Texas/SSW School of Tactics

If you are a coach and looking for a quick way to gain knowlege, look no further.

Lesson 101 

Here are some tips I recommend to anyone who is trying to improve in this game. I am no specialist of any kind, But at the same time, you can apply real life and thinking outside the box into this game. I am still learning but my tips are

Learn your roster- Figure out your strength and your weakness for each position and every individual players. After a few games, you will start to see some pattern. The biggest pattern most people look for is shooting but I encourage you to look at other things. Remember if you feel your team is not as strong as other teams you play, take a look at your roster. You may have a tougher challenge than others. Some teams have more Seniors and Juniors than others which means they are likely to be successful from having more experience players and some have a younger team which means you are likely to dominate in the future, train your young guns into a force for 2 or 3 seasons down the road.

Learn the Plays - I not only watch my game but I watch other team play as well. I look at different offense going against different defense and look for where the ball is moving around to, who are getting the most touches, where do the ball likely end up at. I also scout my opponent. I dont watch the whole game but I do make note of what my upcoming opponent like to do with their defense and certain offense they favor when playing a certain defense. Which defensive looks give them the most trouble. You can also go back and review the box score of a team to see their tendencies.

Performance - I am constantly looking on ways to improve so after looking at my stats, I start to tweak adjustments. Never satisfied with one thing working as just because it was effective on one team, doesn't mean it will always be effective. So my rotation is something I tweak often and I look at what we done during practice as well and create different training programs that can give me the little balance I need but also the key strengths that I want.

Think outside the Box - Just because it says he is a center does not mean he have to play that position. Just because he is a point guard doesn't mean he cant play or switch positions as often as he likes. If you have a great six man and only have him as a back up because you have a better shooting guard, why not make some changes where you can have both on the floor at the same time. It's been clear that shooting and range alone is not going to win you championships. This game is not that simple,... as many of you can tell already. Try to think outside the box

Also remember, no one in this game can tell you they have this game down to a science. The ones are winning are running on a little bit of luck or just raw talent from having a more experience group or just stumble into a team they fit their simple playing style. If everyone could learn the best strategy over night, than this game would lose it's value. Ask questions and remember we are all learning. The admin does a great job of reading all the suggestions so even if you dont see a reply, trust me, he does read them and keep them for record. A ton of suggestion request were added 10 minutes after someone request or sometimes 2 days after the request. It may not get added at all but he has them.

Offensive and Defensive Rules

This is how it's suppose to work but right now, rules are not working for every team

Start min and end min are basically time frames in the game.

The game starts at 0 minutes and ends at 32 for high schools, 40 for college, 48 for pros, plus any overtime.

The point differentials are how much you are down or up. Down 20 would be -20 up 20 would be 20. So your basically entering for different parts of the game to determine what kind of strategy would be used.

Productivity

A tip to remember win or lose, look at consistent productivity rate after the games. Look at minutes and what they have produce in that time, I would recommend using the per excel spreadsheet for evaluation. Keep on tweaking your stamina ration until you feel you got a good amount of time for each player to be on the court and than you can update this as you go along

Rebound Struggle

If your team is having trouble with rebounding the basketball. Make sure you check your tactics. Your Rebound strategy is pretty important. You can send 5 guys to the rim on offense but if they get the rebound, they have a better chance to run a transition offense where more fast break opportunity or your players not being able to get in position to stop the play.

On defense rebound, you can get everyone involved but less opportunity to get easy buckets in a transition offense where you catch their defense out of position

Also be aware of what kind of defense you select. Playing a 3-2 defense will give you a great defense set up match for defending high post areas or the perimeter but makes it harder to position guys for rebounding. A 2-3 zone gives you a great ability to defend the wing and mid areas of the court but also gives you an average chance of getting rebounds. Man to Man takes more energy to pull off but gives you the best chance to get in rebound position. Man to Man defense is a good defense for all around support

How Does the Sub Ratio Works

Example

PG1 Sub In: 90 Sub Out: 60

PG2 Sub In: 90 Sub Out: 77

Sub In is what level of energy do you want them to return back unto the court once they are on the bench. I like to think of those numbers as % so it doesn't confuse me.

