Where to Start for Coaches New to a Constraints-Led Approach

Living in the age of information, paralysis by analysis is easier to experience than ever. Implementing a Constraints-Led Approach with a basketball team is no different. Sifting through the research, books (such as the book, Transforming Basketball), podcasts, etc., you are inundated with potential routes to using a CLA and it can be difficult to decide where to start.

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Principles of Play

The starting point we would suggest is centered around principles of play. The reason being that principles of play are not only paramount in the sport of basketball, but they underpin the behavior that emerges on offense, defense and transition play across all team sports. Be it the tactical prowess of your ATOs or technical proficiency of your guards handling the ball, they all are centered around principles of play.

The key terms that we discuss at transforming basketball that can be found in our Principles of Play Glossary PDF are as follows:

How To Do This Practically

By designing your own principle of play, it makes it much easier to design practice activities. We find that coaches generally fall into the trap of copying drills when they are not guided by a north star: aka clear principles of play.

A general outline for any coach is to put your principles of play on a one pager. Then you can easily design practice activities to bring these to life, centered around CLA principles. For instance, if working with a U12 team, you may design an activity with an advantage to create dominoes situations for your players. The sub principles of play for your team to maintain this advantage would be zero second decisions, 1 can’t guard 2 and floor is lava while the defense attempts to get back to neutral (a state of no advantage).

You would now have to consider the constraints that would put players in a situation to apply these principles. Naturally, this means creating a small-sided game with an advantage, such as a hi-5 start (player hi-5s the coach standing behind the ball handler, with other players spaced around the perimeter). You may then use a short shot clock to encourage the behaviour of making quick decisions to convert the advantage.

By considering the principles of play in every part of the game, it makes it much easier for you to be creative in planning your own practice activities.

To learn more about how to apply evidence-based ideas in your practices, join our Transforming Basketball Community.