Academy / Guides / Checking plays
How to check your players actually know the playbook
Ask players to show you, not tell you. Have them draw the play on a blank court, call out a step and ask one player for their job, or stop a walkthrough and ask what happens next. Check a few players at a time, at different spots, the day after you teach a play and again before you need it in a game.
Why doesn’t “Everyone got it?” work?
Because players believe they know a play before they do. In a memory study, students who reread a passage expected to remember more of it than students who practiced recalling it, then remembered less a week later: 40% against 61%.[1] Nodding along after a walkthrough is the basketball version of rereading.
Showing you is different. A player who has to draw the cut or say the read finds out what they don’t know, and so do you. A review of ten common study methods rated practice testing as one of only two with high value, and rated rereading low.[2] A check is a test, so it teaches while it measures.
What are the best ways to check?
Six that fit into a normal practice. None needs equipment beyond a whiteboard.
- 1Draw it on a blank court
Call a play and have two or three players draw it on the whiteboard, each a different spot. Takes about two minutes.
Shows: whether they know the whole play, not just their part - 2Call a step, ask one player
“Horns Flare, step 2. Four, what’s your job?” Pick the player after you ask, so everyone has to think.
Shows: each player’s job in each step - 3Freeze the walkthrough
Stop the play mid-step and ask where the ball goes next, or what the cutter does if the defender goes under.
Shows: whether they know the read, not just the path - 4Swap spots
Put a guard at the 4 and run it at half speed. Subs and foul trouble put players in spots they didn’t practice.
Shows: who can fill in where - 5Call it cold
In a scrimmage, call the play with no warning and watch the first two seconds. Do all five get to the right spots?
Shows: whether they know it under pressure - 6Quiz between practices
Players answer on their phones at home, so practice time goes to running plays, not re-explaining them.
Shows: whether it stuck after they left the gym
What should you check in each play?
Five things. A player who gets all five can run the play; one who knows only the first two will be in the right spot and then stand still.
| Check | Question to ask | Horns Flare example |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment | Where does everyone start? | 4 and 5 at the elbows, 2 and 3 in the corners, 1 up top |
| First action | What starts the play? | 1 passes to 5 |
| Each job | What do you do in step 2? | 4 screens the 1’s defender; 1 cuts to the wing |
| The read | What if the defense takes that away? | Your counter, in your words |
| The finish | Where should the shot come from? | 1 catches on the wing, ready to shoot |
The read is yours to define. Different coaches teach different counters for the same set, so check players against what you taught, not a diagram from somewhere else.
How do you keep track without a gradebook?
A simple grid on a clipboard: plays across the top, players down the side, and a mark each time you check someone. Three marks are enough.
Example only: made-up jersey numbers and plays.
| Player | Horns Flare | Floppy | Box BLOB | Press break |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #3 | Knows it | Knows it | Partly | Knows it |
| #10 | Knows it | Partly | Partly | Not yet |
| #15 | Knows it | Knows it | Partly | |
| #22 | Partly | Knows it | Partly | Not yet |
Read the grid by column first. When most of the team is “Partly” on one play, like Box BLOB above, the play needs reteaching, not the players. When one player misses several plays, that’s a conversation with that player.
Keep the grid between you and your staff. Your players are minors, and a posted chart of who doesn’t know the plays helps no one learn them.
How often should you check?
The day after you install a play, then a few days later, then before the game you plan to run it. Spacing the checks out helps players remember the play longer, which is the other method the same review rated highly.[2] Our guide on how to teach basketball plays has a one-week plan with the checks built in.
Can players check themselves between practices?
Yes, if they have something to check against. A printed playbook lets them reread, which feels like studying but does little. Better options make them produce the answer: drawing the play from memory and comparing it to your diagram, or a quiz that asks them to draw each step.
In BenchStats Academy Players open one team code on their phones, watch your play animate, then answer by drawing the pass, cut or screen for each step. Every action in a step has to be right before the next one opens. You see how the team is using the playbook, not a score for each player, so the in-person checks above are still how you learn who knows what. Try the sample play
Sources
- Henry L. Roediger III and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention, Psychological Science 17(3), 2006, pages 249 to 255. Experiment 2: recall one week later, and students’ ratings of how well they expected to remember. Checked 2026-11-04.
- John Dunlosky, Katherine A. Rawson, Elizabeth J. Marsh, Mitchell J. Nathan and Daniel T. Willingham, “Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 14(1), 2013. Summary: Which study strategies make the grade?, Association for Psychological Science. Checked 2026-11-06.