Most High School Players Don't Have These 3 Skills

I've coached and trained hundreds of players at the high school level over the last five years. And there's three major things that holds almost all of them back at some point. And Even if all three of these don't apply, I would say close to 100% of players that I've been around have struggled with at least one of these. So if you're a high school player, or the parent or a coach of a high school player, make sure you stay tuned here as we dive into these three. And the stuff we're going to talk about is such a massive separator. The players who have these three things tend to be the best player, they tend to be the most successful players, and they always tend to stand out. So we'll dive into what these three things are and how to make sure they're not what's holding you back. The first skill that a ton of high school players are missing are the ability to read screens and use them effectively. Every player out there uses off ball screens is what I'm referring to right here. So also called pin downs, away screens, down screens. It's by far the most common trigger in basketball. And trigger just means an action or essentially something that triggers the defense to to do something, which is what a screen does want a pin down and away screen does. Most players at the high school level and below though have no idea how to actually effectively use these screens. They leave so much opportunity on the table because of that. The point of a trigger, or in this case a screen, is to help create an advantage or to force the defense to react and therefore give something up. In order to figure out what this advantage is though, and how to best explain that, you have to actually be able to read what's happening with this trigger, with this action, when we come off of that screen, we have to read the defender and how is your defender playing you? And that's going to determine how you should actually use that screen so that you create the best possible advantage in the best situation for your team. Very, very simple. If they chase you over the screen, you're curling to the basket. If they go under the screen, you're flaring out to the perimeter. Very, very simple. But a lot of players just kind of mindlessly run off of screens. They don't really think as to, hey, how is my defender playing this? And how can I put them in the most diffic difficult position right there? So if they chase you over, you're going to create a potential situation for a layup because they're trailing behind you. And so if your teammate leaves you in the past, there's a good chance you're going to be able to get a layup, or maybe you draw and help and can kick it out to your teammate, you know, on the weak side, whatever. Or a lot of times what will happen is you'll bring two players with you, meaning you'll bring your defender and you'll bring the screeners defender with you because they have to help because you're open, and then your teammate can pop out and now they're wide open. Likewise, right, if we go and our defender plays under that screen and we flare out to or fade out to the wing or the perimeter, we might have an open catch and shoot because they have a long closeout, or we have a long closer to attack, so we can potentially get downhill and attack them as they're trying to get to us and recover right there. So starts off with the person coming off of that screen, making sure that they do a good job reading it and going with that. The area that so many younger players struggle with is understanding the value of being the screener. A lot of players think of it as like, if I'm going to set the screen I'm creating for somebody else like that, there's nothing to do with me, I'm going to set a screen so they're the ones who have a chance to score off this. In reality, I would say that setting a screen makes you as likely and sometimes even more likely to score than the person who you're actually setting it for. Because you have to think about it. Like when you set a screen, the entire defense shifts to the person being screened for. That's where their attention shifts to. So when we can take advantage of that as the screener, a lot of times you can find really easy open looks for yourself. But again, a lot of players don't think about this way to think about, oh, I'm doing this for somebody else and I'm not involved anymore. In reality, you have to understand that the screener scoring is such a massive part of using this trigger, using this action effectively. So as a screener, it's very, very simple. You're literally just going to do the opposite of the person who you screen for. So like we talked about earlier, let's say your teammate that you screen for does a good job reading it. Their defender changes them over so they curl the basket. All you're going to do is pop out to the perimeter. You're just going to do the opposite of what they do maybe the next time you set that screen and their defender goes under it so they fade out to the perimeter, you're just going to dive to the basket. This principle is called one to basket, one to ball. And it's, it's what you have to remember if you want to be great when it comes to screens and pin downs, one person in action is going to go to the basket and one person is going to go to the perimeter. So if you're that screener and your, your teammate went to the basket, that means you're the perimeter guy. And if your team went to the perimeter, that means you're the basket guy. When you understand this principle and you play by it, you're going to find so many open looks for yourself just because you're continuing to be active. And you understand that by you being a screener, you are still involved and you're still a very, very real threat to score if you're again purposeful with the things that we're doing right there. The second skill that a lot of high school players are missing is the ability to make point five decisions. So the best time to do anything with the ball is when you first catch it within half a second of you having the ball in your hands, you have to make a decision with it. If you've watched a lot of my videos, you've heard