[Coach Ralph]

Jnolte:
What is your age group?

[jnolte]

High school girls. 9th-12th grade.

I am also curious about other coaches 2nd year experiences. We had a very talented senior group of girls this year and in hindsight I wish I would have taken more time to put in the foundation. I quickly went through it but left out many details that came back to hurt us late in the season. I also found that the girls would get bored/burned out after doing reaction drills for too much. I was thinking that for next year I would try to move around the spots a little more to try and keep it fresh (i.e. move the posts to high post or short corner, change the spots of the floor we are playing on). I did find that fusion helped to alleviate that issue a bit and I started using the fusion method after our reaction drills to help the girls fold in their understanding of the offense. We also got better at attacking and finishing at the rim during this (which was a bit of a struggle when just doing reaction drills like post slides and circle moves). I am also curious what people have for a transition offense plan using this system.

Overall I love the fact that the read and react allows the players to make in game decisions that play to their strengths and provides a vocabulary to communicate what we are after. We found that a lot of teams went to a very physical approach and really tried to bump/hold our cutters or they would try to sag off of a perimeter player who wasn’t great from the outside.

[Coach Ralph]

Jnolte:
I will be hitting many points with my answer. I coached middle school boys’ travel in the Chicago area for two years. We had two practices a week, and our league had only 8 games. I was forced to really focus on doing a few layers well vs. trying to install all the layers. Being a high school coach with more practice opportunities is great, but don’t let that fool you into thinking you should overdo what you teach. Be expert in what layers you run, fewer are better.
We ran layers 1-5. I tried to introduce screening layers later as the season started, but was not as effective as I liked. More on that later.
IMO the early focus should be on maintaining the integrity of your cuts. The cutters must be perceived as threats, and that all begins with Layer 1. It is the foundation that all other layers are built. It forces the defense to make a decision on how to defend, which sets up other actions. To that end, I would be obsessed with making your cutters verbally demand the ball and show hands EVERY TIME. This is the #1 thing I wish I would have spent more time on.

This puts more accountability on the ball handler as well as the cutter. If cutters are open and don’t receive the ball, their cuts get lazy, and the defense is let off the hook. If cutters are open and not getting the ball, show video and ask why. The more cutters get the ball, the purer their cuts will be over the course of the game.
The other aspects of Layer 1, especially rear cuts, read line cuts, draft drives, and grip rip and go, should be emphasized also. The read line is always in effect, no matter what drill you are working on. If I flashed out and denied a player the ball in practice, he was to cut immediately and receive the pass. Period. The read line is more than a scoring opportunity or pressure release. Failed read line cuts are draft drive opportunities too. We scored more baskets on draft drives than pass and cuts. Discuss the timing of the draft drive. For us, the trigger was the cutter hitting the foul line.
The #2 item I wish I would have spent more time on is screening options. I waited too long to introduce, and did not spend enough time drilling. For the majority of teams that we played at the middle school level, layers 1-5 were sufficient to be competitive. These layers test how well a defense plays on and off the ball, and there were many teams where the collective talent in these areas was lacking. You are going to eventually play better teams that guard the ball and play help very well. These teams will be the best in the league. To beat them, you are going to have to force them to guard situations, and screens fall in that category. Guarding situations is the next level up on the defensive hierarchy.
Once your players know how to fill out on the perimeter properly, have them start setting back screens instead of filing out to empty spots. If you are using a post player against man to man, do not have that player simply plant themselves in the mid post. If they are in the mid post and don’t get a pass, have them screen on or off the ball, and then re-post instead of being immobile. Make sure your screen receiver is setting the screen up properly, and that the screener is not moving, particularly on back screens. Work on the pin and skip against a zone. We were not good at screening options and we suffered for it. They are devastating at any level.
I was fixated on drilling layers to be habits in year 1. We scrimmaged very little; I felt we were pressed for time too much. When I analyzed our practices after year 1 (i.e. I asked my son who was on the team), I came to the conclusion we needed more competitive situations in year 2. Besides more scrimmaging, I added more competitive drills. One on one lay up drills at full speed, and 5 vs 5 elbow shooting contests as an example. Players love to compete, and the changes were very well received.
One idea you might use to make drills more game-like is by using the 5 face cards out of one suit i.e. A, K, Q, J, T. Quickly show each player a card for them to remember. They are not to tell anyone their card, not even you.
Say you are doing a 5 vs 0 pass and cut drill. Yell out that the second time the K touches the ball he has to hit the cutter. No one but the K knows who that is, so the players have to play the drill honestly.
Next time, the second time the Q touches the ball, they circle move and attack the basket and score on a lay- up, and those other 4 players better rotate properly. I promise you people will be more engaged.
I hope this helps.

[jnolte]

Thanks! I love the cards idea

[Brent Schwan]

So much great advice and I agree completely. As I was reading I was reflecting on our last season and sure enough you hit the nail on the head about so many points. Thanks for reaffirming what we need to work on in our third year.

[Coach K]

Also entering our second year and I have reflected on similar ideas. I coach JV Boys basketball and 8th grade girls basketball.

I think the biggest issue I’m facing is how to split the time between fundamentals (I have players in both programs who are not strong with the ball, dribble needlessly, look down while dribbling, loopy passes, etc.), learning the offense, and finding time for competitive drills that keep them engaged.

I think I have a better idea of how to work in fundamentals to the R&R drills, but my question is concerning competition. Has anyone here experimented with how to make the reaction drills or team shooting drills more competitive / keep score?

My players tend to love competitive shooting drill (3 man 2 ball split up, 5 ball, etc.). They also tend to love transition drills with competition (11 man (continuous 3 on 2), 4 on 4 on 4, transition advantage (5 on 4 +1), etc). My concern is that by adding competition to the reaction drills, players might become more concerned with the score than learning the reactions, but at the same time players tend to lose their mental edge (engagement, focus, whatever you want to call it) when we work on the reaction drills (despite trying to keep the reaction drills to around 2-3 minutes).

[Brent Schwan]

Stages is the best thing for our kids — teaching skills within the read and react. The only issues we have are lazy cuts, lazy fills, lazy banana cut. So just have to stay on top of the kids and make sure they do it right.