Oncourt Communication
Every year that I coach I have placed more and more emphasis on the importance of communication. On-court, off-court, offense or defence it does not really matter.
Boston Celtics Assistant Coach Kevin Eastman recently posted a great article on defensive communication on his Blog that I recommend you look at (He also has a fantastic subscription service that I will be signing up for). He listed the following important reasons for the importance of defensive communication that you can relay to your team to get them to understand how much it can help them individually and collectively:
Communication gives the defense a head start on the play or the action. If your teammate tells you a back screen is coming, you are able to react to it prior to the contact; if your point guard yells out the set that the opponent just called, it allows your entire team to “sniff out” what is about to be run
Communication develops trust. If we communicate properly and follow the talk with the appropriate action defensively then we begin to trust each other; once we get that trust we find that our defense gets more aggressive and more confident because we know someone always has our back
Communication intimidates. We strongly feel that if we can constantly communicate with each other that we can — and will — gain an advantage because they know that we know what is about to be run and who the play is for; this becomes a tremendous strength of the defense.
Communication keeps every player more alert. In order to communicate, you must be paying attention to what is going on on the floor. The more you pay attention, the more you can cover up a mistake made by a teammate; you can “plug a hole” in our defense.
Effective communication is a three-step process. It must be (1) early – communicate as early as possible; (2) loud – communicate as loudly as you can so that your teammate can hear it; and (3) continuous – you must repeat your command three times to ensure that your teammate hears it — “PICK RIGHT – PICK RIGHT – PICK RIGHT.”
Communicate with more than your voice. Many arenas are very loud so you should communicate with your hands and fingers by pointing at actions. You can also communicate intensity by your body language; players and coaches know who is into the game by the body language on the court.
Whether is be on the offensive or defensive end, Improved communication will do two things for your team. First, it will cut down on unforced errors that result from a lack of talk, which is all too common at every level.
Second, describing what is about to happen enhances your anticipatory skills — that is, you’re less likely to be one of those players to whom everything is a complete and utter surprise.
Former USA Volleyball national team member and pro indoor/beach volleyball professional April Chapple wrote a great article “Girls Playing Club Volleyball - Top 5 Reasons Why Communication is Key” which i found after giving up trying to find basketball specific articles on communication.
She made some great points that transfer really well to basketball:
I’ve always said that refusing to talk on the court is like playing volleyball with a blindfold on. How is anyone going to know “who” is going to do “what” if no one is talking about anything?
Teammates should always talk to each other and direct traffic among themselves. There are many, many situations in which players who talk to each other avoid problems of confusion, indecision and surprise on the court.
If you are concentrating on how the play is developing, you can learn to call out what is going to happen before it happens.
A lot of people are quiet in defense and assume that everybody sees the same thing. Remember…people always interpret what they see differently…just ask a cop.
Teammates need to be able to “see” or interpret the same thing ..in the same say. Since this doesn’t always happen if you see a play developing Call it out so everyone knows what YOU see developing.
If you have 3-4-5 voices all calling the same thing…then everyone knows that everybody else is seeing the same play. This way its easier to see and make adjustments during the pauses in the game because no one is guessing about what’s on the other person’s mind.
I’ve learned that it takes a second for people to react to what is happening so I repeat the word over and over again so it gets in my teammates minds what is going on.
