"Cover and Move: it is the most fundamental tactic, perhaps the only tactic. Put simply, Cover and Move means teamwork. All elements within the greater team are crucial and must work together to accomplish the mission, mutually supporting one another for that singular purpose." - Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership
Cover and move works because it's both offense and defense.
Teamwork, improvement, accountability. Some players don't understand the meaning of teamwork. Be specific.
1. "Put what is good for the team above what is good for you." Not good enough. You've seen the t-shirts, "WE/ME" or "There's No "I" in Team." How about shared vision, shared mission, shared sacrifice? Closer.
2. "It's not your shot, it's our shot."- Jay Bilas, in Toughness
Share the whole list with your team.
3. Apply spacing, player and ball movement to get to the 'scoring moment'. That covers a lot of territory.
Pass and cut (left) or cut and pass from spread offense. Be a willing passer. An assist makes the scorer, you, and the entire coaching staff happy.
4. Cover 1.5 (cover one and a half). Unless your assignment is stopping one player, cover yours and half of another. Help and recover (cover and move).
5. Help the helper. Why I never have trapped the post across.
Do we have total confidence that the rotation will respond? No.
6. Trust the protection. Solid teams manage the pick-and-roll.
Defense is like the burger joint, 5 Guys...coverage and protection. At least the noise level is 85 decibels in 5 Guys (yeah, I measured it).
7. Show your team. Roy Williams told a story about a guy fouling out and sprinting to the water cooler to get water for his teammates during the disqualification substitution. Williams saw all he needed to know that the player belonged at Carolina.
8. Communicate. Don't let a teammate get "blown up" by a screen. Talk unifies. Talk energizes. Talk intimidates. Tell teammates where the help is and alert them to a dead dribble.So, "cover and move." Take that one to the bank.
Lagniappe. Look for analogies... dancing, varying pressure on the gas pedal, rocket acceleration, the mongoose and the cobra. The great Oriole pitching coach used to say, "work fast, change speeds, throw strikes."
Lagniappe 2. Geno on effort... "if you don't do it, I'll find somebody who will."
Lagniappe 3. There's a SEAL story about a guy who failed the two-mile swim by a few seconds. But everyone liked him, so they retested him a few days later...you have a swim buddy with a rope between you. They assigned him as strong swimmer who helped PULL him to success. He passed. Pull teammates to success.
