[Coach Ralph]

Dear Coach Legend:
Can you tell us a little more about your team? Age/grade, experience/skill level, how often you practice, when did practices start, and how long is your season?

[legend87]

Coach Ralph- Our team is a high school team- but very inexperienced players for the most part. We practice three times a week and started back in mid-October. District games start in January so I’ve only got a few weeks left to right the ship. 🙂

Again- when we do read line drills-and they are looking for it- they always read line cut. However, once we get into a game situation (either a real game or 5/5 scrimmage at practice) all their habits go out the window and they stop read line cutting. The defenders have picked up on this and just feast on the passes. However, when we switch sides, those same defenders can’t remember to read line cut. lol

[CoachVidal]

Hi Coach,

I had the same issue with my 8th grade girls team. I had the same issue with my girls and one of the things I did with my girls was after a certain point, I used tall street cones in place of the floor dots. Once they finished their cut through or fill action, I had them touch the cone. It worked for most of the girls and helped with them setting up 2’ from read line.

I hope this helps!

[smiers3]

I have a similar issue in games with our boys not looking to basket cut when the defender crosses the read line. We practice filling up with defender intentionally crossing the read line, but would appreciate any other drills to reinforce the concept.

[Coach Rick]

Larry,
Scrimmage LIVE with the following rules.
2’s and 3’s count as normal.
If you attempt a Read Line Cut, your team gets 1 point.
If you score off a Read Line Cut, your team gets 10 points.
If you score from Curl the Puppydog, your team gets 10 points.
If a defender deflects or steals the ball on the perimeter, the defending team gets 10 points.
Scrimmage for 6 minutes at a time. Losers do 5 push-ups. Winners cheer them on.
Repeat this LIVE game for at least half of your practice if not more.

Rick

[legend87]

Thanks everyone- I’ll give these a try!!!

Larry

[Steve McCune]

What about when we have issues getting that first pass to the wing because of being overplayed. Should we cross to get started? What does everyone else do? Our team is from a small school and play bigger schools who want to overplay and overpower us.

[Coach Ralph]

Coach Steve:
1) A dribble at forces the cut and safely gets the ball to the wing. FYI…If the wings are being overplayed, this should open up a direct attack to the basket if your PG has the skills.

[Steve McCune]

Well I wish she had better skills…. We will work on the dribble at. They want to jump all over her when she gets over half court.

[Coach Ralph]

Teams that trap once the ball crosses half court present an interesting dilemma. One option is to bring your offensive set up towards half court too. For instance you are running a 5 out set. You should NOT have your other 4 players run to their normal spots. This hangs your PG out to dry as she is forced to make longer passes from just over half court that are going to get easily picked off by overplaying wing defenders and returned for a touchdown. You need to have your 4 other offensive players (two wings and two corners) in the same configuration but closer to half court. This way, your PG does not have to make longer passes, and the dribble at will be easier to execute. 1-3-1 trapping zones are famous for this strategy btw…

[Steve McCune]

Yes the leader of our district does it to us all the time!!!

[Dan Smith]

So when a team is playing say an extended 131, how do you apply the read line rules because basically both wings of the 131 are above the read line and would force a continual basket cut with no “showing to the ball”. What do you use as your new “read” line without confusing the players

[Coach Ralph]

The visual clue you should use is when any part of a defenders body (more likely the arm) is between you and the player with the ball, you read line hook and look to the middle. If the cutter is not open, the filler will be. Key point is middle coverage.

[Dan Smith]

aaa

[Gkringlen]

Hi everyone,

I am in my second year of coaching R&R and am currently coaching a 7th grade girls team that is VERY low-level compared to our competition. To put it in perspective, we have scored in double figures only 3 out of the last 8 games we have played.

We work on read line drills and scrimmage 4v4 no dribble (or 4v4 E-W/dribble-at only) every single practice, with giving the offense points for every cut they make (similar to what Rick has recommended above). We use rubber floor spots in our 5 out configuration every practice and make sure to set them up 3 feet behind the HS 3pt line.

I have even demonstrated the reason for the spacing we use by instructing the “dummy defender” to attempt a steal only after the ball leaves the passing offensive player’s hands while guarding the filling player who fills right behind the 3pt arc (super easy steal opportunity) or when the filling player fills the open spot with appropriate spacing (3-4 feet behind the arc- defender doesn’t get there in time to steal the pass, obviously).

I have recently been presented with the following question/concern from a player: I can’t watch my teammate with the ball AND my defender at the same time. If I watch my defender while filling, I won’t be able to see and catch the pass, but if I watch my teammate with the ball, I can’t tell if my defender is on/over the read line. I’ve responded with “you should be able to watch your teammate with the ball, while keeping your peripheral vision and attention on your defender”, but she will then either argue that this isn’t possible for her, or will just shrug her shoulders and show with her body language that she isn’t gonna try.

I should also mention that this same player has expressed other doubts about the R&R system, probably regurgitating things from a parent who wants us to set a lot more ball screens than we do, since our players on the perimeter are often “being left on an island”.

Any insight, feedback, encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

Gabe Kringlen

[Coach Ralph]

Coach Kringlen: This sounds to me to be less a read line issue, but a player buy- in issue. Both of these issues require different approaches, but I’ll focus on the read line issue. My first question to you is what kind of player to player defense do you employ? IE..one pass away, is the defender in deny or in the gap?

[Steve McCune]

Coach Kringlen, I coach a Varsity girls team which still has the same problem. That really is a symptom of a bigger issue. No Basketball IQ. You ought to be able to know, wow my defender is close to me, and then think hmm, are they over the read line? They can still look at the person with the ball. That is a smoke screen in my opinion. Bet they could see a cute boy who walked into the gym out of their peripheral vision or that girl who is scheming on their guy when she walks in. I try to get my girls to self diagnose why I am talking to them. Samantha, what went wrong when #15 stole the ball and went for a layup? Sooner or later as you keep asking them the same question over and over, they get they are not seeing their defender come over the read line and will start to do it. Keep drilling them every day on it. Tell your defender it is their job to make their offensive teammate better. You then get the girls coaching and becoming accountable because the girl who coaches her teammate will look harder for her own defender. Hope that was clear as mud.
Steve McCune

[Gkringlen]

Thank you coaches Ralph and McCune! Ralph- to answer your question, I teach denial position, which I think would be more conducive to getting the offense to learn read line habit more quickly. But to be entirely honest, the only things I am really holding kids accountable on defense at the moment are 1. Communication (yell ball), 2. Jump to the pass (to avoid face cuts), and 3. Blocking out. With the current group I have, I worry that harping on anything on top of this is going to be counter-productive.

[Gkringlen]

Coach McCune- haha yes, your answer is exactly what this frustrated coach needed to hear!

I’ll keep on stressing how important it is for dummy defenders to make the offense better in our read line drills, but honestly at this point in the season (3 practices left in all), and based on said player’s dad insinuating that I am not teaching fundamentals/skill development in practice (I am, of course, but usually in the context of R&R habit drills), I’ve decided to move toward more block practice instead of randomized practice methods for the remainder of the season (it’s what parents of this team seem to want/expect…).