Blog

These drills are from the July Arizona Newsletter.

There is a link at the end of this post if you are interested in downloading the complete newsletter.

I hope this gives you a thought or two to add a drill for the upcoming season, or to find a way to improve your versions of these drills.

Practice Drills of the Month

Wildcat Money Ball — 2 players 1 ball

• Goals are 11 in 1 minute, 22 in 2 minutes, 33 in 3 minutes
• Start with a drive and kick worth 3 pts
• Same shooter takes 4 shots in a row
• Shots 2-4 are worth 1 pt each
• Last shot is from 15 ft.
• Switch shooters and repeat

Close-out 3 man weave

• 2 passes with the 3 pass a skip across with
• a close-out coming from middle defender
• Man who skipped it becomes help side defender
• Live 1 on 2 after the skip pass
• Drill going live at both ends

Olympic Shooting — 4 min (5 balls)

• 3 players on court with two passers on each baseline
• Start with pass to wing, back to middle,opposite wing for lay-up
• No dribble before the lay-up
• Two players left shoot jump shots, receiving passes from baseline
• Wing Shooters become baseline passers and lay-up man continues in drill with the original baseline passers
• Drill counts 2’s and 3’s

Green Bay Transition

• 3 on 3 full court with two outlets out of bounds on each side
• Whoever gets the defensive rebound outlets and runs in transition with the two outlet guys
• Continuous drill with two teams
• Red vs. Blue (keep score)

3 on 2

• Wings run wide, point runs down middle (w/ball)
• Wings cut toward basket at hash mark
• Point passes to a cutter (best shooter)
• Shooter has 3 options
  Shoot off of 1,2 step
  Shot fake, 1 dribble pull up
  Pass back to cutting guard through the middle
• Wing who does not receive 1 pass boxes out top defender right away (slice)
• No wing to wing passes!

Here is a link to download the entire July Newsletter:  Arizona Newsletter

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

The following are some notes from a clinic presentation given by John Wooden almost 2o years ago.

Coach Wooden on Leadership

The basketball coach must never forget that he is a leader and not merely a person with authority. The youngsters under his supervision must be able to receive proper guidance from him in all respects and not merely in regard to the proper playing of the game of basketball.

Next to their parents, youngsters spend more time with and are more likely to be influenced by their teachers than anyone else, and the coach is the teacher who will provide by far the most influence.

These ideas regarding leadership are from an essay by Mr. Wilfred A. Peterson entitled “The Art of Leadership.”

1. The leader is a servant.
2. The leader sees through the eyes of his followers.
3. The leader says “let’s go!” and leads the way rather than “Get going!”
4. The leader assumes his followers are working with him, not for him.
5. The leader has faith in people. He believes in them, and thus draws out the best in them.
6. The leader uses his heart as well as his head.  After he has considered the facts with his head, he lets his heart take a look too. He is a friend.
7. The leader plans and set things in motion.
8. He is a man of action as well as a man of thought.
9. The leader has a sense of humor. He has a humble spirit and can laugh at himself.
10. The leader can be led. He’s not interested in having his own way, but in finding the best way.
11. He has open mind.
12. The leader keeps his eyes on high goals.  He strives to make efforts of his followers and himself contribute to the enrichment of personality, the achievement of more abundant living for all, and the improvement of all.

Other important basketball coaching principles from Coach Wooden:

1. Basketball is a game of habits and it takes time and patience to develop proper habits and to break bad ones. One of the greatest faults of most beginning coaches is likely to be a lack of patience.
2. The coaches and players must never become dissatisfied but must work constantly to improve. have perfection as the goal but it can never be attained.
3. Remember it is not so much what you do but how well you do it. Do not give them too much.
4. Do not tie the players down so rigidly that you take away their initiative, they must have some freedom of movement, but must react to the initiative of teammate in order to keep floor balance.
5. Do not overlook the little details, as it is the little things that may make the difference.
6. You must prepare to win to be a winner, and you cannot prepare others without being prepared yourself.
7. convince your players that conditioning is often the deciding factor when teams are evenly matched and properly prepared. However, if the better conditioned team is able to take advantage of their conditioning, they must keep the pressure on early in the game in order for it to pay off in the latter part.
8. Give public credit to your playmakers and defensive men at every opportunity.
9. The coach should do the criticizing and it should always be constructive. Permit no player to criticize, razz, or ridicule a teammate in any respect.
10. Insist that the scorer acknowledge the passer whose pass led to his score and that all acknowledge any teammate who makes a nice play.
11. Be constantly analyzing yourself as well as your players and be governed by the result of your analysis.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

I found the idea for this from Coach Creighton Burns and have made a few suggestions for ways that you can adapt the drill to your team.

