Importance of Film Study in Basketball.

By: James O’Dell

Most coaches in the field of basketball would agree with me when I say that one of the best tools to make your team better is film. Rather it be filmed from an upcoming opponent that you are reviewing with your team or film of their own, effective film review is tremendously beneficial to basketball teams. For this blog I have cited two thesis projects from two different times. One is from 1973 and one is from 2023. Around fifty years difference. The first one that I cited comes from Noah Austin John and his work titled Investigation Of Modern Basketball Movement Demands By Film Analysis To Inform Training Interventions from The University of Toronto. He will be cited (John 2023) and from 1973 James Fredrick Burson, MA, BA and his work titled Developing A Systemic Procedure For Basketball Film Analysis And Utilization of The Ohio State University. He will be cited (Burson 1973). Each of these thesis papers do an outstanding job of outlining the importance of film review from the coaching, and player aspects of the game.

Personally in my time playing the game of basketball I did not have to do a lot of team film review. I wish that the coaches that I had would have implemented more film review of not only ourselves but our opponents as well. Watching us play games you could tell that the problems that we had could have been solved by watching film. What I mean by this is that they were not really faster or stronger or had any physical advantage on our team, they were just more prepared for the game and probably knew our offense that we ran better than we did. We ran “flex” commonly known as the Miami offense against any and all defenses so it is pretty easy to figure out once you seen it ran once or twice. They saw it ran in film so they knew what was coming. We rarely watched film so it led to pretty rough games. Not only does this outline the importance of a balanced offense because if you only run one type of offense and your opponent dissects it before the game even starts, you are probably in for a rough game. However, it really shines a light on just how beneficial film review is. From grade eight to my freshman year of high school the team I played on won a total of four games. We played over forty. I truly believe we could have won more if we used all of the tools that we had to our disposal. We basically neglected film use when truly it is important and it is a great tool for coaches and teams.

“A football player is easily convinced of his mistakes when he actually sees himself making them.”(Burson 1973). I believe this quote from Burson does a great job of putting the importance of film review in the aspect of the player. Even though it is from a football aspect, it is true that most athletes will be convinced of their mistakes if they watch their own film. As coaches, you should want your players to see their mistakes because if you discover mistakes early, you could break bad habits faster. Film is a way to measure accountability in competitive sports. With the recent advances in sport filming with apps like Hudl and even YouTube, players are able to access almost any game film that they want. Some coaches track the times that their athletes are on these sites because it measures accountability. In sports and especially basketball, if you want to get better, you will watch film. Watching film of the opponent is important too. Just like a player or a coach can pick out mistakes on their own team, they can pick out mistakes on the opposing team as well. If you had a really hard test in school coming up you would study for it. No competition is supposed to be easy, so prepare yourself for your competitions by studying yourself and your opponent to be as prepared as possible to give the best chances to succeed.

Reading through Burson’s thesis on the film sections I was really surprised with how many ideals we share with the year of 1973. I originally thought that the ideals would be way different but Burson’s thesis makes it clear that watching film is very helpful for teams and the fact that it helps players see their mistakes so they can try and correct them is why film in sports is so effective. So far we have talked about film from a single person standpoint like players studying film and coaches studying film. I feel that it is important for teams and coaching staff to study film as well.

There are benefits that teams can get from studying film as a team. One of those benefits is accountability again. Having team meetings and keeping players accountable is a good idea for your program. Not only that, it also gives coaches the opportunity to touch on subjects in the film that players by themselves could have missed if they had studied the film on their own. Most coaches will create a film script before they go over film to avoid instances of coaches being unorganized and to get the most out of the time that is allotted for the film session.. Team film sessions allow coaches to ensure that the team understands the film and the concepts that happened in the film. There are a few values like effective preparation and accountability that comes with team film sessions, Burson in his thesis states, “These values can be utilized only if the coach knows what he is doing and what he wants to achieve.”(Burson 1973). This quote explains that the coach needs to be knowledgeable and know what they want from the film sessions not only for the players but for the coaching staff as well.

The next work that I am going to reference comes from a very intelligent student from the University of Toronto. Noah Austin John’s thesis mainly talks about player movement but there is a section in his thesis that talks about film in basketball that I feel does an amazing job of describing the importance of learning from your film and the opponent’s films to hopefully find mistakes and fix them before they turn into bad habits.

One idea that John had stated is that film helps future competition which I believe to be correct because if film study is used efficiently and effectively it can help coaches and players improve for future competitions.(John 2023) I truly believe that since film has been introduced to the professional sport scene long ago that the sports that utilize film for review and training, which is most sports, have gotten better since the times where film was not around. Not only that, the additional advancements that have been made to film in sports and social media has helped the recruiting standpoint of sports. As a high school coach, often times it is your number one goal to help develop the kids on your team and to help the get to where they want to be. Most athletes send film to college coaches because they want to play at the next level. If you as a coach have players that want to play at the next level, you can utilize film from their playing time to display to college coaches to hopefully secure an offer or an opportunity for that player. Not only does film have an impact on the court, it could have impacts long after the time on the court with the possibility with a college education.

I would say though the one thing that I liked most about John’s is that he stated that film helps guide player development.(John 2023) I believe this to be completely correct. If you have ever thought about it, there are stages to a basketball season. It is no secret that teams play their best basketball towards the end of the season compared to how they play towards the beginning of the season. One of the best ways to get the most out of training plans is to review film and to really figure out with your coaching staff what the major problems on your team are and to create a practice plan according to those mistakes found in film.

To conclude everything that has been said so far, film is important for player development as well as overall team development and coach development. Film can be used as a blueprint to create effective practice plans for your team and to prepare for future games. As a head coach, it would not be a bad idea to create a guide for the film that you are going over to avoid being unorganized and to fully use the time that you are given efficiently. Remember that players will realize their mistakes faster by actually seeing themselves on film rather than a coach or peer just telling them they are making mistakes. I would like to give credit again to Noah Austin John of The University of Toronto and James Fredrick Burson MA,BA, of The Ohio State University for their thesis works.