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Author: Scott Ginn

One of the defenses that Read & React coaches sometimes struggle against is a sagging man to man. And, it makes sense. If you don't have shooters, a defense can interfere with all the cutting and penetration of the Read & React by playing off and protecting the paint. But, as I'm sure you've already guessed, there are solutions. These came from coaches like you in the forum and have been used in real games in real situations. Thanks to Mat11, Rob K, rpt, Rick, and rgriffin921 for the ideas. Pin & Skip: A Pin & Skip sends a message to the defense, "if you want to sag, then you will have to navigate a screening situation. Help and sag if you want, but your defensive life will be much more difficult". But, you don't have to shoot on the skip pass. You don't even have to score on that action. It's designed to move the defense out of their comfortable little box and hopefully open up some seams that can be exploited by other actions. A skip pass recipient can drive immediately against the close out, feed the post and make one of four post cuts, make a perimeter pass and cut, Power Dribble, Reverse Dribble, or Skip the pass back across if another Pin Screen has been set. Try the Pin & Skip, force the defense to navigate screens, and look to score with the next action. Of course, if you have the shooters, knocking down the 3 is the simplest option.

Let me tell you something that you already know: each one of your players is different. Each has a unique set of skills, a unique capacity for learning, a unique hype number, and of course, a unique personality. But, are you treating them that way? Please read as deeply into that question as possible, but for the purposes of this blog, I'm going to focus on what that means for you as a Read & React coach. Players can be taught layers according to their own abilities. That means you can have some players using Layers 1-6, some using 1-10, and some using 1-20 (or even, 1-6, 10, 14, and 15). As long as the foundation layers have been covered, those with fewer layers will not hinder the impact of those with more. Let's put this in a practical perspective. There are two types of Post Slides: Basic (layer 5) and Advanced (layer 16). There are also two ways to fill out after a player has cut: simply fill out (layer 1) or backscreen out (layer 10). You can train one post player to only react with a Basic Post Slide and train another to react with the Advanced Post Slide based on their skill, ability, understanding, etc. (That's your job to figure out.) And, the same is true with filling out and backscreening. Maybe a handful of players can't (or won't backscreen) - that's ok.

There's a lot of great stuff going on in the forums… too much really to leave it alone, just sitting there. So, I've decided to post a forum inspired post every day for the next 5 days (there's plenty more good stuff than that, but I thought I'd start there). Today is day 1, inspired by this forum thread and VMI04, MJL23, Blue, Rick, and TJ. So, when you're putting in the Read & React for the first time, how do you promote buy in from your players? Well, in developing a strategy, the first question you need to ask yourself is what sold you on the system? There was obviously a reason that you ordered the DVDs, watched the footage, and decided that this would be your offense. Can you tweak the benefits that sold you into language that your players will respond to?

There are two types of Read & React coaches. Those that run it like a traditional offense and those that get it. So, this is a bit of an introduction to a coach and a program that you'll see more of right here in the future. Well, actually, you've seen Coach Garcia (Uie) and his team demonstrate some zone tweaks, but we're just getting started. See, Uie gets it. And, by "it", I mean a lot - the meaning of the word coach, the spirit of the R&R, and how to impact the lives of youth basketball players. So, we were sent this article about him and his program and thought it would be good to share it. It's about more than the fact that his travel teams have gone 126-6 over the past three years. It's about how the change that he and his coaches are making to the game at the youth level (with the Read & React) is achievable... and transferrable. That's what we are trying to do with Uie - take his insight and give him a megaphone. By the way, right now, Uie is transitioning to the AAU season with the Connecticut Spirit so you'll also get to see some stuff from the AAU circuit. We're excited because we know it will be helpful. Thanks to South Windsor for the article:

Perhaps one the most important times for a coach is the weeks immediately following the season. During this time you get the chance to look at what worked and what didn't, locate successes and failures, analyze all of it and make a rough plan for...