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How to understand basketball plays
Basketball Basics - The Rules, Concepts, Definitions, and Player Positions
The rules of basketball, thankfully, are fairly straightforward.
However, if youre coaching younger players, these rules can be easily forgotten once they take the floor.
The three-second rule (which well discuss later in this article) is just one of many great examples.
But before you can teach the rules to your team, you must know them yourself.
So keep reading, because by the end of this article, youll be up to speed on all the basketball rules so you can teach your players and help them develop throughout the season!
The Rules
Basketball is a team sport.
Two teams of five players each try to score by shooting a ball through a hoop elevated 10 feet above the ground.
The game is played on a rectangular floor called the court, and there is a hoop at each end.
The court is divided into two main sections by the mid-court line.
If the offensive team puts the ball into play behind the mid-court line, it has ten seconds to get the ball over the mid-court line.![]()
If it doesn't, then the defense gets the ball.
Once the offensive team gets the ball over the mid-court line, it can no longer have possession of the ball in the area behind the midcourt line.
If it does, the defense is awarded the ball.
Basketball Court 1The ball is moved down the court toward the basket by passing or dribbling. The team with the ball is called the offense. The team without the ball is called the defense.
The defense tries to steal the ball, contest shots, deflect passes, and garner rebounds.
Points
When a team makes a basket, they score two points and the ball goes to the other team.
If a basket, or field goal, is made outside of the three-point arc, then that basket is worth three points. A free throw is worth one point.
Free throws are awarded to a team according to some formats involving the number of fouls committed in a half and/or the type of foul committed.
Fouling a shooter always results in two or three free throws being awarded the shooter, depending upon where he was when he shot.
If he was beyond the three-point line, then he gets three shots.
Other types of fouls do not result in free throws being awarded until a certain number have accumulated during a half (called team fouls).
Once that number is reached, then the player who was fouled is awarded a '1-and-1' opportunity. If he makes his first free throw, he gets to attempt a second. If he misses the first shot, the ball is live on the rebound.
Game Clock
Each game is divided into sections, and all levels have two halves.
In college, each half is twenty minutes long.
In high school and below, the halves are divided into eight (and sometimes, six) minute quarters. In the pros, quarters are twelve minutes long.
There is a gap of several minutes between halves. Gaps between quarters are relatively short.
If the score is tied at the end of regulation, then overtime periods of various lengths are played until a winner emerges.
Basket Assignment and Tip-Off
Also, each team is assigned a basket or goal to defend.
This means that the other basket is their scoring basket.
At halftime, the teams switch goals.
The game begins with one player from either team at center court.
A referee will toss the ball up between the two. The player that gets his hands on the ball will tip it to a teammate. This is called a tip-off.
(NOTE: Looking for a simple plan you can follow with your youth team? Or just some additional drills and plays to keep your players engaged and set them up for success? Check out our FREE 72 Winning Youth Drills and Plays eBooks to help your players develop AND have fun doing it.)
Fouls and Violations
In addition to stealing the ball from an opposing player, there are other ways for a team to get the ball.
One such way is if the other team commits a foul or violation.
FOULS
Recommended Resources for Youth Coaches
Coaching Youth Basketball Successfully
60+ Youth Basketball Drills
Simple Offense for Youth Basketball
Personal fouls: Personal fouls include any type of illegal physical contact.
- Hitting
- Pushing
- Slapping
- Holding
- Illegal pick/screen -- when an offensive player is moving. When an offensive player sticks out a limb and makes physical contact with a defender in an attempt to block the path of the defender.
Personal foul penalties: If a player is shooting while a being fouled, then he gets two free throws
if his shot doesn't go in, but only one free throw if his shot does go in.
- Three free throws are awarded if the player is fouled while shooting for a three-point goal and they miss their shot. If a player is fouled while shooting a three-point shot and makes it anyway, he is awarded one free throw. Thus, he could score four points on the play.
- Inbounds. If fouled while not shooting, the ball is given to the team the foul was committed upon.
