Basketball Drills

Basketball Drills That Improve Execution

By Brian Williams on October 21, 2014

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.

Basketball Drills Four and Five Man Break

By Brian Williams on October 17, 2014

Today’s post was submitted by Alan Peel of CoachPeelBasketball.com

Hope this gives you some thoughts as to what you can do with your warmup and or conditioning portions of practice that utilize your full court transition and or press break systems. I have always felt that anytime you can involve handling the basketball. drilling your schemes, and competition in conditioning. Putting a time requirement to complete the drills is another way to make them competitive and hold players’ attention.

I also like the idea of setting “standards of execution” for your warmup and conditioning drills requiring concentrating on a specific number of perfect passing and catching, layups, and all other areas of execution or requiring the players to repeat the drill. It stresses the importance of concentrating on every drill.

Four and Five-Man Break Drills

By Alan Peel, CoachPeelBasketball.com

Two of the warm-up drills that I have done in the past to build a transition offense are Four-Man Break and Five-Man Break. These drills get your players to learn how to run the floor, are great conditioners early in practice, and place an emphasis on footwork and finishing with lay-ups in transition.

Like Three-Man Weave, these two drills require the players to make a predetermined number of lay-ups or consecutive lay-ups without making a mistake. If a ball hits the floor for any reason, a player uses the incorrect hand in shooting a lay-up, a player travels, or a player runs the drill incorrectly, the lay-up does not count even on a made lay-up.

Four-Man Break

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Four-Man Break requires a point guard, two wings, and a big. Any player can play any position in the drill.

The wings (#’s 2 and 3) will start the drill in the corners, the point guard (#1) will start at the top of the key, and the big (#4) will start near the basket. The drill begins as shown in Diagram 1 with #4 throwing the ball off of the backboard and grabbing the rebound. #1 will then get into a position to receive the outlet pass from him and look to pass up the floor.

#1 will look to pass the ball up the floor to either wing. If, as Diagram 2 shows, the wing receiving the pass cannot score the lay-up, he will pass it back to #1 who will then pass to the opposite wing. If the wing with the ball can score the lay-up, he will shoot the ball.

The sequence will begin again with #4 taking the ball out of the net, stepping out of bounds, and inbounding the ball to #1 (Diagram 3). We also want the wings to cross between the backboard and the baseline.

We will go up and back twice with the big man who inbounded the basketball to start the last trip to score the lay-up to end the sequence (Diagram 4). As soon as we have made the required number of lay-ups to finish the drill, we will then move on to Five-Man Break.

Five-Man Break

Five-Man Break requires a point guard, two wings, and two bigs. Like the four-man break drill, any player can play any position.

There are notable differences between Four-Man break and Five-Man Break. The first of these is to whom the first big (#5) will pass the ball to once he collects the rebound. Instead of passing to #1 on the outlet, he will instead pass the ball to the other big (#4) to simulate a pressure release (Diagram 5). Once #4 receives the ball, #1 will cut to the middle of the floor and look for the pass from #4 before passing to the wing on the opposite side (Diagram 6).

Another difference, also illustrated in Diagram 6 is that instead of passing the ball back to the point guard, we want the wing who receives the ball from the point guard to make a cross-court pass to the other wing. The second

wing to touch the ball will score the lay-up if he can do so without traveling.

The first big man down the floor will inbound the basketball on the trip back each time (Diagram 7). We will repeat the sequence with the wings changing sides of the floor by crossing between the backboard and the baseline. Also, we will have the bigs changing responsibilities based on who gets down the floor first. The first big down will take the ball out of the basket, step out of bounds, and inbound the ball to start the trip back.

Any given sequence with Five-Man Break ends with the last big man down the floor on the second trip back scoring the last lay-up (Diagram 8). As soon as we have made the required number of lay-ups to finish the drill, we are done with Four- and Five-Man Break.

