Basketball Coaching Glossary

Coaching by changing the task, the space, the rules and the scoring so that skills emerge as players solve the problem, instead of prescribing one movement. It rests on Karl Newell's model of individual, task and environmental constraints, and it is not the same as just playing games.

Covered in depth in The Constraints-Led Approach in Basketball

The theory underneath the constraints-led approach. It studies how perception, action and cognition work together, and treats the player and the environment as one system, combining ecological psychology with dynamical systems theory.

Covered in depth in The Constraints-Led Approach in Basketball

Constraints are the boundaries players explore inside as they search for a solution. Task constraints are the ones coaches control most (space, rules, scoring, time, number of players, feedback); individual constraints belong to the player (height, wingspan, fatigue, perception); environmental constraints come from the setting (court surface, ball, altitude, culture).

Constraints shape movement but don't cause it, so they are informative boundaries rather than "musts" or punishments.

Covered in depth in The Constraints-Led Approach in Basketball

Practice that keeps the information players use in games, such as defenders, teammates, the clock and the score, so that what they learn transfers. The idea comes from Egon Brunswik and was applied to sport by Pinder and colleagues in 2011.

Covered in depth in Basketball Practice Design

Shared offensive and defensive intentions, such as floor is lava or zero seconds, that a team plays by instead of a rigid set of patterns. They give players a common language while leaving them free to act on what they see.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

A slice of the full game, such as 2-on-1, 3-on-2 or 3-on-3, with constraints chosen to bring out one problem. SSGs can be even or give one side an advantage, and a "+1" is an extra player, often a trailing defender or a passer.

Covered in depth in Small-Sided Games in Basketball

An opportunity for action that a player perceives, such as a driving lane, an open shot or a cutter's window. Affordances are specific to each player and can appear and disappear in a fraction of a second.

Covered in depth in Basketball Decision-Making

A player's ability to pick up the information and affordances that matter in a moment of the game. Closeout games, for example, attune defenders to who has the ball.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

The link between what a player sees and what they do. With no defender in front of them there is nothing to couple the dribble to, which is why 1-on-0 isn't our default.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

What a player's body allows, such as quickness, vertical jump, power, height and wingspan. They shape which solutions a player can find, but they are not skills in themselves.

Covered in depth in Basketball Player Development

Whatever is stopping a skill from emerging for a player right now. It can be physical, perceptual or tied to the task, and identifying it decides which constraints and games go into the next practice.

Covered in depth in Basketball Player Development

Movement and team patterns forming without a central controller telling every part what to do. A player's joints and muscles self-organize into a finish, and five players self-organize into a fast break.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

Nikolai Bernstein's phrase for repeating the problem rather than the movement. The goal stays the same each rep, but the solution changes because the constraints keep changing.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

The natural variation in how a player solves the same task from one rep to the next. We treat it as a resource that helps players adapt, not as an error to coach out.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

The ability to reach the same outcome with different movements, such as a tired shooter using more upper body. Far from a flaw, it is what makes a player adaptable when one solution stops working.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

Changing which information a player uses, toward sources that are more useful for the decision in front of them. Feedback and game design both educate attention.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

Changing what a player or team is trying to do, and so which affordances they act on. A scoring rule such as double points for a gold medal shot educates intention.

Covered in depth in Skill Acquisition in Basketball

From James Gibson. Knowledge about the game comes secondhand, from film, a whiteboard or a coach's explanation; knowledge of the game is what players show they can do on the floor. Players can know about a 2-on-1 long before they can play one well.

Covered in depth in Basketball Decision-Making

Wolfgang Schöllhorn's method of practicing as variably as possible, for example shooting with different stances, arcs and passes. It is a separate method from the constraints-led approach, and we use it for specific purposes such as shooting.

Covered in depth in Basketball Shooting Development

Setting a game's difficulty "just right": hard enough that players have to search for solutions, easy enough that they sometimes succeed. Guadagnoli and Lee proposed it in 2004; it comes from information-processing research, but it is a simple, useful idea for coaches.

Covered in depth in Youth Basketball Coaching

The defense plays one known coverage, and the offense still has to find a solution against it. It is the least game-like option, so we use it sparingly to highlight one affordance players keep missing.

Covered in depth in Basketball Practice Design

The defense chooses from a menu of coverages or positions, and the offense doesn't know which one is coming. It gives the offense repetition without repetition, and it is not the same thing as bad defense.

