Coaches can be blind to opportunities to advance their teams and programs by falling victim to Confirmation Bias. Like Survivorship Bias, Confirmation Bias is an example of a cognitive bias which leads coaches to make irrational decisions. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to listen only to information that confirms one’s beliefs or preconceptions. It is…
Offensive Concepts – Enlarge the Defense
Conceptual-based offensive basketball is anchored by principles. The first of which is “enlarging the defense.” The beginnings of coaching and playing basketball conceptually lie with spacing. Spacing entails not only selecting an alignment (i.e. four-out) but allowing the basketball room to breathe within the possession. Tactics for enlarging the defense and creating space are vital…
Corner Help Reads
Three simple reads to combat corner help – or lack thereof – when attacking the rim with dribble penetration. The simple and most obvious way to disorganize the defense and create a small advantage is via dribble penetration. Putting pressure on the rim causes defensive help and rotation to come from somewhere and reading that…
Survivorship Bias In Coaching
First in a series on Cognitive Biases and how they can impact our decision making as coaches. Simply put, Cognitive Biases are thinking errors. They are flaws in judgement that everyone is susceptible to. Marketers, salesmen, the media and politicians depend on our unawareness of these biases to sell their products, services and messages. We…
Coaching Tools – Possession Chart
Using a possession chart for tracking in-game flow can offer basketball coaches valuable and instantaneous feedback. One handy tool to use for in-game tracking is this downloadable possession chart template. This chart is used for tracking game flow and can give you valuable real time info such as points per possession (PPP). Tips for using the…
Pack Line Pointers – Splits And Rips
Using splits and rip cuts can be an effective way to exploit the post defense teaching points of Pack Line man-to-man defenses. Pack Line defenses treat entries into the post box (see diagram below) as a defensive disaster. The immediate response is to get the ball out of the post. They accomplish this using two…
Pack Line Pointers – Skips And Relays
Using skip and “relay” passes can be an effective way to exploit the helping nature of Pack Line man-to-man defenses. Pack Line defenses are all about helping early and building a wall around the paint. This can be troublesome for teams who are overly reliant on dribble penetration to create offense. While the Pack Line’s…
Pack Line Pointers
First in a series of pointers to help coaches find offense against the increasingly popular Pack Line style of man-to-man defense. The Pack Line Defense is all the rage at many levels of play. For several teams, facing a well-schooled Pack Line opponent can feel like a trip to the dentist. The defense can congest driving lanes and…
Create And Locate – Piercing Sequences
Part Three – These quick, simple piercing sequences help “pierce the dome” and get your offense from Create Phase to Locate Phase. As detailed in Part One of the Create And Locate series, the primary objective of the offense upon gaining possession is to “pierce the dome” as early in the possession as possible. The period…
Practice Planning Process
A look inside the practice planning process by examining a one-day “snapshot” of a basketball practice plan. Practice planning is an art form best learned through trial and error. There is no perfect plan or template. Coaches must tweak their process until they feel what they are doing with practice time elicits the most transference…