Click here to see Coach Peel’s version of the 3 man weave full court

Basketball Drills Three Man Weave

By Brian Williams on October 16, 2014

Three Man Weave

By Alan Peel, CoachPeelBasketball.com

At the start of practices, you want to have a good warm-up drill that gets your players engaged and works on building your team’s running game. I have used a three-man weave drill in my time as a coach that have worked on passing, footwork, running the floor, and shooting lay-ups effectively.

These are untimed drills for the players. Instead, we want the players to make a predetermined number of lay-ups or consecutive lay-ups without making a mistake. If a ball hits the floor for any reason, a player uses the incorrect hand in shooting a lay-up, a player travels, or a player runs the drill incorrectly, the lay-up does not count even on a made lay-up.

On all of these drills, players should pass and go behind the player who received their pass. The keys to the drill are to stay wide when running the floor, run the floor hard, and to lead the receiver with the basketball. Coaches should emphasize that if the ball is in the air coming toward them, use a jump stop to get under control with the mantra of “ball in the air, feet in the air”.

The first segment of the drill is with five passes before a lay-up is attempted (Diagram 1). Once the players have made the specified number of lay-ups, the number of passes will be reduced to four (Diagram 2) and then to three once the specified number of lay-ups has been made (Diagram 3). After the specified number of lay-ups has been made for the three-pass three-man weave, the drill is completed.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

During the drill, the players will count out how many passes they make before shooting the lay-up. The job of the coaches are to count the number of lay-ups made and to make sure the drill is being run correctly. The coach will not stop the drill once it begins for any reason other than if a player is injured.

It should also be noted that this drill will not look good early on, but your team will get better at running it as you give it more time. The best way for them to get better at it is to do the drill daily. If you have a younger team, you will want to start with having them make a specified number of lay-ups early in the season. Later in the year, if your team is experienced and good enough, have the players make a specified number of consecutive lay-ups.

Basketball Drills Argentine Passing

By Brian Williams on October 14, 2014

Here is an idea if you for a conditioning drill that also involves handling the basketball.

The drill can be done half court or full court depending on what you want to accomplish with the drill and

The drill continues in similar fashion for one minute on the clock.

If the ball hits the ground, passes are not caught cleanly, traveling, or any other error, the one minute is put back on the clock and the drill starts over. Or, you can add time each time there is a turnover.

You can change the time or the requirements to complete the drill without starting over to fit your needs.

In addition to the diagrams, there is a video below of the Maryland Women’s team running the drill.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

8 players are in the drill.

Players of same numbers are partners. 1 is matched with x1, 2 is matched with x2, 3 with x3, 4 with x4.

1 and x1 each start with a basketball.

The drill starts out with the players who have the basketballs passing to their right. 1 passes to 3 and x1 passes to x3.

After making the passes, the 1s sprint and change spots.

Players need to be aware of the other players in the middle to avoid collisions.

The drill continues with 3 passing to 2 and x3 passing to x2

The 3s, then change positions.

The drill continues in similar fashion for one minute on the clock.

If the ball hits the ground, passes are not caught cleanly, traveling, or any other error, the one minute starts over.

You can change the time or the requirements to complete the drill without starting over to fit your needs.

The drill can also be done full court.

In the full court version, obviously the players at half court have a shorter distance to run and the players in the corner have longer to run.

If you have more than 8 on your squad, you can put players behind in the corners and under the basket (so that you have 2 in each of those spots) to make the running more equal.

Below is a video of the Maryland Women’s team running the drill full court.

I like the idea of keeping the players inbounds, but if you want them to run a little more, you can station them behind the sideline.

To see more information about the DVD that this sample video came from, click here: All-Access Maryland Women’s Basketball Practice with Brenda Frese

Basketball Drills Prairie Fire Shooting

By Brian Williams on October 9, 2014

This basketball shooting drill is from Coach Randi (Peterson) Henderson, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Coe College.

It is included in The Basketball HoopScoop’s A System of Success: 2011 Conference Champion and National Tournament Playbook–edited by Dan Ninham.

