Zones

Question
I know very little about the finer points of basketball. My 11 year old son is beginning to play basketball in a town league, and the coach is teaching them to play zone defense. I watched the practice and I understand the concept. But when I asked my son if there is any "zone" on the offensive end, he did not know, and I did not see anything that would lead me to believe the kids were being told anything about how to move the ball on offense. Did I miss something? Is there a zone on offense? If not, is a player just allowed to run around looking to get open anywhere on the court? Thanks!  

Answer
Hi Dave,

Every coach runs their own offense. At the age and level of 11 years old, the kids aren't really old enough to run a sophisticated offense. But in answer to your question a "zone" is a defensive term and type of defense played in which players do not play man-to-man, but rather guard a "zone" or area of the court. The zone defense is often effective in stopping dribble penetration and one-on-one moves. Zone is also effective if your players are not quick enough to play man-to-man defense, and helps protect the painted area and forces the opponent to shoot more from the outside. And if your opponent seems to be in control of the game, it can help slow down the tempo and help re-gain some control.

As far as offense, depending on what your team's strengths are, your coach will develop a unique offense that fits his/her team's needs and exploits it's strengths.  If your team has a legitimate center, a player that is considerably taller than the other players, then the coach will probably develop an offense that revolves around dumping the ball into the post. Or if you have a lot of small, quick players, then the coach will probably want to run a Motion offense. At your son's age level, if he has a good enough coach, hopefully the players won't just be running around anywhere on the court, and he/she teaches them where to be. Unfortunately, a lot of coaches that coach that age level are volunteers, mostly fathers that don't always know that much about basketball. So it really just depends on his coach's knowledge of the game. I hope that helps.