Sub Out is when do you want him to take a break. Like in the first example you have PG sub out at 60 so he will play until his energy level is down to 60% and than once he sits on the bench and reach back up to 90%, he will come back in the game (once a break in the game takes place of course). During the time your starter is taking a break, your 2nd PG will play until his energy is at 77 and than he will take a break and if your starter(PG1) have not hit 90 yet, than your 3rd string (PG3) will come in and play until your PG2 or PG1 recover back to 90, which ever comes first

If you set your 3rd string player to sub out early and only sub in at full energy, than he will play less minutes and your starter or 2nd string player which ever recovered the most will be force to come in. I been playing with the energy settings alot

From what I been seeing, once your starter reach his sub in ratio, he will be automatically called back in. It's difficult to tell but from watching how the sub pattern works it seems like your starter setting will always override your back up setting which also makes sense that it would work that way.

Shooter 101

How do I make my guy a better shooter

This is not an easy question to answer but I know everyone wants to learn this as quick as possible because the majority here, especially if you own a PG, SG, or SF.., than your favorite stat is Points.

The secrete to this is patience just like anything else you really want to be good at but you are starting from scratch. Also keep in mind that there are more than just 2 or 3 attributes that effect one thing. Take shooting for example: The obvious is Shooting, Range and some may say offense of Awareness and clutch. Think outside the Box for a minute, What are other attributes that help shoot the ball. Height plays a role for sure, Well Strength is one and Vertical is another. Now you have to start thinking about what are some things that will effect my shooting percentage. Well we all know the more open you are, the better chances of your shots going in. How do you get Separation from a defender? You use speed(Quickness). If you ever tried to shoot while you are tired, you will learn that your shooting percentage goes down. Stamina! Yes tired legs dont shoot well.

Oh we are just scratching the surface with this, stay with me. Now lets start talking about distance. So Position will come into Play. Players who are naturally position near the basket typically will have better shooting percentage. One thing I could not get the Admin to speak about is does passing, hands and dribble effect shooting. Like the better the pass, the better the catch and shoot, or the better the dribble, the better you are at shooting off the dribble.

This topic can go on forever. I mean than you throw in your opponent into the mix of this equation. Well lets just say you got yourself a ball game because that is something you cant control. Team strategy comes into play. What plays are they running verse your plays, what are their defense awareness verse your offense awareness. What are their stamina, speed, strength, vertical, blocking ability, tempo, aggressiveness, home court advantage, momentum and ect....

The secrete to this is patience

Roster Depth Chart

From here you will select your starters, your 2nd String and your Third String.

My recommendation is to play your roster according to your Philosophy. Your Philosophy would be your core principals in coordination with your playing style. when figuring out your core principals,... Ask your self are you offensive minded or Defensive minded or Maybe you found a balance in between the two because maybe you either so you believe in out working your opponent. You must know your players capabilities, I cant stress that enough. Your playing style would be your offense and defense setting, the plays you run, do you have a High risk, high reward style or are you more conservative. You can coordinate this with your roster set up knowing what your players limitation. Do not put your players in bad positions if you know he is not the kind of player that fits well with your style of play.

You can game plan your roster if you did your homework and scouted the other team as well. This technique are mainly for the real advance game planners. There might not be that much of a difference between your players so you might stick with one roster setting and play those out. You also have the option to put together the most powerful starting line in the attempt to push for momentum early and rattle your opponent as often as possible or you can balance your roster so that you will always have key players in the game regardless of your substitution ratio to keep you from going on long droughts in the event your 2nd squad lack scoring ability or defense.

What is so great about the roster is that you are allowed to play players in different positions. So if you have a share the load mentality but loaded with stars in one specific position, you can change their position to get them more involved. Also if you know who are your best defenders, you can set them up to match up against your opponent best scorer to keep your opponent best player in check and force him to use his team mates.

Use practice training and games to get a good feel of what your players can do. Your roster set up is very important so dont throw guys in there just for the sake of throwing guys in there. Watch games and see who works with who. Having a PG who have bad passing ability and a Center who have bad hands in the same line up, meanwhile your offensive plays are designed to get it to the post, might not work out so well because you will notice high turnover numbers. If you decided to put all shooters in the game to include playing guys who cant rebound in the post well, than you may find yourself being out rebounded by a fair amount.

Learn your players, and this is something you keep an eye on because players will self improve through individual training regardless of your training regiment but they may leave a big gap for other skills in lack of as well. Learn your players, Make sure you stand for something otherwise you will fall for anything and than base your roster from that.