"Stop teaching these young players plays!!! You ought to teach them how to play.”

I hear that a lot. And I kind of like it. It sounds like going to a music- instrument teacher and telling him (or her) :" don’t teach these new young students songs or sonatas. Teach them how to improvise on the guitar like BB King or hit the piano like Billy Joel and write like Mozart."

Well, it does not make any sense, does it?

By repeating and running the chords of “While my Guitar gently weeps” (you get the sense how old I am 😉 ) they will not become Eric Clapton either BUT and that is a big one - they will learn the fundamentals of the song (or the game for that matter).

They will learn some chords. And after mastering few more chords and chords transitions, it will allow them to grasp the component of the chords, what is an octave and which notes it contains. And what positions on the instrument each octave can be played (did we just discover the beautiful world of technic?). So there is a NEED to learn songs and sonatas, since theory by itself will not get us far, will it? After learning some of them, same music teacher will tell you that playing this song 101 times will not make your kid a musician. The kid will have to do some technic practices. And after playing the song few times and understanding what technics / parts the student is lacking the improvement process begins. And in order to improve those capabilities, they will be some practice on the technic. I.e Take a play, break it down to its components and master it - passing, shooting, screening, cutting without the ball, defensive slides and so on… you see where this is going.

Basketball in no different. And just like an orchestra, you need to put some order in this mess, and especially when your players are not Magic Johnson (yet) you want to help them by defining their plays. Too early too soon you give them the “freedom" of running around thinking they have something going on for them on the offensive end most likely hurt them. First, they don’t. It is all incidental, and second you might have your star athlete score few extra buckets, and your shooter might think she or he is blossoming until someone will scout you. Once this glamour will fade (2-3 games glamour… don’t get ahead of yourself) you will not be left much to work with. Not as a system and sure enough not in the money time when you desperately need to score. The real lose here, which took me some years to learn, my team missed 2-3 weeks of precious practice time to gel together and the players, individual development wise didn’t do much. We could have laid down the foundation of our offensive system and get into some healthy habits. But we didn’t. At this example, they don't know how to get the shooter available. And don’t know where this star want to get the ball. Imagine all she (or he) can do is posting up. Now what would you do? We are back to square 1.

You see, teaching a play that will emphasize the foundation of the game and will help you bring to the front your leading players’ advantage is key. Since we do want to play well and win WHILE teaching them the game and helping them to get better at it.

How do I Choose the right plays for my new team?

How would I approach a new team or any youth team / AAU / high school team season, you ask. I am a big believer in choosing couple of plays that glorify the strengths of my players while developing their game around it. You heard it right. Sharpening their strength and developing their weaknesses. Not neglecting, not forgetting but making some order and priority while having measurable improvement.

For years, during the first 2 practices I run with the players few individual offensive workouts to assess their current shape and condition, laying down the defensive foundation (defensive slides, shooter close outs and such) and let them play some 3 on 3 and 5 on 5 to evaluate their individual capability, dynamics and habits.

The reason is, no matter how well I think I know these athletes, every season you get new players, some are added to the mix (sometimes you know nothing about them at all and that will work just as well) and this will give you a great indication of the baseline you are starting with.

You know where your strengths are and what things you might have to improve before games starting.

On a side note during these 2 kind of introduction practices I like to challenge the players and just push them a little, show them something they cannot quiet do yet but it might spark their curiosity and enthusiasm. I will show them a crazy clip of a 2 balls dribbling of a 1st or 2nd grade girl. “Hey, look - lets see how closer to this 7 years old little girl’s ball handling we will get by the end of the semester” you poke at them, in not so many words.

Now it is the time to choose the right plays for the team, and teach the players and to take advantage of it.

I try to define what are the 3 most out standing offensive advantages I see. Do I have size? Are my point guards unique, size, quickness or decision making wise? Do I have an outstanding shooter on the team? Do I have great slashers? Maybe all my players are the same hight?

Once I map that, I am looking to put our advantages in order. Of course that great shooter and outstanding size are great. But all same hight team is an advantage as well. Teams will have hard time to match up with you and running a continuation offense of any kind, with or without screens will be hard to defend.

You mapped your advantages, Picked one man to man play, one zone play.

So what should we do now?

You thought after all that I will leave you hanging? Not by a stretch.

We are starting a 6 week series of breaking down 1 plays each week. And going over it to the letter.

Each play we will add I will detail what components of the game it teaches. We will demonstrate, go from the easy to the more complicated drills to teach, demonstrate and improve the technic of this component and how it teaches each segment of the play. Further more, after all these breakdowns, how to put the play altogether.

The teaching level will be middle school to a high school college level. Some of the plays we used at St. Francis College (DI) and the Pro level over seas but the teaching level will be adjusted. This way we will allow all coaches from all levels to pick it for their own pace, and push it up high while we will leave room for level adjustment if needed.

Please share with any colleague that you think might gain from these plays breakdowns.

See you next Monday with our first play.