Inmates Running the Asylum?

One of the most difficult aspects of coaching in an Extreme Fast Break system is having to relinquish control to your players. As coaches, our natural instinct is to over-analyze, micromanage and out think ourselves on almost every possession in practices and in games. In a Extreme Fast Break environment, a coach really needs to do the exact opposite.

Basically, Extreme Fast Break basketball is about one thing...pace. Creating pace is the most crucial component we are after and the less the players have to think, the more they can just focus on putting forth all their energy into playing every second as hard as they possibly can. As coaches, the more responsibility we give our players to remember specific plays or presses in certain situations, in my opinion, will impede the players ability to play at an all out pace.

Really, simplicity is one of the most interesting things about Extreme Fast Basketball. Having the players focus on just a few responsibilities on both offense and defense frees them up to just play at a break-neck speed. From my experience, if we tried to force our players to execute a bunch of different presses based on different situations during the game, we would have really struggled in staying aggressive. Even if you are lucky enough to coach the smartest kids in the world, I don't think it is worth sacrificing all out effort in order to press a certain way just because your opponent missed a shot, turned the ball over or made a basket.

Does this mean you should press the same way during the game or only run your fast break system one way to keep things simple? Heck no. Certainly, adding some tweaks here or emphasizing a certain rotation there is necessary. But as a rule of thumb, I really think you need to go with a less is more approach, ESPECIALLY if you are in the early stages of implementing the system.

Just keep your focus on creating an extreme pace of play and achieving your desired goals. The numbers will tell you if your achieving your desired pace. More times than not, the reason your team is not achieving your desired goals is because of effort...making the press or fast break system more complex will likely not make a difference. Getting your kids to play all out is the key a vast majority of the time. The simpler you keep it, the better off the kids will be.