Shooting Drills

Mike Neighbors, Women’s Coach at Arkansas, is one of the best coaches around to learn from. 

Any drill is only good if it gives your players a chance to improve their skills that are needed within your system.  You will want to modify this to your needs.

BALL SCREEN OFFENSE DRILLS

2 ON 0 SHOOTING DRILL

1. Start with posts on the baseline and perimeter players on the wing.
2. Coach will start with the ball at the guard position and pass the ball to the wing who can use any method to get open.
3. The second player in line on the baseline will have a ball
4. The first baseline player in line will make an L cut to set the screen for the wing player
5. The wing player will dribble hard off the screen to get to the kill area for a jump shot
6. The screener will roll to the basket and receive the pass from the baseline post for a shot going to the basket
7. The drill will continue with the following progression:
   
   • The wing will pass to the screener rolling to the basket and the wing will receive a pass from the baseline player at the kill area for a shot
   • The screener may roll to the basket or step back for a pass and a shot
   • The wing will keep the dribble and bounce toward the half court line as if double teamed or hard hedge and pass the ball to the screener who short rolled to short corner for a shot. The wing will receive the baseline pass for a 3 point shot
   • The screener will slip the screen and receive a pass from the wing. The wing will receive the baseline pass for a 3 point shot at the wing
   • Same shots from other side of the court

3 ON 0 SHOOTING DRILL


8. Start with a point guard, wing and baseline post line. The point guard will start with a pass to the wing and cut through to the opposite corner. The baseline post player will make a L cut to set the screen for the wing who has the ball.
9. The second player in the baseline post line will have a ball as well as a coach standing under the basket
10. As in the 2 on 0 drill, the wing comes off the screen and gets to the kill area but now will pass the ball to the point guard who has cut through to the baseline for the first shot
11. The wing will receive the pass from the coach under the basket for a shot at the kill area and the screener will roll and receive the pass from the baseline post for a shot
12. The drill will continue with the following progression:
    
    • The wing can pass to the screener with the coach passing to the point guard on baseline with the wing receiving the pass from the baseline for shot at FT line
    • The drill may use all the options of the 2 on 0 shooting drill with the coach passing to the point guard cutting through to the baseline
    • An extra pass may made with the wing coming off the screen and passing the ball to the screener rolling or stepping back for a shot, the wing receives the pass from the coach and passes to the baseline point guard for a shot and then the wing receives the pass from the baseline post for a shot at the free throw line
    • The point guard will cut to ball side corner and receive the pass from the wing after he comes off the screen. The screener rolls to low post and will get the pass from the point guard who has lifted to the wing. Coach will pass to wing for a shot at the FT line. Baseline pass will be to the point guard for a shot at wing

4 ON 0 SHOOTING DRILL

13. Start with a line on the baseline, wing, point guard and high post extended
14. The point guard passes to the wing and cuts baseline. Wing comes off screen and passes to the high post extended who passes to screener for lay up. Coach passes to the high post for shot. Baseline pass goes to corner for point guard shot. After the lay up, the screener will pass back to wing for shot at elbow. Four shots total
15. Alter the drill with a ball side cut by the point guard and add the pass from the point guard to the high post for shot, screener gets the baseline pass, coach passes to point guard for shot, wing gets the ball back from screener for shot

I received these two shooting drills in an email from Dennis Hutter, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Mayville State University. His website, www.coachhutter.com . The website has more shooting, individual development workout, and leadership videos.

The remainder of the post contains what Coach Hutter said about the drills:

Here are a two more perimeter shooting drills for your player’s summer skill development. Both of these drills are competitive shooting drills. We love to add competition to all of our shooting drills to try and create as much “game pressure” and “game pace” as we possibly can. We add competition to our shooting drills by adding either time and score or both. By just adding time, score or both to a shooting drill, you can add competition to the drill and also increase their pace during the drill.

Another thing that we do all summer is we chart all of the shots for all of our players during all of their summer workouts, and hang their scores in our locker room. We feel that by charting their shots the player is able to see their progress, and when they see their progress their motivation to get in the gym and workout will increase. I hope you enjoy the drills. As usual, please feel free to contact our Women’s Basketball Office if we can ever help with anything. Here are both drills:

Both of these videos are YouTube videos, so please be sure to be on a server that allows you to access YouTube.

