The Play Bank is live.
It's a public library of animated basketball plays, organized the way coaches already think about them: by family. Horns. Flex. Dribble drive. 5-Out. Zoom and the handoff actions. Zone offense. Pick and roll coverages. Youth man and youth zone. Press defenses and press breaks. Baseline out of bounds, sideline out of bounds, and after-timeout plays. Fourteen families, 177 plays as I write this, and every one of them animated step by step with the read and the counter written on the steps.
You can browse all of it right now at elitehoopsapp.com/plays. No account, no app.
That's Horns Fist, the first play in the Horns family. Step through it and you'll see what every play in the bank looks like: the action, the handler's reads against each coverage, and a counter for the defense that takes the first option away.
Why I built it
Most coaches I talk to don't lack ideas. They lack the hour it takes to turn an idea into something players can look at. You see a set on film Tuesday night, you'd like to run it Thursday, and between those two points sits a whiteboard photo, a group text, and five minutes of practice spent explaining instead of repping.
The Play Bank removes the drawing. The set is already diagrammed, already animated, and already annotated. Your job is to pick it, make it yours, and get it in front of your players.
What it does for you
Install a set tonight. Find the family, open the play, and save it. It lands in your playbook as a brand-new play with every step and note intact. The whole thing takes less time than taking a photo of a whiteboard.
Players see it before practice. Every play you save gets the same share link as the plays you draw yourself. Text it to the team and they watch the animation on their phones, with the notes synced to each step. Nobody needs the app or an account to view it.
The reads come with it. I wrote the notes the way I'd explain a play to a staff: what the handler is looking for, what to do when the defense drops, hedges, or switches, and which counter to go to when the first option is gone. Younger coaches get the teaching points. Experienced coaches get a head start on their own notes.
Make it yours. A saved play is yours to edit in the play designer. Rename it to what your team calls it, swap the entry, move a screen, add your own step. Nothing about the original changes for anyone else.
Browse free, save with a free account. Browsing needs nothing. Saving a copy needs a free Elite Hoops account, the same account that gives you the play designer, practice plans, and the drill library.
On a Team Plan, it goes to everyone at once. Save a play into a shared team and it appears in the team's private playbook for every coach, player, and parent you've invited. One save, whole program.
How to use it
- Open the Play Bank and pick a family down the left side, or search for a play by name.
- Open a play and step through it. Read the notes on each step.
- Press Save to put a copy in your playbook. Signed in to the app? Switch your playbook to the Play Bank view and add plays from there without leaving it.
Worth trying: pick one family your team already runs and read the counters. Most coaches find a wrinkle they haven't installed yet.
What's next
The Play Bank is in the next update to the iOS app, coming within a few days. Same families, same plays, same one-tap save into your playbook, on iPhone and iPad.
The bank will keep growing. The families up today are the ones coaches ask about most, and I'm adding to them as I go. If there's a set or a family you want to see in there, tell me and I'll draw it up.
If you want the deeper read on any family, I wrote a guide for each one with every play embedded: Horns, Flex, Dribble Drive, 5-Out, zone offense, zoom and handoffs, pick and roll coverages, youth man-to-man, youth zone, press defenses, press break, baseline out of bounds, and sideline and end-of-game plays.
