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Message: [QUOTE="tzznandrew, post: 5085588, member: 168"] don't "play to win." It's middle school—that stuff stunts them long term. And... if you focus on real skills—man to man defense, shell drill, shot form—they'll be winning anyway by mid-season if you have the talent. Aiming for the skills lead to the results you want, aiming for the result doesn't lead to skills, and thus often doesn't get you the result. And, once you know they have MTM defense down, boxing out, etc.... it's totally cool to throw in a junk defense to throw out at strategic moments. I had a couple of high level soccer players—long, high-motor, high-stamina girls on my team, and near the end of the season when we [I]really [/I]wanted to win against really tough opponents, a 1-3-1 after timeouts or in high-leverage situations really helped us grind out some tough wins. What really sucked was having to work on 2-3 zone Offense, especially early in the year, because that defense is easiest to teach and if the principles you've taught to show [I]some [/I]fruit, in game, they won't stick and you won't get trust. That said, a good offense against a 2-3 should use the same principles, so it wasn't [I]too [/I]bad, but getting them to believe it was tough at first. [/QUOTE]