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Here’s a drill that Randi Peterson developed and shared at last year’s Beyond the Basics Clinic in Cedar Rapids (her team is currently 18-2 and ranked #23 nationally, by the way). If you’re interested, you can watch full Coe College Women’s games here.

Coach Peterson has a knack of integrating the Read & React Offense into as many facets of her practice as possible in fun, imaginative ways. This particular drill is designed to train Post Moves, Post Cuts, Perimeter Shots, Post Feeds, and several other key aspects of the Post and Perimeter game. All of that work in a single drill – that’s how you make the most out of practice time!

There are two things that I want you to notice specifically.

First, with only slight variations, this drill’s framework can be used to work on specific post moves, specific post feeds, and specific post cuts. It’s all about what you teach and what your team needs to work on.

Second, Randi doesn’t dictate the rotations; she lets the players figure it out. Not only does this save her office time because she doesn’t have to conceptualize the perfect drill complete with perfect rotations, it also forces her players to be proactive and empowers them to make decisions. Just like they have to make in game situations.

10 Responses

  1. I used this drill and then added another part to incorporate more guard reactions. The cutter can also go through if they are a 1,2 or 3 and receive the ball in the opposite corner. The new passer basket cuts and does the same. This new component requires additional balls, paying attention, and quick thinking, but the resulingt drill imitated real game play. My middle school girls love the R and R.

  2. I ran this drill in practice today, and I have to say that I absolutely love it. I hadn’t been able to effectively (and efficiently) integrate post-play into the drill work we have done. This drill is one I wish I would have seen or thought of months ago. Thanks for sharing!

  3. Blue- My boys aren’t strong enough to shoot at a full height hoop yet, so we just play these games to teach them the cuts and movements, using the center circle of the court.

  4. Coach Ginn and Coach Torbett:
    Good morning. I like this combination drill so much because it “collapses time frames as you emphasize with Read and React. The youngsters aren’t standing and watching but they are active, moving w/o the ball [e.g. relocation, duck in moves, etc. etc.]

  5. Christian
    This drill you’re talking about, is it happening at the middle center/half court line of the whole basketball court? Where the jump ball circle is? One player in the jump ball circle and a player on the left and right side halft court? Where does the ball start? It seems like you don’t use the basket to shoot layups – why?

  6. Hey Christian – Congrats on the success of your two teams! I really like your creativity with your 5 and 7 year old sons. Our youth deserve all the creativity that can be mustered from the coaching community. I think that Tribe members like yourself will eventually be the number one source for turning USA youth basketball on its head!

  7. I could probably write a small essay on what it has been like to be a first year Read and React coach and how much EASIER it has been to coach practices and games this year with the RR. But, I just wanted to share some quick drills I made up to teach the RR to my 7 and 5 year old this weekend when we were in the gym.

    The 3 of us spread out around the middle circle and started with Pass and Cut, passing and running to the opposite side of the circle. We did this about ten times.

    Then we did Dribble-At, I would dribble at them on the perimeter of the circle and they had to run to the other side of the circle. After 3 or four of those, I would Pass and Cut and then we had a new dribbler. (This was by FAR their favorite game! It was like a basketball version of Duck-Duck-Goose.)

    Then we did Pass and Cut with Dribble-At.

    Then we did Natural Pitch with 2 dribbles to the center of the circle and passing it to a perimeter player on either side.

    Then I moved to the middle and caught passes for Laker Cuts, after a few passes and cuts I would give them the ball and then it was Pass and Cut or Dribble At on the perimeter.

    We finished with Relocate. They would pass to me in the center and then cut right or left on the circle, while they were doing that the other player would make sure he was right behind me on the other side, I passed back to the passer (after he relocated) and he “shot” the ball over me to his brother on the other side. (This was their second favorite drill, they liked shooting it over my head and past my arms.)

    My boys could not contain their excitement at these “games” we had just made up. I plan on using these this summer when our school does its youth basketball camps.

    I’ve been coaching two boys teams this year: JV and 8th grade. My JV team is about 7-8 layers deep and has really benefitted from the form and freedom of the offense. My 8th grade team has only used Drib At, Pass/Cut, Laker Cuts, Relocate and Nat Pitch- and that’s ALL we’ve needed to go undefeated in our conference and qualify for our state tournament.

    And I can teach this offense to my 7 and 5 year old sons! What an offense!

    Christian Arvold
    HOPE Christian Schools
    Milwaukee, WI

  8. I like the basket cut and post behavior. It is a great way to flow from 5 out to 4 out 1 in. However, I would make each player go to every line especially if you are coaching a youth team. We want to develop complete players and not stereotype them at a young age. Even at the college level there may be a time during the game that it makes sense to post up a guard.

    1. @Mike – I agree with you completely, especially at the youth level you don’t want a player’s development to suffer because they’ve been pigeon-holed into a single position.

      And, certainly there are times at the college level where guards will want to be inside and post players will want to be outside. Randi absolutely agrees with this (she encourages posts to get into the guard line and encourages guards to get into the post line). But, I think her point is (at this level) if you have a post player that will be subbed out of a game for taking a 3, then there is no reason for her to get into the 3 point shooting line – that just wastes a rep for a shooter and wastes a post rep for her.

      Now, after practice or in the off-season, if that player works on her shot and becomes competent at that range, then she can jump into that line. It could even be an incentive to work on those parts of her game. “If I want to shoot 3’s in practice (and later in games), I better get in the gym and work on it”.

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