me talk about this, especially recently. But we want to play in what's called 0.5 decisions, and that's the concept that's important to understand. We want to make 0.5 decisions, meaning you have half a second to either shoot, drive or pass. When you catch the ball. If you hold it for longer than half a second, the defense is going to have time to close out, to rotate and help. And it becomes much harder to get any sort of advantage or to get any sort of easy look. So when you do this, when you make these quick decisions, you take advantage of the fact that the defense has to move when the ball moves. So the pass goes to you, you, your defenders closing out to you on the ball. But also the help defense is rotating as well. And that takes time. So we want to use that to our advantage. We want to take advantage of the fact that it's going to take time for them to actually get into the right position right there. This is the easiest time to shoot because your defender is not on you yet. So you're you the most likelihood of being open. And if they do get to you, they do close out in time. Well, that's the best Time to drive, because you could attack their momentum that's coming towards you, right? They have to be able to slow down, stop, and then turn to slide and cut you off. That's a hard thing to do. So we want to take advantage of making a decision within half a second of catching the basketball and doing that very, very consistently. The worst thing you can do in these situations is be a ball stopper. You just catch the ball and hold it and do nothing. That's the worst thing you can do. Because now we can't take advantage of the defense and the time that it's going to take for them to be able to rotate and be in their most vulnerable state. You have to become great at making quick decisions with the basketball. And a lot of high school players struggle with this. They struggle to process the game quickly enough. They struggle to even think about the importance of making these quick decisions whenever they catch the basketball. So I'll link a video above that goes even more in depth into this right here. But I want to talk about the part of this that is by far the biggest area that players struggle with, and that's understanding when to make that quick pass, right? We can all get on board with, oh, I got to shoot the ball quick or I got to drive quick. Like, that's, that, that's. That's stuff that we like doing. We like shooting, we like driving. But understanding when to make that quick pass than half a second is also a really, really important part of being a great basketball player. And a lot of high school players are lacking in this area. This area of understanding. The reality is we, a lot of times can put the defense in even worse spot just by making a quick pass, right? They're already in a vulnerable spot. And just by you making a quick extra pass, a lot of times you can really take advantage of them and create an open shot for your teammate or a better driving angle for your teammate. And it's important that we recognize when we have those good opportunities, because a quick swing can lead to a great opportunity for somebody else. So when should that point five decision be to swing the basketball? Number one is when you don't have a clear shot or an open drive. This is very, very simple. You can't shoot the ball that's, you know, without it being contested, or if you either don't have a good angle to drive, or maybe you're not a great driver or the person guarding is a really good defender, then the next thing is I have to move the basketball. So you have to be able to almost process this before the ball even gets to you, you're going to know how close is your defender. You're going to know if you have a good angle to drive or not. If you know that you don't have those things, you got to be willing to move the ball quickly, right? And not be a ball stopper with it. Because again, chances are if you move the ball, they're going to probably have a better opportunity to either shoot it or drive it. So that's number one. Number two is when your team is unguarded, right? So if you're on the wing, your team is in the corner, and no one's guarding them. When the ball gets swung to you, make the extra pass and they're wide open. Right? Simple enough. And then number three is if your teammate is better in that spot than you. And this can kind of mean a couple of different things. So this could first of all mean, like, maybe they're maybe the best player on the team, and you want to get them the basketball because they're the best player, right? So there's times where that makes the most sense. Get. Get the best player of the ball, especially in these advantage opportunities where the defense is scrambling. And then number two could be. Well, if they just are really, really good in the corner, or they're really good at hitting open threes, or they just hit a couple of threes and they're, you know, they're. They're kind of hot right now. You want to get them the ball back, well, then you have to move the basketball to them because that's going to produce a good shot for your team right there. So those are the three things to think about when we talk about what goes into making that. That point five decision to make that quick swing. Okay, but this is a very powerful thing. And here's Draymond Green talking about this concept of moving the ball quickly.

I was actually telling the guys yesterday the power of a swing pass. Not I catch it, I survey. I need to do this. The power of simply catching the ball, swinging it the other way, or catching it in a simple dribble handoff the other way. It may look like nothing's coming out of that. You didn't score right off that immediate action. But what it did was it made the defense change size of the floor. Every defense in the NBA is good if you play one side of the floor. It's once you start switching sides of the floor, and now all of a sudden, the low man is now the strong side corner man. He Gets lost and the low man who is over there, strong side corner, forgets to pull in and he's lost. That's when you can really dissect a defense and pick him apart.

