Offensive Concepts: Headlights and Taillights

In your offense, what are the other 3 (or 4) perimeter players doing on a drive to the basket? Standing still? Cutting? Circle movement?

A simple way to improve your conceptual offense is to coordinate the movements of players as the ball is moved via dribble or pass. Two of those simple movements are included in the concepts of headlights and taillights.

So to recap, when a player drives the ball, we want to teach his teammates to get a player in the driver’s “headlights” and a player in his “taillights” so that if that drive is stopped by the defense, the driver knows exactly where a teammate will be to receive a pass. These two basic concepts will improve your half court offense, creating big advantage shots and keeping the pace within the flow of the offense.

Additional Resources

I’ve found that one of the most, if not the most, important ingredient to a successful conceptual offense is the communication that goes into conveying the concepts within your offensive system. Three coaches who do a great job with communicating concepts are Furman’s Bob Richey, Villanova’s Jay Wright, and Lipscomb’s Lennie Acuff.

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