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Yes Ralph was on it– huge thanks! And it’s for sure good to know his advice has your blessing, Rick. Can’t wait to get it started this year.

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Very cool. This has been incredibly helpful because I’m going to go in that exact same direction. Would love to stay in touch.

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Love the double-cutter idea and plan to use it. But it sounds like that only occurs when the SC receives the pass. If it goes into the logo area, the SC cuts across the lane but there’s no one cutting from the perimeter, right? Did your kids have trouble remembering to cut if it goes to the SC but not to cut when it goes to the high post? Was the main trigger for that decision more about WHO was receiving the pass (“If it goes to Zach, our post player running the baseline, cut, but not anyone else…”), or was it really more about WHERE the pass went (high post vs short corner)?

Good stuff!
todd

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Great stuff, and super helpful. I don’t have confidence in my middle school kids to remember if they are playing against a zone or man D when they are deciding whether to cut or not, so I’m going to try to fuse a simpler solution.

I’ve already decided, coincidentally, to run a 4-out configuration with a baseline runner for all the reasons you list, so we are definitely on the same page there! Curious why when the ball goes to that baseline runner you have your team consider it a post, because if we’re attacking a zone it’s likely there’s a cutter from a previous pass cutting through the high post (logo). After all, isn’t that high/low action (nail’em/flank’em) what we are looking for? Don’t we want automaticity around the high post cutting when the SC gets it and vice-versa?

Crazy thought: Since my 7th/8th grade teams play against zones about 80% of the time (unfortunate but true), would it make sense for me to not even teach the laker cuts off the post pass? With someone running the baseline and someone else already cutting, it seems it would be pretty crowded… What would I be giving up by treating all inside catches as cutter catches, but still teaching “post moves” out of that?

Are you coaching high school? What age? Thanks for your excellent and thoughtful responses!

todd

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Will do! I’ve just been running a little off-season clinic with my teams this spring, but got them a nice head start on the R&R for the upcoming season, which starts in the late fall. I’ll be in touch!

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Makes a lot of sense what you are saying about the difference between Real Estate and Draft— I got you.

Your question to me about how best to teach “drive open spaces” pretty much brings this thing full circle, because that’s what I mean in my original question: It’s hard to teach a scoring opportunity that is not defined by an action or rule, but rather by the perception of something. Whereas previously in layer 1 you are essentially saying “Here’s the action, and here are the places you can score off the action,” yet with Driving in the first layer, that organizing structure gets turned on it’s head: “Here’s the scoring opportunity (driving), and here are a bunch of situations in which you can use it.” I may be quibbling with details but to me it matters because I rely on a consistent organizing principal to create my drills and define my practices.

In fact, what I’m working on may be interesting to you (not that I haven’t taken up enough of your time!). I’m creating an organizing structure– a kind of map, if you will— that will allow coaches to implement the R&R— or really any offense, using clear progressions that give tons of context for players, actively bridging concepts by gradually increasing randomness, combining concepts, and defensive pressure. Of course we all do this naturally as coaches, but I’m looking to literally define how we teach so that if an individual, group or team isn’t getting a concept, it’s absolutely clear where to go from there, forward, backward or even laterally. A map doesn’t tell you how to go every time, but it does show you where you are in relation to where you want to be, and different paths to get there, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

In a nutshell, my system will use a flexible but predictable drill-format in which numbered dots are set out to define any action, say dribble-at, in such a way that a coach can work from 1v0 to 2v1 to 3v2, 3v3… all the way up to 5v5, adding or subtracting players to the situation but retaining a clear player rotation that everyone understands, and running it with no D, dummy D and live D (which is essentially small-sided games once you are at 3v2 and above). My goal is to give coaches something they can tinker with on the fly, as well as through planning, such that they can decide to focus on footwork one day, but another day the 3 or 4 player motion, all under the umbrella of the same action.

So I know that’s probably confusing and maybe sounds like what you’ve already laid out, but essentially I’m taking your drills, combining with my own drills and games, and creating a database and a specific method for using the database.

I’ll have 3 coaches working under me next season, and I’m going to insist for the first time that they all run the R&R. So part of my motivation is to be able to communicate your offense AND my methods to other coaches. The other part is I just can’t get enough R&R and nerding out on how best to teach to younger players.

Thank you for creating this incredible thing called the Read & React, Rick. It opened up so much for me as a coach!!

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Thanks for all that, Rick. Really appreciate it. Last question: Isn’t the draft drive and Reading Real Estate essentially the same thing? Both are driving into space created by a cutter. What’s the difference?

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Rick in all honesty it would surprise me if anybody on this forum has watched your stuff more than I have, including 2.0! I’m truly a disciple!

Sorry for not being clearer. I’m talking about a pretty specific detail so let me try again.

The scoring opportunities within the first layer can be outlined as such:

1. Hitting the CUTTER (Rule: you must cut after you pass or when defense overplays). Sub groups would include FRONT CUT, REAR CUT and LOGO catches.

2. Hitting the FILLER (Rule: you must fill spots near the ball). Sub groups include READ LINE (back cut), CURL PUPPY DOG, OPEN SHOT, RIP, etc.

3. DRIVING off the spot (no rule, but notice that “real estate” is created when the corner cutter fills out). Sub groups include ???

So my point (and question) is really about how to break down driving in that first layer. I started this week by drilling the uphill pass from the corner, then the cutter clearing out and setting the back pick on the weak side, but are there other actions I should isolate to encourage the drill in this first layer?

I fully understand later in Layer 4 we’ll get to circle movement and that will be another kind of action to drill, but in this first layer I want to be able to place driving in the same context I’m placing cutting and filling, both of which are based on rules, not recognizing a situation.

Does that make sense? Thanks so much, Rick! Really appreciate you reading.

todd

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This is the next thing I’d love to see from the R&R library: A collection of small-sided games that specifically teach the actions in a sequential way!