Basketball Drills

Basketball Drills: Transition and Conditioning

By Brian Williams on January 13, 2015

Here are 3 ideas for drills to work on conditioning at the same time that you are working on skill development at a quick game-like pace. All three drills are scored and timed.

The best way for you to implement them with your team is to determine how long your team can go and what type of score you want to set as your standard.

You can always run the drills a few times and tweak them so that they are meaningful to your team.

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

Make sure your sound is on and click the play arrow to see the videos of the drills below.

Yes, Fred Hoiberg is at Nebraska now. The purpose of the post is to offer ideas for drills that might benefit your team’s conditioning while using a basketball to get your running in.

Iowa State 4:15 Drill

The Goal for the drill is 120 in 4 minutes and 15 seconds. You can experiment with the amount of time that you run the drill for and whether you count each basket as 1 or if you want to count 1 for a layup and 2 or 3 for jump shots. Three shots are taken at each end.

If you are interested in seeing more information about the DVD that this sample is from, you can click here: Fred Hoiberg Open Practice: Skill Development and Practice Drills

Iowa State Speed Drill Drill

The goal for this drill is to make 28 layups with one basketball in two minutes.

If you are interested in seeing more information about the DVD that this sample is from, you can click here: Fred Hoiberg Open Practice: Skill Development and Practice Drills

Richard Pitino 85 In Two

Drill requires players to make 85 layups in two minutes.

If you are interested in seeing more information about the DVD that this sample is from, you can click here: Richard Pitino Establishing a Full Court Pressure Defense

Basketball Drills Inferno Toughness

By Brian Williams on January 12, 2015

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Editor’s note from Brian: You might want to start out with one or two minutes rather than 4 minutes and have your players build up to 4 minutes. Especially for younger teams.

The drill was contributed by Coach Greg White. He had these comments about the drill:

One of my favorite drills is The Inferno. It immediately raises the intensity level or shows the lack of it.

What you’ll need: 3 Passers, 4 Offensive players, 4 Defensive players, 1 Basketball

Inferno Toughness Drill

Players begin on the elbows and blocks. This drill is for 8 minutes. The team’s roles will switch at the 4 minute mark. There are no substitutions for the 8 involved. When the ball is at the top, the offense down screens. When the ball is on the wing, players screen across.

To keep the drill competitive, and it won’t take much, use one of the following scoring systems:

Each catch = 5 defensive pushups (5 keeps the speed going plus a good screening group will average 20 catches in 4 minutes)

Each catch = 1 pt for elbow catch, 2pts for catch on the block. Keep track and at the end of 8 minutes losing team has a reminder drill.

Each catch = live four on four. Offense gets whatever shot they score, Defense gets 2 for a stop, 3 for a charge, etc..

Offensive Players Start on on Elbows and Blocks.

This is an 8 minute drill: Switch Offense and Defense at 4 minute mark. No Substitutions!

OFFENSE RULES: MUST CATCH ON ELBOW OR BLOCK

DEFENSE: Don’t Let The Offense Catch on the Block or Elbow

You decide how to make it competitive. You can go live on the catch. Stop on the catch-keep score for catches or defense 5 pushups for every catch.

When the Ball is up top, Offensive Players down screen.

If passer can’t get a pass to either elbow, he passes the ball to the next passer to continue the drill.

When the Ball is on the wing, players screen away from the ball

At the 4 minute mark, switch sides.

DO NOT SUB IN FOR THE 8 PLAYERS IN THE “INFERNO”

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.