Basketball Drills

Basketball Drills Diamond Shell Drill

By Brian Williams on January 8, 2014

This version of The Shell Defense Drill comes from 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.

Traditional shell drills don’t always put enough pressure on your help-side defenders to make game-like decisions.

The Diamond Shell Drill changes the alignment to emphasize ball pressure, post defense, and backside help.

Offensive player exchanges force defenders to communicate, adjust their positioning, and maintain their help responsibilities.

The drill also incorporates baseline penetration to reinforce defensive rotations and the importance of stopping the drive.

Basketball Drills Diamond Shell Drill

Teach how you will defend the post and stress to your perimeter players to provide ball pressure.

1 passes to 3

This forces 2 to sprint to backside help.

In this frame 1 will exchange with 2. This will force your helpside to communicate and stay disciplined

This alignment mimics a lot of the offensive alignments and cause your helpside to be even more engaged and your defenders on the wing to stop baseline penetration.

Here 1 passes to 3 and 3 will immediately drive baseline

Basketball Drills Calipari 32

By Brian Williams on January 7, 2014

This is a short video of John Calipari putting some players through a transition and conversion drill.

Make sure your sound is on as you watch.

He runs it a little differently than the traditional stop at the free throw line.

I have also experimented with running the shooter to the ball side corner in 3 on 2. That way he is away from the rest of the defenders converting down the middle of the floor.

I like the idea of experimenting with new ideas a couple of times a week in practice for 5 to 10 minutes.

Calipari 32 Transition/Conversion Drill

Click the play arrow to see the video.

You can also click this link to see more information about or to purchase the entire DVD “John Calipari: Breakdown Drills for the Dribble Drive Motion Offense”

Basketball Drills Handling Defensive Pressure

By Brian Williams on December 31, 2013

This sample video features former Division I Head Coach Will Rey teaching a drill to work on handling defensive pressure.

The video segment is almost five minutes long and the drill starts at about 3:00.

The first 3 minutes are some ideas about individual development and some teaching points for drill.

One note, when he says “break the glass on the pass,” he is referring to the passer getting his hand by the defense
when making the pass.

Make sure your speakers are on to see and hear the YouTube video. Please make sure that you are on a server that allows YouTube access.

If you are interested in learning more about the entire DVD that this sample came, click this link. Anyone who purchases anything from the store receives one of my basketball coaching eBooks as a bonus.

Just email me and let me know which one you would like to receive!

If you are interested in learning more about the entire DVD that this sample came, click this link. Anyone who purchases anything from the store receives one of my basketball coaching eBooks as a bonus. Just email me and let me know which one you would like to receive!

3 Basketball Drills from Shaka Smart

By Brian Williams on December 26, 2013

These 3 basketball drills from Shaka Smart were posted by FastModel’s plays and drills library by Kyle Gilreath.

The library has hundreds of plays and drills from coaches all over the world and from various levels of coaching. You can check it out here:

Fast Model Plays and Drills Library

If you are interested in seeing a 3 minutes and 41 seconds video of Coach Smart going through a portion of his diamond press, click this link (You do not need to purchase anything to see the video) Shaka Smart Diamond Press

Trap Transition

Trap Transition is a drill that forces your offense to get open under pressure and teaches your defenders who to anticipate the first pass out of a trap.

A Guard starts with the ball in the trap and they have to hold it for 2 seconds, then they can pass it out. From their it is live, the defense must sprint back in transition while trying to intercept the ball.

x1 is interceptor side

x3 is interceptor high

x5 is the goaltender

Triangle FastBreak

Occasionally while pressing the defense gets overaggressive and the trap breaks down and the ball gets ahead creating a 5 on 3 situation. This is the perfect drill to teach your players to never give up on a play and to sprint back trying to get a back tip in transition.

