I coach a girls 10-12 year old team and am going to teach them the 5 out motion-cutters offense. I have a few questions, though:

How would this offense work against defenses that play man to man 2-3 steps away from the offense (sagging defense)?

Also, in those situations where the offensive player (with the ball) on the perimeter gets swarmed by the defensive player to the point where my player has a hard time making a pass to the cutter--is the best suggestion to tell her to drive? Or have the nearest player come set a screen for her, and then drive?

A few things that I did with the same age group running the 5 out cutting offense:

1) I emphasized the need to be in constant motion - thus motion offense. The first cutter maybe open on the first possession but at this age they catch on and realize the that the point guard will cut after passing. If the defense sags that should make passing the ball around the perimeter easier and eventually a cutter will get lost so they need to be patient.

2) I have different sets to start the 5 out motion offense. I start with them in the traditional 5 out starting spots and v-cut and back screen to get open. I start with the 4 and 5 at the high post and the 2 and 3 in the corners then the 4 and 5 screen for the 2 and 3 and then the 4 and 5 go to the corners. And I start with the 4 and 5 in the tradional post and have the 2 and 3 start in the corners and cut to the ball to start the motion.

3) I basically give them simple rules to follow:
a) if the defense sags - keep cutting until the cutter is open.
b) if the defense overplays - take it to the basket hard.
c) at any time you can screen for the ball and run a pick and roll.

The great thing about the 5 out cutter offense is that you can keep essentially the same principles throughout - but put little variances on it as needed - such as what sets to start in to keep the defense off balance even though it's the same offense.

Good Luck.

Aiks provides some great advice there. Against a sagging defense, you can also have your players screen away.

You can also teach them to cut, but if they take the cut away, immediately screen away.

The first night I went over the motion offense it was obviously very new for the girls. They seemed unsure and confused a bit. I wondered if it would work. The second night when we reviewed it again they started to pick it up better, and I thought, 'this is going to work.'

Each night it gets better, and I wish I would have started with this earlier. This is an offense that can keep running (just fill a spot) and they are learning to read and react. It's great and I'm a believer. Also, it can be as simple or as complex as you want it.

I have two new questions. My team has never played against a zone defense before, and we just entered a league where zones are allowed. Would you use an adjusted 5 out motion to teach them, or another simple zone offense (similar to the 1-3-1 system found on this site)?
To incorporate the 5 out motion into a transition offense I was thinking of having the first two girls down the court go to the low posts to look for a pass from the guard; if they are not open they can just pop out to the corners and let the motion begin. Any other suggestions on incorporating the 5 out motion into a transition offense?

I got some good ideas re the transition from the Lason Perkins Open Post DVD.

I'm still wondering about what's the simplest but most effective zone offense to teach my team--who has never played against a zone before.

If you use the 5 out motion against zone, you can..
- use the dribble to attack gaps
- use banana cuts (hook and look). can be in mid post and/or short corner
- look for the skip pass

There is no perfect zone offense that is easy and works for everyone. I'm in the process of writing an ebook about Zone Offense Principles so you can take those principles that fit "your team" and incorporate them into your motion offense. This way you just have one offense (your motion) and you just tweak it when you face zone. I think that's a good way to go. But you can also apply these zone principles to a continuity offense.

Here's a thread with a few ideas for zone rules:
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=545

I had a college coach tell me this regarding attacking zones... " Its not rocket science - put em where they aint. "

So tell your cutters to cut to the gaps in the defense and find the open areas... Regardless of what offense you decide on, thats pretty simple advice.

Thanks. I'll give this a try.

Coach,

I just transitioned from instructional basketball to competitive. In the course of two weeks, I've had to reprogram our kids away from rules that require M2M only, no backcourt defense, no double-teams outside the lane, and no pressing allowed unless it's M2M, and then only in the last two minutes of a game.

Our first game we faced a zone press after every made basket, and once we got to the frontcourt (rare in that game), we faced nothing but a 2-3 zone. I was stunned and saddened by this, and it makes for a boring, sloppy mess with 5th-graders. The only reason I'm even doing this is because most of my kids will be trying out for the middle school team this fall and need the exposure, since they play high school rules in middle school.

I first had to teach them a simple press break, and like Coach Sar said, it wasn't rocket science. We have two kids who want to dribble the ball up the court and see it as a challenge to get past three defenders. This was resulting in turnover after turnover, so I taught them how to attack the press by passing and being patient. 10 seconds is an eternity if you're passing, very quick if you dribble. Once the panic faded, they got it down, and now we throw over the trap zone into a gap, flash someone middle and often get a fastbreak opportunity either 2-on-1 or 3-on-2.

For a zone, I left my point and wings where they were (even front zone allows for them to be positioned in gaps already), and I moved my corner players in 5-out to the short corners. On the point guard's call (we call this motion "Zero") my most athletic post player flashes to the hole in the zone just below the free throw line to what I call the sweet spot. From there, we look to move the ball from side to side and high and low until we get a good shot.

I established these simple rules:

Player 4, high post flash If the ball is at the point, the high post is in the sweet spot for a count of two. If the ball is on the wing, he flashes to mid post at the middle hash mark on the outside of the lane.

Player 5, who stays behind the zone in short corner must relocate to the strong side short corner on wing pass. Player 4 cuts hard to the rim on a pass to Player 5. Player 5 does the same on a pass to Player 4. This is our high-low look, and it provides a ton of layups.

Wing players (Players 2 and 3) feeding the high post relocate in the corner after the pass to stretch the baseline defender. Otherwise, the perimeter players swing the ball or dribble into gaps and kick opposite. It is working well.

The point guard is there to begin the action, swing the ball and penetrate gaps to improve passing angles. He doesn't relocate much, but all three perimeter players have to be in triple threat ready to shoot off the catch. We drill through this offense by moving the ball a minimum of 8 passes before a shot to get the movement engrained in their brains. I teach it by laying out 10 Shot Spotz on the court and having them rep it for 10-15 minutes each practice.

Having all this easy stuff to teach that works well is freeing up time for skill development, which is foremost in my mind going forward. Since they are confident that they will be able to find good looks against M2M or zones, they are thriving and paying closer attention to nuance with regard to dribbling, passing, shooting and playing defense.

I have also inadvertently taught a zone defense by lining up my dummy D when we work on our zone offense. All the kids are getting it, and even though we don't run it in games, they will at least have the exposure to it and won't be behind the others trying out this fall.

I can send you a few diagrams if you are interested and think it would help. Best of luck with your mission.

Neil

I have a 5th/6th grade girls travel team and we've been trying to run the motion for several weeks now. We have some very simple, quick hitter entries that work well against teams that play a spread defense, but have had trouble against teams that play a pack it in, man to man defense. I have two issues that I hope you can provide some advice on.

1. The better teams play a very packed in man to man defense, where the defensive players are in the paint or just outside of it. This really jams things up for us. How well should the motion work against this type of defense?

2. Teaching the motion--the girls were having a hard time learning to read and react, to see and pass to the cutter, etc. The motion offense was, in a sense, abstract for them as compared to concrete fixed plays. So I developed a few very simple quick hitter entries to give them something concrete. If the quick hitter doesn't work they are supposed to revert to the motion. Now that teams are packing it in against us and the quick hitters aren't working, the girls just stand around as opposed to reverting to the motion and then come back to the bench and say, "They know our plays." The basic problem is that the girls won't pass and cut on their own. I'm convinced that if we could just do 5 pass and cuts in a row, things would open up, but it's just not happening.

thanks