Pat Summitt’s Top Tips on Coaching Women’s Basketball

• By Grant Young

Women's basketball has never been better than it is right now.

The Caitlin Clark Effect is in full swing, Angel Reese has become a global phenomenon, and the WNBA’s entire 2024 rookie class is packed with superstars who are bringing unprecedented levels of attention to the league. 

And we can’t forget about the league’s veteran superstars, either. Players like Breanna Stewart, A’ja Wilson, and Diana Taurasi have been holding the torch for years, and the wider sports world is just starting to catch on to how incredible these basketball players are. 

But these fantastic females wouldn’t have gotten to where they are today without coaches like Pat Summitt (and her women's basketball training) to guide them. 

Coach Pat Summitt is the former University of Tennessee head women's college basketball coach. During her career coaching the Lady Vols from 1974 to 2012, she lead the team to eight NCAA championships. Coach Summitt was the first NCAA coach to achieve 1,000 victories, and in 2009, the Sporting News placed her at number 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time in all sports (she was the only woman on the list). In 38 years as a coach, she never had a losing season.

The same coaches who taught Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and A’ja Wilson about the game’s basics learned many of their methods from Coach Summitt. And her ‘Coaching Women's Basketball’ course is a gold mine for any coach who wants to get the most out of their female players’ careers.  

Backcourt

Coach Summitt begins her course by talking about defense. Specifically, how to defend in the backcourt.

She then goes on to say that she likes to have her players defending at an arm’s distance while in the backcourt. And with each step that is made during the act of defending, Coach Summitt explains it as, “step and pull.” What she means by that is, that with each defending step while the player with the ball is dribbling down the court, the back leg should be felt as if it’s getting pulled along. 

Coach Summitt explains that the “step and pull” concept runs contrary to the “pivot” technique, which she claims will often make the player reactive, and therefore easy to get beat by the dribbler. But with the “step and pull” technique, the defender is the one leading the dance, so to speak.

She then goes on to say that all coaches must decide the position they’d like to have their defenders' hands. Coach Summitt explains that she wants her players to keep their hands up high (with their “thumbs to the ears”), low hips, and quick feet. 

While these defensive backcourt techniques might result in a turnover and an easy basket, Coach Summitt notes that the most important aspect of backcourt defense is that it allows the other defenders in the front court to set the defense up, so that they don’t allow easy transition baskets. 

Attacking the Middle of the Floor

At the foundation of Coach Summitt’s offensive attack is transition. She believes that all good, winning offense stems from playing fast, and getting out on transition as often as possible. 

And when the fast break occurs, Coach Summitt stresses that attacking the middle of the floor is paramount.

“Why?” she asks rhetorically. “Because it puts pressure on the defense. And it keeps pressure on the defense.”

Coach Summitt then simulates a situation where a turnover occurs, while her team is on defense. She says that the first guard (who doesn’t have the ball) who can attack the middle of the floor needs to do so. From there, the next guard is “busting it” to the opposite sideline from wherever the turnover occurred. And the first pass that takes place should be to the guard who’s streaking down the court’s middle. 

If that pass can’t be made because the defender is occupied, whoever secured the ball after the turnover should begin dribbling hard down the court’s middle. From here, the fast break turns into the iconic three-man weave drill, where the person in the middle of the court will be driving down into the lane with teammates on either side, creating an opportunity to pass to either of them, continue dribbling into the paint or pulling up for a shot. 

Change Drill

Coach Summitt’s aggressive, fast-paced, offensive-minded coaching style is exemplified by one of her favorite drills to run at practice: the change drill. 

The change drill is simple. It starts in the halfcourt, with a typical 5 vs. 5 scenario. The team on offense will be passing the ball back and forth along the perimeter until the coach yells, “change!”. At this, whoever has the ball sets it on the ground, and somebody on the offense picks it up and begins a transition attack. But the important aspect of this drill is that, when the team who started on offense gets into transition defense, they can’t be guarding the same person who was guarding them before the “change!” call occurred. 

The reason for this is that it forces the defense to communicate and work together in the chaos that a transition opportunity creates. Practicing drills like these will give players crucial repetitions that will serve them well once the game begins. 

Truthfully, all of this wisdom can be used when coaching any basketball team. But because the women’s game is more focused on skills and technique because they can’t rely on the sheer physical size and explosiveness that men possess (at least, as it pertains to the professional game) women are often more fundamentally sound than their male counterparts. 

The modern WNBA is an example of that. And as the women’s game continues to grow, with superstars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark shining bright, the teachings of Pat Summitt will become even more valuable.