Below is a mini-playbook of breakdown drills designed to get shots within the actions of the Point Series of the Princeton Offense. Included are breakdown drills for Point Over, Point Away and Point Spin. The objective of the drills is to get volumes of shots specific to the offense. A coach could advance the drills …
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Coaches are humans and they come preloaded with differing viewpoints on how to do the job. Demeanors are different. Personalities vary. Coaches have different opinions on what should be prioritized. That’s ok! There is room for many coaching styles. One of the differences in coaching styles is whether a coach is more internally focused or …
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There are many ways to initiate Five-Out offense. In today’s examination, we will be digging into one of those ways — the Dribble Push. As the offense advances into the front court, the ball-handler pushes the player in front of the them through to the other side (Fig. 1). This could be done by dribbling at …
One of the best “Princeton Offense teams” in recent years was the Stanford Cardinal women’s team. This offense powered their run to a national championship in 2021. What follows are five videos breaking down Tara VanDerveer’s version of the Princeton Offense known as “Jersey” in their program. In this series I used the language Stanford …
The role of help side defense often goes unnoticed. It’s easy to see the tenacious on-ball defender and the lockdown defender one pass away, but in many ways it is the help defense that separates a good defensive unit from a bad one. In this piece we’ll review help defense and offer three tricks of the trade …
The Post Split, a signature feature of the Princeton Offense, is one of the Miami Heat’s favorite concepts. What goes into it and how do we spot it? More and more we are hearing that post play is dead. It is true that NBA teams use fewer post ups and attempt fewer shots from post …
I am often asked whether specific X’s and O’s from the NBA are applicable to lower levels of play. The rules and the skill level are different from other levels of play and that surely impacts the applicability. If you hang around the sport long enough you’ll notice that things trickle down. College coaches study …
Count me among the many coaches who emphasizes passing the ball ahead in transition offense. When attempting to beat the defense down the floor, the ball travels faster via the pass than the dribble. When the transition offense segues to halfcourt offense, what do we do after the hit ahead to the wing if no fast …
Note: This is the fourth and final post in a series on the “superpowers” coaches can add to level up in the coaching profession. Previous entries: Coaching Superpowers: Drill Creation Coaching Superpowers: Simplification Coaching Superpowers: Mental Strength In the video game world, an adept player earns “superpowers” which help them advance to higher levels in …
Note: This is the third post in a series on the “superpowers” coaches can add to level up in the coaching profession. Previous entries: Coaching Superpowers: Drill Creation Coaching Superpowers: Simplification In the video game world, an adept player earns “superpowers” which help them advance to higher levels in the game. Perhaps, through skillful play …
