Film is everything.
We have never gone into a CIF game without fully dissecting and breaking down opposing team film. You are never too good to prepare, because anybody, on any given night, can not only shock, but humble you.
My absolute favorite part of studying an opposing team, besides breaking down team structure, tendencies, strengths and weaknesses, is to locate and analyze their best player. When a high level scorer enters the gym to play against us, our responsibility is to make sure he does not “get his.”Sometimes, it takes special defenses to handle that particular task, but part of any film session is spent breaking down their individual tendencies, only to make that job a little easier.
I usually watch multiple sample sizes, but if I only have one game on a team, I like to watch it about 2-3 times and at different/strategic times of the day. This process normally gets done before our team practice and prior to showing our players, because once we go into “game prep,” I like to have the game-plan ready to go.
Confidence comes from your body of work. In school, students always do better if they’ve dissected the study guide and prepared for the exam - similarly, film is a study guide to the game. With that said, breaking down game tape is an art and knowing what to look for is a skill, but just like any skill, repetition is key.