Basketball Drills

Team Free Throw Shooting Game

By Brian Williams on November 20, 2016

Mike Neighbors, Women’s Coach at Arkansas (Previously at Washington) is one of the best coaches around to learn from. Hopefully you were able to see his 2016 Women’s Final Four team play, or see him at a clinic, or both.

He sends out a weekly basketball coaching newsletter. If you are interested in being added to his list, let me know and I will pass along your email address. His newsletter is on hold at this time while he is transitioning jobs.

The name of this Free Throw Shooting Game/Drill is “What’s Up?”

What’s Up Team Free Throw Shooting Game

Editor’s Note from Brian: The object of the game is, like golf, for the shooters to accumulate as few “Up Points” as possible.

This description was provided by Coach Neighbors

As a result of having a larger team than we have had the last few years, we have had to become a little more creative in our use of space/goals/time.

This seems to be most true in how we use our time with free throw practice. This is one we came up with this week. It’s a morph of several other shooting drills we have utilized in the past.

All six goals. Each goal being scored individually.

Shooter will attempt two shots then rotate to the next goal.

If the shot is made…it puts 1 point up.

If the second shot is made… that would increase the UP total to 2. The score at that goal continues to rise every made shot as the various players are rotating through.

When a shot is missed, the player who misses GETS THE NUMBER THAT is UP added to their score.

You have scores building at each goal as the players rotate through. We rotate rebounder to shooter, shooter to next goal so that the UP count can be relayed.

As you do this a few times you will see that your “smart’ kids will learn NOT to follow the best FT shooters, so it will be up to you to place shooters accordingly.

We keep a running total score for the week/year so that we can strategically order the shooters to best keep it competitive for all!!

The first time we did it, we did for 10:00 total. Once the time expired, we kept each goal going until there was a miss at all of them and all the total UP points went to someone. That keeps all players rotating around one goal until there is a miss. Creates one last chance to hang a big number on someone.

So far this drill has been able to create some pressure situations and also give us best possible use of our free throw time. We also use this as water break and a catch breath time before we head into most physically and/or mentally challenging part of practice.

3 Team Rebounding Drill

By Brian Williams on November 7, 2016

This competitive 3 team rebounding drill is presented by Yale Men’s Coach James Jones.

You will need 3 color jerseys to run the drill.

Each player has to score to get out of the drill. If a player commits a foul, he or she has to score twice to get out of the drill.

The team that wins the drill is the first team to have all of their players score and get out of the drill. You will either need to have the same number of players on each team or have one player go twice on the teams that have fewer players.

There is sound with these videos, so please make sure that your sound is on.

The videos are You Tube videos, so you will need to be able to access that site.

Click the play arrow to play the video with the drill.

If you are interested in learning more about the Championship Productions Basketball Coaching DVD that this drill came from, you can click the following link: James Jones: Rebounding Drills and Out of Bounds Sets

Managing Players in Foul Trouble

By Brian Williams on November 2, 2016

The purpose of this post is not to say that these ideas will work for every situation and every player. Every situation is different.

The purpose of this post is to say that thinking through scenarios ahead of time without the additional baggage of in-game emotions will allow you to reach better decisions on what you should do. I think it is also best to base our beliefs on sustained thought using data and not simply accepting the traditional approach.

When do you put a player back in the game with 4 fouls? There are many factors that influence your decision such as your team’s depth and the temperament and experience of the individual player. To make these types of decisions most effectively, we need to spend time thinking about then before they have to be made.

Bill Walsh state in his book The Score Takes Care of Itself: “The more thorough your preparation, the more extensive your thinking on the topic, the more rehearsed, the better you perform under the pressure of any situation that calls for an immediate decision. When you prepare for everything, you’re ready for anything.”

The traditional thinking is that a coach should remove a player, particularly if that player is one of the team’s best players, when he or she is 1 foul from fouling out of the game. The coach’s decisions then become, “When do I put the player back in the game for good?” or “Do I substitute on offense and defense to try to get some use out of the player.”

I have always felt that it is better to put a player back in too soon and have him foul out than to keep him on the bench too long and feel (after the game is over) that I should have put him back in sooner. If he fouls out, then at least I know that I got every second out of him that I could have. If he finishes up with four fouls, then I wonder how much more time he could have played before fouling out rather than wasting on the bench.

Some would argue that if an important players fouls out, you don’t have him around for “crunch time.” My argument is that baskets and free throws at the end of the game count the same as at any other time during the game. If you could have your player for the last minute or for an extra three or four minutes earlier in the game which would you choose? I’ll take the extra minutes. What if a player won’t play hard–not wanting to pick up the fifth foul. If I see that, I do take them out and make sure they know that they are not coming out because of foul trouble, but because they are not playing hard.

Whether or not you agree with me, I urge you to give it some thought and decide how you will handle end of game foul trouble now without the pressure of competition when you can think more clearly. There are definitely several decisions we all make that would improve and become more clear to us if we applied some sustained thought to them.

