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Flex Offense coaching guide

The Flex: explained in simple, teachable terms

ALSO AVAILABLE: Watch a Complete online animated video tutorial on the flex. The entire basic flex is broken down into parts and explained.

	1 starts towards the baseline after passing to 4. 1 down screens for 5 immediately after 5 sets the screen for 2. This is called screen the screener action because 1 screens for 5 immediately after 5’s screen for 2. This screen the screener sequence is the defining sequence of any flex offense. 1 pops to the corner after screening for 5 in order to balance the floor.
	Screening the screener can be very effective. If 5 and 2 execute properly on their screen, X5 might be forced to help cover 2 momentarily in order to prevent a layup, as shown. Sometimes this is all the space 5 needs to get an open look coming off of the down screen.
	The Second rule of the Flex Offense: On any Guard to Wing Pass, the passer screens away to baseline, as shown. Once a team has Rules 1 and 2 down, they are running the basic action of the flex offense. Again the rules are: 1. On any Guard to Guard Pass, the weak side Wing runs a flex cut, followed by a down screen from the Guard who passed the ball. 2, On any Guard to Wing Pass, the passer screens away to the baseline. These are only the basics movements. Far too many teams stop here and call it a day. Many teams will even stop one step earlier and spend the entire possession completing only the Guard to Guard pass, looking to score off the flex cut and/or down screen over and over and over again. These teams aren’t really running a sound offense as much as they are looking for the cheap bucket. Many of these teams don’t realize how close they are to a complete, fundamentally sound offense. What’s worse is…by presenting the defense with so few challenges, the flex often becomes steadily less effective over the course of game. By executing just a few fundamental offensive concepts, these teams can place significantly greater stress on the defense, resulting in much more diverse scoring opportunities within the same basic scheme.
	This rule is a basic principle of almost all continuity offenses such as flex, motion, and the like. We DO NOT pass the ball to stationary players on the perimeter. So..what it really boils down to is: if you’re not moving, you’re making a mistake. If a player finds himself standing on the perimeter , he screens away to the baseline.
	This illustrates the same principle from a different position on the floor. One of the most common and frustrating fundamental errors players make on offense is to go to a spot and call or wave for the ball. Sometimes, this player is frustrated himself, because he didn’t receive the pass when he was open. Even if a teammate did miss an open pass, it is critical for the waving player to realize that this reaction causes a much bigger immediate problem for the team In any motion-type of offense like the flex, and particularly against pressure defenses, any player that finds himself standing and calling for the ball probably hasn’t been open for long time. Even if he feels like he’s open, he runs a huge risk of a turnover. Any active defender near the passing lane has a great shot at a steal against a standing offense; the difference in inertia between the two players gives the defender a huge advantage. If a player is standing on the perimeter, he should ’set the table’ by screening away for a teammate to fill the open spot. This simple motion principle is critical because it ‘keeps the wheels greased’ on offense. Teams that struggle with this find things grinding to a halt far too often in games.
	Good flex teams pass into the post early and often. Since players interchange floor positions in the flex, everybody on the team will spend some time in the post. We’ll look to feed any post player with a favorable matchup. The flex can be great at providing post-up opportunities to big guards with a defensive mismatch. Players should learn to recognize mismatches and capitalize on them from within the offense. Guards should yell ‘Mouse” if they establish post position on a smaller guard. On a pass to the post, the wing player reads his man’s reaction to the pass, and cuts out of his man’s field of vision. In this diagram, 3 cuts along the baseline and clear to the weak side if he doesn’t receive the pass. This clears the side for 2 to make a scoring move from the post.
	If 2 is not a ‘back to the basket’ type of player, he can jump to the ball on the pass from 3 and catch the ball off the block. When 3 clears, 2 will often find himself 7 feet from the basket with a 1 on 1 opportunity and half of the floor to work with.
	Here, 3 screens away for 5 after the post pass. 5 should look for the shot off of 3’s screen, and 3 can step back to the ball after the screen.
	The direction 3 cuts after feeding the post is based on reading and reacting to the defense.95% of perimeter defenders will turn and ‘dig’ towards the post after a post-feed; for most players this is a natural response, like responding “What?” when they hear their name spoken out lout. 3 watches his man react to the pass and cuts outside the defender’s field of vision.3 cuts to a spot directly in front of the defender on the pass to the post in the depiction on the right (The player’s are Zeros). The defender can easily recover and close out on a pass back out. In the depiction on the right (the players are Triangles) 3 cuts away from the defender’s field of vision. This time the defender’s job is much more difficult since he must locate his man before he can close out.
	3’s defender makes an inside turn to dig into the post so 3 responds with a baseline cut.
	**Part 3 in this series is an animated/video narration of the Flex offense. Watch the video for additional teaching points and for a clear reinforcement of the diagrams and explanations above. The video is free to view and download!
	ALSO AVAILABLE: Watch a Complete online animated video tutorial on the flex. The entire basic flex is broken down into parts and explained.
Flex Offense

