok with that. Flag football. He's now at the age where he understands games and rules, and can easily adapt. We rotate sports, although he has his favorites (which doesn't include soccer). The most difficult part about the football team is that there are 6-8 year olds, covering kindergarten through THIRD GRADE. If you've made it this far in the post, you probably understand how that's a bit of a challenge...

Most importantly - encourage your kid to do something. Every child is different, and - maybe there's a football prodigy out there who's 4... But if you're scratching your head, pick a soccer league, and see what happens.

Drill of the Day: "Monkey in the Middle"

From time to time I'll share drills or practice activities which I've found to be successful... I'll mainly focus on drills for the littler kids, but I'm sure there's ways to adapt any drill to various ages.

"Monkey in the Middle" is very popular with the 6-7 year old crowd, and it is effective at teaching both defensive and passing skills in soccer and basketball. This is a great thing to do when practice isn't going that well, no one is paying attention, and you're getting frustrated.

The drill: Have all team members stand around in a circle - this works best with 6-10 kids. Designate a "monkey" to go in the middle of the circle and steal or at least alter the path of the ball as it is passed to the members in the circle. When the monkey makes a steal (or deflects the pass for younger kids), they replace the passer on the outside of the circle, and the passer becomes the new Monkey. No passes to the person right next to you on the circle, and if you throw a pass someone has to run to get, you're in the middle... If a child holds the ball too long, warn them to keep it moving, or move them into the middle.

This will seem a little chaotic, but the kids really like it. This is a great drill for stressing fakes, quick decisions, and accuracy for the passers, and defensive skills (blocking passing lanes, watching the ball, etc) for the Monkey.