Players: You want to bring something to the game – bring something to your team that can immediately affect the outcome of the game, but you don’t time to acquire a new skill like shooting, or point-guard-dribbling-abilities, or ten more pounds of muscle. These things take time – usually off-season time.
What can you bring RIGHT NOW?! What can you bring to today’s practice or today’s game simply by making a focused effort to actually “bring it”?
When a teammate drives, MOVE!
Move where? Without getting into the Read & React offense, which teaches players exactly where to move to when the ball is driven, let me give you two rules that you can apply today:
- Move where the ball can SEE you.
- Don’t move CLOSER to the ball.
Why?
Exceptional players don’t do what average players do. (That’s probably the definition of “exceptional”!) Average players stand still when teammates drive to the goal. They freeze like deer in headlights! I don’t want to be average and I’ll bet neither do you! Then MOVE when the ball is driven!
When you move, stay in the eyes of the penetrator and that will take you where you should go.
When you move, don’t get closer to the ballhandler. It’s hard to resist. Almost a gravitational pull! Spacing is everything and the closer you get to the ballhandler, the smaller the passing window becomes.
One last thought: When you’re on defense and you are not guarding the ball, would you rather your man/woman stand still or move?
I already know your answer. So why not MOVE and give your defender a hard time!
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Understanding Circle Movement
Layer 4 is NOT about Dribble Penetration. You can dribble penetrate at any time in any offense. But that usually means the end of the offense. Layer 4 in the Read & React is about how the offense continues if Dribble Penetration fails or Penetrate, Draw the Defense, and Pass does not produce a shot. Read more…
