Teaching the Basketball
Eight Fundamental Plays
Every coach I ever talked with always said they wanted a
fundamentally sound team. This is why Teaching the Fundamental Eight is
being presented. Any coach wanting to be creative and a bit different should
read this.
Yes, it is true that coaches today are faced with a
smorgasbord of offensive ideas; however, I believe that most offenses will
work in proper situations. That is if you teach the basic fundaments of
basketball and your team uses good timing, spacing and execution. The
dilemma, however, becomes choosing which offensive sets will work best for
your team.
One coach told me he was searching for the supreme
offense, an offense that he would never want to change throughout his
coaching career, no matter what his personnel. He wanted an offense that
could be used in the elementary and junior high school systems.
Of course, such a system must be simple enough for the
youngster, yet complicated enough to compete against modern-day defenses.
Unfortunately, the problem facing the high school coach is a constant
turnover of personnel. Unlike the college, or pro coach, he cannot recruit a
big pivot player, or a slick quick guard with which to build an offense. He
must make do with whatever turns out and must have an offense that fits
their abilities.
When I began thinking about a system simple enough, yet
adjustable to the many defenses, and adjustable to the elementary and junior
high levels, my own experiences as a youth came to mind. Those basic
fundamentals flashed before my eyes
In my studies of modern-day trends of basketball
offenses, I found that every successful coach used at least one of these old
time fundamental plays in his offense. Some were changed a tiny bit, but not
much. I decided to adopt all of these starting from an alignment best suited
at the end of a non-successful sideline fast break. As you know, I believe
the sideline fast break to be the most effective offense against the
full-court pressing defenses and zone defenses used today.
Consequently, I will use terminology for the position
players and assume no scoring opportunity presented itself and we are ready
to attack with a chosen offense which will be given a number 1 through 5.
First, let’s select from 8 plays, show the drills used in
teaching them to players, then we can select the ones best suited for the
personnel at hand. It really won’t make much difference what your initial
alignment be 2-1-2, 1-3-1, 3 outside 2 inside wide set, 1-4 deep or shallow,
etc. The 5 plays will remain the same. In short these five fundamental
plays, plus their individual options, or counters will make up your offense.
These five fundamental plays are simple enough to be taught at the
elementary level, yet will give any coach in the school system the
flexibility to fit it to his players.
I still believe the fast break with little dribbling as possible is the
most potent offensive weapon in the game.
Coaching basketball plays is really simple. I can't think
why some find it so difficult to teach. I'm going to discuss the eight basic
fundamental plays over the next few weeks; therefore, you better bookmark
Guide to Coaching
Sports, and visit often so you can tell when a new play has been
added.
Before getting into the eight basic fundamental plays, please read and
review the article about basketball's two-step rule that should be taught to kids of every age.
Here is the full discussion on that subject.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY OF LAW FOR THE
SYSTEM
I feel that choosing five of these eight basic plays give
us five different offenses. Run from various sets gives you a multiple
offense, even at a grade school level. All these plays are basically
mirrored. If we don’t get a shot on the left side, we run it on the right;
however, instead of running continuous, pick and rolls and give and goes, we
can develop patterns using more than one of these old time plays.
Before any multiple-option offense can be performed, the
fundamental moves described in subsequent pages must be learned. I see the
greatest problem of most offenses is execution, no matter the level of play;
however, as one progresses up the ladder of basketball skill, the need of a
second and third option become necessary.
The eight basic plays are the basis for my numbering
system. As two-three (23) is simply a 2 play followed by a 3 play. It is
easier to say, "Run a 23," than to say, run a give and go followed by pick
and roll to the goal." Of course the more digits the more complicated the
offense. Quite obviously this saves time and is much clearer during timeouts
in a heated contest. Here is the law:
If we are going to run any multiple play, we have
pre-organized the second and the third options. We only call out the
first number of the play during a game. For example, if we are
running 3 as the second option of a 23 play, we call out "2."
Generally speaking, against a man-to-man defense, most of our
patterned offenses start with play #1 always as the first play
option; therefore, in a more complicated three-play option, 1-5-4,
we call patterned offense #5, using the middle option, which
emphasizes 1st cutter and 2nd cutter. (This is
quite similar to one of Dean Smith’s favorite forms of attack.)
Incidentally, we limit our offensive play options to 5 because any
point guard we’ve ever seen only had 5 fingers on each hand.
|
In this system of play, the offensive options used by the
varsity may not be the ones best suited for the reserve squad. Nevertheless,
we are teaching both the same fundamentals. Whenever change is needed, that
change is simple.
Concentration on scoring on the first option is
important. Proper execution should result in a good shot; however, good
defense often prevents a good shot. In so doing, they often overextend and
make themselves susceptible to the second option.
THREE-PLAY OFFENSE
The majority of patterned, or continuity offenses fall
into a three-numbered classification. Since most coaches are forced to
change their offense because of player changes, the system we are about to
explore lends itself well to such changes. The coach easily identifies and
explains the offense to both players and staff. Any offense can be coded.
For example, one my favorite coaches, North Carolina’s legendary Dean Smith,
was a 154.
|
