Basketball Drills

These drills were contributed by Marc Skelton, Head Coach for Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School in the Bronx, NY 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

The premise of this drill is to mimic quick action in early offense.

This will improve your screening, how your guys/girls catch and shoot and read the defense.

On the flip side your defense will be able to not let cutters cut without being bumped and improve communication.

We play a game to seven.

There are three options to this drill outlined below. Drill #1 is a UCLA cut. Drill #2 works on the Ghost Screen and drill #3 has a backdoor option.

Editor’s note from Brian: The purpose of my posting this drill is to give you an idea for a drill to make your players’ more aggressive in your early offense if that is something that you emphasize. You probably run different movements than these and will need to change the movements to fit what you use.

Drill #1

Offense must score in seven seconds or less.

Start this drill at half-court on the point guard’s weak hand.

1 dribbles hard at 2.

2 cuts to the basket and makes a L-cut to screen for 4.

4 dives hard and 2 pops to the 3-point line.

If you play against teams that like to switch this is a great drill to put into your offense.

4 and 2 both have mismatches to exploit.

 

 

Drill #2

Drill # 2 has the same premise, score in seven seconds or less.

1 starts at half court and dribbles at 2.

2 sets a Ghost Screen, the kind Golden State uses.

1 passes to 2.

From here 2 can catch and shoot, catch and go, or hit 1 cutting to the hoop. (see next frame)

After 4 sets the back screen he/she pops to the 3-point line.

 

 

 

Drill #3

Drill #3 in my 3 on 3 seven seconds or less series is a backdoor option.

This drill helps your 4 become a better passer.

2 can work on different types of finishes-reverse lay-up.

Ball fake. Up and under move. Left and Right hand finishing.

On the catch 2 sprints out the the 3-point line and then cuts backdoor.

 

 

These skill development drills are from Scott Peterman’s 2011 Skills Development Notes Collection.

The main purpose of sharing these drills is to get you thinking about ways that you can modify the drills that you use.

This week’s eBook bundle contains 3 eBooks:

NCAA Tournament Coaches – Basketball Skill Development
USA Olympic Team Basketball Drills
130 Ways to Improve Your Program’s Attention to Detail

You can find out more information about the bundle at this link:

Skill Development Bundle

Man in the Hole Drill (Matt Painter Purdue)
Defensive toughness

1. Play 1 on 1 full court
2. The defender must stay on the court for 3 trips up and down
3. The offensive player changes with every possession
4. The defender must try to make the offensive player change directions in the back court and also stop the offensive player from scoring
5. You can force players to concentrate on moving their feet in any individual or team defensive drill by having them hold tennis balls in their hands while playing defense.

36 Second Drill

Diagrams created with FastDraw

1. 3 pairs of players, each pair has 1 ball
2. Must stay in their lanes
3. The dribbler must try to penetrate to the basket 
and then pull back and attack again
4. Rotate the defenders to the right every 12 seconds

 

4 on 4 half ­court
To work on the skill of getting open

• Coach inbounds the ball
• Offense scores by making passes
• 2 minutes (half on offense/half on defense)
• Defense scores by touching the ball (1pt) or turnovers (2pts)
• Allow the offense 2 dribbles
• Cannot pass to the same player that passed to you
(Note: this eliminates give and go and that is up to you if you want to allow that in the drill. Not allowing players to pass to who passed to them promotes movement away from the ball)
• Pass, cut, screen, and fill open perimeter spots within your offensive system and rules.
• Can have the defense switch to teach and practice getting open against switching defenses.

Validating Your Drills

If you have an individual drill with a set standard for completion, have the player shoot a free throw to “validate the win.” They have to make the free throw for the win to count.

For team competitive drills or scrimmages, you can either validate the win with one player shooting a free throw, or you can have each player on the winning team shoot a one and one free throw opportunity. Set a standard for the number of free throws that must be made to validate the win. For example, if there are 5 players on the team, the squad must make a total of 7 free throws with each player shooting a one and one.

This week’s eBook bundle contains 3 eBooks:

NCAA Tournament Coaches – Basketball Skill Development
USA Olympic Team Basketball Drills
130 Ways to Improve Your Program’s Attention to Detail

You can find out more information about the bundle at this link:

Skill Development Bundle

These decision making drills were contributed by Gerard Hillier Director of Coaching & Development at the Southern Peninsula Basketball Association, which is located on the Mornington Peninsula of Australia 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

Whether you run Dribble Drive Motion, or not, your players are still forced to make decisions and hopefully these drills can get you thinking about similar drills that you can use that fit your system of play.

