Man or Zone Coverage?

Coach,
We went with the GAM defense only (Gap air Mirror), all man coverage. If your coaching the younger levels it's best to stick with man, I feel that as the players get older they should have basic understanding of covers 1,2 and 3. Man/free cover 1- corners in the flat two saftys over the top-cover 2, and deep thirds cover 3. It's our job to teach and perpare the kids for the next level...

Coach,
We went with the GAM defense only (Gap air Mirror), all man coverage. If your coaching the younger levels it's best to stick with man, I feel that as the players get older they should have basic understanding of covers 1,2 and 3. Man/free cover 1- corners in the flat two saftys over the top-cover 2, and deep thirds cover 3. It's our job to teach and perpare the kids for the next level...

I coach 5-6 graders, and I stick with man defense. However, I am not totally against coaching zones. The only problem I have is that the kids have had a hard time staying home! They all want to make the play.

Zone allows your defensive players to make more mistakes in coverages, but man is easier to teach. It all depends how comfortable you are teaching defensive backs. If you comfortable, teach zone-- if not, teach man. I wish you luck.

Coach Easton and Coach Cella,

There's no doubt that man coverage is more effective for us when facing an offense that can throw the ball effectively or one that features a talented pass/catch duo. I prefer to play a three-deep roll coverage because honestly, it primarily provides us with good secondary run support and also provides some decent pass coverage against routes that are prevalent at the youth level. When facing a team that can pass consistently we would play man-free a majority of the time. In cover 3 we teach our corners as force defenders to aggressively attack outside runs to their side outside-in with the free safety and opposite corner rolling to cover the playside and middle thirds of the field. A running back with a good arm usually poses the biggest challenge to this coverage as it requires very smart play by the free safety. The backside seam is also vulnerable but poor protection at the youth level usually prevents most teams from attacking it successfully. Usually it's a challenge to find a kid that's well suited to play the position but fortunately I've been blessed the past two years to have had an exceptional player there. I think you really have to expose the kids to at least some man coverage in order to contrast and explain what zone coverage is to them. It's a concept many of them can't really grasp yet but as long as we get proper alignment, a little technique and an understanding of what we're likely to see from the passing games we face, we'll usually come out all right. Thanks to both of you for all of your input here on the youth forum and everywhere else on the board.

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach

Cover 2 would definitely be the better "zone" solution to better pass coverage Coach. We play a 50 with 3-4 personnel as our base front and walk the strong safety up to LB depth about 2-3 yards outside the TE. Since 99% of the offenses we face are right handed and run almost exclusively to their tightside, I've always cast our strong safety basically as a third backer with no inside run responsibilities. Since our version of Cover 3 only involves our two inside backers (Force - weakside flat to curl and Mike - hook(s) meaning everything shallow between the tackles) and the SS covering the strong flat it enables me to play more of a "point and shoot" type of player at that position that doesn't require the smarts that playing FS does. We will play straight quarters a few plays each game as a prevent against giving up a home run towards the end of a half or the game and in situations where we're facing a spread look playing a 31 up front. Honestly coach, we'd probably go to Cover 2 as a base coverage if we begin seeing some better developed passing games in our league. With the All-Star team I'll be coaching starting next week we will definitely try to put in a simple 2-deep coverage due to the higher probability of facing a select team with a solid passing game. I'll drop you an e-mail line this evening or tomorrow on that cover 2 look coach. Thanks.

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach