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.
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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”
This free throw shooting drill was designed by Mike Neighbors, Women’s Basketball Coach at Arkansas. At the time of this post, Mike was the coach at Washington.
We are always looking for new ways to incorporate free throw shooting into our full team practices. This is one we came up with to compete as a team and also have the element of individual competition.
We have six goals in our gym. We split off to shooters and rebounders at each goal. 10:00 goes onto the game clock.
Each shooter shoots until they miss.
The shooters must make at least 5 in a row to get a POINT HUSKIES (this is a reference to what our PA announcer says at our volleyball games)
5 makes in a row equals 1 point.
10 makes in a row = 3 points.
15 in a row = 5 points.
20 = 9 points.
25 = 12 points.
30 = 15 points
35 = 20 points.
40 = 25
45 – 32
50 = 40
from 50 on the team gets one point extra per make
The team total is added for each shooter. So at the end of ten minutes we have a team score.
We also chart individual scores to keep record boards for individuals.
Couple of things to have provisions for:
1) As the time is geƫting close to zero… any streak that was begun before the 1:00 minute mark can be completed until there is a miss.
2) Any streak that begins within the last :30 seconds can only go to the next increment of five.
3) How long will you go before you allow “distractions”
Our total team record is 270 so far. Individual highs are 145 ( yes, 145), 57, 48, 33, 32 and several in the
high 20’s.
Love the competition this breeds. It is also NO FUN to not have your name called out for long streaks…
We hope this drill will conƟnue to keep us in the Top 10 naƟonally for FT Percentage.
These drills were put together by Nate Hill.
He is the Assistant Boys Coach at Colonel Crawford High School in North Robinson, Ohio.
Coach Hill has provided several drills and has been generous enough to allow me to post them on the site.
He has also started a basketball coaching newsletter.
You can see find more information about the Newsletter at this link: Next Level 419 Coaching Newsletter
He provide a post where he outlined what he believes to be the strengths and weaknesses of five different methods of defending ball screens. Here is the link to that article on 5 options for defending pick and roll.
Since the drills uses both sides of the floor, you could use it as either a practice drill or a pre-game warm up drill if you run a ball screen offense.
Combo drills: 4 balls, 2 posts, 2 guards, 1-2 coaches.
1 dribble entry into a side ball screen with 5.
The 5 uses a “1” cut and rolls to basket.
1 hits 5, then gets pass from coach for a jumper.
4 starts with ball, and passes to 2 lifting, then sets a ball screen.
4 uses a “2” cut and pops to space. Switch sides and cuts.
Combo drills: 4 balls, 2 posts, 2 guards, 1-2 coaches.
1 dribble entry into a side ball screen with 5.
4 starts with ball, and passes to 2 lifting, then sets a ball screen.
Change up the cuts – 1. Roll, 2. Pop, 3. Slips, 4. Dribble hand off.
Alternate passes and angles.
This shooting drill was diagrammed and contributed by Joel Hueser to the FastModel Sports Basketball Plays and Drills Library.
Coach Hueser is an assistant men’s coach at Nebraska-Kearney.
This is what he said about the drill:
Each year, preseason and sometimes during the season, we test our players for assessment purposes. The Decathlon is a good indicator of player strengths and weaknesses. The test consists of ten shooting skills performed for one minute each, one skill right after the other. We have acquired over 25 years of data using this test. As a result, we have a pretty good idea of a player’s offensive skill set when it’s all said and done. We like to factor these numbers into our selection process.
To date, in my 25+ years of coaching, not quite 20 players have scored 200 baskets or higher. The highest is 218. The first 3 minutes set the tone. A fundamentally sound player can score close to 100 or more baskets right out of the gates.
We consider the following grade levels and scores very good:
Freshmen 160 or more
Sophomores 170 or more
Juniors 180 or more
Seniors 190 or more
Skill Level Scale:
000-100 | Poor!
100-115 | Very Low Skill Level
115-130 | Low Skill Level
130-145 | Average Skill Level
145-160 | Above Average Skill Level
160-175 | High Skill Level
175-190 | Very High Skill Level
190-205 | Outstanding!
Editor’s Note from Brian: You can develop your own scoring system, scoring standards, and change the shots. You don’t have to use the drill exactly the same way that Coach Hueser does. The idea is to modify the challenge and make it YOUR OWN. For example, this uses a lot of layups, you might want to include more jump shots. Or, you could possibly use this as one data point for tryouts.
Since the player is moving for 10 consecutive minutes, if you have 6 baskets, you could use it at the end of practice as a conditioner while handling and shooting the basketball or to see who is in shape for your early season practices.
There is a video at the bottom of the post to see the decathlon in action.
1) Strong Hand Lay-ups
-Stand wherever you want (we suggest as shown) and score as many baskets as possible.
-No rebounders (using the glass is recommended).
-1 minute.
2) Weak Hand Lay-ups
-Same as strong hand lay-ups, but this time you must shoot with your weak hand.
-Your strong hand is to be held behind your back (Shooter is allowed to shoot from either side).
-1 minute.
3) Mikan Drill
-Shoot baby hook shots, alternating from the right side to the left side.
-Shoot off the correct foot on each side.
-1 minute.
4) Block-to-Block
-Shoot just outside the freethrow lane near the low block.
-Use the glass and move back and forth without traveling.
-1 minute.
5) Corner-to-Corner
-Same as block-to-block, but this time the shots are from the short corner (two strides from lane).
-Move back and forth without traveling.
-1 minute.
6) X-Out Lay-ups
-Start at the right freethrow line elbow, dribble in and score a lay-up.
-Then sprint out to the left elbow (dribble is not mandatory). Do the same, but with the left hand.
-1 minute.
7) Lay-up Bust
-Start under the basket and shoot a lay-up.
-Whether it is made or missed, run and touch the free throw line with your hand.
-Then come back to the ball and attempt another lay-up or shot.
-1 minute.
8) Elbow-to-Elbow
-Shoot from the right freethrow line elbow and follow your shot.
-Dribble out to the left elbow with your outside hand and shoot again.
-Alternate from elbow-to-elbow; always dribbling with your outside hand.
9) 15′ Rapid Fire
-Use two basketballs and two teammates as a feeder and rebounder.
-Fire as many jump shots as possible from the freethrow line.
-1 minute.
10) 20′ Rapid Fire
-Same as 15′ Rapid Fire, but from behind the 3-point arc.
-1 minute.
Here is a You Tube video of the drill.
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.
I encourage you to think about the best way to modify the drills before you implement them so that they fit your system and offer the most benefit for your players.
Even as you are first implementing them, you may need to continue the process of making some adjustments so that they are contributing to the improvement of your players.
I also think you should have a finishing drill similar to the first one for when your players catch in the short corner if that is something you do in your offensive attack against man to man or zone defenses.
Make sure that your speakers are on to hear the narration and that you can access You Tube to see the videos.
Click the play arrow to begin each video.
The first video (Elbow Pivot Series Finishing Drill) is coached by Mike Roberts, Associate Head Coach at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
The coach in the second video is Chris Capko, Assistant coach at USC.