John Beilein 50 in 5 Minutes Drill

We got this drill from the John Beilein at the University of Michigan. This is a five minute continuous drill. This is a great drill to work on conditioning as well as to get your players to shoot shots while they are fatigued. The drill is executed in four shot segments, and the player will use the entire floor. The player will shoot four shots from a spot, and then move to the next spot. At each spot, the shooter will shoot three 3 Point Shots followed by one stop and pop jumper off the dribble. After the stop and pop shot off the dribble the shooter will move to another spot and execute the same four shot sequence. The shooter can move to wherever they want on the floor, when moving from spot to spot. There is no pattern. The goal is to make 50 total shots in five minutes.

Click the play arrow to start the video

Make 10 Shots in 75 Seconds

This drill is a GREAT drill to use at the beginning of a workout as a warm up or a “heat up” to the rest of the workout. This drill is great to get the player to elevate their heart rate as well as get them to work out as a game pace. The object of the drill is to have the shooter make 10 shots in 75 seconds. Because of the way we play, and the fact we shoot quite a few three point shots, we have our players shoot all three’s for this drill. You can have your players shoot game shots that are relevant to their games to get the most out of this drill.

Click the play arrow to start the video

These shooting drills are from Dennis Hutter, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Mayville State University. His website, www.coachhutter.com . The website has more shooting, individual development workout, and leadership videos.

COMPETITIVE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT WORKOUT SHOOTING DRILLS

1. Make 10 Shots Without Missing 2 in a Row

-Work at a pace that is “game like”

-Try to make 10 shots w/out missing 2 shots in a row

-If you miss 2 shots in a row, allow a “swish” on the next shot to continue the string.

-All shots are shot with the player spinning themselves a pass – Rhythm Shooting

-Can do this drill with stop and pop shots as well as jump shots

 

2. Make 10 Shots in 1:15

-Player has 1:15 to make 10 total shots

-All shots are shot with player spinning themselves a pass – Rhythm Shooting

-Have to work at a pace that allows you a chance to make 10 shots

-Player gets their own rebound on all shots

-Great warm-up drill to “heat up” player before workout begins

3. “25” Point Shooting Drill

-Player alternates between shooting a “3” and shooting a stop and pop

-3’s are worth 3 points, and stop and pop shots are worth 2 points

-Player tries to get to 25 points in 2:00

-Player can’t catch ball in same spot twice in a row – use entire floor

-Use a rebounder with this drill

-Player alternates between right hand and left hand when attacking the rim

 

4. 10 Spots in 2 Minutes

-Player has 2:00 minutes to complete this drill

-Player shoots from five spots:  corner, wing, top, wing and corner

-Player shoots from a spot until they make 2 in a row – start in corner

-After 2 makes in a row, player advances to next spot

-Spots 5 & 6 are in the same corner

-Use a rebounder for this drill, and an extra ball if there are long rebounds

 

5. “21” Point Drill – Individual

-Player starts at half line

-Player shoots a lay up, a stop and pop and a “3” in that order

-Lay up is worth 1, stop and pop is worth 2, and 3’s are worth 3 points

-Player shoots shots in the order of lay up, stop and pop and 3 –continuous

-Player sprints from half line and receives ball from coach at arc

-drives in and shoots a lay up – 1 point – then sprint to back to half line

-attacks rim and shoots a stop and pop – 2 points – then sprint to half line

-shoot “3” from top of the key

-Player continues shot order until they get to 21 points

-Great toughness/condition drill

 

6. “30” Point Shooting Drill

-Player shoots shots from four spots: wing, pro spot, pro spot and wing

-Set up a chair or cone at each spot on floor, just outside of the three point line

-Player receives pass and attacks the chair or cone

-Player will shoot three shots from each spot

-Player shoots stop and pop “3”, then a right to left crossover move to a stop and

pop and then a left to right crossover move to a stop and pop shot

-Player shoots ball and then sprints back behind chair/cone to receive ball and

makes next move

-“3” worth 3 points, stop and pops worth 2 points

-7 points per spot for a total of 28 points – finish drill with 2 FT’s for a total of 30

-Try to achieve a goal of 23 points or higher

 

7. “44” Point Shooting Drill

-This drill is done with a rebounder, and try to complete drill in 1:30

-Shots are shot in increment of 4

-Player receives ball at top of key and attacks basket for lay up – 2 with right

hand and 2 with left hand – alternate hands

-Player receives ball at top of key and attacks rim and shoots 4 stop and pop

shots – attack twice with right hand and twice with left hand.

