Basketball Drills

Brian Williams, The Coaching Toolbox.

I have always felt that one of the best ways to evaluate ball handling is by having our perimeter players dribble against two defenders in practice.

I also think that it is important that if you use the 1 vs. 2 drill in practice that you emphasize that it is an overload drill for practice only. Every other time you are double teamed while dribbling , you don’t dribble against it, you look for an open players to pass to.

I developed a scoring system to make the drill competitive and I based it on what I value as the outcome for the offensive player. You might not agree with the scoring system because you might have a different philosophy of what you want the dribbler to do.

Diagram created with FastDraw

You can start the drill 2 different ways. If you want your players to work on getting open against a full court press and not catching the ball in a trap zone, you can begin the drill like the black players, offense 1 and X1 and X2.

The coach inbounds the basketball and the offensive player works to get open against X1.

If you want to put your player in a tough position and force them to get out of it, start them where the red players are O2 and X4 and X5.

Both groups from the diagram do not go at the same time, it is there to illustrate two ways to start the drill.

Once the drill starts, the dribblers will go towards the opposite opposite basket from the end where they start, so it is a full court dribbling drill. If the defense steals the ball, they will attack the basket opposite from where the offense is looking to score.

Each possession lasts 20 seconds unless the ball handler loses the basketball.

You can allow the dribbler only half the floor or allow them to use the whole court. If you use the whole court, only have 1 group of 3 going at once. If you allow the to use only 1 side, you can have groups going both ways.

Here is what I think the best outcomes are for the dribbler: (5 being best outcome)

(5) Scores or is fouled shooting. For this drill, I don’t make a distinction between making a 2 point shot and making a 3 point shot, and we don’t shoot free throws. You can decide how to deal with non-shooting fouls. We handle them as no harm, no foul. I want the dribbler to be tough and not use contact as an excuse to lose the basketball.
(3) Retains dribble for the entire possession without losing the basketball and not picking it up.
(2) Picks up the dribble and can pivot without losing the ball. We don’t call 5 seconds since there are no other players to pass to. You could have a coach or another player be an outlet if you don’t like the idea of pivoting for more than 5 seconds.
(1) Commits a dead ball turnover (travel, offensive foul, 10 second violation, tied up by the defense, steps out of bounds, etc..) I would rather have a dead ball turnover than a live ball turnover because it allows us to set our defense.
(0) Misses a shot or commits a live ball turnover (loses dribble or is stripped while pivoting).

In order to motivate the defense to play hard, they can score if they make a steal. But it must be in transition. If they make a steal, they must go immediately and score in a 2 on 1 or 1 on 0. I don’t want them pulling it out. When we get a 2 on 1 in a game, I want to execution before more defenders retreat.

If the defense steals the ball and then scores or is fouled, both players get two points, even for a 3 point shot. I would rather they attack the basket on a 2 on 1 situation.

Again, these are the scoring rules that fit our system. Change your rules to fit your team.

Players compete in groups of 3 and rotate so that each player goes the same number of times on offense. Two or Three times is a good amount to have each one go. Once one possession is over, start on the opposite baseline and go full court the other way with a new dribbler.

I like to set the maximum length of a possession at 20 seconds, so we start the clock at 20 seconds when the player makes the first dribble.

In keeping with a theme of providing drills for the start of practice, I am posting some ball screen breakdown drills that were sent to me by Nate Hill. He is the Assistant Boys Coach at Colonel Crawford High School in North Robinson, Ohio.

He provide a post where a few months ago 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.

I think it is important for all coaches to put on paper what you believe the strength and weaknesses are for your specific team for various ways of defending ball screens and attacking those defensive strategies in your ball screen game.

That will help you to more clearly and effectively teach both the offensive and defensive ends of ball screens.

Ball Screen Breakdowns

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Start the drill with:

2 on 0 breakdown. Guards and bigs at separate baskets, working on the following ball screen reads: Hard Hedges,
soft hedges, jam and under, Switch, drops, refuse /ice, Blitz / double team.

Then move to:

2 on 2 Live: Coach chooses from under, hedge, switch, ice, drop, or trap. Offense must read the defense and make
the proper play. Offense goes for 2 minutes and switches spots on the court. Next defensive group comes in and
plays a different defense as instructed by the coach.

