Passing Drills

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.

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

This passing drill for teams that use a lot of on ball screening actions is from the competitive drills file.

If you are interested in being added to his list, please email me and I will pass it along to him.

Coach Mike Neighbors picked this drill up from Todd Schaefer.

Todd is currently serving as an assistant to Coach Neighbors at Arkansas.

Here are links to 3 other passing drills that are posted on The Coaching Toolbox.

This post has a little bit of Coach Beilein’s coaching philosophy–the second part includes several passing drills John Beilein Passing Drills

This series passing drills, involves twp players and coach, and works on the ability to penetrate with their head up and make intelligent scoring or passing. It also emphasizes catching passes while on the move: 2 player passing drills

This passing drill requires 5 offensive and 5 defensive players: 5 Lane Passing Drill

Ball Screen Pocket Passing Drill

Feeding a rolling post player is a must have skill for any guard who plays in a ball screen action offense. Without this skill, defenders can simply focus on defending the screen and subsequent potential drive to the basket.

Set up chairs, cones, or balls in an arc. Wide enough that two balls fit in the space between them. Coach stands inside the arc as the receiver and return passer.

Player starts in the corner. Simulate an on-ball screen. Explode from that simulated screen and deliver a pass that bounces in the area between the first and second obstacle. Coach returns the ball and player repeats the action all the way around and back.

You can make this timed competitive or number competitive.

For variety you can change the angles of the passes or decrease the distance between the obstacles.

These are some notes from Michigan Coach John Beilein that were recently sent out by Steve Smiley.

The first part is a little about philosophy and the second half covers some passing drills that Coach Belein uses.

Philosophy

• The wolf gets his strength from the pack and the pack gets its strength from the leader
• You can do anything you want in practice but not everything you want- simplify
• Be who you are off the court on the court
• Embrace adversity- let it push you forward
• It is a marathon not a sprint
• After all of your games watch what you say. After studying the film you will realize your team and your players were not as good or bad as you thought. Do not destroy their confidence.
• There are lots of ways to win- open your mind
• No turnovers- get a shot3 points is more than 2 points (film your shooters)

Drills

• Make drills harder than the game will be
• Tape them to show them how hard they are practicing
• Give them goals and hold them accountable to them

Michigan Passing- 2 players and 1 ball

• If the ball is in the air your feet are in the air to receive a pass
• Catch it on 2 and step with a hot foot (the shooting hand foot)

Michigan Box Passing- 4 players and 1 ball

• Same drill as 2-player drill with a catch, hot foot pivot right and a pass to the right
• Same drill with a catch, hot foot pivot moving right foot to the left and a pass

1. Pass to the outside hand
2. Come open when the ball sees you by stepping down (out), showing hands, calling for the ball
3. After passing move back in to re-establish 15-18 foot passing spacing

• Blast to the ball

1. Same drill with a catch, hot foot pivot left and a pass to the left but now you must run to the ball to catch it
2. Throw to the outside hand
3. Right foot on fire- move it quickly
4. Bring the foot through before extending the arms to pass, as this will protect the ball

All of these drills can be done again by adding another ball

Perfect Passing- 10 perfect passes in 30 seconds

• Players must complete 10 passes with perfection (outside hand, foot fire, 2 feet in the air, clean catch)- if they are not successful, they run until the 30 seconds is completed

Perfect Passing against Defense- 10 perfect passes against defense

• Dribble the ball over half-court

• 10 passes or 1 backdoor cut and a pass out of the backdoor qualifies as a success. Play team against team and transition on turnovers

• 5 perfect passes with 1 dribble

Playing 4 against 5 defenders. Same rules as before. Play team against team and transition on turnovers

Michigan Penetrate the lane- 4 balls and 8 players with 4 stationary defenders
Show shot (shot fake or can use a pass fake) while keeping knees bent and shoulders low

• Drive right past the defender body to body with one or 2 dribbles
• Jump stop and shot fake
• Pass to the player in the line to the right of you
• This player is calling out “1 more, 1 more”
• Try to get into the lane with 1 dribble
• Catch the ball on a hop
• The dummy defender does not move but has wide hands
• Have soft feet on the jabs and on the catch/hop
• When the ball penetrates the lane and gets picked up, you should hear a pop of the ball(ball slap)

Same drill but go left with a crossover move with the hot foot

• Shot fake and pass to the left and rotate left

Same drill with a right attack and a spin dribble

• Pass left