The purpose of the drill is to simuate the end of game situation where the team with the ball is playing ball control .  Our philosophy is that we are either going to shoot wide open layups, free throws (if our opponent wants to foul us in their attempt to catch up), or run time off the clock.  Our call for nothing but a layup is “4!” meaning that we are only going to shot shots that we consider to be a 4 on our shot rating system.

In the drill, teams alternate possession of the ball as in a game with the ball changing hands on a basket, a defensive rebound, or a turnover.  If the offense misses the layup and gets the offensive rebound, they maintain possession of  the ball.  First team to 60 points wins.  Scoring for the drill is as follows:

Made Lay-up = 5 points
Each pass = 1 point
Each foul = 1 point (for the offense and offense retains possession)
Turnover = 2 points for the defensive team

It encourages the offense to work to get open, and the defense to work on pressure and denials.

To start the drill, the player with the ball tries to beat the defender off the dribble.  After that player makes a pass, there is no dribble, or it is a turnover.  There is also no passing back to the same teammate who just passed you the ball, unless it is a give and go for a layup.

Depending on your philosophy of using timeouts to save possession, you can give each team a timeout or two to call during the drill to save possesion.  That teaches them to make sure that they are aware of and ask to find out how many timeouts they have remaining.  Our rule is that we don’t call timeout to save a possession until the final two minutes of the game.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

I have five stages in a shooting progression that I like to use in practices at every level , workouts, youth clinics, pre-game warmups, and to evaluate at which stage our players are as shooters.

1. The first stage is learning the correct fundamentals of holding the ball, and then delivering the shot with no pressure and no movement.
2. Stage Number 2 is repetition shots off a catch, again–no pressure and no movement. Concentrate on the fundamentals from stage one. We shoot these shots from 12-15 feet.  We work on combining proper mechanics from stage #1 with catching the ball with a shooting hands ready set. The point of emphasis we make is catching ready.  It is possible to catch ready to shoot and then turn the shot down, but I don’t believe that you can be a team that shoots the ball well if players have to adjust their hands frequently to shoot after catching a pass or picking up a dribble.  So, I want to work on catching ready to shoot and picking up the dribble ready to shoot every day without any pressure.   We work on catch and shoot in a rhythm with one shooter and one passer for 10 shots, then changing roles.  Then, repeat with players picking up off the dribble 10 times in a row going both left and right.
3. Stage #3 involves moving at a game pace in ways that occur in a 5/5 game to get a shot without defense and without any other type of pressure.   We want to work on game cuts at game speeds for game shots.  I want 10 game-like cuts and shots for each cut that the shooter makes in our offense.  Out cuts off flare screens, curls, fades, popup, whatever terms or cuts you use in your program, and I want them to mix up shooting off the catch and shooting off the dribble.  What I strive constantly to get a handle on and communicate to our players is where each one is in terms of the shots he can hit in games, and which shots he needs to be working on to expand his game.  In the summer we are more concerned with expanding into the shots we are going to need for next season, and in the season our focus is practicing the games he will shoot in games.
4. Stage #4 is shooting with pressure produced by time, performance goals, one defender, or a combination of two or more of those things.  I think that this stage is important to track because I want our players to know what percentage they shoot in these types of drills so that they understand which shots they can shoot in games based on their execution in practice.  For the summer, keeping statistics for workouts provides motivation and helps prevent the monotony of just going through drills.
5. Being able to apply the fundamentals and game speeds to make shots in a 5/5 scrimmage. Players must shoot with the fundamentals and the types of shots that they have been practicing in the  development stages and in workouts.  After all, stages 1 to 4 mean nothing if there is no carryover to games.

We basically run through stages 1-4 for each individual workout whether it is in the off-season or in the individual development stage of practice.  Stage #5 takes place in our summer scrimmages or in the 5/5 stage of practice.  I do want our players to understand how this progression goes, what its purpose is and which stages they are where they should be and which ones they must improve on.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

Got this from one of Don Meyer’s clinics.  The Warrior in the title is from our school mascot, so change as needed to use in your program.