Ask the Coach Q & A pt. IV

This question comes from Derek Fulwiler, a friend, former player, coaching peer, and Head Varsity Girls Coach at Ballard High School in Seattle, Washington.

Q: Any Tips on Offensive Rebounding?

A: This is a broad topic, with a broad variety of possible answers. I tried to touch on different perspectives for a well-rounded response. Am I missing anything? Leave a comment at the end of this page if you would like to contribute to the answer. I tried to approach an open-ended topic like this from as many angles - Individual skill work - Individual Drills - Competitive Drills - Team (5 on 5) approaches - mindset - as possible.

Team Drills

1. 3 players in the Paint – A lot of team’s call this drill N.B.A. (No Babies Allowed). Jamell Dillon, one of my former players, called it the Animal ThugDrill – so that’s what I’ll always call it because, well, it’s the most appropriate name for a drill that I’ve ever heard. – and definitely the most memorable.

• players for three teams, spread as evenly as possible by height.
• Each team forms a line facing the basket on the free throw line – one team forms a line at either elbow, and the other forms a line in between.
• The first player in each tea’s line steps into the paint. The coach and all 3 players go for the rebound. When a player rebounds she goes straight back up while the other 2 players defend. Again, we are working on exploding to the ball, catching high, and keeping it high and jumping quickly on second efforts.
• If the ball hits the floor or is caught outside of the key, it must be passed back out to the coach for a shot before anybody can score. Forcing players to play only inside the key forces players to rebound and finish against pressure (and while being fouled). Learning to accept contact and make the play regardless (and learning that you WILL get fouled inside) is a critical skill for post players to develop.
• Forcing players to pass out to the coach when the ball hits the ground helps eliminate a common habit – and one of my biggest pet peeves– that young players have of dribbling – or sometimes POUNDING – the ball on the floor after getting an offensive rebound – which does nothing but buy the defense time to take away the open shot that would have been there if the dribble had not been used.

When a player scores, her team gets one point, she leaves the key and goes to the end of her team’s line, and the next player in line steps in.

Players MUST score a basket to get out of the paint – and YES, the small guards will tell you that you’re being unfair or that you’re asking them to do the impossible – maybe you are, but when that player gets sick of being pushed around and imposes her will on the next play to get the rebound – she will have learned an enormous lesson about toughness.

2. 5 on 5. When we’re struggling with offensive rebounding, I like to start our controlled scrimmages from a rebounding situation.

• I simply have the offense set up in the halfcourt offense and assign a defender to each player.
• I stand with the ball somewhere around the free throw line.
• Action starts when I shoot the ball and both teams go for the rebound. If the offense gets an offensive rebound, they go for the put back or, if necessary, pass out and run the offense.
• If the defense gets the rebound, they enter their fast break going the other way while the team that started on offense focuses on transition defense.
• These are controlled, stop-and-go scrimmages, so I’m stopping the action often (usually after a team scores, but sometimes sooner and sometimes later). If I’m paying specific attention to offensive rebounding, I’m probably going to stop the action more often so that we can reset.
• Offensive rebounding can be difficult to teach at times because players are expected to get them (offensive boards) at times when there is usually a lot happening at once, and they might be focused on other things like setting or coming off of a screen.
• As simple as it sounds, starting a scrimmage possession at the place in the action where players need to shift focus to crashing the glass (instead of running the offense) helps players better understand how to make the shift in games.

The trait that most great offensive rebounding teams share in common is that they tend to be aggressive and mentally tough. As such, Coaches that value offensive rebounding tend to look for ways to structure their practices in a way that develops those qualities (examples: placing an emphasis on conditioning, creating competitive situations as often as possible, running drills like Animal Thug, etc.).

I also try to keep in mind how easy it can be to forget the role awareness plays in aggressiveness. As coaches, it is important to remember that it is our job to develop that awareness.

It’s very easy to get into negative thinking patterns along the lines of, “…offensive rebounding is all about desire…they just don’t want it bad enough”.

