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WE HAVE OFTEN read and written many articles on offensive basketball. Most of them have been directed at a man-for-man or switching man-for-man defense, dealing with the movements of all five players-movements which are so necessary to make "pattern basketball" go. Regardess of which system you might elect to use, it is always necessary to be able to cope with defensive players who are overly aggressive. Sometimes they are called ball hawks, and are very good at the art of picking off passes which are thrown with little or no thought given by the passer as to the position of the defensive man covering the man he is passing to.

Offensively, the tighter the defensive player sticks to his man, the better the offensive player should operate. He should be able to better direct his movements and take advantage by using the other four players to free himself. A good offensive player must constantly study and know what his man is doing and what he can expect of him on certain play situations.

TOOLS FOR OFFENSE

Regardless of the offense used, I'm thoroughly convinced that you must place in the hands of your players "tools" to work with which will take care of these situations. Many coaches are successful offensively in their pattern play by getting the defensive team to cover certain basic movements. They repeat this basic, pattern many times, realizing the defensive team will, of course, use certain defensive counters to cope with the paths the offense employs.

by BRUCE DRAKE

Head Basketball Coach, University of Oklahoma

It's at this point of offensive basketball that many variations are included which are conceived to take advantage of the repetitious movements established by the offensive pattern. These variations are so designed to take advantage of what the defense is doing on certain play situations and, as a rule, are more effective than the original pattern as far as a play is concerned. Actually, you are taking advantage of the expectancy of the defensive ball player to do certain things.

This article is going to deal with the "Trimmings" that can go with any offensive pattern a coach may be using. There are many little stunts that tend to keep the defense honest, and at the same time give a team some vital thrusts at the basket BEFORE you get into your offensive pattern. Players love them and will work hard to perfect them. TWO-PLAYER SITUATIONS

Many times during the normal process of a game, situations come up that can be taken care of with simple signals which involve the player giving the "Cue" and only one other player. Let me give you only a few of these situations that can be used without altering your pattern, and involving only two players.

First, let us take a guard and a forward on the same side of the court on a single post pattern. With the widened lane, I'll have my center in the upper half of the circle and both forwards opposite the freethrow line extended. By working in pairs of twos, signals are used between the two to take care of situa

tions which are not, as a rule, taken care of in your regular pattern play unless it is set up as a special play.

This is not a special play, but employed along with whatever you are using. In this situation, the defensive man covering the forward is overplaying him, or "ball hawking," making the passes from the guard to the forward a tough one to make. The guard bringing the ball down on this side of the floor realizes that it is hard to initiate any offensive thrust on that side of the floor which calls for a pass from him to the forward. These two players immediately realize this situation.

You constantly drill into your men that you are looking for situations like this and have signals between the two which permit the man without the ball to know what the man with the bail will do. The men with the ball, or my guards, give the signals for most of these two-man plays.

When this situation arises in a ball game, the forward's defensive man must be kept "honest." These situations must be dealt with early in the game, so that you are better able to make your normal pattern go. This is accomplished with a signal by the guard bringing the ball down to the forward on the same side of the floor. Only the forward on that side of the court needs to know what is going on.

This makes it more effective since two players are more apt to get the signal than five. And since it really involves two players on the initial thrust, and because of its speed I don't think it necessary for the others to know.

As shown in Diagram 1, the defensive player covering X1 (01) is overplaying him. Your guard, X2, realizes this immediately and gives the signal while dribbling the ball down the floor. This signal may be anything that X1 and X2 might care to use that will be hard for the opposition to pick up. X2 dribbles as far as his defensive man will permit, stops, and feints a pass to X1. To make this go, X1 must make a good feinting move out as if to take the pass from X2, then cuts sharply to the goal through the back door, taking a pass from X2 to score.

By doing this early in the game, it will certainly make the defensive man "honest" and make your normal passes to the forwards a lot easier. The same can be worked on the other side of the court between guard X3 and forward X4.

