One of the first things that coaches look at when evaluating their talent in the preseason is overall team speed. There is no substitute for team speed, which can be an immeasurable asset to a basketball program. Speed is one common denominator for all successful teams, whether in high school, college, or the National Basketball Association. Top performing teams all have excellent speed and can get down courty quickly.
The fast break is one of the best-known tools in basketball. If you have the talent to get down the court and score points in a hurry, why not use it? The key to running the right fast break is to create mismatches. You want to see three-on-twos, three-on-ones, or two-on-ones, all in your favor. As simplistic as it may sound, there is a lot more to running a successful fast break than just grabbing a rebound and running the length of the court. It has to be coached and taught. Just like any other offense, players have to be in the right spots to work the break completely.
When you develop a reputation for deploying an effective fast break system after each rebound, teams will stay at your end of the court after a basket to press you. With this in mind, you will have to develop multiple ways of breaking the press and getting the ball down court in a hurry using ball movement and player positioning. To do this, you will have to teach all your players to rebound the ball and push it up the court.
At the end of the day, an effective fast break system executed by a team with speed endowed players is not only exciting to watch, but more importantly, difficult to stop.
