Photo cred – Ty Freeman/PSB
Having a change up defense is key for any team who is looking to keep their opponent off balance. This match-up zone is a good way to disguise your defense as well keeping man to man principles.
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21X Rules
x1 – Apply enough pressure to influence the first pass to the (offensive) right side of the floor.
x2 – Has the first Pass to the (defensive) left side of the floor.
x3 – Has the first pass to the (defensive) right side of the floor.
x4 – Has the second pass to both sides of the floor (baseline to baseline).
x5 – Is responsible for everything in the high post and low post. His job is to find anything between the ball and basket.
Our goal was to disguise the defense as a even front, but have odd front principles. When our opponents would come out in a 1-3-1 alignment we would be matched up perfectly with them. Although this is a zone defense, we would want to always have a man responsbility. This is good for rebounding purposes and also to adjust to quick swings or skip passes. When teams would try to screen the zone or run their man offenses against us we would be in a good position to switch effectively.
Take a look at the movement against a 1 guard front:
21X
Take a look at the movement against a 2 guard front:
21X vs 2 guard front
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Jonathan Hemingway is the owner of Coach Hemingway Basketball, Inc. He has worked within the basketball community since 1995 as a coach, camp director and journalist. Hemingway produces regular content on basketball for OntheRadarHoops.com, PeachStateBasketball.com and ProspectsNation.com. He also works as the assistant director of scouting for the JumpOffPlus.com and the OTRHoopsReport.com, which service over 200 colleges and universities nationwide. Reach him via email at JonathanHemingway@PeachStateBasketball.com