OTHER OPTIONS

If as shown in Diagram 1, X1 does not receive the pass from X2 on his solo cut for the basket, X5 moves out to take the pass from the stranded player X2 who has the ball and has used his dribble, (see Diag. 2). If

this happens, X2 hits X5 with a pass and may cut to either side of X5. X5 may give off or feint giving off and spin away from the cutter, trying to go all the way to the basket.

In Diagram 3 we have another option after Diagram 1 does not go. X2 hits the post man X5 and blocks back for X3. This is optional with the guards whether to solo cut or block back for the other guard. X5 has two options on this play, if the guard who hits him blocks back. He may hit X3 as he drives by or he may hit X2 if the defense is checking or switching as shown in Diagram 4.

COACH DRAKE

These simple movements will not alter your set pattern of play, and they give the players responsibility to do a little thinking on their own as the game is going on. We need a little more of this in our game today. When the players themselves cash in on a situation, it makes them feel pretty good and makes you look pretty good as a coach.

Once this stunt is used and the defensive man covering X1 is made to look bad trying to intercept a pass or two, then of course he is not quite as bright-eyed and bushy-headed to overplay his opponent; and then, of course, your regular plan of attack can be put into operation without as much difficulty. Players love to take advantage of defensive mistakes and, by including some of these "trimmings," I have found my players work doubly hard on spotting defensive mistakes their men are making and just as hard to perfect ways and means to capitalize on them. SIMPLE OFFENSIVE STUNT

Using the same players in this next situation, here is another stunt (Concluded on page 49)

O

Fitness Conference delegates on the Woodner Terrace.

N SEPTEMBER 12, 116 Association members and leaders in the profession met in Washington to prepare a statement outlining their consensus of knowledge and belief concerning fitness, and to plan for its implementation by the Association.

This AAHPER Conference on Fitness resulted from action taken by the Board of Directors at its Chicago meeting last March. Such a conference was seen as essential in pointing the direction of the Association's fitness program.

The Conference opened with a general session chaired by Harold K. Jack, director of health, physical education, safety, and recreation, Virginia State Department of Education, who served as Conference Director.

Pattric Ruth O'Keefe, AAHPER president-elect, welcomed the group. and set the stage for the meeting. Ray O. Duncan, AAHPER president, outlined events leading up to the Conference. Shane MacCarthy, newly appointed executive director

of President Eisenhower's Council

on Youth Fitness, discussed highlights of the Council's formation.1 Ruth Abernathy, AAHPER pastpresident, established basic issues underlying consideration of fitness. FITNESS STATEMENT

The Conference was planned to provide every opportunity for individual participation. Twelve groups, of nine or ten participants each, met to prepare a consensus statement on fitness. Following these meetings, three intermediate groups of approximately 40 each, drew up a combined statement. These three statements were then discussed in a general session.

An editorial committee composed of Marion R. Broer, University of Washington; Arthur S. Daniels, Ohio State University; Margaret G. Fox, State University of Iowa; Fred V. Hein, Bureau of Health Education, American Medical Association; Dorothy La Salle, Wayne State University; Laurence E. Morehouse, University of California, Los Ange

1 See the Executive Order establishing the Council, Sept. 1956 JOURNAL, p. 10.

les; John H. Shaw, Syracuse University; and Robert Yoho, Indiana State Board of Health and State Department of Public Instruction; and chaired by Delbert Oberteuffer, Ohio State University; was appointed by the Conference to prepare the final statement of knowledge and belief concerning fitness. This final conference statement on fitness is scheduled to appear in the December JOURNAL.

PLANS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

A similar conference procedure was followed in arriving at plans for implementing the fitness statement. The editorial committee selected to prepare a final draft was chaired by Howard G. Danford, Florida State University, and included included Paul Brechler, State University of Iowa; Charles A. Bucher, New York University; Charles Forsythe, State Department of Public Instruction, Lansing, Michigan; Edward Greenwood, M.D., child psychiatrist, National Advisory Council for Children and Youth, also Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas; Creigh

ton J. Hale, Little League Baseball, Inc.; Delia P. Hussey, Board of Education, Detroit; Edward B. Johns, University of California, Los Angeles; August H. Pritzlaff, Board of Education, Chicago; and Marion E. Purbeck, Hackensack High School, Hackensack, New Jersey.

