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April 2011

Let me tell you something that you already know: each one of your players is different. Each has a unique set of skills, a unique capacity for learning, a unique hype number, and of course, a unique personality. But, are you treating them that way? Please read as deeply into that question as possible, but for the purposes of this blog, I'm going to focus on what that means for you as a Read & React coach. Players can be taught layers according to their own abilities. That means you can have some players using Layers 1-6, some using 1-10, and some using 1-20 (or even, 1-6, 10, 14, and 15). As long as the foundation layers have been covered, those with fewer layers will not hinder the impact of those with more. Let's put this in a practical perspective. There are two types of Post Slides: Basic (layer 5) and Advanced (layer 16). There are also two ways to fill out after a player has cut: simply fill out (layer 1) or backscreen out (layer 10). You can train one post player to only react with a Basic Post Slide and train another to react with the Advanced Post Slide based on their skill, ability, understanding, etc. (That's your job to figure out.) And, the same is true with filling out and backscreening. Maybe a handful of players can't (or won't backscreen) - that's ok.