Playgrounds

I went to the Nike clinic in Toronto this summer and came away with a few great nuggets of information. One of my favorite sessions was from a high school coach from California talking about what going down to the local outdoor court and playing streetball taught him as a basketball player. It got me thinking about one of my favorite topics.



I think the biggest thing hurting women's basketball is that girls don't play enough while learning the game. They don't play 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 enough. That's what the game is, and they don't get enough repetitions to figure it out.



1 on 1 is one of the best games you can play for your development because you develop efficiency in your game. As long as you have the right variation in your opposition, you learn how to score going left, how to score going right, runners, layups, fakes, everything. It's one of the easiest ways to learn the most underrated theme in basketball, the game inside the game, deception. Making your defender think you are doing one thing and taking advantage them. You learn to read a defender.



After learning to play 1 on 1, you've got to learn how to collaborate with a teammate. Most of the time you watch girls play 2 on 2 you will see them play 2 separate games of 1 on 1 at the same time. One girl tries to beat her girl to the basket and the other one watches. If she can't score she kicks it out to the other player who tries to beat her girl. That's not the worst thing in the world as long as you have an advantage over your opponents, but that isn't going to last for the rest of your career.



We break it down this way - there are two ways to score in 2 on 2. You can play 1 on 1 (or play off of 1 on 1, i.e. penetrate & kick) or you can try to collaborate. What are some examples of collaborating? You can dump it in the post and cut off her, you can set a ball screen or you can do a dribble handoff. The point is you are using a teammate to try to gain an advantage and learning to read 3 people (your defender, your teammate and her defender). The beauty in 2 on 2 comes when you can correctly balance 1 on 1 with 2 on 2 collaboration. There are times to take on defenders and times to collaborate to create an advantage.



3 on 3 adds a new dimension. We can do all of the things we did in 2 on 2 and 1 on 1 but now there are new options. One player can have the ball while 2 other people set a screen. The idea of timing is also introduced in the 3 on 3. The idea that quickly moving the ball from one side to the other can create an advantage for a teammate is one that wouldn't really be learned before
this. Now you are asked to read 5 other people.

4 on 4 builds on those concepts and adds more options.

So how can you learn to really play 5 on 5 if you've missed all the intermediate steps?