The time to focus on player development is in the off season. That statement is nothing surprising. But, you can work on player skills while developing Read & React habits, even if you aren’t allowed in the gym.
Here’s how one of our earliest adopters did just that.
He grouped his girls in threes and posted a list of workouts that they were “required” to do. On the list, he wrote the number and name of the R&R drill(s) that they were to learn that day or over the next few days.
He placed a DVD player with the R&R Drills DVD in the gym and the girls would pop it in, find the drill from the list, watch it, figure out the rotation, go into the gym and get x number of shots or workout for x amount of time. (You could also do this with diagrammed workbook or something similar if you’ve created your own tweaks to the drills)
On that same workout list, the coach would indicate the fundamentals that he wanted his team to concentrate on with each workout: making a bounce pass, making a certain 1-on-1 move before the drive, a specific aspect of shooting form, etc.
The players look at it as “Player Development Workouts” and they are; however, they are engraining the Read & React reaction habits at the same time. Furthermore, they are learning new Read & React drills and comb0 drills that might combine up to six different layers or actions.
Come next season, the coach doesn’t have to waste time teaching the drills – the players already know them (and they taught it to themselves!)
With a little imagination, you can take any fundamental skill training and tweak it to include the Read & React reactions. That way, you’re always collapsing time frames and killing at least two birds with one stone.
