Better Basketball: 6 Steps to Teach any Skill, Play, or Offense

Welcome to our guide on teaching offensive skills, plays, and offenses for better basketball performance. In this article, we present six progressive steps designed to enhance your coaching approach and help your players play better basketball on the court.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to introduce new skills effectively, ensure proper execution, increase speed, incorporate teamwork, integrate defensive elements, and ultimately apply the learned techniques in real-game situations. Whether you’re a seasoned coach or just starting out, this guide will provide you with a solid framework to teach and improve offensive skills, contributing to overall better basketball performance. Let’s dive in!

6 Steps to Teach any Offensive Skill, Play, or Offense for Better Basketball

It’s often been said that basketball is the most over coached and under taught sport on the planet. In order to help change that, here are six progressive steps that can be used to teach any offensive skill, play, or offense.

1. Introduce the Skill or Play

• Start by introducing the specific offensive skill, play, or offense to the players.
• Demonstrate the movements, positioning, and timing involved.
• Use a coach or experienced player to demonstrate the skill correctly.
• Alternatively, utilize a video clip that clearly shows the desired execution.
• Help players form a mental picture of the skill or play being executed perfectly.

2. Execute the Skill at a Slow Pace

• Allow players to start executing the skill at a slow pace.
• Ensure that all players have the opportunity to master the required techniques and mechanics.
• Pay close attention to footwork, which often determines the success of a skill.

3. Increase Execution Speed

• Transition to executing the skill at game speed.
• Focus on executing quicker and quicker.
• Use highly specific and well-designed breakdown drills to accomplish this.
• Simplify the drills to minimize overthinking and maximize execution speed.

4. Repeat and Practice

• For individual skills, emphasize repetition, repetition, and repetition.
• For plays or offenses, combine multiple parts and involve more teammates.
• Develop mental and physical quickness, teamwork, and coordination.
• Example: Add the “picker” when teaching the pick and roll instead of driving around a stationary cone.

5. Add Defensive Elements

• Introduce defense to make the learning process more enjoyable.
• Avoid skipping the previous steps and going directly to this one.
• Focus on executing all the individual parts while reading defensive reactions.

6. Apply in Game Situations

• Incorporate the newly learned skill, play, or offense into actual game scenarios.
• Utilize five-on-five situations to create a game-like environment.
• Avoid overlooking or taking this step for granted.
• Address any difficulties in carrying skills and actions from drills to game situations.

Remember to periodically review the steps even after progressing through all six. Continual improvement is always possible, regardless of skill level.

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Related: 5 Skill Development Ideas

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