The "Three Men Weave" (or "Criss Cross") is a drill that we all know. And being a player, we all did it a lot. And I think all of us ran it a lot when we started coaching kids. Must have been good if we did it so many times as a player, right? But... WHY? If I ask this question to coaches on my clinics, nobody seems to be able to give me a decent answer. I don't see it. I don't see a single good reason to run the three men weave. Because it teaches bad habits that will kill any notion of spacing in our game. Coaches go crazy when players follow their pass in attacking a full court press while ... that's what those kids have been doing all week long in their warm-ups 🤔.
I hear no better reasons than "it's a good warm-up drill, makes you warm 😜" or "we work on passing while we move", ... I'm happy to notice that more and more coaches abandon the weave for more useful warm-up drills that respect your spacing rules nowadays! But there is one exception...
In game warm-ups, worldwide, I see the weave up to halfcourt to end in a 2on1 at the basket. On top of the bad spacing habits, I see it barely ever ending in a game-like 2on1 with game intensity.
At my coaches clinic at Valencia Basket recently, I presented an alternative for this. In this 2 minute video below, I'll show you a drill:
- that uses every inch of the halfcourt available for a game warm-up
- that works on passing while sprinting
- that ends in a 2on1 at game speed and intensity
- which is perfectly gamelike, where the pass is coming from the PG to wing on the side of the court while there is a defender sprinting back in the middle of the court
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Pascal Meurs (°1980) works currently as the headcoach of EuroProBasket International Academy for professional players in Valencia, Spain. He has experience as a headcoach at the highest level in Belgium, The Netherlands, France and Luxembourg & was part of the staff ofthe Saint Joseph’s Hawks (NCAA1).
Pascal is an expert in advanced basketball analytics with a Phd in mathematics. As a skilled speaker on coaching clinics, he has been invited to three different continents. For Eleven Sports, he’s an NBA analyst on Belgian TV.
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