Basketball Drills

Basketball Drills Don Meyer Free Throw Games

By Brian Williams on January 8, 2015

These free throw games can give you some ways to practice shooting free throws that break up your routine and add a change of pace for summer practices and camps.

Make 25 without missing two in a Row

Cant miss 2 in a row
If you miss 2 in a row, you have to swish the next shot to stay in
Run if you fail

4 Up

Split into teams–teams take turns shooting free throws
Players get one free throw, then rotate shooters
1 team has to get 4 shots ahead of the other team
Each player needs to mimic the shooting motion (even if you are not shooting)
Push ups for losers

Beat Steve Nash

Make a FT = +1 Miss a FT = Nash +3
1st one to 10 wins

FT Point Game

Make 4 pts with 3 FT shots
1 make = +1 point
1 swish = +2 points
1 miss = 0 points
Can split into groups of 1, 2 or 3

+2 -2 FT

Swish = +1 Miss = -1 Make with rim = 0
Goal is to get +2 before -2

16 FT in 6 Minutes (1-and-1 situation)

Miss 1st FT you run a killer (5 dribble max on the length of the court)
If you miss the back end of the one and one, you run up and back 2 times with the ball
If you make both FT’s, you have 1 sprint up and back with the ball
Note: you can also use NO rebounder
To win you must make 16 free throws in the 6 minute time frame

Team 1-and-1

1 at each basket
Shoot the front end of a 1-and-1 FT —- set a team goal
If they don’t meet the goal – team runs

Buy the Bank

Teams of 3 – Alternate shots
1 point for each make —- team accumulates points
Whoever misses accumulates those points

Cheer Free Throws

Take turns shooting Free Throws
If they miss, they run
Those not shooting clap and cheer for the person shooting
If someone is not cheering, team runs

Bubba FT

Bubba = 75 Team = 73
3 people per team – all get 1 shot attempt —- 1 point per make

Scrimmage

When a player is taken out of the scrimmage
Has to make 6 FT’s in a row before he can come back in and play

Finish the Game FT Drill

Score is Home 44, Guest 43
All Players (starters and reserves) shoot a one and one. Game is over after each player has shot.
Home Team scores a point on a make
Your Opponent gets 2 points for a miss
Players not shooting should line up on the lane lines while waiting to shoot or after shooting
You can change the starting score to challenge your team

These defense and rebounding basketball drills used by Bob Huggins and Larry Shyatt are from Coach Scott Peterman of the Men’s Basketball Hoopscoop Coaching site.

If you are interested in adding to your Coaching Toolbox take look at what I believe is our best offer.

CLICK HERE to select from a list of more than 70 eBooks.

Coaching Basketball Tight Curl Footwork

By Brian Williams on January 7, 2015

Today’s post is a two and a half minute video of Skill Development Coach Drew Hanlen teaching footwork coming off a tight curl pindown to create separation from the defender. You might agree with the technique, you might not, but I hope it provides you with some food for thought.

The video is a You Tube video so make sure that you are on a server that allows You Tube access.

If you are not, I have a link to be able to watch the video on the Championship Productions site.

Make sure your sound is on and click the play arrow to see the video of the drill below. They are slightly different versions, but it does give you a few things to think about.

If you cannot see the drill below in You Tube format, you can use the link below. It will take you to the Championship productions site, click the play arrow on the video icon.

Drew Hanlen: Pure Sweat Skill Development

There is nothing to purchase to see the drill, however if you are interested in purchasing this or any other Championship DVD, you can use this link:

Drew Hanlen: Pure Sweat Skill Development

The video is 2 minutes and 37 seconds long.

Basketball Drills: Dawg Passing

By Brian Williams on December 30, 2014

This is a passing drill that Coach Mike Neighbors used at the University of Washington.

That is why he called it “Dawg” passing.

He is now at Arkansas, so maybe it is “Hawg” passing now.

There are two versions on this post.

The first version is a diagram that includes layups and the second version is a passing and catching only version (You Tube Video).

Coach Neighbors has a newsletter that is the longest running one that I know of.

If you would like to be added to it, please let me know and I will pass along your email address to him.

This is a drill that is fast moving and requires communication.

Dawg Passing Drill

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Players 1, 7, and 10 start with basketballs.

1 passes to the line directly across from her to player 4.

1 then cuts on diagonal to receive pass from front of bottom opposite line (player 7) which she takes in for a layup.

After 7 passes to 1, 7 goes to the end of the line behind where 6 is.

1 gets her own rebound, passes the ball to 8 (the same line that passed to her for the layup) and goes to back of line where pass came from–behind player 9.

The top basketball is now on the opposite side with player 4.

4 passes to 2, cuts to the basket, and receives a pass for a layup from 10

The drill now repeats itself from this side with the passes and cuts being the same.

You can make it competitive by timing to see how long you can go without bad passes, drops, or missed layups.

Or, you can split into two ends and set a time counting completed passes and made layups.

Dawg Passing Drill

This is a You Tube video (without sound) of the above drill without shooting layups.

Click the play arrow to see the video.

Basketball Defensive Drills Kevin Eastman

By Brian Williams on December 17, 2014

These four drills for all levels are from Coach Kevin Eastman. Kevin was a long time college assistant and head coach. He served as an Assistant Coach for the Celtics from 2004 to 2013. He made the move to Los Angeles with Doc Rivers and was on the coaching staff last year. He then was promoted to the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Clippers before retiring.

