Basketball Drills

Basketball Plays Spurs Need 3

By Brian Williams on December 8, 2014

This sideline out of bands play against man to man defense is used by the San Antonio Spurs. It is posted in the FastModel Sports Basketball Plays and Drills Library The site has thousands of drills and plays that have been submitted by basketball coaches from around the world.

This is a great misdirection play that San Antonio has been running for years.

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

I hope you can find tweak this to fit the skills of your players and use it when you need a three point shot.

This play was submitted by Craig Craig LeVasseur who was a member of the Detroit Pistons coaching staff for 5 seasons.

Craig was responsible for video scouting of all opponents, on-court player development work, and pre-draft workout scouting and preparation.

Before working in the NBA, Craig was a Volunteer Assistant and then a Graduate Assistant at Eastern Michigan University.

3 sets a flare screen for 1.

2 and 5 screen for 3.

3 cuts to the basketball.

After screening for 3, 2 cuts to the ball side low block.

4 enters the ball to 2 on the block.

5 rescreens for 3.

2 looks to hit 3.

Basketball Plays: 2 Duke Sets

By Brian Williams on December 4, 2014

These 2 man to man set plays below are from the the Duke playbook that was compiled by Coach Scott Peterman from the Men’s Basketball Hoopscoop

I have partnered with Coach Peterman to offer the Duke Playbook together with the VCU Playbook as this week’s eBook bundle special

For more information about the Duke-VCU bundle, click this link.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Duke Half Court Set #1

1 passes to 2 and cuts to the top left guard spot.

4 sprints toward 2.

4 sets a ball screen for 2.

2 attacks the basket.

5 sets a back screen on 4s defender.

4 rolls to the basket.

3 sets a flare screen for 1.

1 flares to the left wing.

3 pops to the top left guard spot after setting the flare screen.

2 can pass to 4 off the backscreen, take a jumper in the lane, or pass to 1 for the three point shot.

Duke Half Court Set #2

4 and 5 set cross screens for 2.

3 cuts to the left corner.

2 cuts to the left wing.

5 turns and sets a cross screen for 4.

4 cuts to the right wing.

1 passes to 4 on the right wing.

4 has 3 options.

Attack the basket to score.

Hit 5 rolling to the basket.

1 cuts to the right wing.

4 can drive the ball and throw behind to 1.

These 2 man to man set plays below are from the the Duke playbook that was compiled by Coach Scott Peterman from the Men’s Basketball Hoopscoop

I have partnered with Coach Peterman to offer the Duke Playbook together with the VCU Playbook as this week’s eBook bundle special

For more information about the Duke-VCU bundle, click this link.

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.

Basketball Shooting Drills Around the Horn & Baseball

By Brian Williams on November 26, 2014

Here are a couple of shooting drills that I hope will spark some thinking on improvements you can incorporate into your shooting drills. I like to have enough drills to offer a variety to hopefully keep players from getting to the point where they start going through the motions from running the same drills day after day. Maybe you could save one for the end of the season.

Take the things you like and leave out anything that you don’t if you want to run similar drills in your practices.

The videos are among the basketball training videos for all levels of coaches, players, and parents that is offered by BasketballHQ. You can access their entire library with a pro membership. They offer a free 7 day trial for the membership. If you are interested, you can see more at this link: Basketball HQ

Please make sure your sound is on to see the video.

Click the play arrow so see the drill.

Basketball Drills Around the Horn Shooting

This drill forces the player to remain ready to shoot the ball because they don’t know when it is coming to them. Even though there is only one shooter in the drill, I believe that you could make this a team drill with at least a couple of players shooting at a basket at a time.

It gives you an opportunity to teach footwork the way you want it taught and is a way to work on shooting when fatigued.

The shooter starts in the corner, and the passer/rebounder is stationed in the lane. When the drill starts the shooter moves around the arc until the passer throws them the ball. The pass can be made at any time.

After the shot is taken the shooter return to the corner where they started and go again.

Basketball Drills “Baseball” Shooting

You might not want to use this exact same scoring system, but hopefully it gives you an idea to find a way to structure a drill that scores in a slightly different way.

Set 9 spots around the 3 point arc for the nine “innings”. The shooter gets three outs (shots missed) per inning just like baseball. Once you have three outs, you move on to the next inning (spot).

If the shooter makes a shot, but hits the rim, they get a single. A swish is a homerun. The object is to score as many “runs” as possible using those rules. The video has an example and more details on scoring. Once the players shoots nine innings, the drill is over.

Basketball Drills Celtic and Laker Passing Drills

By Brian Williams on November 21, 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.

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

The drills can be used as warmup drills at the start of practice or as conditioning with a ball drills at the end of practice.

You can time them and add a perfect passing and catching requirement to add an extra dimension of competition.

