Read and React Review

The season ended on Friday with a bit of a whimper, along with the very strange experience of being ejected from my first and only game in 12 years (without a warning, or any time between the first and second technical foul - and no, there was no profanity involved - it was...inexplicable). We faced the top seed in our playoff bracket, a team we had lost two games earlier in the season by an average of 36.5 points, and were down 24-17 halfway through the 3rd quarter when it happened. So while I'm pleased with the way the team had played, it certainly didn't end the way I wanted. C'est la vie.

The real reason for this post is to review my first season with the Read and React offense. Hit the jump to read more about our offensive transformation.


How it went

My experience with the RnR offense is overwhelmingly positive, starting with how it meshed well with my overall coaching philosophy. I like to play pressure defense and get out and run in transition. I think most coaches say they like to do this, but doesn't always create an atmosphere that supports it. The reason I stress it is related to weaknesses I see in the high school game right now, namely ball security and discipline. Pressure defense creates turnovers from weak passers and dribblers, and transition offense punishes lazy or undisciplined offensive players. The RnR plays nicely with these philosophies, and creates a situation where you can play at a fast pace and be successful, or run time off the clock and be successful as well.

My team (2 seniors, 7 sophomores, 1 freshman) averaged about 40 ppg, while shooting 26% from the field and 48% from the free throw line. Our shooting woes aside, I felt like these were pretty remarkable numbers for offensive production, and I felt that it had everything to do with creating good scoring opportunities and high percentage shots within our offensive sets. The RnR also freed my players from memorizing offensive movements and let them be scorers. Some players obviously still struggled to remember every reaction, which slowed down our movement, but other players with offensive scoring skills were free to identify and attack the defense. It also allowed me to game plan for opposing defenses like never before, and made me feel like we could affect the defense in a way I couldn't do before.

Struggles

Not everything was smooth sailing. For one thing, it was difficult to plan a practice with this offense, because it works differently from offenses I used to teach. Its exactly like teaching defense, and therefore requires the same set of coaching skills and plans to be successful. Knowing this and applying it are very different, and this is one area I need to improve significantly in. We also had some difficulty maintaining our enthusiasm for the offense. This was due mainly to the fact that my team all learned the reactions at different rates, so I pushed forward as far as I felt comfortable, but I never felt like I had mastered any specific layer for every player. I realized later that I was probably moving too slowly after we had progressed through layers 1-6, and didn't give my best athletes and smartest players enough options. Yes, we were functional - but we were not explosive and dynamic.

There were also times where my team had a defeatist air to them, especially times where our skills (shooting, passing, dribbling) were limiting the usefulness of the offense. It took a lot of work and energy for me to keep them confident in our offense when the results weren't good. It came down to showing them the difference of evaluating the outcome versus evaluating the process.

Moving forward

I'm planning on two coaching clinics to explain the development plan to the coaches of our youth program, and how I want them to coach offensive skills. We have great enthusiasm and participation in our youth program (110 girls from grades 2-6!), but the coaches haven't received much direction, and end up teaching set plays to fourth graders. Obviously, I need them to spend more time on foundation skills and the offensive concepts in the RnR foundation as well. Better offensive habits = better offensive players! I also need to drill more offensive concepts as part of practice and become better at planning these practices. Finally, I have read and liked the idea of organizing our attacks into color based sets, as well as creating 3-4 quick hitting plays that can be used for a quick and much needed basket.

I said it in an either post, and I feel it appropriate to say it again. I'm sold on this offensive utterly and completely, and I'll never go back to running plays again. If you are feeling unsatisfied with your offense, you owe it to yourself to look into this program.