I love sharing success stories about the impact of The Read & React Offense! Here’s a story from Taiwan on a three-year development using the Read and React Offense! – Rick
We asked Coach Kim Kawamoto , Varsity Girls Basketball Head Coach at Taipei American School, to share her success story. As many Read and React Tribe coaches know, success is a journey with the Read and React.
Why I Went to the Read and React
“In my first year as the head varsity coach, our team went 0-6 at our conference championship and 10-20 for the season. After that disastrous start, I knew I had to change things for us to be successful. I was running a system that I thought was very simple but it was tough to execute. “
Many of our athletes are not true ‘ballers’, they are seasonal and there is no club system for our athletes in Taiwan to play year-round. The majority of my players will not compete beyond high school.
Additionally, the local competition and the competition we face at our conference championships are stark in contrast. I did a lot of research and was intrigued when I came across several Read & React clips on YouTube. As I continued to research the Read and React system, I felt it would be a great system to implement for our level of players.
I also coached the middle school girls team and felt that we could also implement the system at that level so by the time they reached high school, layers 1-3 would be familiar and we wouldn’t have to start from ground zero. We are not deep into the layers but it isn’t necessary and the athletes are not stressed out with having to remember offensive plays.
I finally purchased the Read and React Boot Camp course after watching all the YouTube videos! When I introduced it on the first day of practice, the team loved it, and they were very excited about it!
First Season
In that first season, we were 17-15 overall–quite a turnaround from the previous season. We made some great strides in our conference tournament and placed fourth.
In the second season(2015-2016), our team went 19-15 overall and again placed fourth at the tournament. We had seven rookies that season (on a ten-player roster) playing in our conference championship.
Last season (2016-2017), we had four seniors that had two seasons of RR under their belt and I knew from the first game of the season, we would dominate. I didn’t have to coach on offense!
Conference Champion
In the first two minutes of our first game, I turned to my assistant and said, “We look darn good!“ They knew what to do on the court. It was so fun to watch them just play together.
We ended up 23-6 and won our conference championship after we ran the table, 7-0.
We had similar success this year with a very young team, one senior and five freshmen! We finished 21-12 and went 7-0 again, at our conference championship.
The key to our success this season was the zone attack adjustment–systematically incorporating the nail and flank (I purchased your Read and React Zone Attack!).
We absolutely enjoy the Read and React Offense, and I love it as a coach. There are so many combinations within and between the layers to incorporate as the players build their IQ!
I look forward to continuing to learn about the system and improving as a coach. Thank you for all you do to help us help our players develop and learn the game. You are a rock star, Rick.”
Thanks, Coach Kim, but YOU and other coaches who have found success and are teaching players how to play the game are the REAL rock stars! – Rick
