Offensive players
Numbered circles, 1–5, usually by position: 1 point guard, 2 shooting guard, 3 wing, 4 power forward, 5 center. The numbers stay consistent so you always know who’s moving.
Start Here ยท The Language
How to read our play diagrams.
Play diagrams are the universal language of basketball coaches. They look like hieroglyphics until you learn a few basic symbols — then every diagram on this site, every clinic, and every whiteboard becomes readable. Learn the legend once here, then teach it to your players before you install a single play. A player can’t run what they can’t read.
The legend
Seven symbols do almost all the work.
Defenders
An X marks a defender (often numbered X1–X5 to show who guards whom). When a diagram shows defense, the X’s are who you’re trying to move, screen, or beat.
Cut / player movement
A solid line with an arrowhead is a player cutting or moving without the ball. The arrow points where the player ends up.
Pass
A dashed line shows the ball being passed from one player to another. Follow the dashes to see where the ball goes.
Dribble
A wavy (zig-zag) line is a player dribbling the ball. The arrowhead shows the direction of the drive or dribble-handoff.
Screen / pick
A solid line ending in a short perpendicular bar is a screen (a pick). The bar is the screener’s body, set where the defender will run into it.
Screen-and-roll / curl
A curved arrow shows a player rolling, curling, or flaring off a screen — a turning path rather than a straight cut.
Who has the ball
An inner ring (or a small dot) on a player means that player has the ball at the start of the action. The ball then travels along the passes and dribbles.
We use standard FastDraw-style notation — the same symbols used across coaching clinics and playbooks — so the diagrams here read the same as the ones on your own whiteboard.
Read one in context
Putting the symbols together.
What this diagram says
Read it like a sentence, in order:
1 has the ball and passes to 2 in the corner (dashed line). 5 steps up and sets a screen (the bar) at the elbow. 2 curls off that screen (the curved solid line) straight to the rim for a catch and finish.
That’s the whole skill: name who has the ball, follow the dashes for passes, follow the solid lines for cuts, and look for the bars where screens are set.