Here is a link to a post from a few weeks back for working on Attacking Hard Hedges

Defense Blitz

The defense gives up: pick and pops, slip pass, passes over top screen with bigger guards, slow rotations. Teams can make a pass out of the trap, and a quick extra pass to open players with good spacing.

Blitzing takes away: good shooters and drivers, forcing 1 to make solid pass, and 5 to make a shot / play. Forces players to make passes with weak hands

 

Double team / Blitz = retreat dribble and pass: Coach/defender double teams the pick and roll. ball handler uses a retreat / pullback dribble and passes to coach. Coach can also incorporate slips.

 
 
 

 

Double team = SLIP: Defense traps the ball screen, big needs to dive automatically to the rim. Posts vary the finishes at the rim

 
 
 

Under

x1 goes UNDER screen.

The defense gives up: pull up jumpers, turning corner on drives

The defense takes away: screener rolling / slips. force ballhandler to shoot off dribble

Under Screen = race to rim, pull up, rescreen: defender / coach goes under the screen. Ballhandler races defender to the rim, takes pull up jumper, and change directions for a rescreen. Vary your finishes, set up screen with jab or dribble move.
 
 

Under Screen = RESCREEN: Defender goes under the screen, the big can RESCREEN and Roll

If you would like to see the remainder of the document and all 5 scenarios, Click Here for Ball Screen Breakdown 2.0

 

I like this move for working on weak hand finish drills. I also like keeping a score with the two minute time limit for the drill. The drill also forces players to finish when they are fatigued as they get close to the two minute time limit.

It does allow players to work on combo dribble moves, but if you feel it is taking the players too many dribbles to get to the basket, you can take the combo portion of the drill out, or have players start a step off the arc to make the combo move and minimize their dribbles.

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

This video is 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 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. They are YouTube Videos

Click the play arrow so see the drill.

Basketball Drills 2 Minute Combo Move Weak Hand Finish

Diagrams created with FastDraw

These skill development drills were posted by Kyle Gilreath.

The idea for the post is to stimulate your thinking about ways to simulate and rehearse in practice scoring moves that your players will use in games.

Adapt these drills to your philosophy and players’ abilities.

This drill works on several components of improvement all at once:

 

 

Ball Handling: Force your players out of their comfort zone and to dribble lower and quicker each time, that is the only way to improve

Footwork: Creating space and finishing with the least amount of dribbles

Finishing Through/Over/Around the Defense: This drill consists of a multiple of different types of shots and finishes that are great to add to your players’ repertoire.

Strong/Reverse Lay-Up: Players starts with 1 ball and dribbles at each cone. The player will take 1 hard dribble with the outside hand and quickly crossover, take one hard dribble at the next cone and crossover (keeping the ball below the knees). After the last cone the player takes no more than two dribbles and attacks the rim. Finish on the other side of the rim with strong hand, make 3 per side.

Next set is similar but the player will do an inside-out crossover at each cone. The finish is with the off hand (left hand reverse on right side).

Floater: Players starts with 1 ball and dribbles at each cone. The player will take 1 hard dribble with the outside hand and quickly dribble between the legs, take one hard dribble at the next cone and crossover (keeping the ball below the knees). After the last cone the player takes no more than two dribbles and attacks the rim and shoots a floater (1 and/or 2 feet) make 3 per side.

When driving right shoot right floater and left floater driving left

Spin Fadeaway: Players starts with 1 ball and dribbles at each cone. The player will take 1 hard inside-out dribble with the outside hand and quickly dribbles between the legs, take one hard dribble inside-out at the next cone and between the legs (keeping the ball below the knees). After the last cone the player takes one hard dribble and spins off the coach/pad for a fade away jumper. Make sure the player is not drifting, but slightly leaning/fading back to get the shot over a big.

Contest the shot without getting under the shooter (prevent ankle injuries).

Step-Back: Players starts with 1 ball and dribbles at each cone. The player will take 1 hard inside-out dribble with the outside hand and quickly dribbles behind the back, take one hard dribble inside-out at the next cone and behind the back (keeping the ball low). After the last cone the player takes one hard dribble at the lane and steps one hard step back into a jumper.