A study analyzed approximately 5000 NBA games from 2006 to 2010. (The source of the study is the book “Scorecasting.”)

The study used the plus/minus statistic (How much did the team win or lose by when that player was in the game. If the team outscored the opponent by 9 points while that player was in, the player’s plus/minus score is +9) to determine the value of a player to his team. “Non-star” players had an average plus/minus of 2 points lower in 4th quarter of a game than during the 1st quarter of a game.

“Star” players (Made the All Star Team or All NBA team), plus/minus rating is only .17 points lower in the 4th quarter than in the 1st quarter. Comparing “stars” (minus .17 plus/minus in the 4th quarter) to “non-stars” (minus 2.0 plus/minus points in the 4th quarter), it is clear that replacing a star with a non-star is definitely puts that team at a disadvantage.

Two other pieces of data from the Scorecasting study are that: 1) A player with five fouls, will foul out 21% of the time in the NBA. 2) Leaving a “star” player with 5 fouls in the game rather than putting him on the bench improve the team’s chances of winning by 12%. So, you have pretty good odds that a player will not foul out and you are improving your chances of winning by leaving him or her in the game.

Yes, you can occasionally get a bad call that puts a player’s 5th foul on him. I believe that a bad call on the 5th foul is almost never the reason for a player to foul out. It is usually the silly fouls that he picked up earlier in the game that put him in foul trouble. Reaching fouls, over the back with no position and no chance at the rebound, driving out of control, fouling a jump shooter, and other needless fouls are what players need to eliminate. Then, an occasional bad call is not going to cost them and their team.

One other type of foul that I want our best players to steer clear of is fouling to stop a breakaway layup. The two points he surrenders by not contesting the layup are much less costly to our team than him getting one foul closer to disqualification.

Click the link to see more about 130 Winning Special Situations

This eBook contains 130 ideas that will improve your team’s performance in special situations, addressing areas such as:

Emphasizing the importance of every possession,
End of game communication.
21 examples of specific time and score situations – and how to teach and practice them.

You can also download 13 of the 130 ideas!

Basketball Full Court Drills

By Brian Williams on October 31, 2016

These full court basketball drills were posted on the FastModel Sports Basketball Plays and Drills Library.

You can also find out more about FastModel Play Diagramming software by clicking this link: FastDraw

The first drill, Hit Ahead Layups, was contributed by Coach Fabian McKenzie.

Coach McKenzie has been a head coach at the university level for 17 years, and has been involved as a coach at this level for 20 years. He has been involved with the Canadian Women’s National team program for the past 9 years.

It is a good early season conditioning drill to help with passing and finishing with speed.

The second drill (Illine Fastbreak Game) was contributed by Coach Joel Hueser, Head Boys Coach at Papillion-LaVista South High School High School in Nebraska.

Here is what Coach Hueser said about the drill:

“Illini Break is a competitive, team transition drill. The offense has the advantage and gets to play fast. Forcing the defense to get back with a high sense of urgency. We want to always fastbreak on defense. But first, we must emphasize our offensive board coverage (OBC). Then, if we do not secure the offensive rebound, all five players must get into the habit of always sprinting back. We consider your first three steps “out of the gate” as the most important. Guarding the basket is our number one priority and then stopping the ball. Once back, all five defenders need to establish ball side and help side position. This drill demands that, and more. Get ahead of the ball! No back pedaling, buddy running (remaining side by side with your match-up) and/or pouting after a missed shot or turnover.”

Since players are constantly coming into play, the drill also forces players to communicate as to who they are guarding.

Hit Ahead Layups

Players line up as shown at free throw line extended – out of bounds.

Player 1 starts the drill as Player 2 sprints up the floor.

Player 1 gets 1 dribble and must deliver a pass on time and on target so 2 can lay the ball up without dribbling.

1 must sprint after the pass and rebound the ball.

Original 1 gets the rebound.

As they are getting rebound, next person in 1 line circles for an outlet pass. As the outlet pass is happening, next in 2 line is sprinting wide up court.

1 gets 1 dribble and must hit 2 on time and on target for layup. 1 must sprint to rebound the ball.

The pattern for the drill continues.

Can change sides at any time or put a person on defense in middle of court forcing the offense to throw it high and over the head of the defender.

Rotation: after 2 takes layup they go to line 1. Once 1 makes the outlet pass, they fill line 2.

Illini Fast Break Game

Team 1 starts on offense and team 2 on defense.

Play out the possession.

Upon change of possession, team 2 outlets to teammates along baseline waiting to come on.

Team 1 must get back on defense.

At this end, play out the possession and team 1 outlets to teammates along the baseline.

Emphasize OBC and compete!

Score like a game. Either play to an established score, or for a specific time limit.

Post Player Development Basketball Drills

By Brian Williams on October 30, 2016

These two post player drills are among the thousands of resources for both coaches and player available from basketballhq.

