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Zone vs. Man defense

Started by DB, October 17, 2008, 11:14:50 pm

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DB

Can some of you coaches tell me what it is that makes you determine whether you are going to run man or zone?  Personally, as a fan, I hate to see my team running a zone defense.  Especially, when my team is obviously more athletic and has more speed than any body we play.  Forever it has seemed to me that when we had a coach that would play a man-press type defense, we have had a ton more success than when we run zone.  Right now, we have the most athletic team that I have seen in Morrilton and we get eaten up in this zone defense. 

It seems that most high school teams run a zone defense.  Why is that?

Justafan42

I'm going to say for the most part it's personel. You may have the athletes to cover, but not the athletes to apply the pressure that MUST accompany man coverage. Or, the pressure and not the coverge.

If you do happen to have both and can coach man coverage, it is feast or famine.

The best at this level is a combination man/free coverage. IMHO.


Juco soldier

I agree that it has a lot to do with personnel.  You may have the athletes, but sometimes running different coverages can confuse the best athletes, and they mess up on assignments.  It is hard to run man, without a lot of practice and good coaching man will end up hurting you in the end.  A good combination of zone coverages that start out looking the same, and then every once in awhile, run man out of it can keep offenses trying to figure you out, but if you line up every play with no disquises and tell the other team you are in man and man every down, they will eat you up with combo routes that make athletes think too much and make mistakes on coverages. etc..  screens, picks, scissor routes, branched routes to the same side and crosses.     

parpar

The biggest problem I see with high schools players running zone is that they are more concerned about getting beat than going for the ball.  Most HS QB's can't zip it in to tight coverage.  But so many times I see db's sitting and waiting for the catch to be made then tackling when they could have a shot at the ball.

philgoodallday

Quote from: parpar on October 20, 2008, 01:17:47 pm
The biggest problem I see with high schools players running zone is that they are more concerned about getting beat than going for the ball.  Most HS QB's can't zip it in to tight coverage.  But so many times I see db's sitting and waiting for the catch to be made then tackling when they could have a shot at the ball.

I think you eliminate some of that if you change the coverage philosophy.  I believe you should tell D'backs to run the same route as the receiver, and try to be the one the QB is throwing to.  That may be poorly worded.  I hope it makes sense.

Justafan42

philgood,

You are right, but I would teach them to recognize the route that is being run. In most offenses there are only 10 routes in a normal route tree. Now with that said not all of them are going to be run. If a coach would let DB's study some film, most routes are predictable.

philgoodallday

Yes, if you narrow down which receivers run which routes, or are thrown to only on certain routes, you've made a big step.  Also, if you don't notice a tendency to run certain routes with double moves (wheel routes and such) you can give your d'backs a better idea of what to expect as well.

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