Contest the shot without getting under the shooter (prevent ankle injuries).

Step-Back Crossover: Players starts with 1 ball and dribbles at each cone. The player will take 1 hard dribble with the outside hand and quickly dribbles between the legs->behind the back->crossver, take one hard dribble at the next cone and dribbles between the legs->behind the back->crossver (keeping the ball low). After the last cone the player takes one hard dribble at the lane and steps one hard step back dribble and then quickly crosses over, creates space with 1 dribble for a jumper.

These drills are designed to help your team’s execution by helping players’ concentration.

Even if you don’t use the particular schemes that are mentioned in the post, you can adapt them to your system.

The drills are from Mike Neighbors’ weekly basketball coaching newsletter.

Let me know if you would like to be added to his email list and I will pass your address along.

Competitive 5 on 0 Closeouts

One of the “necessary evils” is working with your team in 5-on-0 situations. I used to call it Dummy Offense but the high school principal at my school thought I was demeaning my players. Some people call it skeleton O, some call it Dry O, some call it shell O… regardless of what we call it, simulating your team offense without a defense is an
important part of what we do.

A team’s ability to PRETEND in this situation has always been a good sign for us. If our players have the ability to simulate a defender in front of them requiring them to catch and square, to use short/violent fakes on their moves, to make crisp cuts/passes, and then finish with a move that mirrors one that might be taken in traffic at the buzzer… Not all players and teams can do this. Our best teams can… our worst teams can’t…

During this week between our Conference Tournament and the post-season, we had four practices in which we had no opponent to prepare for. It’s the first time that has been the case since late October.

To help simulate game situations in a competitive setting, we split our ten players into two even teams. Purple was up first. 3:00 on the clock… We told them they could score on any of our Dribble Drive options. The only requirement was that on the first five possessions each of the five players must be the player to attempt the first shot of the possession. After the first five trips, they anyone could take the first shot. A made three pointer was worth three points. A made two pointer was worth two points. If they first shot of the possession was missed, and they could rebound that miss before the ball hit the floor, they could shot from that spot and if made could earn 1 point. Coaches also could wave off ANY POINTS if the execution was incorrect or the effort wasn’t up to game like standards. At the end of the three minutes, Purple moved to the side where each player attempted a 1 and 1 FT to add to their First Period Score. Gold got their 3:00 under the same rules and then attempted their FT’s on a side goal as Purple began Period #2.

In Period #2, scoring and having all five players attempt first shot on possession remained the same. In this period, the team had to execute any of our Three Zone Motion actions. At the end of 2nd period, each player shot a 2 shot FT opportunity. Teams switch.

Period #3 was back to man-to-man actions from a chosen family of set plays. At the end of this period rather than shoot FT’s the team executed 5 bounds plays of their choice.

Period 4 was back to Zone using any of our set plays utilized against zone defense.

Peer Passing

Diagrams created with FastDraw

In this drill, we put the impetus on our players to be each others peers. Start with our forwards in a line along the baseline without balls. The guards set up on the wing, each with a ball.

The first post makes her cut to the ball side. IF, the guard believes she cut hard, has good position, and good presen-tation, she feeds her the ball. The post makes a desired move. IF NOT, she waves her off the court, and the next post player cuts.

The guard then makes her cut to the designated, desired position. The guard on the weak side becomes her “peer”. She judges if the post entry pass was good. She judges if the cut was acceptable. She judges if shot preparation meets our standards. If so, she passes it and guard get to take her shot.

If not, then she “waves her off” and we recycle drill with another post player cutting to Post-Up.

The drill continues recycling itself.

Players get their own rebounds on shots and return to opposite lines.

Things you will develop in this drill:

A high standard of execution. You’ll find your players may be harder on themselves than we are as coaches on most occasions.

You will also pick out any people who may let others “coast” or “slide”… or vice versa!!

Variations: Vary the post moves, vary the guard cuts, vary the spots on the floor.

Competitive: Can make it time/score by introducing point value to successful or consecutive passes. Adding defense can also give drill a winner/loser feel.