They get the ball at the nearest side or baseline, out of bounds, and have 5 seconds to pass the ball
onto the court.
- One & one. If the team committing the foul has seven or more fouls in the game, then the player
who was fouled is awarded one free throw. If he makes his first shot, then he is awarded another free
throw.
- Ten or more fouls. If the team committing the foul has ten or more fouls, then the fouled player
receives two free throws.
Charging. An offensive foul that is committed when a player pushes or runs over a defensive
player. The ball is given to the team that the foul was committed upon.
Blocking. Blocking is illegal personal contact resulting from a defender not establishing
position in time to prevent an opponent's drive to the basket.
Flagrant foul. Violent contact with an opponent. This includes hitting, kicking, and punching.
This type of foul results in free throws plus the offense retaining possession of the ball after the free throws.
Intentional foul. When a player makes physical contact with another player with no reasonable effort to
steal the ball.
It is a judgment call for the officials.
Technical foul. Technical foul. A player or a coach can commit this type of foul. It does not involve
player contact or the ball but is instead about the 'manners' of the game. Foul language, obscenity, obscene
gestures, and even arguing can be considered a technical foul, as can technical details regarding filling in the
scorebook improperly or dunking during warm-ups.
VIOLATIONS
Walking/Traveling. Taking more than 'a step and a half' without dribbling the ball is traveling.
Moving your pivot foot once you've stopped dribbling is traveling.
Carrying/palming. When a player dribbles the ball with his hand too far to the side of or, sometimes, even under the ball.
Double Dribble. Dribbling the ball with both hands on the ball at the same time or picking up the
dribble and then dribbling again is a double dribble.
Held ball. Occasionally, two or more opposing players will gain possession of the ball at the same time.
In order to avoid a prolonged and/or violent tussle, the referee stops the action and awards the ball to one
team or the other on a rotating basis.
Goaltending. If a defensive player interferes with a shot while it's on the way down toward the basket,
while it's on the way up toward the basket after having touched the backboard, or while it's in the cylinder
above the rim, it's goaltending and the shot counts. If committed by an offensive player, it's a violation and the ball is awarded to the opposing team for a throw-in.
Backcourt violation. Once the offense has brought the ball across the mid-court line, they cannot go back
across the line during possession. If they do, the ball is awarded to the other team to pass inbounds.
Time restrictions. A player passing the ball inbounds has five seconds to pass the ball. If he does not,
then the ball is awarded to the other team. Other time restrictions include the rule that a player cannot have the
ball for more than five seconds when being closely guarded and, in some states and levels, shot-clock restrictions
requiring a team to attempt a shot within a given time frame.
Player Positions
Center. Centers are generally your tallest players. They generally are positioned near the basket.
Offensive -- The center's goal is to get open for a pass and to shoot. They are also responsible for blocking
defenders, known as picking or screening, to open other players up for driving to the basket for a goal. Centers
are expected to get some offensive rebounds and put-backs.
Defensive -- On defense, the center's main responsibility is to keep opponents from shooting by blocking shots
and passes in the key area. They also are expected to get a lot of rebounds because they're taller.
Forward. Your next tallest players will most likely be your forwards. While a forward may be called
upon to play under the hoop, they may also be required to operate in the wings and corner areas.
Offensive -- Forwards are responsible to get free for a pass, take outside shots, drive for goals, and rebound.
Defensive -- Responsibilities include preventing drives to the goal and rebounding.
Guard. These are potentially your shortest players and they should be really good at dribbling fast, seeing
the court, and passing. It is their job to bring the ball down the court and set up offensive plays.
Offensive -- Dribbling, passing, and setting up offensive plays are a guard's main responsibilities. They also
need to be able to drive to the basket and to shoot from the perimeter.
Defensive -- On defense, a guard is responsible for stealing passes, contesting shots, preventing drives to the
hoop, and for boxing out.
Where Should New Coaches Start?
Now that you understand the fundamentals, the smartest plan you can follow from here is to help players develop those skills with structured drills and practices.