If you can develop this ability, it's going to put you ahead of so many players who struggle with the ability to make these quick decisions consistently. And this is such a big aspect of playing good basketball and being successful in the offensive end. Now the third area that holds back so many younger players is the ability to make game shots. And I'm going to take this in kind of two different directions here. So number one is players a lot of times don't understand the shots that they should actually be working on, the shots that actually matter, the shots that they're going to get in games consistently. And so a lot of times players work exclusively on just like standstill spot up shots. Like that's their definition of their shooting work is just over and over rep. And this is typically what you see even from the best players in the world. Like when you see their shooting practice, you normally see just spot up shot over and over and over and over and over again. There's a time and place for that. But there's so much more to making game shots than just being able to make a wide open standstill catch and shoot spot up shot. So in reality there's so many shots that you're going to get in games that will not look like that, that are not going to look like super easy standstill open like that. There are certain non negotiable shots that should be a part of your shooting work. So number one is relocation. Three, so when somebody drives, you're relocating up, relocating down, but you're moving on the drive. So you have to be able to catch the ball coming off of movement and shoot the ball coming off of movement. And this is something that we should be training a lot. This is an example of a game shot that happens all the time. Number two would be shots coming off of either forward movement or backward movements. That could be like a backpedal, this could be a sprint or a transition look into a catch and shoot shot. Those are important game shots to be working on to be able to hit. And then number three would be those standstill three. So like I said, there's a time and place for those standstill catch and shoot threes. Number four would be shots coming off of like a pinned out. So very common action would be again that offender plays under on that screen and you're able to fade out towards the perimeter and then catch and shoot off of that right there. And then the last one I'll throw in will be like a shot coming off of an extra pass. So like we talked about earlier, you're teammate makes that point five decision to make a quick swing to you for maybe the wing to the corner. And you've got to be able to catch it almost like off of a side angle now. So a lot of times when players work on shooting, they're only working on catching it from that like front facing angle. In reality, they're going to get a lot of shots coming from right side, left side, depending what side of the floor they're on, what kind of pass they're getting. So it's important that players work on that as well. So those shots should all be staples in your shooting work if you really want to become a great in game shooter. The second part of this comes down to preparing the right way. Games are chaotic, they are difficult, they're messy and practice should replicate that. But a lot of times players practice shooting in a really perfect way, a perfect manner, and we have to find ways to add some imperfection to our workouts or add some difficulty, some chaos even to our workouts so that we're prepared to handle that when we get to games. A lot of times you're going to catch the ball and you're not going to catch it cleanly, or you're not going have a ton of time to shoot or you're going to catch in. Your feet are a little off, your balance a little bit off, or the pass that you got was, was a little high or a little low. Can you still make the shot when things are not perfect? If we only work on perfect standstill catch and shoot threes like you see in a lot of these workouts, you're not going to be able to handle the imperfection that comes along with, with being an in game shot maker. So there are certain things that I think should also be staples in your workouts. So one of the things that I always go to is bad footwork shooting, where we're changing up how our footwork looks. So anything but normal. That's essentially the rule is your feet can be any, anything, any way that you want to be, but they just can't be normal. So left to head, right to head wide, narrow, whatever, and that helps us to be able to work on making shots when our feet are not perfect. Bad pass shooting is another one where we're working on being able to make shots coming off of passes that aren't perfect. He's not going to get perfect passes all the time in games. In fact, a lot of times in games you're not going to get perfect passes. So can you still make those shots and then five ways to progress it by forcing yourself to make those shots in a row. So I have to make three bad pass, catch and shoots in a row at this spot and like find ways to challenge yourself that way so that you're prepared to make those shots. In games when there is imperfection that's present, present right there, we have to think about the fact that we can't just chase after makes. Players are so focused on, oh, I gotta get my 300 makes. I got my 300 makes today. That means I'm good. Well, how purposeful were all those makes, right? How, how representative of the game are all those makes? How much are they going to transfer to you actually seeing in game results when things are not perfect like the environment, you just, you just shot in by yourself, right. So we have to find ways to understand that like it's not all about chasing after numbers, it's about chasing after quality. How good are your reps? How representative of the game are your reps? And if you follow the stuff that we just talked about here, that's going to make sure that your reps are very purposeful and they translate to you becoming a better in game shooter, being able to make those game shots right there. So check out the video above where I go a little bit more in depth into that because I think it's a really important thing for players to understand if again if you want to become a better shooter right here. So, so those first two points that I talked about kind of speak to one of the most important things and one of the biggest lacks when it comes to players in general, but especially at the high school level, is basketball iq. Right. The last thing was obviously more of a physical skill thing with the shooting. But the first two things that we talked about, understanding how to read screens, how to make good decisions, understanding those 0.5 decisions, how to, how to make those, those quick decisions with the basketball, that comes down to basketball IQ and those, I started with those things because they're the two most important things and the two biggest lacks high school players have. So I created a free basketball IQ masterclass. It's an hour long, it goes through a ton of different stuff, kind of stuff that we just touched on with that, but even more in depth, more solutions when it comes to different situations. You know, pin downs, ball screens, those point five decisions. Okay, what can I do when I catch the basketball? How do I know when to shoot, when to drive, when to pass? All all those things that go into being a great player we talk about inside that masterclass. So going to help you to probably be able to add 4, 6, 8 points per game kind of instantly just with the stuff that we talk about inside of this. Again, completely free. An hour long. That's the top link in my description down below. There is nothing more important to your success as a basketball player than your understanding your basketball iq. So one of the most important things that I've ever created. So like I said, top lane, completely free. Go down and check that out. I appreciate you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.