Teach Skills, Not Just Systems

A common oversight among coaches is spending too much time learning "plays" and not enough time learning how to play. Teams do need to have organized offenses and plays, but it is far more important to be able to execute the fundamentals of movement, ballhandling, dribbling, passing and shooting than it is to know how to run through a particular offense. Along with all of the individual fundamentals, players need to understand the concept of "relative motion." That can best be described as realizing how one player fits into the space on the floor, given the "relative" positioning of the other players, both offense and defense. A player with this understanding will know how to move to get open, create proper spacing, passing angles, play good on ball defense and give good team defensive help.