LEADERS AND RECORDERS

Group leaders and recorders were: Ruth Abernathy, AAHPER pastpresident, University of California, Los Angeles; Lloyd Appleton, associate director of physical education, U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York; Glenn Arnett, San Diego County Schools, San Diego, California; Elizabeth P. Autrey, Stetson University; Hester Beth Bland, Indiana State Board of Health; Carolyn Bookwalter, Indiana University; Donald Boydston, Southern Illinois University; Marion R. Broer, University of Washington; Roscoe Brown, New York University; John M. Cooper, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Howard G. Danford, Florida State University; Arthur S. Daniels, Ohio State University; Ray 0. Duncan, AAHPER president, West Virginia University; Paul A. Fairfield, director of health and physical education, New Rochelle, New York; Margaret G. Fox, State University of Iowa; James H. Humphrey, University of Maryland; Barbara Kerch, Public Schools, Granite City, Illinois; Dorothy La Salle, Wayne State University; Nelson G. Lehsten, The University School, University of Michigan; Lynn W. McCraw, University of Texas; Bernice Moss, University of Utah; Jane A. Mott, Smith College; J. G. Neal, Minnesota State Department of Education; Karl C. H. Oermann, University of Pittsburgh; Pattric Ruth O'Keefe, AAHPER president-elect, Public Schools, Kansas City, Missouri; Perry Sandell,

Shane MacCarthy, executive director, Council on Youth Fitness; Ray O. Duncan, AAHPER President; and Harold K. Jack, Conference Director.

Bureau of Dental Health Education, American Dental Association; Jeannette B. Saurborn, Public Schools, Great Neck, New York; John H. Shaw, Syracuse University; Frank D. Sills, State University of Iowa; Ned L. Warren, Peabody College for Teachers; Charles C. Wilson, M.D., Yale University.

The Conference Steering and Planning Committee included the Association officers, and the staffs of the U. S. Office of Education and AAHPER headquarters.

ADDITIONAL PARTICIPANTS

Anita Aldrich; George F. Anderson; Jackson M. Anderson; Elizabeth S. Avery; Theodore P. Bank; W. W. Bauer, M.D.; Ernest V. Blohm; Karl Bookwalter; Margaret Bourne; Lucille Bowers; Paul Brechler; Rachel E. Bryant; John W. Bunn.

Forrest Clark; H. Harrison Clarke; Helen Corrubia; T. K. Cureton; Elwood C. Davis; Hazel Dettman; Bernard E. Empleton; Anna Espenschade; A. A. Esslinger; Ruth

Evans; J. Wynn Fredericks; Elizabeth B. Gardner; I. H. Goldberger, M.D.; George H. Grover; T. J. Hamilton; Howard A. Hobson; William L. Hughes; Paul Hunsicker.

Warren R. Johnson; Edwina Jones; Peter V. Karpovich, M.D.; Lt. Col. Frank J. Kobes; George J. Kozak; Paul E. Landis; John D. Lawther; M. M. Mackenzie; George Maksim, M.D.; Zollie Maynard; Charles H. McCloy; Simon A. McNeely; Ross Merrick; Lois Messler; Henry J. Montoye; Cecil W. Morgan; Grover W. Mueller; George Munger; N. P. Neilson; Edward W. Pastore; B. E. Phillips.

Josephine L. Rathbone; Josephine E. Renshaw, M.D.; A. J. Rubino; Mabel E. Rugen; Sidney Scarborough; John John Scherlacher; Elsa Schneider; Frank D. Sills; Caroline Sinclair; Elena Sliepcevich; Eugene H. Sloane; Julian W. Smith; Helen Starr; Arthur H Steinhaus; Helen Stuart; Carl A. Troester, Jr.; George Van Bibber; Elmon L. Vernier; Rev. William R. Vernon; Ruth Weythman; and J. Grove Wolf.★