Toughness Drills

Toughness on the Dribble

By Coach Brian Williams on September 19, 2016

A few drills from Drew Hanlen, Founder of Pure Sweat Basketball to work with your players on being strong and tough with the basketball while dribbling.

The drills are a sample from his Pure Sweat Basketball Skill Development Video.

The video is 74 minutes long and contains over 150 concepts and drills to improve the skills of your players.

Click the link to find out how you can stream the video to any of your devices: Pure Sweat Skill Development Video.

This is a vimeo video, so make sure that you are able to access that network.

Also, please make sure your sound is on for the instruction with the video.

Click the play arrow to view the video.

Basketball Drills 3 in a Row Toughness Shooting

By Coach Brian Williams on August 4, 2015

This toughness shooting drill called “3 in a Row” is among the resources for both coaches and player available from basketballhq. They have several more videos as well as basketball coaching resource articles.

The drill can be modified to fit your needs and used during your fall skill development workouts or can be used in practices this coming season as well.

Please make sure your sound is on to see the video.

Click the play arrow so see the drill. The drill is a You Tube video, so you will need to be able to access You Tube to see the drill.

The Coach in the video is Russ Willemsen from the South Alabama men’s staff. Coach Willemsen saw Vanderbilt Men’s Coach Kevin Stallings use the drill.

To score a point in the drill, the player must make 3 in a row from one spot. The goal of the drill is to score as many points as possible in 5 minutes. Since the video is a demonstration, the shooter only shoots for 2 minutes.

The player is allowed to select the spots where they shoot from. You can decide whether you want to allow them to shoot more than once from a spot where they have already scored a point from.

If you run the drill for 5 minutes, there certainly is an aspect of mental toughness as players need to fight through consecutive misses or missing on the 3rd shot.

3 In a Row Shooting Drill

Mental Toughness and Ball Toughness Drills

By Coach Brian Williams on May 25, 2015

These drills are included in Coach Lee DeForest’s Princeton Offense system, which includes practice planning (with ideas for both offense and defense) to teach the system.

I hope you find something that you can either use in your summer workouts, or that you can save and use next season.

You can find out more about his Princeton Offense System at this link: Princeton Offense System.

Diagrams created with FastDraw

Mental Toughness Drills

We want to teach aggression and have no fear of making hustle plays

2 Man Loose Ball – 10 in one minute – the players will use one ball and one player is the passer. The other player is down in a stance and will dive on the loose ball then pass the ball from the ground calling out the receiver’s name.

2 Man Take Charge – can go for 1-2 mins – switch the man taking the charge at 30 secs. One player has a ball about lane line apart and dribbles at his partner who takes the charge by landing on his butt and yelling. He gets up immediately and takes another charge.

2 Man Bump Cutter – go for one minute and switch at 30 secs. Players are lane line apart and no ball is used. Player sprints across the lane and gets bumped by the defender who is in a stance – make contact. Constant cutting and making contact then switch at 30 secs.

2 Man Back to Passer – Lane wide and it goes for one minute. One player has a ball and the other player has his back to the ball while chopping his feet. The passer calls out his partner’s name and the player jump pivots in the air to catch the pass. The passer throws the pass before he says the player’s name.

Ball Crawls – players line up near a bleacher or wall. They will kick off the wall and dive on a ball their partner is holding. The partner will count until they get to ten and the player diving yells for the ball.

Ball Toughness Drills

1 on 1 Drills

Stationary – Hit coach in lane when he calls your name. Put players in pairs with each group having a basketball around the 3 point line. Rips/Sweeps either above the head or below the knee. Work on winning the battles and being ball strong. Time limit. PPF.

12 Second Drill – Hold for 4 seconds with rip/sweeps then dribble with right hand or left hand only for 4 seconds and finally pick the ball up and rip/sweep for 4 seconds. Teach how long 12 seconds is with the basketball. Pick up, dribble, then pickup again is called by coach.

Dribble Weave – crossover (move alignment of defenders), hesitation dribble (lane line all defenders), between the legs (move alignment with two in the lane and one near volleyball line), vs. trap (use 4 guys
with two at FT line and two near HC). All different dribbles with coaches set up as cones who will be fouling the hands of the dribbler as they make moves. Head up. Then in trap, the offense works on two moves – hesitation or pull back crossover – attack outside leg. This drill is like Human Cones from Hurley. Can use 3 people and go to half
court or use more and go full court with finish vs. football pad.

Group Drills

3 on 3 Ball Toughness – Square up – with/without a ball. Complete passes for points. No point without a rip or sweep on the catch. No dribble or dribble variations. 10 complete passes then switch. 3 possessions each team. Split them into two groups on either sideline. Black on right and white on left to sub in after each change. Turnover or 10 complete passes. Variation – No score first then give 10 points on a layup. Run the difference in the score. A down/back for each point. One shot to score.