Player then shoots 8 three point shots (wing, pro spot, wing pro spot) on the left

Side.  (Wing, pro spot, wing pro spot) on the right side.

-Finish drill with 4 free throws

-Lay ups and stop and pops all worth 2 points

-3’s all worth 3 points

-Free throws worth 1 point for a total of 44 points

 

8. Free Throw Game

-Have to make 16 Free Throws in 6:00

-Free Throws are shot in 1 and 1 increments.

-Player makes both free throws they sprint to half line and back

-Player makes first FT and misses second they have one full court sprint

-Player misses front end of 1 and 1, they have a double sprint (down and back

twice)

-All sprints, player dribbles ball with weak hand

-Player continues drill until they either make 16 FT’s or use all 6:00

-Consequence is push ups

-16 – total makes x 2 = total number of push ups at the end

 

TEACHING CONCEPTS AND PHRASES WITH SHOOTING IDW’s

 

-Make your workouts like a game, so your games can be like your workouts

-The single best way to improve the team is to improve the individual player’s skills

-When you get better, the TEAM gets better

-Game shots, game spots, game speed with game conditions

-60% workouts – chart shots and have player make 60% of shots for entire workout

-Three Keys to Shooting

1. Get the Ball Up
2. Get the Ball Straight
3. Hold a High One Second Follow Through

-Don’t miss two shots in a row – THE SAME WAY – Focus and Finish

-Always warm up with Shooting Progression and Stick the Stance Progression

-Consistent technique will bring about consistent results

-If you want to add competition to any drill or IDW, add time or score to the drill – gets the

player to workout at game speed.

-Be a “back half of the rim” shooter – don’t leave the shot short

-FIND A WAY TO WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – Teach players to “find a way to win” at

I received these shooting drills from Dennis Hutter, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Mayville State University. His website, www.coachhutter.com . The website has more shooting, individual development workout, and leadership videos.

“Duck” Shooting Drill

Coach Hutter’s comments on the drill:

We picked this drill up from the coaches at the University of Oregon Women’s Basketball Program. This is a great shooting and competition drill for your players.

The shooter will shoot for 5:00 straight from seven different spots. Corner, Wing, Pro Spot, Top of Key, Opposite Pro Spot, Opposite Wing, Opposite Corner. Shooter starts in the corner. The goal is for the shooter to make two shots in a row, once they make two shots in a row, they advance to the next spot.

They keep working around the arc, advancing every time they make two three’s in a row. Spots “7” & “8” are both located in opposite corner and spots “14” & “15” are back at starting corner spot, and spots “21” & “22” are back in opposite corner and so on. Your score is the spot you finish up on when the 5:00 is up.

26-30 – Excellent Shooter
21-25 – Above Average Shooter
16-20 – Average Shooter

“W” Shooting Drill

Because we are a transition team, we like to use drills that involve a lot of sprinting and shooting off of the sprint, like we would in transition. With “W” shooting, we use the same seven spots as we use in “Duck Shooting” (Corner, Wing, Pro Spot, Top of Key, Opposite Pro Spot, Opposite Wing, Opposite Corner). The shooter will start in the corner. Shooter will shoot and then run and touch the half line and then advance to the next spot. Shooter will shoot a total of seven shots. Goal is for shooter to make five or more shots in 40 seconds or less.

