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Al Forte's avatar

Yeah, I agree. I think criticizing zone defense is low lying fruit, but only because a lot of youth coaches use zone as a shortcut and don’t really teach kids how to defend within the zone.

But the truth is, how different is teaching zone shifts from the shell drill, right? If you watched someone teaching the shifts in a 1-2-2 zone, could you tell the difference between that and the shell drill?

The important thing is the kid learning what it means to defend as an individual and how to help your teammates. Personally, I think that’s harder to teach using a zone, but it’s not necessarily impossible.

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Brian McCormick's avatar

I mean I commented today to a group that they looked like they were in zone, but it was more a criticism of the offense standing still. When offense plays shell offense, man and zone do look the same unless you teach a super aggressive man that nobody seems to employ anymore (full wing denials, etc).

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