Read & React Offense

I'm the head middle school girls' coach. I was wondering what your thoughts were on the Read & React offense? I've ran it for the past 2 years and have had success with it (when teams run man-to-man against us). We usually run 4-out and 5-out. My biggest problem is the time constraints that I have to effectively put the offense in and make some of their reads and reactions to be automatic. My "A" team can usually pick it up pretty well, but my "B" team struggles with it. Last year, I started putting some set plays in when we were in a 4-out set to help get things moving a bit. Just looking for some outside perspective.

I think that just like any offense, it can work extremely well. I think that every conceivable offense has won a state championship. So it's not so much what you run, but how you run it.

I think it's a good offense if you commit to it and there's a lot of people that like it. And I know there are some people that don't like it. This is true of any offense.

I personally do not use the R & R mostly because it doesn't fit my style of coaching and teaching... I like to teach players how to come off of screens and read their screens and cuts, instead of reading the ball. This is just what I used, seems like really fundamental basketball to me, and works for me.

I also have a free form motion offense that takes 20 minutes for me to teach and we're ready to start playing. This allows me to spend tons of time on fundamentals. Don't get me wrong, we spend huge amounts of time on offense but it's almost all fundamental based... shooting, driving, passing, spacing, reading away screens, getting better at cutting, using footwork to beat people, etc. It takes a very long time to do those things but the pay off is enormous. And even when we are bad at certain fundamentals to start with, just by having good spacing, ball movement, and player movement... our offense is pretty darn good.

So I think the biggest cons to the offense are that you have to spend a lot of time teaching kids to read the ball. And you are reading the ball instead of screens. Maybe there is a way to do both, I don't know.

With that said, there are many benefits to the offense. There is no doubt that it works! I think the biggest benefit to the R&R is that it's laid out step by step for any coach to implement. There is little guess work. You just follow the template and this is exactly what some coaches need.

I think it goes back to my original point... it's not what you run, it's how you run it. You have to believe in it, understand it, commit to it, and teach it effectively.

Thanks for the reply Jeff! Do you have a link to the free-form motion offense that you can teach in 20 minutes?

Coach,

It all started by reading Don Kelbick's motion offense ebook:
https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/motionoffense.html

So I'd recommend that you start with that. Once you get a chance to read through it and think about it, I can send you what I do. What I send won't make much sense until you read that or at least understand the rules and concepts behind a a true free form motion. It took me a couple years to realize the motion offense was much simpler that I was making it. Once I realized that i was able to teach it and get it started in about 20 min. Just shoot me an email and I can send you what I do. It's not documented anywhere online.

Jeff - I've read don's e book and feel like I have a good handle on it. If you have a chance I'd like to see your 20 minute free form offense ideas. I have 10-11 yr olds. Half fairly experienced and capable and half new. They work hard though. Thanks.

I just emailed you some info. If you don't receive it for some reason, let me know.

I've done quite a bit of reading on the read and react offense. Is there a quick bullet point list someone can provide that compares the R&R to the free-form motion that Jeff and Don promote?

Or, Jeff, is it possible to get some of your info emailed to me?

Thanks.

Same here with me. I'd love to see your information on your free-form offense. I've done quite a bit of reading on motion offenses over the past 2 years.

I'm no expert on the R & R but from what I gather, here are some of the differences....

- The R & R has a designed structure. They basically give you the rules of the offense. Our free form motion is what ever you want it to be. It gives you ideas for rules, but it's your motion based on the strengths, age, etc of your players. The rules of the motion are what make it unique and your offense. You get 100 people that buy the ebook and you'll get 100 different offenses that they run. None of them will look exactly the same.

- The R & R is primarily based on what the ball does (if the ball is dribbled at you, go backdoor... if the ball does this, hand off, if the ball goes inside, do this... ). I don't remember all the rules but for the most part you read the ball. You can start basic but if you want to advance all the way through, there is quite a bit to remember. That of course takes time to learn the movements/read based on what the ball does.

- Our motion offense can be structured, if you want it to be, but we don't necessarily suggest that. Generally players have more freedom and there are few hard and fast rules (do this if they ball is dribbled at you). It's based more on spacing, giving players freedom, defining roles, decision making, and skill development.

- When it comes to "reads", our motion has players reading screens and other players instead of reading what the ball does. That is a big difference. Although you could do that with our motion if you wanted it to. That's what motion is. It can be based on ball reads like the R&R, Princeton like cuts (like the Princeton offense), or the dribble drive (like the dribble drive motion). It's all based on "your rules" that you choose to add.

I know that with my teams motion, we teach players how to set and read ball screens and away/down screens. Sometimes we do flare screens too. Just depends on the team you have. I'm not sure if reading screens would fit into the R & R since it's based on reading the ball.

Both offenses are very good. If you need structure, something like the R&R might be better for you. I don't run the R&R because I like to teach players how to read screens, I don't want to spend that much time teaching the ball reads, and I prefer more flexibility. In addition, I have found that giving players freedom and minimizing rules has really helped our players take off and develop. I believe it's because they are not "thinking" out there and they are just playing. The less rules we have in our offense, the better. That's just what works for me.

But I watched the R&R DVDs and learned some good stuff from them! And I know other coaches that run it and do quite well with it.

It's not so much "what you do"... it's "how you do it". So pick an offense you believe in and get really good at it.