They have several more videos as well as basketball coaching resource articles.

The Coach in both of these videos is Sean Hanrahan, Head Men’s Coach at Warner University.

Click the play arrow to view the videos.

Please make sure that your sound is on.

These are YouTube videos, so please make sure that you are able to access YouTube on the servers that you are on.

Bulldog Rebounding Drill

1 on 2 Competitive Finishing Drill

Wildcat 3 on 3 Basketball Drill

By Brian Williams on October 17, 2016

This 3 on 3 basketball drill was diagrammed and contributed by John Leonzo of Cedarville University to the FastModel Sports Basketball Plays and Drills Library.

You can also find out more about FastModel Play Diagramming software by clicking this link: FastDraw

Editors’ Note from Brian: I like the idea of establishing special scoring rules in your drills and in your 5 on 5 play that reinforce the things you will need to do to be successful.

I hope this drill gets you thinking about rules that you can incorporate into all drills and scrimmages your practices to emphasize your coaching points.

These rules force your players to not waste dribbles and to space behind the arc.

Scoring the drill by 2s and 1s puts an even greater premium on 3 point shooting.

If you would rather not do that, you can go to 15 by 2s and 3s.

I have included some thoughts on utilizing special rules in your practices below the diagrams of the Wildcat 3 on 3 drill.

I do not recommend using too many rules, it disrupts the flow of the scrimmage when you award points. Pick 3 at most each day that fit the way you play. It could be a different group of 3 the next day.

Play live 3v3 but with the following rules.

Rule 1: Any dribble that does not attack or break the plane of the 3 point line is a turnover.

Rule 2: The only place the ball can be caught is on a cut to the rim or behind the 3pt line.

Play make it take it to 10 by 1s and 2s.

It is often very challenging to create competitive drills and scrimmages between your first and second teams. There is a way to allow the players in your rotation to play together and in their roles and still force the first team to compete like they would have to in a game.

To produce the needed challenges for your first team, make special rules in practice that cause the them to be challenged by you as their coach and the scoreboard when the second group is not physically able to provide that challenge necessary for improvement.

Some years your starters will need more challenges to push them than others. So each year, revisit what you are doing with your special rules and make adjustments and adaptations that fit your current team. The rules should make the scrimmages competitive so that with their implementation, the second team has the opportunity to score more points and win the scrimmage, which forces the starters to compete. This serves to make your practice much more competitive which is crucial to the improvement of your team.

Make the rules fit your offensive and defensive systems and goals for each game. For example making a rule that every time the second team makes a pass in a scrimmage counts as a point for them is great if you are working on playing a pressure man to man defense that denies all passes. But, makes no sense if you are a team that plays a zone or a packing man to man where you don’t pressure the non penetrating passes. A better rule for a defense designed to keep the ball out of the middle is that each time the second team gets the ball in the paint; it is a point for them.

Your players must understand the purpose of the rules. It must make sense to the players as to how your rules will develop practice habits that will carry over to games. Players don’t have to agree with everything, but if they see a method to your madness, there is a much higher likelihood that your system will produce the intended results.

Make the rules should be simple to implement and easy to track. They should not interfere with the flow of the scrimmage by causing the players and the coaches to have to slow down to figure out what just happened and how that affects the score.

Run the clock and the scoreboard like a game when you scrimmage in practice. Make every special rules violation either result in a turnover, adding points to the score of the second team, or both. It is too difficult for the individual who is keeping score to take points away from a team. If you just yell, “Two points for the red team because the white team did not chin the defensive rebound,” the players know why the points were lost and the manager can just add them to the score of the second team. The point differential is the same regardless of whether you add to the second team’s score or subtract from the first team, so it makes sense to make it easier on your scorekeeper. If you have enough managers or assistant coaches, keep a possession chart and record what violation resulted in the points so that you can analyze what rules you are violating the most frequently and then work to improve those areas. If you don’t have access to a scoreboard, you can still designate a coach or manager to keep a possession chart on a clipboard and call out the score.

Here are some suggestions for special rules. The key is to keep them pertinent to how your team plays and to make practice scrimmages competitive.

• 2 points to second unit for a shot that isn’t contested by the first team, regardless of whether it goes in or not.
• Regular rotation players cannot dribble.
• Any foul by first team is automatic 2 points for second team.
• Every turnover by 1st team is 2 points for the 2nd group.
• Anyone on the first team not chinning a rebound is a turnover—loss of possession and the two points that are the result of every turnover.
• If a player takes an unacceptable shot, for us that is anything except an open jumper or power shot inside, award two points to the defense.

The purpose of the rules—to make practices competitive–must be understood by all of your players. Most second units can’t match the first team in size, skill, and experience the way that the other schools you play will. It keeps them from getting away with mistakes that will cost them on game night and allows your reserves some hope of winning your practice scrimmages.

Click here for information on my basketball practice e-book “130 Great Ideas to Get a Lot More Accomplished in Practice”