There may be a lot of truth to that statement, but coaches should be very careful about letting this type of thinking interfere with good teaching, i.e., “You just don’t want it bad enough, and I can’t make you care”.

Sometimes I will make statements like this to my teams; but I always stop to make sure that I’m teaching and not griping.

If I’m teaching my focus is helping the team grow and improve.

Griping tends to be selfish and derisive.

Players can tell the difference. And I don’t want them to start thinking that I don’t care enough to continue to teach them the game

Ask the Coach - Q and A part III

This is a response to 3 great questions asked by Coach Jim on 7/11/2008:

1.  What drills can I do in practice to encourage players to move without the ball when we don’t call a set play?, and

2.  what can I do to help my point guard get the ball to the wings to get our offense started when the wings are well covered?

1. Drilling Ball movement:

One great way to get better ball movement is to run scrimmages where dribbling is not allowed.   This is one of my favorite scrimmage/drills to run with any continuity offense.  We simply allow each team three possessions…instead of counting baskets; we award one point for each pass that we complete.  The basic rules are:  Each completed pass counts for 1 point.  Possession is lost whenever the ball hits the ground.   Possession is lost if the ball is caught outside of a designated spot in the offense.  For example, if a player has to come out 35 feet from the basket against pressure to catch the ball, possession is lost even if the ball does not hit the ground.  By taking away the dribble, the offense is forced to use screens and cuts to get open.  This is a great tool for facilitating movement away from the ball.  I discuss the topic some more later in this page.

2.  Helping the point guard get the ball to the wings against pressure:

There are several answers to this question, each of which can be divided into one of two categories:  Team tactics or Individual Fundamentals.   I’ll briefly cover one of several  team tactics to help get the ball to the wing. and address one ‘fundamentals’ area for the point guard to focus on (with a link to some other ideas)

1. (Team tactic) If you’re really having a tough time passing the ball to the wing, you can run a shallow cut.  A shallow cut is a very simple play:  The point guard dribbles the ball to the wing.  The wing replaces the point guard at the top of the key with a ‘shallow cut’ by cutting below the ballside elbow and popping out.

2.   (Fundamentals) The point guard can significantly decrease the odds of committing a turnover by consistently picking a side to start the offense.  Stated another way, the point guard should never make the entry pass from the middle of the floor.  By taking a dribble or two in the direction of the wing she intends to pass to, the point guard creates a much better passing angle for the entry pass.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Side note: I rarely see what I’m about to say written in coaching books, but I think it’s an important teaching point for your team if you are struggling with turnovers on the entry pass.  As coaches we tend to blame the point guard (or more generally, the passer) when a steal occurs on the entry pass, but we rarely consider what the player receiving the pass could have done differently.   To me, a critical component to beating great pressure defense is toughness. How does toughness relate to this situation?  Just because the defender gets into the passing lane, that doesn’t mean that the receiver has to accept the outcome.    If you’re defender steps into the passing lane for the steal, GO THROUGH THE DENIAL if you have to and GET THE BALL.   I’m not saying to cause a collision…just react aggressively, close the gap and go get the ball.   Don’t get me wrong…in a situation like this, this passer still shares most of the blame…the point I’m trying to make is that the bad pass is not the only teaching opportunity at hand.

The original question is really part of a broader question of how to handle tough defensive pressure.  As such, I’ve added a  post I made on handling half court pressure in a great yahoo group for basketball coaches a couple of years ago.  The post is sort of a ‘brain  dump’ on the topic: it covers several components on dealing with halfcourt pressure that you might find useful:

The REAL answer to handling pressure consistently, I think, is to work hard in practice to develop good habits for beating pressure in practice.  Work every day on ballhandling, if only for 5 intense minutes.  Especially for the PG - also, I don’t let them reverse dribble when bringing the ball up 5 on 5 because they turn their back on their teammates who are getting open, and they often make themselves easy pickings for run and jump schemes.  They have to be able to run the offense without their back turned.

Work hard on V-cuts.  Make sure a player that is trying to get open closes the gap and pushes off HARD from his man…change of speed and direction are important…walk to the defender, then EXPLODE back to the open spot.  If they still can’t get open on v cuts, have them plant their inside foot between the defender’s legs, reverse-pivot to put the defender on their back, then explode back to the open spot…just like a v-cut with a reverse pivot added.  When they pop out have them show their outside hand and make the passers throw it to that hand EVERY time.

