The Step By Step Checklist For Watching Film For Hoopers

So now let's talk about just some really specific tangible questions you need to ask yourself while you're watching that film. Okay, so if you're going through watching film, these are the important things for you to look at, the important questions for you to answer. So we talked about the other team's defense. Or again, if you're watching that specific player that's going to be potentially guarding you, what defense do they run? Do they run a man defense? Okay, are they super aggressive in that main defense? Are they always playing like right on, right on the ball? Like are they up in that ball handler space? Again, do they trap out of that man? Do they, are they super, super aggressive in that regard? Or are they more laid back? You know, they're kind of hanging out just at the three point line, like they'll give you some space, like they're not going to be pressuring you very much. Or do they run a zone? They run a 2, 3, a 3, 2, a 1, 3, 1. What do they do in that zone? Can you hear any calls for that? Maybe they have a certain call that would let them know when they're going into that certain zone. So someone for you to look at defensively. If you're somebody who uses pick and rolls, identifying how they guard pick and roll. So do they always play under it? In that case, maybe that gives you the opportunity to hit that three. If you're able to do that, do they play over that screen? Well, if that's the case, how does that big play? Does that big always drop? And if that's the case, maybe that gives you an opportunity to, you know, maybe hit that mid range shot or it gives you opportunity to maybe attack that big. If they don't drop very far or, or maybe that means that your, your defender or your, your screener is going to pop and you're going to have that, you're gonna be able to hit them on that pop. So identifying how they guard that pick and roll, both your defender and the, the big's defender. And obviously if you're the one setting the screens, then it's important for you to know that as well. Going with that, how do they guard pin downs or you know, away screens? Do they always switch? Do they always play over it? Always play under it? You know, do they, do they miscommunicate on that a lot? And if that's the case, like are they chasing you? Maybe, you know, okay, if they're chasing me over the screen every single time, maybe I'm going to be able to get to the basket on a real tight curl and potentially get either a layup look or maybe a post up opportunity. It's important to identify what opportunities you might have coming off of those pin downs as well. And then we can also look at, you know, do they switch things? Are they team that switches a lot? So for example, they switch on those pin downs, maybe, maybe you're going to have an opportunity to seal and if you know that, hey, they're going to switch this and I'm going to have a smaller guy on me. Well, I'm looking to seal right away and then call for the ball so I can get a little post touch and potentially an easy layup or a foul. So important things to look at when it comes to screens. How do they guard the other team's best player? Right. This obviously applies to you, especially if you are the best player, one of the better players on your team. How do they guard those, those best players? Do they face guard them? Do they not help off of them? Do they, do they just treat them like every other player? Maybe they don't switch any screens with that player, but they switch screens with every other player. That's something that's important to know as well. What shots do they allow? So do they, will they give up, you know, threes off a driving kick? Like are they really heavy in help and they're willing to give up those threes or maybe they aren't that heavy and help and they just rely on everybody being able to defend one on one and so they're not going to give up threes off of a driving kick. But maybe that means they're going to give up potentially more layups because guys might get beat on the perimeter. So it's important to look at what shots they allow, what shots are more likely going to come to you in the flow of the offense. So then the next thing is how do they guard three? So kind of talking about that, like are they super up in everybody's face? Are they running people off three point line or are they kind of weak on their closeouts, kind of giving up those threes? Do they play over ball screens to try and take away threes? Do they blitz ball screens trying to try and take away threes? Those are important things to know as well. How is the help kind of talk about that again? Like do they get in help early outside of the paint to take away that layup opportunity and force a kick or are they really relaxed, really late, really lazy and help and you're probably going to have an opportunity to get to the basket more often because they're not good in help. And I think the other thing to, to be able to pinpoint is who the weakest defender is. Are there any defenders on the floor that are just not good? And if you know that, then again, if they end up switching that defender on to, you got to know, hey, I got the, a bad defender on me, I got to take advantage of it. But that's why it's important for you to know personnel by watching that film so you can identify, hey, that's a bad defender, that's a back, that's a bad defender. In the film I watched, they always went at that guy and he always was getting burnt. So I know if I have that guy on me, I got to go at it. That's important to know as well. And then switching over to offense, what kind of offense does that team run? Do they run a four out? Do they run a five out? What are they doing in that offense? Are they pass and screen away? Are they able to use a lot of ball screens? Do they set a lot of, you know, do they run a flex offense? And is it really just a continuous action, continuous motion? Like what does their offense look like? What kind of shots do they try and get? What shots do they want to take? And that's important for you to know. And then do they have good spacing in their offense? And what defenders do they target? So are there certain defenders that you know they, they're going at or there are certain players in their team that they say, hey, you can go at that guy, maybe that player. Whenever they get the ball in the wing, they always are jabbing right and trying to drive middle. Or maybe when that player comes off of a ball screen, they're always trying to shoot the three or shoot the mid range, pull up, whatever. Trying to find patterns throughout their offense are going to help you to again, just be one step ahead of them. And potentially again, like I said, the goal is to take whoever your matchup is from being at 100% comfort level to get, getting them to 70. So if you know, hey, they really want to do this, I'm going to force them to go to option number two. That's going to take down the comfort level that they have and probably make them perform a little bit worse. So it's important that you know those things as well. So again, some real tangible stuff that you can look at and I really encourage you to like take out a piece of paper or notes on your phone or whatever. And just kind of write some stuff down. Write just some key points down. So that. That way, you know, maybe that's the night before the game. And then when the game gets there, maybe on the bus ride there, or maybe, maybe right before the game's going to start, before you guys get warmed up, you can kind of look through that again and just be like, okay, that's the point. I need to remember this is what it's going to be here. And the other thing going with that is that when you know these things, when you know, okay, hey, they give up these sort of shots, or hey, they. They always switch this, or hey, they always play this like that. And we kind of. You're about to identify your opportunities like we talked about. Then you were able to sort of sit there and almost visualize it right before that, before a game happens. You can visualize and say, okay, I see myself in this situation, going through this and really feeling yourself taking advantage of those opportunities that you're probably going to have. That's the power of watching film. And then writing down those key points and being able to just kind of go through that in your mind and you're going to see that your performance is going to be drastically better. When you're. When you're prepared like that, it's not only about being physically prepared, but it's also about being mentally prepared as well. And you do that by watching film.