Here is what Coach Hillier said about the drills:

The importance of being able to create a “split” (where two defenders commit to the ball carrier) is paramount within our system, and just as important is the ability to find the open player (from where the 2nd defender came from) for a high percentage & open scoring option.

We encourage questions like “what was your thought process on that decision?” & “what did you see that triggered that decision?”

2 v 1 Decision Making

O1’s primary responsibility is to “finish at the rim” (basket)

X1’s responsibility is to meet O1 as early as possible and force them out of the paint

O2’s responsibility is to create a weak-side shooting option (3pt shot)

If O1 cannot score in the paint, they must kick out to O2 for a catch n shoot finish (3pt shot)

Drill starts on the 1st dribble from O1

You can move the cones to wherever suits your particular teams’ needs

O1 MUST get two feet in the paint prior to kicking out to O2, this creates an aggressive mindset & attack mentality

 

 

 

2 v 2 Decision Making

O1’s primary responsibility is to “finish at the rim” (basket)

X1’s responsibility is to meet O1 as early as possible and force them out of the paint

X2’s responsibility is to cover split-line

O2’s responsibility is to create a weak-side shooting option (3pt shot)

If O1 cannot score in the paint, they must kick out to O2 for a catch n shoot finish (3pt shot)

Drill starts on the 1st dribble from O1

You can move the witches hats/cones to wherever suits your particular teams’ needs

O1 MUST get two feet in the paint prior to kicking out to O2, this creates an aggressive mindset & attack mentality

 

 

This passing drill is 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.

Make sure that your speakers are on to hear the narration and that you can access YouTube to see the videos.

Like everything I post on the site, you will need to tweak the drill to fit your philosophy. If you would rather the pickup and pass be made with two hands, you could have the player dribbling one basketball doing crossovers, pick up with two, and pass with the hand that the coach calls. The idea is an overload drill and not to make it gamelike.

You could also set it up so that the player is passing to two shooters so that you are better able to simulate the receiver’s shooting pocket. The idea is for you to think about it and make it your own, or decide that the drill isn’t for you.

Click the play arrow to begin the video.

 

Steve Nash Advanced 2 Ball Push Pass Drill

I received these two driving/finishing drills in an email from Dennis Hutter, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Mayville State University. His website, www.coachhutter.com . The website has more shooting, individual development workout, and leadership videos.

Both of these videos are You Tube videos, so please be sure to be on a server that allows you to access You Tube.

Editor’s notes from Brian: When working to improve players’s dribbling & driving skills, I like the idea of using a time and when possible, two basketballs. You can add pieces to the drills to challenge your players more such as requiring a live ball move such as crossover, between the legs, etc… Whatever moves you want players to be able to make in a game. You can add in a defender poking at the basketballs as they are being dribbled. You can add in a defender offering some contact at the rim on the finishes. You can change the amount of time you require to complete the circuit. There are many ways that the drills can be modified to make them your own. It may take some live experimenting with your players before you can tell exactly how you want to run the drill, but IMO, that is ok. There is nothing wrong with players being exposed to your thinking process as you tinker with ideas to help your program. It is also a good time to get some input from them.

The remainder of the post is what Coach Hutter included in his email:

Octopus Dribbling 2 Basketballs

This drill is done with two basketballs. The object of the drill is to complete the course in 25 seconds or less. If the player completes the drill in 25 seconds or less, we have them do the drill again. This time they to try and beat their previous time. We try to keep the drill as competitive as we can. We believe competition adds pressure and effort to drills. Player will two ball dribble around each individual cone and then come back to the rim and dribble around the cone under the rim. They will weave back and forth advancing to the next spot after they are under the rim. We have five spots on the floor that the player must dribble around. This is another really good warm up drill to start an individual workout.

Click the Play Arrow to view the video of the drill

Octopus Dribbling 1 Basketball

The object of this drill is to complete the course in 30 seconds or less while making all 5 lay ups. Try to have your players change the way they score around the rim. You can also add shot fakes to the drill if desired. Drill starts under the rim, and player dribbles around first cone and comes back to rim for a lay up. They then complete the course advancing to the next spot after each lay up. We usually do two right handed lay ups and two left handed lay ups. The middle spot we leave optional for the player to decide what hand they would like to use. This is a great warm up drill to start an individual workout.

Click the Play Arrow to view the video of the drill