Scouting With Game Film

Q: I’m looking to learn more about how to use game film to prepare for games. Do you have any words of advice?

A. There are a couple ways to answer this question.  I’ll answer it from the perspective of using game films to prepare for an upcoming opponent – i.e. using game film to scout.  Here are some general principles for getting as much useful information as possible from a game film,  for how to communicate that information to your players, and for how to make the scouting experience as smooth as possible.

• If you have the resources, try to scout in pairs. This is one of those best practices that is, in most cases, impossible for most programs to accomplish. When possible, though, I like to scout a game ahead in pairs.  I will scout the game by hand, with a blank scouting report and a clipboard, and my partner will videotape the game.  Then I ‘ll take the video tape home and go through it again to complete the scouting report.   If I  can’t scout with a partner, then I’ll tape the game myself and fill in the scouting report at home while watching the film.
• Get to the game early…. Unless you enjoy wading through hundreds of teenagers with a big camera bag. Besides helping you avoid that uncomfortable experience, getting to the game early gives you time to get set up at a good vantage point.  My preference is to be as high up and as close to center court as possible.   It also gives me a chance to watch the opponent’s warmup routines and, most importantly, I’ll know the opponent’s starting lineup.
• Invest in a tripod.  Or, alternatively, invest in some Dramamine to help you get through the game film.
• Develop partnerships with other schools/coaches. If you can find other coaches in your league or area who are willing to trade game film, it accomplishes a few important things:  1. It gives you additional game film while minimizing the amount of resources that you have to use to prepare.   2. Some coaches will play differently if they know you are scouting them.  Having access to game film that was taped when nobody from your program was in  the gym often gives you a more complete picture of your opponent.
• Prepare a complete scouting report of the opponent. I try to get as much information as I can on an opponent.   This is where film proves most useful – I can stop and rewind as much as I need to in order to get all of the information I’m looking for.  Our blank scouting reports are 16 pages long and include the following:
  • The starting 5 and first substitute at every position
  • General tendencies of each of those players
  • Jump Ball Alignment
  • Primary Defense
  • Primary Offense
  • Out of bounds plays – baseline and sideline.
  • Time and Score strategies – end of quarter, half, game.
  • Secondary Defense.
  • Presses
  • Press Breakers
  • The 5 players who are in at the end of the game.

Most of this information is for my own growth and development as a coach.  I NEVER share all of this information with my players in preparation for  a game.  It broadens my knowledge of the game and informs some of the decisions I will make in the game. – i.e.  if I know that the opponent plays a switching man to man on baseline out of bounds situations, I will call  a play that we already have in our package that exploits this tendency.  I wont put that information on the whiteboard before the game.

• If your pre-game chalktalk is so detailed that the whiteboard looks like a NASA space shuttle blueprint, how much of that information do you think your players will retain??  They wont retain very much at all.  And if the somehow DO retain all of that information, odds are that their level of aggressiveness and execution will go down significantly.

• Focus your pre-game scouting report (what you present to your team) on individual preferences and general tendencies. I will spend most of my pregame time discussing individual matchups with out starters and primary subs.   i.e.  “Number 50 makes a move to his right every time he catches the ball in the post.   We don’t want him to catch the ball in the post, but, if he does, then we’re going to sit on his right shoulder and take away his primary move”   When I watch film on another team,  I also look for general team tendencies that can be exploited with simple adjustments.   A couple of simple examples:  1.  If a team enters the ball to the right wing to start their offense every time, we will deny the right wing hard and try to force the point guard to his left.   2.  If a team utilizes double screens on the baseline to get a shooter open in the corner, we will make sure that we trail all double screens to take away the baseline jumper.  If the opponent adjusts (less than likely in this specific situation) then the player defending the top screener in the double screen will step out and bump the shooter as he curls the screen

I hope these general principles help you film and scout opponents effectively.

photo credit: au_tiger01

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