Covenant Academy (McMinnville, TN) head coach Ryan Smith shares his Read & React story in this weeks Tribe Spotlight.
I was first introduced to the Read & React Offense when I was a high school coach at a public school. I was researching a more efficient offense that would fit my players and my program. I was running a motion offense with a lot of screening and cutting that involved a high basketball IQ; (a basketball IQ) that my players didn’t have and consistently wouldn’t have. I had a (different) offense for man-to-man defenses, a different offense for a variety of zone defenses, and a different offense for special defenses (“Box and 1”, “Triangle and 2”, etc.). The more I learned about the Read & React Offense, the more I became excited about implementing it into my program.
Later, I took a job coaching at a new school where I was coaching elementary, middle school, and high school boys teams. The Read & React was perfect for the situation I was going into. The thing I love about the Read & React is that it doesn’t require high of basketball IQ and the layers allow me to introduce the offense early and slowly incorporate more layers each year. My elementary team is using the first three layers and my high school team is using a majority of the layers. I can really see the development of my players each year and it has helped other aspects of my team as well.
The simplicity of the offense allows me to spend more practice time on other offensive and defensive fundamentals that my team needs.
Also, because of the constant action of the Read & React, our defense has improved drastically. My players and I have really enjoyed running the Read & React and it has also made me a better coach. It has simplified my approach to attacking defenses. The variety of the offense doesn’t require me to run different offenses based on the defense the opponent is running. Our players are allowed to play on instinct instead of trying to stop and analyze what defense the opponent is in and what offense we should be running. We are able to make minor adjustments to attack the defense which allows my players to be quicker. It is the best thing that I have seen and will continue to implement it into my program and see my players grow each year.
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