Focus on facing up when they catch passes.  Give out ten pushups or call a turnover every time a receiver: A.  Catches and puts the ball above his head, B.  Catches and dribbles with no purpose, or C:  Turns away and hunches over the ball.  Also, have your defense BELLY UP every time a player puts the ball over their head…make them pay…when they put it up like that, they can’t dribble, so why play them like they can?  If they bring the ball down then the defender can give a cushion.

Work on aggressive pivots when a player catches on the perimeter followed by a jab-step. It has to be aggressive and quick.  They should pivot hard on their inside foot after the catch.  If they get too crowded on a front pivot, work with them on using a reverse pivot off their outside foot instead.  It takes them a step further from the hoop, but it provides a little breathing room.

Work on every kid developing a simple jab step series.  If the defender backs off on the jab step, shoot.  If they still crowd you, go by them.  If you do, any scoring move from the perimeter should be done in one dribble (2 in some cases, but never 3).  Work on driving hard off the defender’s shoulder, because if you leave a gap, the defender has more space to recover.  All of this can be done playing one on one from the wing with the coach as a passer.  The coach passes to a player after the V-cut on the wing and the player has 2 dribbles to score.  If he has a bad look or uses the dribble he can pass back to the coach and get open again.  It ends on a made shot, a rebound, or a steal.

In scrimmages I also focus on QUICK, aggressive cutting. I try to work every day on “change of speed, change of direction“.  A good way to develop quick cutting is through scrimmaging with no dribbling allowed.  Since the O turns the ball over if it hits the ground  (with the exception of bounce passes), the D should be more aggressive.  The offense has to Work and execute better since they cant be bailed out with the dribble.  Its also valuable to call a turnover whenever you find your guards running the offense from too far out on the floor.  The wing player should be 19 feet from the basket on the catch, not 25 feet.

The team tactics are valuable in beating pressure, but they should never replace this type of fundamental development.  If the correct fundamentals aren’t developed, nothing will bail a team out in the end anyway.  There are  no easy bail-outs in my experience.

Be Believable. Pump Fakes Simplified

Simplifying the Pump Fake

Here is  a simple teaching point that is very often missed  that can simplify the pump fake and increase its effectiveness.  It makes sense to start with discussing what players often do wrong when they use pump fakes so that the solution makes more sense. Usually when player’s execute a pump fake, they do exactly that, they pump the ball - with far too much force -  starting around the stomach area and stopping near the chin.  For less proficient players, I sometimes think that if they actually ended up shooting the ball it might stand a better chance of hitting a ceiling lamp than going through the basket.  They are using too much force and not making the shot believable (I should clarify that I am talking about perimeter pump fakes intended to bring the defender up out of his or her boxer’s stances, losing balance so that the ballhandler can drive past to make a scoring move.  I am not speaking about pump fakes in the basket area).

Here’s a simple solution…bring the ball up near the shooting shoulder (right shoulder for right handed shooters, left shoulder for left handed shooters) stop, and cock back both wrists.  That’s it. Cocking back the wrists shows the defender the ball and invites a response.  In order to execute the move effectively, most players have to slow down their fake slightly, making it more believable. It probably goes without saying, but the more believable any fake is, the higher the likelihood that it be effective at getting the defender off balance and setting up scoring move that follows.

What are you trying to accomplish on defense?

What Are You trying to accomplish on Defense?

Sounds like a simple enough question, right?  As simple as it seems, I think that the way you choose to answer that question can affect the entire direction and philosophy of your team or program. I can think of three answers to the question off the top of my head.  All three answers mean very different things.  If I really mean what I’m saying, then I expect that the ‘products’ that I put onto the floor would look very different, depending on my answer.

The first, most obvious, and probably most common answer is undoubtedly my least favorite. of the three.  That answer is: “to keep the other team from scoring“.  I don’t like the answer for two reasons:

1. If that’s really what you’re trying to accomplish, you and your team will be a defensive failure every single time you step onto the floor. It’s an unattainable goal.  While it’s nice to have high standards, it is also equally important to set goals that you can reach.  In the best situations, you can reach those goals incrementally, building team confidence and the sense of accomplishment that comes with moving forward.
2. At one point in time, this was my answer.  I know now that the only reason behind it was  that I hadn’t committed to a philosophy.  As a result, I really wasn’t teaching the game very well. While I love to soak in all that I can about basketball, I’ve learned that a detached approach that isn’t driven by a belief in what I’m teaching leads to detached, unfocused teams.  Teams tend to mirror the personality of their coach over time. So, whatever I’m teaching, I teach it passionately!  I don’t want my teams playing the game that I love like Ben Stein…Dry Eyes, Clear Eyes…

A more focused answer, and one that has more teeth is, “to limit high percentage shots“.  This is an answer that can drive a defensive mindset and philosophy.  This approach would likely focus heavily on transition defense (limiting layups off of the break), preventing passes into the basket area, and preventing penetration.  The most prominent example that comes to mind is the Pack Line Defense, a fantastic defense made into a household name - in coach’s houses, at least - by Dick Bennett at Wisconsin.

