Book Description

Since the half court offence 5v5 is, by far, the most developed during the match, it is crucial that the players acquire a high strategical and tactical knowledge which propitiates an intelligent decision making process in a hostile environment which changes constantly. Developing a smart game depends, in the first place, on the intelligence of the player (Duprat, 2014) but, when does the player show intelligent behaviour? He shows it when he knows what to do, how to do it, when to act and with whom to act, according to the changing conditions of the game (Ruíz, Gutiérrez, Graupera, Linaza and Navarro, 2001). But five intelligent players are not enough to develop and intelligent game. The intelligent game consists of playing for the benefit of the team. Each player agrees to act for a team objective. He must understand that the individual action is part of a global process that turns into a team effectiveness (López Ros, 2011). Developing an intelligent game requires all the players must learn to cooperate and coordinate their behaviour since a team strategy can only work if each player acts reliably and contributes to the common goal (Gréhaigne, 2014). It is needed that the members of the team act concertedly to achieve the team objectives. The coordination appears when the players synchronise and adjust their behaviour among them to work as a coherent team. This requires the adaptation of each player to the partners and the opponent's actions (Passos and Chow, 2016). Focusing on the half court offence, achieving an autonomous, intelligent and coordinated behavior of the five players at the same time is the most complicated task that we face the teachers of this sport. In order to guarantee this necessary coordination, coaches design set plays in which it is indicated what each player has to do. However, this way of proceeding does not allow players to act autonomously, or to develop an intelligence about the game. So how can we achieve an autonomous, intelligent and coordinated behavior of the five players at the same time? Contributing to the answers to this question is the aim of this book.