Pistol Offense Volume 2: Pistol Elbow & Pistol Up

Continuing to show options inside our Pistol set. This video goes back over the basics while also showing some additional reads as well as our Pistol Elbow and Pistol Up calls.

[@tylorbrand7802]

This is so clear and well explained

[@tommygraham3514]

Coach, This is fantastic work. Love it. I love the options on offense and the ability to attack and shoot

[@billabner]

Appreciate it!

[@kennethrobinson6738]

This is awesome. Thanks, Coach!

[@chadspencer9302]

Love it. Thanks coach.

[@Samuel_McMillan]

Great video thank you for making this!

[@billabner]

you're very welcome coach

[@ricktigges1098]

Hey Coach -- I am a high school boys coach in Idaho that has been utilizing the Pistol Continuity as our primary offense for a couple of years. I really like the offense as well and so do our players. Some good ideas on some a couple of options here - I like the UP action and had not used that. We also recently implemented Zoom, Spain PNR and Stagger actions into the offense as options depending on where the ball goes from the guard setting us up -- as you said in the video the great part is the kids just react to the defense and where the ball goes, no called plays or actions.

[@billabner]

Hey coach. Thanks. Yeah you can really customize it to fit what you like. Love zoom action and we've been running zoom stuff as entries into our base offenses. I've always struggled with Spain PnR for some reason. The "up" action is really "pistol 21" that NBA teams run but in half court and not transition. I really, really like that. Last year we ran Pistol out of transition but not as a continuity -- we ran Underwood's Spread. It just depends on the team I have. But yes, it's really just a read the defense offense. If you have at least 3 kids who can handle and a big that buys in, it's very effective.

[@brucemercer7753]

I recognize several of those courts. 1 is the KFEC in Louisville, maybe you were at "Roses", I think I see Hoops and MidAmerica too

[@coachmalcomsyoutubechannel7304]

Coach, would love to see some of your build up practice drills for this action.

[@billabner]

I have them in fast draw, but we start with 2x0, build to 3x0 etc. then we play a lot of 3x3 and 4x4. So for example, to start we might have a player in the slot with the ball and a player in the corner and we'll work on dribble at backdoors. The line would be in the slot and the passer becomes the next cutter. Then we'll do dribble at keepers, then do the DHO into a drive or shot or a roll feed. We will do that on both sides of the floor depending on numbers. Then work on throwbacks into a post feed or a 3. We'll spend 15 minutes at the start of practice and use this as our warm up. After that, we'll do 3x3 a lot and give them the freedom to make a read. We might tell the defense how to play it (hedge the screen, overplay the DHO, etc.) After the kids are comfortable with the 3 player action on the ball side, add the 4th and 5th player and allow the slot player to stay spaced, loop behind or downscreen depending on what their defender is doing. With pistol you can control the action as much as you want or make it more motion based and just let the kids play. The biggest issue you'll probably have at the start is that you can teach the basic DHO+ball screen+ roll in 10 minutes. The offense gets a lot tougher to guard when you add in all of the other actions -- backdoors, keepers, pushes, throwbacks, loops, elbow, and so on. That's the part that takes time because a lot of kids just want to keep running the basic action, which is fine -- but eventually you need to break that continuity against good teams.

[@jmalcom5416]

@@billabner Thanks Coach. I didn’t think about using 2v0 or 3v0 as a warmup. I definitely will incorporate that in my program. I have 12u, so the continuity offense is effective. I give them a freedom to ‘discover’ actions, like passbacks, etc. When they do, I call those actions out and we incorporate them moving forward. This is good stuff, Coach. Thanks again for responding!

[@Ben27527]

I love your videos, can you do a video on a press break? And how to handle the pressure?

[@billabner]

Will have to dig through the archive a little. Last few years in high school and AAU I had an elite PG that teams rarely pressed. I’ll see if I can find something though.

[@terryd89]

Hello - do you run the hand off ball screen action as continuity? If the first side did not create a shot, I assume the post player could sprint back to top of key and run hand off ball screen action it on other side?

[@billabner]

Yes, we run this as a continuity but you can also run this as a one-time action that flows into other stuff.

[@michaeljones-gq8wy]

Hey, do you have a link to volume 1? Thanks!

[@benmurf207]

Coach, I know you seem to have great post players, but I have a variation of this that we have run when we don't have much size. Would love to talk to you about it. You might be able to use it as a counter or a quick hitter to throw off the defense.

[@billabner]

shoot me an email Ben. wiabner at gmail

[@benmurf207]

4:46 - What is the read you are looking for when the guard keeps it?

[@bjaldridge783]

Hello Coach. I happened upon this video and absolutely love it! I am high school coach and would love to talk you more about this offense. Is there a way to contact you?

[@billabner]

[e-mail]

[@chadspencer9302]

Coach can you run this vs a zone? I was thinking if you ball screen the top of the screen as to take the kid coming off the screen then you will have an overload on the weak side with the defense forward guarding 2 players

[@billabner]

Yeah. Go to 7:22 in this clip. Not pistol but similar idea. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZLKn4qdh82orLc

[@franciefitzhugh1376]

Do you have to specifically call "up" or can the point guard choose to DHO (original video) or hit the wing and get the DHO and play from there like the 2nd video. Thanks

[@billabner]

Up is either a call or something we do out of transition

[@franciefitzhugh1376]

@@billabner thank you for answering. Do you ever have the wing come up and pick for the point who can either go to the basket, or swing the flare back to the picker. Just a variation. Thanks and have a great Thanksgiving.

[@erikmanguslehnsherr4389]

Is there a defense that gave you problems with this offense?

[@patrickwhitney6008]

Where is volume 1?

[@billabner]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqKmdpmDh5upg7s