Our FREE 72 Winning Youth Drills and Plays resource is designed for coaches like you, to help in:
- Understanding the proper technique for the most important skills like shooting, passing and dribbling
- Teaching players these skills using easy-to-follow drills
- Giving players structure with simple plays designed for youth athletes
It even includes diagrams and step-by-step instructions so you can help your players develop AND have fun doing it.
..
Even if you have little or no basketball (or coaching) experience.
Click the link below, and well send you a copy right away (along with a Special "skill development" Bonus for your players).
Get My FREE Drills and Plays, plus a Special Bonus.
To your basketball success!
Jeff and Joe Haefner
P.S. Here are a few additional resources to help you master basketball fundamentals:
- Shooting
- Passing
- Dribbling
- Lay ups
- Jump stops
- Pivoting and footwork
- Jab steps
- Screening
- Cutting
- Defense
- Rebounding
These are all critical fundamentals to master because they'll make you and your team better, no matter what age level or situation you might be in.
Basketball Offenses, Motion Offense, Plays, and Tips
Home > Coaching > Basketball Offense
To learn about basketball offense, the first thing you should read is this introduction to offenses and theory behind building a great offense.
You will learn:
- The different types of offenses.
- How to choose an offense.
- How to construct your own high powered offense.
- The most important aspects when teaching an offense.
- Diagrams of the different cuts and screens.
- Sample offenses including Flex, 5 Out Motion, UCLA High Low, Quick Hitters, Umass Zone, and Tennesee Shuffle.
What is an offense?
An offense is your method to score baskets and get open shots against your opponent. Most coaches consider their offense to be a continuous motion or a play that can be run over and over again. It's common to have more than one offensive set, usually a primary offense and a secondary offense.
In addition, most basketball coaches will have a variety of set plays at their disposal. Set plays are usually just run through one time in special situations. For example, you might want to run a set play at the end of the game or when your offense is stagnant and you really need a basket.
Then, if the set play doesn't work, you can flow into your primary offense.
Basketball Offense Tips and Articles
Before getting into specific offenses, it's important for your to know the ins and out of setting screens. You can learn more about setting screens by checking out this article.
Offense Tips - The Easy Way to Teach Basketball Offense
Bobby Knight's Simple Offense Tip On Screens & Why You May Never Use Down Screens Again
The 5 Offensive Strategies that ALL Coaches Should Employ
How To Use And Set A Pick In Basketball
Executing The Basketball Pick and Roll
7 Important Offense Selection Tips
3 Critical Player Development Tips For Your Offense
Man to Man Offenses
Don Kelbick's Motion Offense - A Comprehensive Guide to Implementing the Motion Offense
Michigan - Simple man offense for all levels.
The Dynamic Flex Offense With Video
Ball Screen / Pick and Roll Continuity Offense
Basketball Pick and Roll Offense
The Open Post Motion Offense
The Dribble Drive Motion Offense
High Low Offensive System
5 Out Cutters Offense - Motion offense that was used by State Champs (and it can be taught in ONE day)! It can be used as a delay offense, primary offense, and can be used at any level.
1-3-1 Cutters - Great offense for youth & high school teams.
Duke Motion Offense
North Carolina Motion Offense
Triangle Offense
Tim Schuring's Complete Offensive System
The Princeton Offense - Making Defenses Pay with Layups and 3s
Zone Offenses
Yo Yo - Simple zone offense for all levels
Motion Offense Against Zone
3 Simple Strategies to Attack a Zone Defense
Don Kelbick’s Continuity Zone Offense
Offense Against Junk Defenses
Offense Tips Against Junk Defenses (Box-and-1 & Triangle-and-2)
Fast Break / Transition Offenses
How To Run The Basketball Fast Break Offense and Transition Offense - Philosophy, Offenses, Drills
Carolina Fast Break Offense
Keith Haske's Uptempo Basketball System - Pressure Defense & Offense
Suns Fast Break Offense
Foul Shot Fast Break Offenses
3 Unorthodox Ways to Score in Transition
Basketball Press Breaker Offense
How to improve understanding of the game using the basketball simulator? - AP-Tempo - Blogs
I constantly say that we live in an era of fantastic technologies that we do not know how to use.
