The First Scrimmage is Just The First

After our first scrimmage game, there were many comments from people who watched us play who were anxious about the upcoming year. They expressed their concerns about our lack of a cohesive offense. I agreed we did not play team offense; however, we never do this early.

The motion offense is an offense many coaches choose not to teach because it involves teaching multiple concepts. There is one famous coach who calls it the chaos offense because she assumes players are always confused and thus unable to play well. I agree that the motion offense can look chaotic, jumbled and messy. It can also look absolutely beautiful when all five players understand the principles of offense and buy into reading and reacting to the defense.

Unlike plays or continuity offenses, the motion offense requires teaching players to think while playing. They must not only understand spacing, headhunting on screens, reading their defender, choosing which cut or screen to make and the number of passes to make but they must intimately know the strengths and weaknesses of each of their teammates. It can be frustrating to teach and equally frustrating to learn.

The beauty of teaching players how to play the game and not just what "X spot" to run to on offense is that each of them evolve to a higher level of play. They eventually understand how a combination screen confuses the defense, how a back screen is more likely to get the screener open and how to create space by using different cuts. They will always be able to get open no matter what their defender does because they are watching and reacting to where she goes.

Not only does the motion offense create better offensive players; it creates better defensive players. Our defensive players become smarter because they understand what an offensive player is trying to do by cutting or screening. They get the game. When we face opponents who adjust a play from the coach on the sideline by how we defended the first time, we adjust with their adjustment. For example, a coach notices we are switching screens, so she chooses to call a "slip" screen. Because we work on slip screens daily in practice, we are prepared to defend it.

Our offense takes time. Every year there is a breaking point when I am prepared to ditch motion and go to some continuity offense. Just about the time I am ready to throw in the towel, the light bulb goes off and we begin to jell as a unit. It shouldn't take us as long this year to understand and grasp motion offense because we have several returners. So I must remind myself and others who witnessed our first scrimmage, it was just the first.