This eBook is bundled with the 2014 NIT Finals Playbook as this week’s feature. Click this link for more information: NIT Finals and System of Success Bundle

This drill encourages communication, responsibility, and attention to detail.

The team is required to keep the ball off the ground for the duration of the drill as well as make consistent two handed passes and catches on the run. Other variations of the drill are 1) to make a certain amount in 1:00 2) have a perfect 1:00 3) Add Coaches for defense in transition or to trap the out1et.

The most demanding way to run the drill is to put 5:00 on the clock with the team goal being to score 150 points (1 point for layups, 2 points for 2 point jump shot, 3 points for 3 point shots).

The rules are NO TRAVELS, NO MISSED LAYUPS, AND THE BALL CANNOT TOUCH THE GROUND. Exception: 1 bounce is allowed on the rebound for two and three point jump shots.

You will need to adjust the standards to fit the level you coach and the changing abilities of your players from year to year and also adjust the types of shots and passes to fit your system of play.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Coach starts the time on the clock with a layup and a pass to 1 who is yelling “Outlet.”

1 cuts to top of the key for the pass.

Right and Left wing take off sprinting.

One is naming and yelling “Long” the other is yelling “Out1et”.

1 distributes the ball without dribbling or traveling to the Outlet wing and follows the pass.

The outlet wing delivers a scoring pass without dribbling or traveling, then follows the pass for a shot.

After the layup is made, the player who just shot the layup gets the ball out of the rim keeping it off the ground and outlets to 1 cutting to the top of the key.

The two wings who are on the baseline, deliver 2 handed passes to the shooters and then proceed to take off for the “outlet” or “long” layup.

Drill is done for 5 minutes:

NO TRAVELS, NO DROPPED PASSES, and NO MISSED LAYUPS

On the Wing Catches, be outside the 3 pt line on the catch:

(You can adjust the types of finishes or shots to fit your needs)
1 minute the finish is 1 Dribble Layup off 1 foot
I minute 1 Dribble Layups off 2 feet w/a Peek
1 minute 1 Dribble Jumpers
1 minute Catch & Shoot in Range
1 minute Choose your shot

This drill is included in The Basketball HoopScoop’s “A System of Success: 2011 Conference Champion and National Tournament Playbook–edited by Dan Ninham. The book has a lot of drills and sets from very successful small college women’s programs.

This eBook is bundled with the 2014 NIT Finals Playbook as this week’s feature. Click this link for more information: NIT Finals and System of Success Bundle

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 Drills “Baseball”

By Brian Williams on October 6, 2014

This drill was from an old Xavier Men’s Newsletter.

You can see their archives and subscribe at this link.

I thought with the World Series in progress, this would be a good time to post this basketball drill that works on 1 on 1, 2 on 2, and 3 on 3 situations in a competitive way.

If you have to wait on some athletes to start practice and need something to add variety to your practice, or late in the season when you are looking for ways to change things up, here is one idea.

Basketball Drills “Baseball”

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Divide teams into two colors.

Blue team establishes a “batting order” and white matches up accordingly to how they want to defend.

INNING 1: ONE-ON-ONE:

Blue team is on offense, scoring as many RUNS (points) as possible until they get 3 OUTS (defensive stops by white)…

Switch to White team on offense. White plays until they get 3 outs…

End of first inning. (To make a long game you can run through this again and count as an additional inning)

INNING TWO: TWO-ON-TWO:

For each inning, we vary the initial actions (ball screen, down screen, flare screen, etc.)

Use whatever actions are part of your offense or maybe your upcoming opponent’s offensive attack to work on defending them.

INNING THREE: THREE-ON-THREE:

Again changing the initial actions to actions that you either use or have to defend.

For each of the innings and individual matchups, you will need to decide what to do with fouls. You can make them an automatic run (point) for the offense, or you can have players shoot them to work on free throws with a little pressure. If you shoot them, the offense gets their point if they make the free throw. They get the ball back if they miss. Like any drill that you see from other programs, you need to make the adaptations that fit the objectives that you have for running the drill.