This applies to both European clubs and ordinary fans. Very often I am asked about methodological literature that can suddenly improve your, by its own admission, rudimentary understanding of the game. This is a road to nowhere if you objectively evaluate your capabilities. Cause? Such books require visualization more than anywhere else, and it is impossible without an understanding of the basics of basketball, which are not laid down in those who are about to join our community or simply want to move to the next level from the rank of “everyman on duty”. In order to benefit from such things, you need to lay the foundation and the foundation for it is much easier to take than you think. And it's a basketball sim, but not quite in the way you're used to. The key word is simulation. If a simulator is used to learn how to operate a rover, why can't it be used to learn how to understand basketball?
I started exploiting the hidden power of basketball sims in the much-loved NBA Live 2005, which, despite its block-shot stupidity, was objectively EA's best orange-ball product.
It was in it that I drew attention to the competent “playbook”, “tablet”, call it whatever you want. It was crooked, it was not quite possible to apply it correctly in the mochilov itself, but it was not so important. He gave a theory. In the game menu, a moving model with chips was used, according to which it was possible to study the movement of the players and the ball during each specific draw. Since then, I've just soaked up most of what was laid down in those moments. For example, when the same Live began to be released only on consoles and the series was already dying, there were still key changes: digital, statistical analytics, which was called Dynamic DNA, applicable to absolutely every basketball player who was in the database.
The server automatically updated you with data about what this or that player is inclined to in each specific position: where he throws, where he passes, where he passes. It was crooked, it worked through one place, but it was still fundamental things in an accessible presentation.
You could not play it, you could just study. It was hoopdata before it appeared, information that you could immediately feel with your hands. These ideas have evolved since then, they are embedded in every player and in 2K (go to "edit player" and scroll down to trends) and it really helps. But, there is one recipe for improving the vision of basketball, which is applicable precisely because of 2K.
This is the full use of the playbook. Most of the basic combinations for each specific NBA team are initially laid out in it, in order to use the strengths of each specific player: an excellent player in deep posting fourth, a good pick-and-roll center, or running through the fences of the second. A whole set of "draws" is applicable to each specific clip of all 30, and any club has its own elements that have been proven over the years. Due to such functions, developers are trying to achieve realism in the first place. On top of that, there are plenty of ancient combinations, Seattle, Utah, Lakers, Magic, focused on the strengths of your dominant player: tall point guard, elite assistant, powerful front line player, and whoever you want.
There are moments from the triangle, from everywhere. I spat on 2K13 because it went for simplification and the computer chooses for you the combinations “the best combination” or “play the player there” directly in the game. It's not that, it's a general tendency to fool around. It's arcade.
Take the twelfth, take any team and run all these combinations yourself. You don't need to look at the score, you don't need to look at the showiness, play them point-to-point until you learn them. Be sure to leave markers that show who and where should run, this is necessary. You can train them if you don't fully understand. In the menu you will see all the same moving chips from eight years ago, which are theory, what the coach draws on the tablet to NBA stars, and then in the game, in half a minute you will directly get the practice, just like them. Learning a combination in this way is a trifling matter, like a few, like a dozen, fifty, etc. But, there is no need to rush.
When you have mastered it perfectly, break it.![]()
Broken play sometimes benefits the layman. Turn on this play, but watch how the computer-simulated defense reacts to it. Where there is space for a passage, where you can throw an open ball, where you can give a pass for easy points and use the "Direct Pass". This will teach you how to open the defense and help you realize how cool the real team worked on the defensive when they did not create such bald spots and the defenders quickly returned to their players. When you learn to take advantage of the main “development path” of the combination and the alternative one that you yourself just came up with, reacting to the actions of the defense, you will immediately add to your understanding of the game. It works even with one combination, and now imagine the same fifty, one hundred. There are a lot of them in the base of the game and this is the information that you can easily extract from it.
Practice even for a few weeks, then download an NBA game you haven't seen, play it on the big screen and watch it.