Covered in depth in Basketball Defense

The defense has full freedom to stop the offense within the game's principles of play. It is the most representative of the three options and transfers best, though players may struggle at first to see and act on what is available.

Covered in depth in Basketball Practice Design

The offense or defense stays on the floor for a set time, such as 45 or 60 seconds, or a set number of reps, while opponents rotate through. One possession runs into the next, which keeps the game representative and gives players repetition without repetition.

Covered in depth in Small-Sided Games in Basketball

Mike MacKay's framework for running small-sided games: no more than 3 points of emphasis, no more than 10 minutes before changing the activity or a constraint, and no more than 30 seconds to explain it and get players playing.

Covered in depth in Basketball Practice Planning

An offense built on a base structure of pace, spacing templates, triggers and coverage solutions, so players create and extend advantages without waiting for a play call. Set plays still have a place on dead balls and when the game slows down.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

A possession with no offensive advantage: every defender is in front of their player and in position. From neutral, the offense needs a trigger to create an advantage.

Covered in depth in Basketball Decision-Making

The offense has an edge, such as an extra player, better position, more speed or a matchup to attack. Playing with advantage means using it before the defense recovers, rather than holding the ball until it disappears.

Covered in depth in Basketball Decision-Making

Our name for the moment an advantage is created and what follows: quick ball and player movement that keeps the dominoes falling until the last one, a high-value shot. Zero seconds, 1 can't guard 2 and floor is lava are the dominoes rules.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

Simple actions that start the first domino from neutral. Solos are 1-on-1 actions; duos include gets, blast cuts and the pick and roll; three-player triggers include Spain and stack pick and roll.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

A dribble handoff: a pick and roll where the screener has the ball. Coverage solutions out of a get include the pitch and slip and the keep.

Covered in depth in U14 Basketball Practice Plan

The ways an offense can punish, or prevent, how a trigger is defended, such as the crack and roll, flip, twist or curl against a drop. They are attractive possibilities that may appear, not an "if X, then Y" script.

Covered in depth in The Pick and Roll in Basketball

Shoot, drive or pass in under a second when an advantage exists, so the ball doesn't stick and the defense can't get back to neutral. It is sometimes called 0.5 seconds.

Covered in depth in Basketball Decision-Making

Move and space so that one defender can never cover two offensive players. On a drive, nearby players push, pull, hold, cut or wheel to create the window for the next pass.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

A spacing principle: after a cut or a drive and kick, players sprint out of the lava to a home base so the paint stays open for the next drive or cut. In A Constraints-Led Approach to Coaching Basketball the lava is everywhere inside the 3-point line except the dunker spot, and players have about 3 seconds to escape.

In our playbook the rule is simply to sprint out to space as soon as the ball is kicked. Other versions define the lava as inside the arc but outside the paint, or allow 2 seconds rather than 3. Whichever you use, say which version you are playing.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

A cut where the offensive player disappears from their defender's view and reappears somewhere dangerous, usually under the basket, often when the defender is watching the ball or helping on a drive. We took the term from Coach Mike MacKay.

Covered in depth in Conceptual Offense

Our way of ranking shots. Gold medals are shots inside the smile (the no-charge arc), dunks and free throws; silver medals are open catch-and-shoot threes, especially from the corners; bronze medals are off-the-dribble threes and mid-range shots.

Bronze isn't banned: late in the clock, and for some players, it is the right shot. One of our blogs groups non-rim paint shots with bronze rather than the mid-range.

Covered in depth in Basketball Shooting Development

A shot that is in Range, Open and Balanced for the player taking it. Range differs from player to player, so a ROB shot for one teammate may not be one for another.

We use Range, Open, Balanced from the Routledge book. You may also see "Range, Room, Rhythm".

Covered in depth in Basketball Shooting Development

A made jump shot that hits the back of the rim dead center before dropping through. Shooting games often reward them, for example by scoring a BRAD double.

Covered in depth in Basketball Shooting Development

The most important guy or girl: the help defender who protects the paint against a drive. Who the MIG is changes with every drive, so defenders have to read their own player and the ball at the same time.

Covered in depth in Basketball Defense

Sprinting to the high side of the nearest defender as soon as a shot goes up. It can win offensive rebounds, but the main benefit is that the team is already matched up for transition defense, whoever gets the ball.

Popularized by Tuomas Iisalo at Bonn in the German league.

Covered in depth in Basketball Rebounding Drills