5 Ways to Make Your Team Better Right Now
As the basketball season hits its stride, coaches everywhere are looking for ways to elevate their teams’ performance.
Whether you’re coaching youth, high school, or collegiate basketball, improving your team doesn’t require a complete overhaul. In our recent webinar, 5 Ways to Make Your Team Better Right Now, we shared actionable strategies that any coach can implement immediately, regardless of system, skill level, or time of year.
Here are the five key takeaways to help your team thrive today.
1. Speed Beats Reads
One of the quickest ways to improve your team is to focus on the pace of your actions.
Why Speed Matters
Faster actions create more advantages and make it harder for defenses to adjust.
Even if the reads aren’t perfect, high-speed execution can lead to better results.
Key Tips:
Split Cuts: Execute cuts with decisive speed to confuse the defense.
Ghost Screens: Use rapid movement to disguise screens and create mismatches.
Ball Screens: Treat every screen as an ambush. The screener should arrive with a step advantage to catch the defense off guard.
Pro Tip: Evaluate your team’s speed and reads using a simple 1–4 rating scale. Ask, “How quickly are we initiating actions?” and “Are our reads accurate?” Focus on speed first; a fast wrong read is harder to guard than a slow right one.
2. Improve Shot Selection
Great teams don’t just shoot—they take the right shots. Midseason is the perfect time to refine your team’s shot selection and distribution.
Focus Areas:
Shot Scale: Use a clear framework to define what makes a good shot (e.g., 9s and 7s are high-value shots, while 5s should be avoided).
Shot Distribution: Identify how many shots your best players are taking. Aim for your top player to take at least 25% of your team’s shots.
Celebrate Attempts: Shift the focus from makes and misses to taking high-quality shots.
Pro Tip: Use data to adjust shot distribution. For example, if your best scorer is shooting 60% from the field, they may not be taking enough challenging shots.
3. Play Harder for 3 Seconds Longer
Sometimes, the smallest effort changes make the biggest impact. Extending your team’s intensity by just three seconds can result in better rebounding, defensive transitions, and hustle plays.
How to Build Effort:
No Out-of-Bounds Play: Stop blowing the whistle for out-of-bounds plays in practice. Teach your team to play through everything.
Animal Ball: Incorporate competitive rebounding games like “Animal Ball,” where the same team can score multiple times in one possession to emphasize second-chance opportunities.
Endless Play: Avoid drills that end with “down and back” transitions. Instead, let play continue until you blow the whistle.
Pro Tip: Encourage multiple efforts on every possession. Reward players who chase loose balls or fight for offensive rebounds.
4. Enhance Film Study
Effective film study is more than pointing out mistakes—it’s about teaching your team what success looks like and making film sessions a collaborative experience.
Player-Centered Film Study:
Show Positive Clips: Use a 4:1 ratio of positive to negative clips. Help players visualize what success looks like.
One-on-One Reviews: Share individualized clips with players via text or brief one-on-one sessions before practice.
Player-Led Film: Assign small groups of players to analyze specific clips and present their findings to the team.
Pro Tip: Limit team film sessions to 10 minutes or less to maintain focus and engagement. For more in-depth analysis, provide individual or small-group feedback.
5. Rewind to First Principles
When frustration sets in midseason, it’s easy to focus on surface-level issues like turnovers or missed assignments. Instead, rewind to your first principles and address the root causes.
Common Examples:
Turnovers: Poor spacing often leads to turnovers. Implement “The Floor Is Lava” drill to teach players to avoid catching the ball in dangerous areas.
Transition Defense: Strengthen offensive rebounding pressure to disrupt your opponent’s fast break opportunities.
Neutral vs. Advantage: Teach players to quickly recognize whether they’re in a neutral position (no advantage) or have created an advantage (e.g., defensive rotation).
Pro Tip: Midseason is a great time to revisit your team’s identity and focus on what’s most important to your success. Reset expectations and emphasize fundamental principles.
Put These Strategies Into Action
Improving your team doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. By focusing on speed, shot selection, effort, film study, and first principles, you can make meaningful progress immediately.
Want personalized guidance to implement these strategies? Join the SAVI Community, where we help coaches like you revolutionize the way the game is taught and played.
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