Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Watch Film to Reinforce Utilizing Strengths and Attack Weaknesses

Watch more video to understand why we are or are not "getting more and better shots than our opponents. 

As young players, we watched a lot of film (literally) showing hard realities from "the truth machine." If we watch ANY high school game, we'll see some of the same types of errors. 

Here are teaching points from a girls game last night broadcast by MHS-TV. The intent is educational only. Each clip is less than ten seconds. 


Screenshot of opponent (black) full court press with backscreen coming. As young players, we'd have immediately "optioned" out, breaking the guard deep as there is no deep protection AND no ball pressure. 

Defensive mistakes and errors occur at every level of basketball. In his book, Kevin Eastman shares that during an NBA Finals game the Celtics won, they allowed thirty two points off errors against the Lakers. 


Daily "shell drill" helps reinforce on and off-ball positioning to limit easy baskets. 

Help and rotation are critical. 


The defender gets beaten off the dribble and the low defender comes to help ("the ball scores" and "the help can never be beaten") but there is no defensive rotation as nobody "helps the helper." 

Stop "easy baskets" 


"Easy" baskets include layups, free throws, transition, putbacks, and "open" threes. Whether we teach "hit and get" or something else, we have to block out, 

Every turnover is a "zero percent" shot. 


Feeding the post has become a lost art. It may require a dribble to improve the angle, but throwing over a defender with hands up often results in lost possession. Sometimes a player can "go low" and bounce the ball in for a good entry 

Win special situations. Well-designed BOB with diagonal screen and ball reversal.


Every game and every team has missed opportunities. As coaches, our job is to help players "see the game" to reduce mistakes and exploit strengths.