The third answer, and my personal favorite, is “to get the ball back“.  I like this answer because it is aggressive by nature.  If I want to get the ball back, I’m going  to pressure the other team all night long.  I’m going to make the opposing point guard afraid to bring the ball up the floor because he knows that I’ll be right there, turning him, disrupting his vision and forcing him to focus on protecting the ball every single trip up the floor.  I’m going to get into the passing lanes.  And I’m going to create the tempo that we love, and that makes you uncomfortable.

There are several more possibilities.  What’s your philosophy?  What are you trying to accomplish on defense?

Are you preparing your team for any situation, Or just preparing to Lose?

This is the second in a series of coaching articles planned for this summer that analyzes, and questions,  some common coaching practices.  The first article took a look at the nature of player-coach relationships the coach’s role in that relationship.  This article takes a look at a common coaching principle, one that most of us hear, and say, time and time again; a coach’s primary responsibility is to prepare his team for every situation that it will face in a game. In principle, this seems obvious: a coach’s job is to have his or her team fully prepared once game-day rolls around.   But coaches apply this principle in a variety of different ways.  Some are not very constructive, in my opinion.

As much as I enjoy the strategy involved with bench coaching, I remind myself from time to time that this is basketball. It is not chess. The primary difference between the two?  Wooden chess pieces always do exactly what I tell them to do.  People don’t.  To borrow from John Wooden, “Over Coaching is a bigger problem than under-coaching in the today’s game”.  Tactics aren’t the only factor in team success.  In fact, as far as its importance in determining wins and losses go, I’d rank tactical adjustments - the chess match of basketball  - a distant third behind talent behind talent and aggressive execution.

This is where the problem arises for some coaches:  The more tactical adjustments you try to make, the less likely it is that you will execute aggressively.  A critical part of coaching  basketball successfully is finding the appropriate balance for your team.

As a basketball coach, I want my players to develop a certain degree of mastery at whatever it is that I am teaching.  I think that this is critical to team success and to individual growth. I also have to understand that in order  to bridge the gap between the type of play I want to see and the results I am actually getting, to develop mastery,  what I need more than anything else is game-speed repetitions.

I’ll give a couple of examples of the problem.

1.   A  JV coach is looking for ways he could have beaten a specific opponent the previous season.  The opponent had a star guard who was impossible to stop.  The coach tried everything against this kid with no luck, from a man to man, straight zone, box & 1, and triangle & 2.

• This approach is all ‘tactics’, and no ‘execution’.  In this situation, the answer is the problem. If I’m resorting to a box and 1 and a triangle and 2, the real problem is probably defensive fundamentals, not defensive strategy.   The answer is to address those fundamental problems as thoroughly as possible, and to find ways from within the basic defensive philosophy to adjust to the other team’s star. If you don’t run your man to man defense well, how can you expect to run a box and 1 and a triangle and 2 and a zone and a man to man well?  You can’t.

2.   Several years ago, I coached a very good rec league team over the summer, that ran a simple but tricky inbounds play that involves a backpick on the ballside block.  It’s a play that, when executed well, usually grabs the attention people in the gym.  We were very successful with it in one particular game, scoring 10 point off of the two scoring options.  After that game, one of the coaches in the following game tried to run the play a couple of times, but gave up after turning the ball over each time.

• This coach had his own package of plays that his teams had worked on in practice.  Each would have given his team a better outcome, even if they did not exploit the defense in the same way.

In some situations the need to be prepared for every game situation clashes with the need to develop mastery through game-speed repetition.  The conflict between the two is evident at every level, but is more apparent at the youth - high school levels.   As a coach, its not as simple (or should I say complicated?) as preparing your team for every situation.  Maybe a better way to approach the issue is to prepare as much as you can for what you are likely to face,  within the simplest possible framework possible.

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