When I played grade school basketball, we memorized set plays. This was way before the internet, so coaching knowledge was much more limited. Our coach ran one play, which started with a pass; I went to set a screen, and now I move to the opposite side and watch someone else shoot or drive the ball. Every. Single. Play. At least, that's what it felt like. If that set play didn’t work, then it was chaos. Defense was more fun because I could make decisions independently instead of following a pre-set script. I would not have been ready if I had wanted to play high school basketball. All I knew was defense and one set play. I didn’t know how to play basketball, especially on the offensive side. I'm pretty sure the high school coach wasn't running the same offense I had in grade school, so my memorized play is useless, and I'm out of luck.
The advantage of having set plays is that it puts the whole team on the same page. The problem is that it removes any decision-making and, in my opinion, removes the fun of the game. Set plays are good in the short term, so the team is organized immediately. However, the coach is trading short-term organization for long-term growth. If you have read my blogs about sportsmanship, you know one of my mantras is “value the long term over the short term.” A good basketball program should teach students how to play basketball.
Players should be taught actions, not plays.
We don't want robots; we don't want cogs in the machine. We want basketball players, but basketball players must be taught how to make decisions. Something that makes decision-making easier is when we can predict what our teammates will do in response to what I decide to do when I have the ball. If I can rely on my teammate reacting a certain way, I can make decisions to orchestrate a good shot for myself or my teammate. We strive for predictability, requiring players to learn "rules" or "actions" instead of plays. Learning rules and actions fundamental to basketball will make them universally better. They can be just as effective with playground hoops as with their school or club team. We are taking the decision-making away from the coach and putting it on the player. Being able to make decisions is a life skill we want our players exposed to, but we must let them make decisions by not limiting them to "set plays."
The system should scaffold and build upon itself.
If you teach a new offensive system every year, they only have one year to master it. If you use the same system every year, they have multiple years to improve. If that system has multiple layers, another layer is introduced when one skill set is mastered. The result is competent basketball players who understand how to play the game. A rule introduced in fourth grade will surely be mastered by eighth grade, and by eighth grade, they will have learned many more rules on top of the original layer. Even better, a rule learned in fourth grade can be expanded on in eighth grade. A rule can be kept simple so it is effective with young players, and as the players develop, so can the rules they all follow. This is reminiscent of a classroom that follows a spiraling curriculum. Players are moving forward in an overall trajectory that adds concepts. Hence, they know more at the end of the year than at the beginning. However, in moving forward, they revisit old concepts, and more depth is added each time.
We know that our team will vary in skill level and ability. Very rarely is every player super tall and skilled. Sometimes, our team has a vast discrepancy between the worst and best players, and we need these players to function as a team. While this initially may seem like a dilemma, this is precisely how a multi-age classroom functions in Montessori. We don't expect everyone to be able to do everything. Using a spiraling system, low-skilled players can contribute with what they can do and not hold anyone else back. High-skilled players have a way to incorporate low-skilled players while being able to fully utilize what they can do. The exceptional athlete can apply their mastery with their teammates because they all have the same foundation.
Highly skilled athletes usually don’t appear out of thin air. Highly skilled athletes have put in thousands of hours of practice and play to be as good as they are. They probably have been playing for years, sometimes on multiple teams per year. If a student plays on three teams a year and has different set plays, that's a lot of memorization. That could be hundreds of plays by the time a year is over. However, the beauty of teaching rules and actions is that they don’t have to memorize a whole new system. Plus, the actions they have learned will be used by other teams within their set play systems. Rules and actions mean more learning and less memorization. We create kids that can play basketball instead of a play in basketball.
The Read and React System
So, what is this magical system? It has been described as positionless basketball and is very common overseas. In the United States, the Read and React system, which can be found at Better Basketball by Rick Torbett, does an outstanding job teaching this style of basketball. He has hundreds of teaching videos that provide step-by-step programs to implement offense, defense, and design practices. I am a coach who has used his program for six years, and I have seen the development of my players skyrocket. I have been coaching for 15 years, and I began as a coach who didn't understand basketball well. I had to teach myself about the game, and I made many errors initially. If I had had this program from the start, I would have been ten times the coach on day one. His system teaches basketball in a way that feels very much like the Montessori method. It truly creates good basketball players at my Montessori school. The big picture is introduced, drills are applied, and the rules are practiced in a scrimmage to see if there is mastery.
The Read and React System is broken up into layers, describing a basketball action and how the whole team reacts in sync. For example, the first layer describes how when a player passes to a perimeter teammate one spot away, the player who passed must cut to the basket. Simple and effective. Utilizing this give-and-go tactic right off the bat makes the offense more dynamic. The Read and React system originally had twenty layers. I would recommend skipping straight to version 2.0, which condenses the program to be more manageable. The system has been dramatically simplified while keeping the core of the system intact. Instead of twenty layers, there are now ten. By condensing ideas, we can finally get to the more advanced concepts we need for our older teams.
To be clear, I have no financial connection to Better Basketball. I am just a giant super-fan. This isn't a secret weapon that I hope other schools don't use, except ours. In fact, I want the opposite. I wish everyone had used this system. If every coach used Read and React, we would have better basketball players moving onto the next level every year. We would see games won because the better team won, not because of coaching tactics that exploit the age and comprehension of our players. If you are a basketball coach and struggling with your offense, this is the single best resource to teach basketball and is worth every penny (especially after the Read and React 2.0 upgrade).
I also need to include another resource that I have watched for hundreds of hours over the years. The good news is it’s free on YouTube. If you go to Manitoba basketball, they provide videos from seminars conducted by coaches with tons of expertise. The particular coach I like the most is Kirby Schepp. He exemplifies the idea that we should be teaching basketball, not plays. In one of his videos, I’m pretty sure I hear him name-drop Coach Torbett, so it’s no wonder I like him so much. If you want to start down the Kirby Schepp rabbit hole, I would start with these videos titled "Don't Teach Them Plays. Teach Them How to Play," parts one and two. He has several more, and they are all worth your time. I learn something new each time I watch them.
When someone understands how to play basketball, as opposed to only knowing one or two plays they had to remember, the chance they will be lifelong basketball players is much greater. We don't expect every athlete to play in high school or beyond, but we want him or her to understand and appreciate the game. If they have talent and work hard, it will be up to them how far they go, and by providing a teaching system for learning basketball, we did not limit their potential. We want to provide the ability for athletes to truly learn basketball to the best of their ability. With the Better Basketball system, I believe that each athlete will have the mental tools to play basketball for as long as they choose.