3 on 4 – either to a score or complete 10 passes catch/rip. Dribble or no dribble. Start drill in the middle and a closeout trap while the other two offensive players move to get open. Completed passes are one
point get to ten and switch or on turnover the number of passes is the score. Loser runs the difference.

4 on 2 – offense is on each elbow and block. Defense is inside the lane trying to deflect or steal the ball. Complete 10 passes, no bounce passes, catch and rip/land on two.

These drills are included in Coach Lee DeForest’s Princeton Offense system, which includes practice planning (with ideas for both offense and defense) to teach the system. You can find out more about his Princeton Offense System at this link: Princeton Offense System.

Basketball Drills: Championship Toughness Shooting Drill

By Coach Brian Williams on March 3, 2015

This video is one of the great resources available from basketballhq. They have several more videos as well as basketball coaching resource articles.

I like to end our Improvement Season Workouts with a drill that pushes players both mentally and physically. This is an example of one of those types of drills. I also think it is good to put players in a position to make a shot even if they have missed a few in a row.

Matthew Graves is the former Head Men’s Coach at South Alabama. He was an Assistant to Brad Stevens and a player at Butler prior to taking the job at South Alabama.

Please make sure your sound is on to see the video.

Click the play arrow so see the drill. The drill is a You Tube video, so you will need to be able to access You Tube to see the drill.

Basketball Drills Champions Toughness Shooting Drill

You can add in different finishes or floaters to make the drill more game-like to suit your players. You can also adjust the time to complete the drill as you see what will challenge your players. Another way to run the drill would be to see how many shots a player can make in three minutes and stop the drill at that point.

Basketball Drills Inferno Toughness

By Coach Brian Williams on January 12, 2015

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Editor’s note from Brian: You might want to start out with one or two minutes rather than 4 minutes and have your players build up to 4 minutes. Especially for younger teams.

The drill was contributed by Coach Greg White. He had these comments about the drill:

One of my favorite drills is The Inferno. It immediately raises the intensity level or shows the lack of it.

What you’ll need: 3 Passers, 4 Offensive players, 4 Defensive players, 1 Basketball

Inferno Toughness Drill

Players begin on the elbows and blocks. This drill is for 8 minutes. The team’s roles will switch at the 4 minute mark. There are no substitutions for the 8 involved. When the ball is at the top, the offense down screens. When the ball is on the wing, players screen across.

To keep the drill competitive, and it won’t take much, use one of the following scoring systems:

Each catch = 5 defensive pushups (5 keeps the speed going plus a good screening group will average 20 catches in 4 minutes)

Each catch = 1 pt for elbow catch, 2pts for catch on the block. Keep track and at the end of 8 minutes losing team has a reminder drill.

Each catch = live four on four. Offense gets whatever shot they score, Defense gets 2 for a stop, 3 for a charge, etc..

Offensive Players Start on on Elbows and Blocks.

This is an 8 minute drill: Switch Offense and Defense at 4 minute mark. No Substitutions!

OFFENSE RULES: MUST CATCH ON ELBOW OR BLOCK

DEFENSE: Don’t Let The Offense Catch on the Block or Elbow

You decide how to make it competitive. You can go live on the catch. Stop on the catch-keep score for catches or defense 5 pushups for every catch.

When the Ball is up top, Offensive Players down screen.

If passer can’t get a pass to either elbow, he passes the ball to the next passer to continue the drill.

When the Ball is on the wing, players screen away from the ball

At the 4 minute mark, switch sides.

DO NOT SUB IN FOR THE 8 PLAYERS IN THE “INFERNO”

Basketball Drills Defending Perfect Movement

By Coach Brian Williams on November 7, 2014

This post contains three videos from Xavier practice with Head Basketball Coach Chris Mack. The first triangle rebounding drill emphasizing taking the rebound aggressively. The second video is a 5 on 5 defensive drill requiring the defense to play perfectly for 24 seconds. The final video is a two player drill working on help position and closeouts.

If you are interested in seeing more information about the DVD that the samples are taken from, click here: All Access Xavier Basketball Practice

Press the play arrow in the middle of each video to see each You Tube video. Make sure that your sound is on as you watch them.

Basketball Drills: Defending Perfect Movement :24

This basketball drill requires players to be in perfect position, communicating with teammates, seeing the basketball, and staying in their defensive stance for 24 seconds. Any breakdowns, and the players must start the drill again for a full, consecutive 24 seconds. You can add any fundamentals that you want to the requirements or require that players execute for a longer period of time to win the drill. Make sure that your sound is on and click the play arrow to see the video.

Basketball Drills: Triangle Blockouts

Coach Mack defines a rebounding role for each player as “Hit and Seal” or “Hit and Get” (Go after the basketball). In addition to blockouts, he emphasizes taking “loud” rebounds. Make sure that your sound is on and click the play arrow to see the video.

Basketball Drills: 2 on 2 Gap Closeouts

Drill to work on getting in the defensive gap to see both the basketball and the player you are guarding, establishing help side position, and closing out. Make sure that your sound is on and click the play arrow to see the video.