Decision-Making Problems With Game-Based Drills
Recently on Twitter, Coach Mike MacKay made this statement. For those of you unfamiliar with Mike MacKay, he has been heavily involved with coaching the national programs in Canada Basketball for many years.
"Need to rethink the use of restrictive rules on the offence, e.g. no dribbles, number of passes, 0.5 sec. in SSGs. Better to constrain the defence to encourage them to show the realistic cue. E.g. close out faster to pressure the ball. This is why they would pass the ball sooner."
He also stated,
"When I want transfer and remove the rule, have they actually learned when and why they should make the quick pass vs. dribbling?"
This is an interesting idea!
As Coach MacKay pointed out, the rules may inhibit offensive players from reacting to the defensive cues that occur in a game.
If you rely heavily on game-based drills or other drills that restrict the decision-making process for the offense, issues could develop...
"Why can't I shoot this wide open shot just because I haven't made 10 passes yet?"
"Why can't I dribble? My defender is positioned horribly and there is no help defense. I have a wide open lane to the basket."
"Why do I need to shoot, pass, or dribble in 1 or 2 seconds? We have a mismatch with our post player in the low post. I want to give them time to get set, so I can pass the ball. They have an immediate advantage."
Examples of Defensive Constraints and More Thoughts on Offensive Prohibitions
Our in-house game-based drills specialist Nate Sanderson added some ideas for defensive constraints...
- Deny all passes one pass away
- Defense denies all dribble penetration (heavy emphasis on help)
- Defense face guards a shooter
- Gapping next to the ball
- Exaggerating help (two feet in the lane or two feet on ball side)
- Manipulating a zone
- Extreme ball pressure / Little-to-no ball pressure
- Mandatory double-teams in certain situations / locations / players
- More or less defenders
- Manipulating match-ups
- Manipulating space
- Switching all screens / no switches / etc.
Here are some more thoughts from Nate on offensive constraints or prohibitions...
Each of these defensive constraints changes the learning environment, but allows the offense to respond to the same cues it would in a game with a full complement of options (pass-shoot-drive), thus making it more game-like.
The argument for using offensive constraints is to isolate a particular skill to increase the repetitions of that specific decision / execution. To do this, coaches use constraints like:
- No dribbles allowed
- Can't hold the ball for more than 1 second or it's an automatic turnover
- Specific scoring actions - Ex: Each possession must start with a down screen
When we use these offensive constraints, we concede that some visual cues will not be fully actualized, but that is accepted because we are trying to generate a high volume of repetitions on a specific skill.
For example:
Constraint - No Dribble
Skill - Making contested passes / catches, pivoting and footwork, being strong with the ball, moving without the ball, scoring without the bounce.
Cues NOT Available - Driving against extreme pressure, defense closing out to contain dribble penetration, etc.
We sacrifice elements of "game-like" to focus on a particular skill set.
Also, if you want to make improvements to your No Dribble drills, Nate shared some changes he's made to this drill.
We actually added the "Dribble +1" rule. We play "No Dribble" until the offense dribbles. Once someone dribbles, they get one more pass before a shot must be taken.
The purpose is to teach players to hunt for opportunities to create advantages for themselves or others with the dribble.
Again, the person who dribbles must shoot, or the person who receives the next pass must shoot (they can use a dribble to create a shot, but cannot pass again).
It allows for all visual cues / decisions to still be in play, while emphasizing skills associated with the "No Dribble" game.
Defensive Constraints for Skill Development Drills from Nate Sanderson
If you've watched Nate Sanderson's Game-Based Training System, you might've noticed something similar to Coach MacKay's points above.
Nate likes to manipulate the position of the defenders and the number of defenders to provide different skill emphasis and challenge level.
Here is one example of a progression used to challenge the offensive player. There are other constraints that you can use, but this gives you an idea of where to start.
Progression 1 - 1v1 with disadvantaged defender.
This is a great progression for players who are just getting comfortable with new skills. Basically, this means that the on-ball defender starts at a disadvantage. The defender can start in a chair, positioned behind the offensive player to give a head start, or on the offensive player's hip.
Progression 2 - 1v1 Live
In this progression, the offense and defense play live. There is no initial advantage to the defense or offense.
Progression 3 - 1v2 with disadvantaged on-ball defender
Like progression 1, the initial on-ball defender starts at a disadvantage. However, a help defender has been added to the drill to make finishing at the basket more difficult.
Progression 4 - 1v2 Live
Now, the offensive player is playing live against the on-ball defender and the help defender. There is no initial disadvantage for the offense or defense.
Even though the drills are still limited because we don't have a 3rd, 4th, 5th player, we accept that because we are focusing on the individual execution of skill in a limited game context.
If you're interested in using constraints and small-sided games with your skill development drills, be sure to check out Nate Sanderson's Game-Based Training System.
What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...
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