Stop Sabotaging Your Team & Practice LESS Half Court Offense

Admit it – you spend a lot of time practicing your half-court offense. I bet if you polled most coaches, they spend more time thinking about half-court offense than just about any other part of the game.

Whether it's an offense or plays, you likely spend a lot of time practicing this part of the game.

Here's the truth: you're doing too much of it. Whether out of ego or a lack of awareness, your insistence on practicing half-court offense is hurting your team.

That's why Coach Rob Brost, teacher of the Get Comfortable Playing At An Uncomfortable Pace system, practices in transition 80% of the time.

Read on to find out why he does.

How "Half Court" Teams Make Scoring Harder - Just Ask Steve Kerr

Half-court offense is hard. I don't care how good your offense is, scoring against a set defense is challenging. Yes, certain offenses are especially effective.

However, it doesn't matter what level of basketball we are talking about, teams score more in transition. While the data varies depending on the level, on average, teams score about .2-.3 more points per possession in transition than they do in the half court. Over the course of an entire game, that's a significant difference.

As Steve Kerr says, "It's always easier to attack a defense that's not set than one that's set."

So, if you're trying to make half court offense your bread and butter you are making the game harder on your players.

This is true at every level, ESPECIALLY the youth level. My half dozen years of youth coaching experience has taught me that it's virtually impossible to truly run an offense at that age.

Your time is much better spent trying to teach your players how to play off the turnovers and misses that end almost every possession.

By teaching your team to score before the defense can get set, you give your team the best chance to succeed.

Make Transition Offense Your Identity With This Goal

A lot of teams say they want to run. Very few actually do. Coach Rob Brost, multiple-time Illinois Coach of the Year, wants his team in transition 80% of the time.

As he says, the average high school team probably shoots between 40%-45%. That means over half of possessions end in a missed shot.

If you force turnovers on another 20% of possessions, that gives you transition opportunities the overwhelming majority of the time.

To take advantage of those scoring opportunities, you must practice in transition daily.

You can't just say you want to run, you must drill it. Players must know how to make decisions while playing fast. They must also know how to maintain advantage.

When you start practicing this way, players start to look for opportunities to run. Conversely, if you spend the majority of time in the half-court, players will default to that.

When that happens, the defense never gets to relax. This leads to more mental mistakes as you keep constant pressure on your opponent.

The Power Of Your Practice Plan

Your practice plan directly influences how your players perceive the game.

Are you training players to look for the highly efficient transition possessions? Or are you teaching them to play in a way that is inefficient?

Let me put it more bluntly: are your offensive & practice philosophies helping or hurting your team?

If you want to ensure you're helping, run more. But run with a purpose. To do so, check out Get Comfortable Playing At An Uncomfortable Pace With Rob Brost.