Hope this helps. If you have other questions, let us know.

Thanks Jeff! You are correct....the R&R is based off what the ball is doing. All player reactions are based off of what the ball is doing. Good distinction between the R&R and your free-form motion. The R&R does not incorporate a lot of screens in it. They do have some "Pin" Screens in a more advanced layer of the R&R, but my 8th graders only learn the first 4 layers. Again, I appreciate your time in the response.

Jeff, would it be possible to see some info on your free form motion?

Yep. I just sent you an email. I did not attach the rules I use because I'm going to redo them. I had made some changes mentally but never put those thoughts on paper.

I made the mistake of having a few too many rules this past season and then once I scaled back that helped a lot. And I remembered why I originally started with so few rules to begin with. Just let me know and I can try to write them up for you.

I guess this kind of resembles what I did with my 4th grade girls travel team this season.

We started in a 4out and the focus was on dribble drive action, with the drive side corner rotating up. Our only other main rule was if you pass, you cut. Plain and simple. We eventually changed this into a 5 out that began with down screens to help us make the initial pass to the wing and get our passing and cutting started. Our biggest focus areas were to keep spacing, pas and cut, maybe set some ball screens and to cut backdoor if your defender was above the 3 point line.

Eventually we put in a couple of set plays that were simple to execute. We had a horns set where we allowed our PG to choose a side and use the pick and roll. And we put in a call for our best post player where after she set the down screen, we passed to that wing and then the wing looked to throw the ball into the post. These both worked pretty well for us.

Jeff, do you include the Laker in your teachings when you go 4out? I read a lot about that has part of the read and react. From my readings, the read and react can be pretty flexible in what you install also. The base layer is pass and cut and everything builds off that.

I'm finding that I tend to take bits and pieces of various offensive systems and build them into my own system. Sort of a hybrid. I think my defense was built this way too and I might start a new thread discussing that to get some thoughts.

Jeff, do you include the Laker in your teachings when you go 4out? I read a lot about that has part of the read and react. From my readings, the read and react can be pretty flexible in what you install also. The base layer is pass and cut and everything builds off that.

What's "the Laker"? I'm not sure what you mean.

Sorry, that should say "Laker CUT".

Pass and cut on a post entry.

Ok. Got it. I used to get specific about what players do when the ball goes in the post and how to handle different situations like that. But I have moved away from that and simplified. The less to think about in a game and the less time spent memorizing what to do in practice, the better.

I found when I got too technical about those things and had too many rules, our decision making in games and time for skill development in practice went down hill.

So I do show them laker cuts, how to relocate, and maybe even screen away when the ball goes in the post. But I don't really care what they do as long as they move and maintain spacing. Some players might laker cut every time. Other guys might relocate. I might even put a bug in our best shooters ear to relocate more often that not. But as long as they have spacing and move, I don't really care what they do.

Not to say we won't practice laker cuts or handling those situations. But I try to allow players to make their own decisions. All they really need to remember is keep spacing and don't stand for more than 2 seconds (move).

I realize I probably hijacked this thread, so I apologize to the original poster.

With that said, Jeff it sounds like I might actually be incorporating your type of philosophy into my team. The first thing we always talk about is pass and cut. I feel like this forces movement. When we do shell drill, it's always pass and cut with the accompanying movements to fill spots. We did this so much that I do think it became natural instinct to them.

My big thing next season is going to be spacing with pass and cut as our primary principle. We'll go over situations like back-cutting when your defender plays you too high and back-cutting when you're dribbled at and Laker cutting (which to me is still just pass and cut). I'd also like to add in a ballscreen series where everything is screen for the ballhandler. Even if we get stopped a few times, I really think if we continued to ballscreen for an entire possession eventually either the drive or the roller is going to be open. Some girls might even get designated to pick and pop instead of roll. We've got a couple good shooters.

Basic stuff that will allow for a ton of time to build a very solid skill base for the girls.

I used the R&R with 8th graders last season. It is a great way to teach offense. Not only half court offense, but every almost aspect of offense, we used R&R principles for press break, half court trap and in our fast break.

This may sound obvious and simple, but if you teach a whole team to look for a give and go (layer 1 of R&R) every time they pass or catch the ball, no matter the situation, half court offense, press break, fast break etc, it's amazing how many opportunities that opens up for them.

I see the R&R as a basketball IQ accelerator. Players learn to move effectively and keep good spacing without the ball by reading the ball, in all aspects of the game when they learn the R&R.

You can work in ball screens, back screens, pin screens, introduce quick hitters and more. I think the R&R gets a bad rap from some because they just see the 5 out, pass and cut part of it and if not coached well, that can turn a team into pass and cut robots, but the R&R is much, much more adaptable than that.

If you treat it like another play, it doesn't work, you train players to react, if they're thinking about every move, it doesn't work well. There is also a big psychological element to it. If players are afraid to make mistakes or not used to hitting cutters on the move, they must overcome those things first or the R&R will not be successful.

R&R is a great way to teach players how to play offense. If that's what you want, it's great. If you're looking for a set play to put in along with other set plays, it's not for you.

Hi Jeff,

I recently purchased the motion offense. Can you also send me you're write-up that you emailed previous posts on? Thx.

Kel

Yep. I just sent it to you. If you're looking for something else, let me know.