10 in 75 Drill

Shooting Technique Thoughts & Ideas from Coach Hutter

-Quality of the jump shot comes from the feet:
-Quality = how open you are, low quality = high contested shot attempt
-“Shot first” mentality on all catches – Be an offensive threat with the ball
-Great balance on all catches, before the shot
-Balance starts with a great base of support with the feet and low center of gravity
-2 biggest keys in shooting for us is: “Get the ball up” & “Get the ball straight”
-Analyze your misses – don’t miss two shots in a row – THE SAME WAY
-NSM = Next Shot Mentality
-4 Points in the shooting technique need to start and finish in a straight line
-Shooting foot
-Shooting knee
-Elbow
-Hand/Follow Thru

-Proper consistent technique will bring about consistent results
-We want consistent shooters and that starts with having consistent technique
-Proper shooting technique starts with the feet and builds up from there
-NO FEET = NO SHOT
-You are the most open you will be when you first catch the ball
-so get ALL of your work done before you receive the ball
-Catch and shoot the ball in rhythm
-Shooting is a rhythm skill – like swinging a baseball bat – no hitches, no pauses – JUST FLUID
-Shooting the ball is one upward FLUID motion – Rhythm
-Hold a high one second follow thru on every shot
-We want quiet/quick feet on all catches – Stay light on your feet
-Make your workouts like games, so your games can be like your workouts – DEVELOP GOOD HABITS
-Every pass should hit the shooter in the hands and lead to a rhythm jump shot for us

Shooting Workout Thoughts & Ideas from Coach Hutter

-Never miss two shots in a row the same way
-Clean makes to end a drill
-makes the shooter concentrate more when they are most fatigued to complete the drill
-Use drills that involve making 2 and 3 in row – makes shooters have to focus on consistent technique
-Chart shots in individual workouts – allows players to see improvement
-also creates motivation to improve when they see improvement
-also creates competitiveness within players to achieve higher score than previous workout
-Chart shots as a team during practice and team shooting workouts – makes players focus on team more
-every shot from every player within every drill COUNTS towards team’s success
-Make shooting drills competitive during practice – Have team compete against the game as one team
-add time and score to drills to have team compete against the game
-will also make you a better passing team
-Have individual shot charts for players during practice and games, instead of team shot charts
-Categorize your shots so you can see who and how your players are getting shots

1. Lay Up
2. Post Shot/Block
3. Post Shot w/ Dribble
4. Lane Shot
5. Lane shot Off Dribble
6. Mid-Range Shot
7. Mid-Range Shot Off Dribble
8. “3”

-Inside/Out “3” is the best “3 to shoot in rhythm
-Shooter is already squared up and facing the rim – shooter does not have to fight w/ their feet
We want players to shoot 60% or better from behind the arc in drills that involve no defense

These two shooting drills are among the thousands of resources for both coaches and player available from basketballhq. They have several more videos as well as basketball coaching resource articles.

The drills are coached by Ryan Panone.

I encourage you to think about the best way to tweak the drills before you implement them so that they offer the most benefit for your players. Even as you are first implementing them, you may need to continue the process of making some adjustments so that they are contributing to the improvement of your players.

You can change the number of shots, the percentages, the spots of the shots (distance), the amount of time they have to shoot, types of shots, etc… so that the drill helps to contribute to your objectives.

If you have multiple baskets, you can make the drills into team drills by having 4 or 6 players shoot at a time.

Make sure that your speakers are on to hear the narration and that you can access YouTube to see the videos.

Click the play arrow to begin the videos.

Field Goal Percentage Shooting Drill

In my opinion, any time you keep some type of score, it helps players to focus and also helps both you and them measure improvement.

You could let the players decide what level they will shoot for and talk to individuals about adjusting if you feel that they are not challenging themselves enough.

Stephen Curry Warmup Floater Drill

You might not want your players shooting all these shots, and you might not want all of your players shooting the same types of floaters, but his point about making sure that players who shoot floaters in games need to practice them in an equal ratio to the other shots that they practice and shoot in games, whatever you feel that ratio is.

This shooting drill is from Arkanas Women’s Coach Mike Neighbors Newsletter.

Might give you some thoughts on some ways to offer some variety in your practices.

This post was created when Coach Neighbors was at Washington.

Softball Plus One Shooting Drill

This series is more about the application than the actions. You need to make the actions fit your offense.

I will give you one example that we use in each round, but the magic is in making them breakdown your offensive actions and simulate your games.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

The first round is called SINGLES…. Thus the softball/baseball reference…

SINGLES refers to single made shot. We will set the number at how many players we have. So, everybody makes ONE shot in this round before we move to the next INNING.

