Basketball Coaching Courses

More coaches now put a live defender into shooting practice. Alex Sarama's article on Jungle Shooting points out what can go wrong next: take away the option to pass, and players end up taking poor-quality shots.

A good course gives you that level of detail. It tells you why each constraint is there and how to manipulate it when your players find different solutions. When you compare courses, look for representative examples against live defense, and preview the teaching. Check the topics, instructor, access and refund terms on the course page before you buy.

Alex's first book, Transforming Basketball, gives a yardstick you can hold any course up to: the representative dial, inspired by the nonlinear pedagogy work of Jia Yi Chow and colleagues. At the least representative end are 1-on-0 and training props. At the most representative end is the game itself. Every activity in the book sits somewhere in between, from Mosquito Shooting to Three Lives 5-on-5, and the book's advice is that whatever the scenario, you avoid sliding back to the far left of the dial with highly repetitive on-air practice.

Two questions follow from that. How much of what the course shows has a defender, teammates and a decision in it? And does it explain why each constraint is there? The book says plainly that its own activities shouldn't be copied identically, because the theory behind each one matters more than the activity. A course that only hands you drills to copy leaves you stuck the first time your players solve the problem differently.

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Before choosing, write down one situation you want your players to handle better. For example: "our offense can't create an advantage when a ball screen is switched." If you can't name it yet, start with the free decision-making guide and practice design guide, then come back.

The Shooting System is for coaches who want a complete shooting-development framework rather than isolated drills. It takes the free A Better Shooting Practice video further: a full course on constraints-based shooting, differential learning and competitive challenges. It's built for coaches and trainers developing shooters in individual, small-group or team settings.

Differential learning (DL) is the part most coaches haven't met before. Transcending Basketball describes it as practicing with as much variability as possible: changing range, stance, release and arc on every shot. Many DL activities aren't meant to look like a game shot at all. In the book, Alex presents DL as a complement to the constraints-led approach, not a replacement for it.

The other half of the shooting work is representative: shooting against defenders, with the passing option the Jungle Shooting article says players need. Transforming Basketball includes the full game. Its target is the BRAD (back rim and down), a made jump shot that hits the back of the rim dead center before bouncing down.

Our shooting development guide covers shot selection and varied practice for free.

The Pick and Roll Offense is for coaches who want to develop better decision-makers in pick-and-roll situations. It suits coaches whose players are learning or already using ball screens, and developing and senior teams can scale the same spacing and partnership principles. The course is organized around coverages, because players only learn to read a coverage when the defense in practice can change it, guided or live.

George Vaz's article on prevent vs punish gives the framework those reads hang on. To prevent a coverage, the offense acts before the defense can set it up, such as screening the ball handler's defender so the handler can attack downhill. To punish it, the offense lets the defense set the coverage and then uses a coverage solution against it: a reject, a slip, a crack and roll, a relay pass, a curl, a split or a pull-up, depending on the coverage and the players.

How the defense plays in practice decides how much of that transfers. The Routledge book Alex co-wrote sets out three options:

If you want games rather than a full course, the Pick and Roll Small-Sided Games Collection ($49) is a collection of 40 small-sided games for teaching pick-and-roll reads to ball handlers, screeners and defenders. The free PNR Coverage Solutions PDF and our pick-and-roll guide are good places to start.

The Player Development Blueprint is for coaches who want a complete framework for developing more adaptable players. It's built for team coaches and individual trainers working on finishing, ball manipulation, shooting and decisions.

Individual development starts with a rate limiter, which the book defines as a factor that affects a player's ability to express a skill. It might be an action capability such as speed or strength, or a player not perceiving the affordances in front of them, the opportunities for action the defense is giving them. Alex explains how he identifies and targets them on EP101 of the podcast. For a shorter starting point, Contemporary Player Development ($39) is an in-depth clinic, recorded for the German Basketball Federation, on developing players and teams through small-sided games. The player development guide is free.

The plan format in Transforming Basketball is a good test of whether you need the full course. It sorts each player's game into anchors (greatest strengths), building blocks (things they do well that could get better) and growth areas (the pervasive rate limiters that need the most time). It then cycles through six phases: identify the rate limiter, build a case for its cause, design activities, observe the change, report back to the head coach and look for the next one. If your staff already works that way, the Blueprint adds activities. If it doesn't, the course is where that process gets built.

Youth Conceptual Offense is for coaches who want a complete framework for building a conceptual offense. It suits middle-school, high-school and senior teams building a shared offensive language. If you'd like a focused introduction first, Implementing a Conceptual Offense ($49) takes offensive principles, triggers and coverage solutions onto the court in a single clinic. The free Conceptual Offense Starter Kit and conceptual offense guide come before both.

Conceptual offense has its own vocabulary, and a course should teach it. The Routledge book organizes youth offense into three phases and a short set of dominoes rules for playing with an advantage:

Triggers come in sizes. Solos are one-player actions, duos include the get, the blast cut and the pick and roll, and three-player triggers such as Spain or stack pick and roll can sit in red, or in yellow once a team can find a coverage solution. The conceptual offense guide goes through them.

If you want to design practice around game decisions but aren't sure where to begin, start with Introduction to the Constraints-Led Approach ($49), an on-demand clinic taught by Alex. It covers why the CLA matters, functional versus fundamental skills, designing small-sided games and applying the approach with youth players. Our clinics each take one topic, while the four courses above are complete coaching systems for a broader subject. The basketball coaching clinics guide lists every clinic, and you can compare all our coaching resources side by side.

We also have five on-demand workshops:

Whichever you choose, treat it like a practice plan. Find an activity for the situation you wrote down, run it, and watch whether players perceive the affordance when the defense gives it to them. A player who sees it but can't act on it may need a different starting position or less defensive pressure, such as a more passive guided defender. Then go back to the material with what you saw.