6 Questions to Ask to Simplify Your Scouting

Because your players aren't reading that 7 page PDF you gave them

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I’ve been there as an assistant coach - watching 3 full games and spending hours creating an in-depth, wildly impressive, detail-heavy scouting report for players.

I’ve also been on the bench when those same players who I was convinced studied it thoroughly…failed to do the most basic things the scout was asking them to do.

And I’ve seen players and teams get so overwhelmed by a scouting report that they check out…or even worse…feel like the team they are playing is unbeatable because I’ve handed them a list of 13 things the OTHER team does so well.

While perhaps there’s some value to in-depth scouting reports as a coach/coaching staff…it’s probably best (like most things) to keep it simple for your players.

If they can’t easily answer your questions about the game plan, you’re wasting your time.

And I’d argue you’re wasting time worrying about the other team when you could be focusing on being great at whatever YOUR team does (but that’s a post for another time).

Here are 6 questions you need to answer that can simplify your scouting:

1. Who can shoot it from 3?

   1. Who are they and how do we plan on taking the three point shot away from them?

2. Who do we need to keep off the glass?

   1. Who can hurt us most (especially) on the offensive glass and how are we going to keep them off it?

3. Who are the 2 players we need to take away?

   1. How can we take away their 2 best players and force their 3rd, 4th, and 5th best players to find a way to beat us?

4. What do they run defensively?

   1. What do they do on the defensive end AND what is our plan of attack?

5. What do they run offensively?

   1. I don’t believe you need to know every single set the other team runs. There’s nothing wrong with that - but I’d focus on the 2 or 3 things they do most/best and how you want to defend them or take them away.

6. What do we need to do, if anything, differently in preparation for this game?

   1. Is there anything we need to change out of our normal game preparation for this team? Is there something they do VERY well that we need to focus on getting ready for before we play them? Is there something they do NOT do very well that we can exploit? This is where we try to steal a few buckets each game.

   2. Warning - you don’t want to focus TOO much on this…keep this simple as well. If you give your team 17 things the other team does well, it’s very easy for that to get in the head of your team in a negative way.

If your players can’t answer those questions quickly and specifically, you:

• have given them too much information

• need to review/reteach the scout

• or you need to simplify your entire approach

Below the paywall: paid subscribers (and members of HC3) are getting an editable, printable version of this framework to use with their teams.

Keep the faith and see you next time!