You Are a Warrior When…

You don’t care if you are the one who sets the screen or the one who hits the winning three, because fulfilling your role, whatever that role is, is most important

You have a desire to excel for the benefit of those relying on you.

You have an unquenchable need to exceed your past limitations.

You play without the option of defeat.

You play and know, without a doubt, that you competed like a champion.

You understand your commitment to your teammates.

You understand that basketball is a team sport.

You finish playing and only your body leaves the floor your heart and soul are captured within the game.

You will exchange your blood, sweat, and tears for the benefit of the team.

You understand the irrelevance of individual awards.

You would rather encourage a teammate to success than benefit personally from his mistakes.

Your respect for the game outweighs your personal ego.

You make mistakes and use them to improve instead of using them as excuses.

Your ability to make your teammates better increases each time you play.

You do the little things right when nobody is watching.

You serve your teammates with unselfish motives.

You understand your role and strive to perform it better.

You have done all you can and still feel you haven’t done enough.

You play with pain without creating a scene.

You give more than what is asked and take less than what is deserved.

Your effort is constant and your play is consistent regardless of the situation.

You think you can, and you do.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!

This article was written by Steve Smiley when he was an assistant coach to Don Meyer at Northern State University.  Steve is currently the head coach at Sheridan College.

1. Don’t play hard: You can have the most talented team in the world, you can have the most intelligent team in the world, but if your team doesn’t play hard, there is no chance that they will be successful over the course of time. You must, before all else, establish and demand that your players play hard. It must be your identity.

2. Don’t play smart: After establishing that your team plays hard, you must then teach your players how to play smart. They must have a high “basketball I.Q.” Your players must learn and buy into the system that you teach and they must learn technique. At Northern, we say, “You can have all the intensity of a mad dog in a meat house, but without technique, you’ll end up with a bullet between the eyes.” Your players must learn to be students of the game. We stress the importance of player notebooks and taking notes.

3. Don’t play together: Finally, after teaching your players to play hard and smart, your players must then learn how to play together. Your team will have a very difficult time if there isn’t unity among the troops.

Key Phrase = “Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.”

4. Don’t have a delay game: If your team is fortunate enough to get a lead late in the game, you must have some type of delay game. While that doesn’t mean that you become passive and are afraid to shoot, that does mean that you may have restrictions such as; the only shot is a wide-open lay-up, minimum number of passes before shooting is 5, etc. Teams that don’t have a delay game have the tendency to lose big games.

5. Have no delay game defense: There will be times when you are losing and the opponent is running a delay game to milk the clock. If and when that is the case, you must have a secondary defense that will force the offense to speed up and hopefully take bad shots, so your team can preserve the clock. That might mean you have a press defense, or a trapping zone defense, but whatever the case, you must find ways to speed up the game and give yourself more possessions and opportunities to score.

6. No comeback game: Your team won’t always have a ten-point lead late in the game. There will undoubtedly be times when your team is going to be losing and your players have to know how to speed up the game to get more possessions and thus, more opportunities to come back. First of all, do you have “quick-hitters” in place; set plays that will result in a good look at the basket in a minimal amount of time? Also, do you have substitution patterns in place to best maximize your talent when you are losing? For example, subbing in the appropriate players on a defensive possession that will give you the best chance to stop the other team, and during dead balls, subbing in shooters on offensive possessions if you need to get 3-pointers to get back in the game. In addition, when your team is shooting a free throw, do you have players ready to check in if the player makes the second free throw, which will stop the clock and set up your defense (a timeout without using a timeout)? Being prepared for situations where your team is losing late in the game and having a plan of action ready is vital to a successful program.

7. Don’t simplify the game: There is a lot of power and truth in the saying, “Simplicity is Complicated.” You must keep the game simple for your players. If they have to think too much, they won’t be able to react. A good quote is “the more they think, the slower their feet get.” A great coach teaches his or her players a few simple principles from which the program is known by, and then, that coach lets the players play the game.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of resources for basketball coaching including basketball practice, basketball plays, basketball drills, basketball quotes, basketball workouts, basketball poems, and more!