RUN MOTION…………………………………………………………

Almost every game I ref at the middle school, high school JV, Freshmen and Varsity and College I hear coaches Yell out “Run Motion”………..

I see so much motion , I almost get Motion sickness.

I swear they all must have went to the same basketball clinic sometime.

Motion offense is a man to man offense that is usually run out of a 1-2-2 or 3-2 offensive set. It is geared by the point guard passing to one of the wings and then the point guard screens away the opposite win. The wing with the ball looks to get the ball to the post man on the low block on his side of the court. If the post player is not open then he usually will go away and screen the opposite low post player and the wing looks for his cut to the paint.

If the wing or neither post players are open then the wing with the ball passes the ball to the new point guard who came for the opposite wing position. After passing the ball to the point the wing then goes down and screens to new post player and swaps positions and then they run motion again to either side.

The problem with this offense is sometimes when the post player who does get the ball originally turns and goes across the lane to screen the opposite post player, the wing with the ball passes after he has turned his back on the ball.

Also, the post player many times does not get the ball from the wing when he is open.

The other thing on the original look at the post player the post player does not seal the defender correctly to get open.

Also, many times the screen is not effective because the screener does not screen a wing or post and actually just swaps positions with the player they are screening.

Also, it is very easy to double team the post on the pass to the wing as the player guarding the post player looking for the ball fronts the post and the defender guarding the opposite lane side post player comes over and doubles him from behind, Then the wing on the opposite side of the ball drops down to cover the low post player on his side.

This leaves the opposite wing open. If the wing with the ball uses a cross court pass across the basketline to the wing that is open, if the players who have moved to adjust to double team the post on the ball side leave the spot that they are on the court, as soon as the wing with the ball releases the ball they have plenty of time to recover and close out their original assignments.

There is a very effective way to defend the 1-2-2 or 3-2 motion offense by just switching on all screens away from the ball. As the defenders know where the screened player is going to go. This way the defense does not have to change floor positions as it really becomes a 1-2-2 or 3-2 match up zone.

By switching it does look like a 1-2-2 or 3-2 matchup zone.

We used to do this so we would not have to chase their players around from block to wings and vice versa and it kept our big men on the blocks to rebound.

When teams thought we were in a zone they would run their zone offense and usually go 2-1-2 against it. When this happened we would quickly match up man to man and then when they found out we were man to man and they would go to motion. Then we would just matchup in the 1-2-2 or 3-2 zone against their motion formations of 1-2-2 or 3-2.

This would confuse teams and it was an easy way to defend motion.

There are ways to correct or help the offense with the problems the 1-2-2 or 3-2 motion faces:

1. How to seal the post defender when wanting the ball when he is open.
2. How to make sure the wing does not pass the ball to the post player when he turns his back to go screen the opposite post player.
3. How to prevent the post player looking for the ball from fouling and pushing off on a pass to him when he is being fronted by his defender.
4. How to signal the post player to go screen away when he is not open.
5. How the post player can signal where and when he wants the ball in the post from the wing player trying to get him the ball.
6. How to set up the defender guarding the post player if he is being semi-fronted by his defender on the block.
7, How to get the defense to stop switching or playing a 1-2-2 or 3-2 match up zone.
8. How to get a new player to the post with just one simple signal.
9. How to make one move that will take away the double team on the post player trying to receive the pass from the wing.

No solutions right now. But will cover these problems with the Motion Offense on Thursday next week on my Bangor Daily News BLOG