1 starts with the ball

x1 and x2 chase to backtip

1 cannot pass until they gets to half court

Once they throw it ahead it is 4 on 4 live

444

444 Is a great defensive drill that involves your entire team. It forces the offensive and defensive teams to stay focused as soon as there is a make/miss or turnover/steal to jump right into your defense and try to create HAVOC.

Three Teams of 4. If the offensive team scores they get to keep the ball and must inbound it again. The defense continues to press until half court, looking to get a steal to score. Once the offensive team reaches half-court the defensive team on the other end picks them up. If the defense gets a stop they become the new offensive team and the new defense can try to get a steal before halfcourt.

Score this like a regular game and go for a specified amount of time.

Below is a video of Shaka Smart going through a portion of his diamond press:

If you are interested in seeing more about Coach Smart’s Havoc Pressure Defense DVD, click here:

If you click the play arrow on the video below, you will land on a page in our shop where you can watch the sample video.

Bob Hurley Command Drill

By Brian Williams on December 24, 2013

This is a short video of Bob Hurley going over a defensive drill that works on 4 different on ball defensive scenarios

1) Contest the shot
2) Take a charge
3) 5 second Count
4) Give a foul

Make sure your sound is on as you watch.

You can also click this link to see more information about or to purchase the entire DVD “Bob Hurley: Practice Planning & Program Development

Click the play arrow to see the video.

1) Contest the shot 2) Take a charge 3) 5 second Count 4) Give a foul

You can also click this link to see more information about or to purchase the entire DVD “Bob Hurley: Practice Planning & Program Development

Basketball Drills 3 on 3 Defense and Rebounding

By Brian Williams on December 18, 2013

Anytime your drill involves less than 5 on 5, it takes away help and congestion and forces the defenders to be more accountable.

3 on 3 drills are a good way to do that.

Today’s post involves 3 3 on 3 defensive drills from a collection put together by Nate Hill, Assistant Boys Coach at Colonel Crawford High School in North Robinson Ohio.

He has coached for 18 years from 7th grade through Varsity Head Coach.

Coach Hill has provided several drills and has been generous enough to allow me to post them on the site.

He has also started a basketball coaching newsletter.

You can see the newsletters as well as subscribe to the Newsletter at this link:

Next Level 419 Coaching Newsletters

In case you have any questions or comments for Coach Hill, here is his email address: [email protected]it

3 Player Closeouts

Drill starts with 3 defenders in a line under basket, and coach has a ball.

Coach can pass to any player.

Top man in line must find ball and close out under control with 2 high hands.

x2 and x3 must communicate and find other players.

Off ball defenders must be in help, denial, or gap positions.

After the 1st stop, top man goes to back of line, and the team must get 3 stops to get out of the drill.

Drilling the habit for players not taking the basketball to close out to their gap or denial positions (depending on your style of defense) when rotating out of a trap or a help and recover is an essential defensive fundamental skill. It is not a skill that players pick up on their own without developing the habit through repetition in the defensive fundamentals portion of practice.

3 Player Team Rebounding

3 teams of 3.

Rules: every defensive rebound = 1 point, offensive rebound go to defense.

Defense must start with 1 foot in the paint, and each defensive player must touch offense.

Team must secure rebound the ball inbounds.

1st team to get 3 defensive rebounds wins.

Defending Specific Actions

The following 4 frames are an example of a specific offensive actions to defend. The key is to select the movements that your opponents use in their offensive schemes. Defending the specific cuts and screens that your toughest opponents run throughout your entire season of practices is more effective than only working on those movements the night before you play.

Having the offense run specific sequences helps to make your 3 on 3 drills more gamelike and less like a summer 3 on 3 tournament.

Come up with your own list of what you need to defend for the teams on your schedule and work on defending them with your defensive rules. The following four frames are a place to start.

Flex action: back screen, down screen. Down screen, cross screen. 1 down screens first, then screens for 3.

Princeton Action: Backscreen / flare screen Princeton Action: Flare screen