One of his beliefs that he presents in the sample video is that “Good offense is multiple actions, good defense requires multiple efforts.”

The drills in this video are:

Pinball: A drill to work with one player on fighting through screens.

Close, Direct, Charge: One player works on each of those defensive skills to complete the drill successfully.

Force to Tape: A one-on-one defensive drill to work on controlling penetrating straight line drives and forcing the dribble to specific, pre-determined spots on the floor.

Shell with post and corner drive: Run the traditional 4 on 4 with an additional 4 unguarded offensive players–two in the dead corners and 2 on or above the blocks. Those additional 4 unguarded players can be managers as well. When the ball goes to any of those 4 spots, you are able to work on your defensive rotations.

Watch the video to get the specific details.

Make sure your sound is on and that you click the play arrow. Also, please make sure that you are able to access YouTube videos on the server that you are using.

Basketball Drills Finishing

By Brian Williams on December 15, 2014

These basketball passing drills were posted in the FastModel Sports Basketball Plays and Drills Library The site has thousands of drills and plays that have been submitted by coaches from all levels and from all over the world.

The first two drills were contributed by Kyle Gilreath, Assistant Coach at Fort Meyers (Florida) High School.

The third drill was contributed by Daniel Murphy, Assistant Coach at Ledyard High School in Ledyard, CT.

You can always add a helping defender, or a coach or manager at the basket with an air dummy to work on finishing with contact if that fits your needs better.

Cone Finishing Drill

This is a drill from the Billy Donovan Skill Development blog article.

Player makes a combo move at the 1st cone and takes 1 dribble past the second cone to get to the rim.

(It is important the player only takes 1 dribble following their combo move..teach them to cover space with less dribbling). “Take off and extend”

Work on multiple finishes and chart them!

5 Spot Finishing Drill

At Fort Myers High School we run the Read and React Offense from Better Basketball. If you are not familiar with the offense it consists of five spots that should always be filled. If your defenders feet are above the three point line (Read Line) and you are one pass away we tell our players to immediately cut back door. With that in mind this morning I put a couple of our guys through a grueling session of finishing moves which incorporates this concept.

When finishing from the sides I like to teach my players to get their shoulders parallel with the baseline to product themselves and the ball from a defender.

5 Spots – 12 Makes at each spot

Player starts under rim and sprints to the spot and cuts quickly back door.

1st 3 Shots: Right hand finishes using backboard
2nd 3 Shots: Left hand reverse finishes using backboard
3rd 3 Shots: Right hand floaters
4th 3 Shots: Left hand floaters

Michigan Finishing Drill

Demonstrated by Michigan’s John Beilein at a clinic. Great drill for first step explosion and finishing with contact and defensive pressure. 1 must explode past the defender in order to get 2 on his/her hip. Then finish strong at the rim. 2 should contest but not get in the habit of fouling.

1 and 2 both face the basket

1 places ball on 2’s back

1 rips ball of 2’s back and attacks basket

2 tries to defend basket as 1 tries to finish

Basketball Drills Push it 4v4 Transition

By Brian Williams on December 10, 2014

These two transition drills are from Drew Hanlen’s Transition Drill Book.

Drew is an NBA Strategic Skills Coach & Consultant that has helped over 25 NBA and NBA pre-draft players including David Lee and Bradley Beal.

Drew is the Head Skills Coach for Pure Sweat Basketball.

He has run his internationally renowned Elite Skills Clinics in over 30 states and 4 countries over the past four years.

He is also the Head Skills Coach for the Reebok Breakout Challenge and has worked various events for Nike Basketball.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Push it 4v4

Set Up: Players will be divided into four teams. A team of four will start on offense, a team of four will start on defense and another team of four will start on each baseline.

Step 1: Black Team will play live 4v4 against the Red Team in the half-court. On the shot (regardless make or miss), the Blue Team will transition against the Black Team who will transition back on defense.

Step 2: Blue Team will play live 4v4 against the Black Team in the half-court. On the shot (regardless make or miss), the Green Team will transition against the Blue Team who will transition back on defense to continue the drill.

Additional Info: If the defense gets a steal, they will transition in the full-court against the team that turned the basketball over. On the score, the team waiting on the baseline will transition against them to continue the drill.

We Need You Back Conversion Drill

Set Up: Players will be divided in two teams. The Black Team will start with a rebounder (1), a defender (5), an outlet player (2), an attacking guard (3) and a player at half-court ready to transition (4) in a two on one situation. The Red Team will start with a defender (x1), a trailing defender (x2), an outlet player (x4), an attacking guard (x5) and a player at half-court ready to transition (x3) in a two on one situation.

Step 1: Player 1 will outlet the basketball to Player 2 who will advance the ball to Player 3, who will attack x1 in a 2v1 situation with Player 4. x2 will sprint back and try to drop to the level of the basketball. Offense gets one shot attempt to score.

Step 2: Offensive player that shoots (or turns the basketball over) must sprint back on defense, while the defender must secure the rebound or get the made field goal out of the net and then outlet the basketball to their teammate at the angle. If the defender gets a steal, they can quickly outlet the basketball to their teammate at the angle as well. As soon as the player receives the outlet, they will advance the basketball to their teammate that is ready to attack on the wing. As soon as the basketball crosses half-court, the waiting offensive player at half court can attack.

Step 3: Offensive player that does not sprint back on defense will rotate to the half-court waiting position. Defender that made the outlet pass will rotate to the outlet line, while the other defender will become the waiting defender in the paint.