You will learn a huge number of moments that you yourself have just worked out and understand where and how well the defense, attack, point guards, high played. Who failed and how it was necessary to work out this episode. It's much easier than it looks.
Of course, basketballsims don't give you ATOs (after time-out plays), which are generally hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated, these moments are incomparable to the computer simulation of game situations that Westbrook went through when drafting at OKC (where they created a special video game for reaction speed and quality decisions taken), but this is already a storehouse of a huge information and tactical base that everyone has. This is your NBA, and it is accessible and understandable.
It will give you much more than methodological literature, because you will see how it should work in theory and immediately put it into practice with your own hands. The most complex visualization will be carried out for you by the simulator engine.
And who said that later you will not be able to apply this knowledge directly on the court with a real ball? It will be much easier for you to analyze the actions of your favorite team, your favorite players or kill unwanted ones when you find out from the player movement model what was planned and what eventually gave birth to this stuffed animal :)
There are still a lot of models of self-development, the main thing is just not to be lazy and try to notice them.
Basketball terms that everyone should know
These 11 terms will help even a beginner to better understand the game
WE DECIDED TO HELP BEGINNERS LEARN BASKETBALL LANGUAGE, IN ORDER TO NOT BE LOST ON THE COURT AND BETTER UNDERSTAND EXPERIENCED PLAYERS.
RUNNING
Foul when a player with the ball takes too many steps without starting or after dribbling. The simplest and at the same time complex rule, because it has many nuances. This video breaks down the latest amendments and clearly explains what is possible and what is not:
RUNNING
Foul when a player with the ball takes too many steps without starting or after dribbling.
The simplest and at the same time complex rule, because it has many nuances. This video breaks down the latest amendments and clearly explains what is and isn't allowed:
PENALTY (PENALTY)
A free throw that is taken after a foul in the "throw phase", a technical or unsportsmanlike foul, or overrun of team fouls. On the site it is easy to find the line from where the free kick is taken.
We have a free throw recommendation article. Read on the blog: FREE SHOT IN BASKETBALL
AND1 (END ONE)
Exclamation and designation used by players after a foul shot is scored. Denotes "and one more", because after hitting in violation of the rules, it will perform a free throw, and this is an opportunity to score more points for the attack.
PAINT (THREE SECOND ZONE)
An area on the court in which an attacking player cannot stay for more than 3 seconds, otherwise there will be a violation. The name "paint" was derived from highlighting it with color on set.
THREE / LONG / OUT OF THE ARCH (THREE-POINT SHOT)
A 3-point shot in big basketball and 2 points in 3-on-3 basketball. On the court, the 3-point zone is marked with a line in the form of an arc.
LAY UP
The most common shot from under the basket, during which the player usually moves towards the basket.
DUNK / SLAM DUNK
Overhand throw when the ball is released from the hands over the hoop and moves straight down.
ALLEY-OOP
A pass after which the receiving player throws the ball before landing. Most often, such a transfer ends with a dunk, and it looks spectacular.
To dunk and finish alley-ups beautifully, you need to have a good jump. We have a video with 5 top tips for this:
ASSIST (ENG - ASSIST)
A successful pass, after which the player hits the basket. In basketball, before throwing, he can perform one or two hits without beating the opponent, and the transfer will still be considered in the scoring column.
To give a lot of assists, you need to be able to make different passes. Read the article with types of passes: PASSING IN BASKETBALL
REBELLING
An event when a player receives the ball after a shot or block shot. Some players have made a whole art out of this element of the game. For example, Dennis Rodman:
Do you want to take your first steps in basketball or improve your basic skills? We have a Basic Basketball Skills workout for you. See the schedule and sign up:
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Coach: Yuriy Bespalov
- Professional player of the INANOMO 3x3 team;
- Champion of Russia 3x3 2019;
- Winner and medalist of the MOFB championship;
- MLBL Summer League MVP 2017;
- Multiple participant of Moscow Open;
- Champion of Moscow 3x3 2017;
- MVP GrunisCup 2017.
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