Laker Passing Drill

This drill was contributed by Kyle Gilreath.

1 hits 2, 2 passes back and advances ball up to 3 for a lay-up.

2 rebounds the ball out of the net (Ball can NEVER hit floor),
1 sprints around the cone, and 3 sprints out to the opposite
wing after the lay-up.

(All chest passes and No dribbling).

2 hits 3, 3 passes back to 2 who advances the ball up to 1 who is sprinting for a lay-up.

Waiting 4 gets rebounds OUT OF NET and continues the drill until they make the 14 (# players on team).

Switch sides to make 28, any misses start all over.

Celtic Passing Drill

This drill was submitted by Greg White. Coach White has 14 years experience coaching basketball as a head coach from junior high, senior high and AAU teams in his home state of Arkansas.

1 passes to 2 then sprints to sideline.

2 passes to 3 then sprints to the corner

3 passes to 1 then sprints to mid court.

1 passes to 2 then sprints to corner.

2 passes to 3 then sprints to sideline.

3 passes to 1 who passes to 2 then passes to 3 for the layup.

Next group starts
2 passes

Basketball Drills 3 Basketballs 2 Ends Shooting

By Brian Williams on November 18, 2014

This basketball shooting drill is from Mike Neighbors of the Arkansas Women’s Program.

I think it is good to collect a variety of drills so that you can continually add in new drills for variety as the season unfolds to keep things fresh for your players.

At the bottom of this post are links to other drills as well as other posts from Coach Neighbors.

With a large team we had to tweak some of our shooting drills this season.

This is one we “accidentally” created from our One Minute, One Spot shooting drill.

Divide team evenly as possible on both ends. Each end has three balls.

Encircled numbers in the diagram represent the three passers with basketballs at each end.

Passer will pass to shooter then take spot in line. Shooter will shoot and rebound make/miss and pass to next person in line.

We shoot in this spot for 1:00. We can record three things if we have enough counters. Each group score per spot, each end score per spot, and total score for team on both ends.

For second 1:00 period, we move one spot to the left and repeat. We shoot 5:00 and all 5 spots.

(The five spots are both corners, both 45 degree angles, and straight on from the top of the key)

The ends can compete against each other. The team can compete against a “record number”, and individual groups can compete against one another.

I love the variety, the number of shots we can attempt in a short period of time.

We have only done this once so expect scores to improve, but first totals were:

135 high spot for whole team. 90 per end, and 63 per single group

Basketball Plays Double Zipper 3

By Brian Williams on November 17, 2014

Today’s Baseline Out of Bounds Play is from Houston’s Women’s Assistant Coach Vonn Read.

Coach Vonn Read has submitted several plays from his playbook series The Basketball Encyclopedia of Plays to the Coaching Toolbox.

Coach Read has also served as an assistant coach in the WNBA with the Phoenix Mercury, Orlando Miracle, and San Antonio Silver Stars.

He was an advanced scout for the Orlando Magic as well as The Charlotte Sting.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

This is a good UOB 3-point set

The 4 player will set a screen for the 1 player popping to the wing.

After passing the ball in, the 3 player will cut hard off of the double Zipper screen and curl to the wing.

The 1 player will dribble high, looking for the 3 player. This is a decoy action.

After the 3 player makes their cut, the 2 players will sprint to the wing through the elevator screen for the 3-point shot.

Coach Read has also put together The Basketball Encyclopedia of plays. You can check them out here: The Basketball Encyclopedia of Plays or read more about the books:

Any coach looking for the latest and innovative plays from the Professional, College, or High School levels can stop looking. With a compilation of over 7,700 different plays, you will never need to purchase another basketball playbook again. These playbooks can be used as a great reference tool for years to come. This 2 Volume Book includes plays from 19 different play categories, and they are the most extensive playbooks on the market.

The Basketball Encyclopedia of Plays (Platinum Series) contains over 7,700 Plays (Both Volumes combined) from the NBA, WNBA, USBL, and College levels from someone who has worked as an Advanced Scout or Coach on each level!!! This book has been intensely compiled over the last 21 years, with plays taken from a lot of NBA Coaches (past and present), WNBA coaches, and College coaches (Men’s and Women’s) from around the country.

Any coach that is serious about improving their knowledge of the game from an X and O standpoint will benefit tremendously from these books. These Books can be used to discover New Quick hitters, add a New Package to your playbook, or develop an entire Offensive System. There are a lot of new ideas and concepts in these books to study, and the Basketball Encyclopedia of Plays can be a great resource for coaches on all levels!!! This book is definitely for those X and O junkies who are always looking to improve as a Coach.

“THE GAME IS ALWAYS CHANGING? ARE YOU?” Vonn Read

Here is the link: The Basketball Encyclopedia of Plays