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This week we are spotlighting Read & React coach Orville Godby who coaches the Capital Eagles.
What I like best about the Read and React Offense is the equality it brings between players. Within the offense, everyone passes, dribbles, cuts and gets opportunities to score. It makes all 5 players important rather than having an offense center around a few players. In every game I have used this offense, every player has scored and dished out multiple assists. Many times the opponents we face have between three to five basic plays. It doesn’t take long to learn what “Omaha” is going to be, and stop it. With the Read and React, if I’m not sure what’s going to happen next there’s no way the opposing coach could know. Once implemented, this offense runs itself.
When I first began researching offenses and trying to decide which would be best for me, the main thing that sold me on the Read and React was the level system. Sometimes you have a team that will only achieve Level 2, but sometimes you get an extra special group that can achieve the max amount of levels. It works just as well given either situation. My team learned a solid 3 levels last year and went from consecutive 1-9 seasons to 5-5. Every game we lost was by less than 10 points. When I say we lost, I mean we lost. Nobody beat us. The defending champions beat us by two only because we missed an open 3-pointer at the buzzer. Now that I have this offense in place I can just refresh it next year and add one more level and spend the year focusing more on defense. Once the offense and defense come together, I believe we will have a good shot at a deep playoff run next season. Not bad for a team that consistently was perennial cannon fodder just 2 years ago.
As a coach having this offense has made me more confident that my teams can win and that confidence has become contagious. I feel, and my players feel, that if we execute and play hard we can beat anyone. I am absolutely sold on the Read & React.
On a side note, one of my assistant coaches is teaching a team of 10 year old girls the Read & React and the parents are amazed to see them run a cohesive offense that appears to be years ahead of the other teams. I highly recommend the Read and React to ALL coaches. It can be tailored to suit any group of players and is relatively easy to teach.

5 Responses

  1. I would like to make a statement and see what other coaches think about it. I coach 7-9 grade. My first couple years I had assistant coaches insist on using half my practice time on drilling such things as proper shooting, dribbling, passing, etc. We had 2 losing seasons. My last 2 years I decided to do things different. I quit using so much time on drilling and started scrimmaging a lot more. My thought was the players needed to use these skills in the context of playing. When we scrimmage everyone gets practice on the pass, dribble, shoot, etc. After making this change we have won significantly more games. Is it just a fluke or are there other coaches with this paradigm, basically to teach court awareness above everything else and let the skills take care of themselves in the course of a practice?

  2. Won the league AAU 8th grade boys championship today. It was a great season. 10-3 final record. Next year I will look into taking over my daughters 5th grade girls team and coaching her through AAU. I will teach them the read and react and have no doubt they will play in some championship games.

  3. Agreed. The only things I do different from textbook read and react are 1) as soon as the ball is passed to a cutter everyone crashes except the passer. This gives the cutter more options as he can dish to a crasher 2) my kids tend to fall into habits much as we all do so I numbered the basic moves-1 is basic pass and cut 2 is screen and roll 3 is dribble at and so on then I call plays when needed by just calling the numbers i.e. a 3-1-2 or a 3-1-1 etc. then after the third move they just do whatever. So yes, using the layers allows me to counter pretty much anything a defense throws at me. My second game Saturday one of the parents had the second games coaches scouting us sitting behind her and she heard them say the were going to run a tight zone and crowd the key so I had my best 3 point shooter not crashing but roaming the 3 point line after the entry pass. Didn’t take to many made 3 pointers to loosen that defense up again. Absolutely a great offense. I had every kid score that day and given some of my players that in of itself is amazing.

  4. Opening day-so far so good. 61-36 and 65-37. 2-0. This is not my main team just a team I picked up because they had no coach. Only 2 of the players had ever played together before and we are the same size as other teams, no mutants carrying us. I only had 4 practices to get them ready and they ran tier 1 of the read and react to near perfection. My predicament? Do I share with other coaches I play against the system I run? For now I think not. Maybe later 🙂

    1. Coach that is what is great about the Read & React. Even if the opposing team knows the offense, the layers allow you to counter their defensive tactics with additional scoring opportunities.

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