Real Talk – What An Opponent Scouting Report Says About You

If you want to get real about your game and feedback you need to find out what the scouting report on YOU would be. If you have played basketball at a competitive level, your coach has given you the scouting report on the other team. They have told you things like:

this player can’t go left
this player struggles and turns the ball over when you pressure him
this player can’t shoot so you can lay off them

Guess what… you need to think about what the other team’s coach would say about you! In the other locker room, people on the other team are talking about YOU and your tendencies.

How to do a self scouting report

Sometimes it is difficult to figure this out on your own because we have a tough time truly seeing our own weaknesses, but there are a few ways to develop your own self scouting report

Watch game film

Spend time watching your game film is one way… When you do it you want to try to use some data or stats to understand. How often do you go right vs. left? What % do you shoot off the catch? What % do you shoot off the dribble? When you are playing defense do you lose track of your man when in help side? Are you late giving help? Slow on a rotation?

Ask a coach or trainer

A second approach would be to talk to your own coach or assistant coach. To do this, you must be willing to hear some tough feedback. What the coach tells might not feel good, but he is just trying to make you better as a player. Listen to your coach and ask them for their help in fixing your weaknesses.

Gather feedback

Another thing you could do is to talk to your teammates, mentors, or even competitors and ask them about your game. If teammates have practiced and played against you then probably know how they try to guard you or how they try to beat you when you guard them. It’s like you are friends off the court with some of your school or AAU competitors, talk to them about what they see in your game and what they think you need to work on. Many of you have some people you look up to as a kind of “mentor”, this might be a relative, a friend, or even a parent. If that mentor has a good basketball mind, get feedback from them as well

It’s easy to not do any of these things. It’s easy to not seek the feedback. It’s hard to heard what you do not do well. It’s hard to fix your weaknesses. If you want to be great, skip the easy, and go do what is hard.