The Question That Changed How I Teach Basketball

After 30 seasons of coaching youth basketball, high school boys basketball, and high school girls basketball, I’ve found myself coming back to one question over and over again.

What am I really trying to teach?

Am I teaching an offense?

Am I teaching actions?

Am I teaching plays?

Or am I trying to teach players how to recognize and create advantages?

I think that’s the question that has changed how I teach basketball.

Early in my coaching career, I was probably like a lot of coaches.

I wanted players to know where to stand.

I wanted them to execute actions.

I wanted them to remember what came next.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself caring less about whether players can run a pattern perfectly and caring much more about whether they understand why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Can they see an advantage?

Can they create an advantage?

Can they capitalize on an advantage?

Because basketball is ultimately a game of solving problems.

Spacing creates problems.

Movement creates problems.

Paint touches create problems.

Pressure defense creates problems.

The teams that consistently create and recognize those problems tend to put themselves in a position to have success.

Over the years, I’ve found myself organizing these concepts into a framework that has helped me teach players ranging from beginners to varsity athletes while also giving me a simple language to communicate modern basketball concepts with coaches.

I call it the 7 Pillars for Modern Drive & Kick Basketball.

It isn’t an offense.

It isn’t a continuity.

It isn’t intended to replace what coaches already do well.

Instead, I think of it as an operating system for teaching modern basketball.

The framework complements many of today’s advantage-based offensive systems, including:

• Dribble Drive Motion

• Drive & Space

• 5-Out Concepts

• 2-Sided Break

• Read and React Offense

Because, regardless of what we call our offense, players still need to understand:

• How spacing creates gaps.

• How cuts and movement create larger gaps.

• How paint touches force defensive decisions.

• How decisions lead to efficient shots.

• How to finish.

• How to shoot.

• How pressure defense can create additional possessions.

For me, the seven pillars aren’t seven separate topics.

They’re connected.

Players don’t experience basketball in isolated drills.

Players experience possessions.

A possession might start with proper spacing.

Spacing creates a gap.

Movement creates a bigger gap.

A gap leads to a paint touch.

A paint touch forces help.

Help requires a decision.

A decision creates a layup, an open three, or an opportunity to get to the free-throw line.

Pressure defense gives us another possession to do it all over again.

I don’t claim to have all the answers.

I’m still learning.

I’m still stealing ideas from smart coaches.

I’m still trying to simplify the game for my own players.

But this framework has helped me organize what I believe matters most in today’s game, and I hope it might help other coaches as well.

On Wednesday, June 24 at 9:00 PM Eastern, I’ll be hosting a FREE online clinic where I’ll walk coaches through the framework, terminology, teaching progressions, and practical applications behind the 7 Pillars for Modern Drive & Kick Basketball.

🏀 Teaching spacing and creating gaps

🏀 Using cuts and movement to generate advantages

🏀 Developing a paint-touch mentality

🏀 Building better decision makers

🏀 Teaching finishing and shooting within your offensive framework

🏀 Using pressure defense to create more possessions

🏀 How all seven pillars fit together to form a complete teaching system

This clinic is designed for Youth, Travel/AAU, and High School Coaches looking for practical ideas they can implement immediately with their teams.

If you’d like to spend an hour talking basketball with coaches from around the world, I’d love to have you join us.

Click here to get your invite

Even if you can’t attend live, register anyway. Everyone who registers will receive access to the replay.

Hope to see you there.

Coach Marc Hart

System Basketball