A close friend of mine let me know through an email that he was buying the Read & React. Having known him since the early 90’s, (he was coaching a college men’s team at the time), I replied with the “prep” below:

As you watch it, keep in mind that the goal is to train the team to maintain 5-player-coordination at all times, in any formation, with any combination of players, with any and all levels of skill and I.Q., and against either a man or zone defense. It is NOT a matter of throwing together a bunch of good principles and hoping that good things happen when you turn the players loose. I’ve tied every basketball action together in such a way that the whole team can flow from one action to another and know exactly what each teammate will be doing (accountability).

That sounds predictable and it is from the offense’s point of view. But it is unpredictable and un-scoutable from the defense’s point of view because the 10-13 basketball actions can flow together in any sequence. As an example, if you take just 3 actions like Drive & Kick, Pass & Cut, and Screen & Skip and consider that they can flow in any sequence from any 5 spots in any of the 3 basic formations (5 out, 4 out 1 in, or 3 out 2 in) then you create 90 unique combinations - no two are alike. There are 360 unique combinations of 4 basketball actions; so forth and so on.

In other words, I’m trying to get coaches to see that they can teach and “control” the uncontrollable, random, breakdown, “let’s just play basketball” aspect of the game. I mean “control” it from a standpoint of making it better, more efficient, and with concrete actions that the players can understand. If they can understand it, then they can get better at it. If an aspect of the game can be defined, then it can be refined. (That was pretty good!) There’s a lot of refinement going on around the country with coaches who are digging deep into the Read & React System. I’m convinced that this small community of R&R coaches (that’s growing slowly, day-by-day) will redefine how the game is best taught.

Can you still run a few set plays and quickhitters? Of course, but they only work about 30% of the time - even with the best of teams. What happens when they get stuffed? Read & React as a 5 player coordinated unit is what should happen. We teach and demand 5-player-coordination-by-principle-and-just-by-reading-the-ball on defense. Why not offense? Anyway, welcome to the “Innovator’s Club!”