In the above example, we break down our Dribble Drive Motion.

Our 1 player will ‘rack it lane’ for a game speed, game finish basket. After our 1’s get their SINGLE. The 1 will ‘drop 4’ to our post players for a game speed/game finish basket for their single. When all 11 players have a SINGLE, we move to the next inning.

Over the course of the year, we will change the actions to simulate the game we have ahead of us, work on areas we have been deficient in, or even introduce new concepts to our of-fense. We do inbounds actions, sidleline actions, and other special situations as well.

The second inning progresses to DOUBLES… now we introduce a second shot. The players must each make a game speed/game finish shot to complete the DOUBLE.

You can vary the number of DOUBLES needed to advance to the next inning as you see fit but we usually do 5-10.

This round brings in the element of timing and spacing and passing so that the two shots don’t interfere with each other around the rim.

Keeping with our Dribble Drive stuff, we would have the 1 rack it and finish and the 4 player fill behind to “make 2” get the rebound of a made shot to simulate an offensive rebound.

We would also have the 1 “drop 4” for the first make, then the 1 would fill to arc for a kick out pass and a 3 point shot to complete the double. We could easily run drags or open windows as well to simulate other dribble drive actions. Can also use this in a guard forward breakdown and just do actions for each position.

We will also had a penalty in this round. Any action that ends with ZERO makes is a Strikeout and takes one away from our total toward our goal. So, if our goal is 10 doubles and we have 5 at this point. The group goes and misses both shots, we are back to 4.

We also progress as the year goes on to have the players pass rather than the coaches so we can work on that skill as well.

We move to the third inning… now we need TRIPLES!!

Obviously adding shot attempts make it more difficult so you can vary the number necessary to advance as you see fit for your team and your situation…

This is also where you can begin to use your players to make the “extra” passes so that they can work on passing as well as understanding the timing so that balls aren’t all hitting basket at once. Learned this one from experience… they will understand timing/spacing better if you let them “figure it out” and “fix it”.

In our Dribble Drive example above. 1 would “rack it” and drop 4… 4 finishes. 3 rises to open window and receives pass from extra passer for 2nd shot. 1 continues to her fill spot and gets third shot from a pass from 4 player who has rebounded her own make.

Just like in softball/baseball TRIPLES are a little harder.

At this stage you begin to add a little bit of pressure on that last make. We always like this shot to be a three pointer or a hard drive pull up jumper. Keep mixing it up on people. I begin charting this in my head too. You’d be surprised how many years your teams BEST shooter isn’t your most CLUTCH shooter!!!

It gets real in the fourth inning… now you need HOMERUNs aka… Four makes in the breakdown sequence. The last shot adds some pressure and you can also begin to point out after the last person makes a few when earlier shots have missed, that ALL the shots are big and you NEVER no which one is the game winner… Shot value same in first quarter as it is in the 4th quarter…

Dribble Drive is easy to continue adding actions and is main reason I love this offense so much. It’s able to be broken down into simple actions that repeat and are hard to guard.

All the actions above are the same but we add the 2 player “locked” in the corner. We might also have the 3 player one dribble drive for a floater or mid range J rather than catch and shoot a three. You could also make your layup in the sequence be a Drop 2 back door cut and have the 1 player FILL to that corner for her shot.

The options really are boundless.

We usually try to get 5-7 Home Runs before getting to final stage!!!

This Plus One is the BALLGAME stage… since basketball uses five players on the court, we had to abandon our softball/baseball analogy… the PLUS ONE shot is the BALLGAME.

You will find your players yelling Dubs, Trips, HOMERUN after the earlier stages are completed… after this one they yell BALLGAME.

The last shot on this one truly will have GAME WINNER feel.

Five shots…five makes!!!
We usually only do ONE of these…

In above diagram, we simply add the 5 “drag(on)” screen for a 3.

You can also do this drill for a timed period. Sometimes we will put 10:00 on the clock and see how many innings we can complete. This puts some focus on operating under time but staying within yourself.

If you come up with ways to tweak this other than simply changing the shot sequence, let me know. We are always looking for ways to improve it.