Drills

Effective Hoops Drills, Skills, and Other Information

B-E-E-F...This is a great technique to use to help players focus on what is essential to being a consistently good shooter.  BALANCE: It is crucial that the shoulders are square to the basket when shooting.  Knees should be bent and the shooter should have their feet roughly shoulder-width apart with the toes pointing toward the basket.  EYES: One's eyes should be focused on a small target at the top of the front of the rim.  ELBOW: The shooter's elbow needs to be tucked-in and the arm should be at roughly a 90 degree angle at the elbow.  FOLLOW-THROUGH: Pretend that you are reaching for a cookie in a jar that is just a little too high to grab.  The shooter needs to follow-through completely with the arm up and not extended out.

Box-Out Drill...Two teams will play this game.  One team will have to lines positioned at each elbow.  The other team will be lined-up under the basket, but direction in line with the other team's players at the elbow.  The coach will stand under the basket and pass the ball to a player at the elbow who will shoot the ball.  The team under the basket will close-out and box-out using the STIRR principle....

• See the player you are going to box-out.
• Touch the player you are going to box-out.
• Impede his progress to the rebound.
• Restrain the player by putting a forearm on him, stepping across his body, and reverse-pivoting.
• Seal-off the player and get the board.

Guard Moves...Rocker means that you will take the ball from one shoulder and rip it from shoulder to hip to other hip to other shoulder.  Then you will attack the defender's shoulder forcing him to retreat as you take the ball to the hoop or establish room to shoot.

• Jab-step
• Ball-fakes to see if you can get defender to bite
• Rocker Strong (player's strong side)
• Rocker Weak (player's weak side)
• Rocker Strong....Jump-Stop
• Rocker Weak....Jump-Stop
• Rocker Strong---Retreat (creating separation for shot)
• Rocker Weak---Retreat (creating separation for shot)

Three Shot...Three lines will form on both sides of the gym.  Use at least 10-15 basketballs because it can get crazy.  One side of the court will begin by the player in the middle passing to the player on his left and then receiving the ball back followed by a pass to the player on his right.  All three guys are running down the court while making these passes.  The middle guy will take the ball to the basket for a layup (after receiving the second pass).  If he makes the layup it counts as one point.  The two guys on the wing will receive passes from the guys in the wing lines (on the side of the court that they are running toward).  The wings will catch the passes and shoot 8-15 foot jumpers and if they make the shot it will count as two points.

There is a possibility of scoring five points each trip down the court.  1 pt. for layup from middle line, and 2 pts. from each of the two wing lines.

Once they have made their passes, the guys in line will immediately take off toward the other side of the court repeating the drill.

Run the drill for five minutes and use the scoreboard to keep track of the totals.

First to Four...One team of three players will line-up on the left elbow and another team of three players will line-up on the right elbow.  The players will race to see which team can make four shots first.  Players must call out their score after they make a shot   ex. "One," "Two," "Three," or "Four!"
 

Chair Jump Stops...Set up two chairs and have the player attack the hoop for a layup and have to jump-stop between the chairs before going up.  Next you can stagger the chairs so that the player will have to jump stop sideways before going up for a shot.

Two-Man Full-Court Layup...Player one will toss the basketball off the backboard and firmly secure the rebound.  Player two will call for the outlet.  Player one will make a crisp pass to the outlet and then get wide and run the lane toward the opposite basket.  Player two will catch the outlet pass and dribble to the middle of the court, come to a jump stop at the opposite free throw line and then make a nice bounce pass to player one who is running the lane and going to make the layup.  Player one will then run out to call for the outlet while player two secures the ball after the layup.  Player two will make the outlet pass to player one and then get wide and run the lane to the opposite basket while player one takes the ball to the middle of the court, makes a jump stop at the free throw line and then gives a nice bounce pass to player two for the layup. 

File Passing....two lines across from each other about ten to fifteen feet. Pass and then file right into the line where you passed the ball. Work on bounce pass, chest pass, and over the head pass.

The player catching the ball needs to hop toward the pass, catch the ball, and then land in triple threat position.

Loop Shooting...two lines underneath the basket. Basketballs in both lines. The player in line one will loop around and catch the ball from the player in the other line and then shoot it. The shooting player will get his own rebound and give the ball to the same line from which he received the pass.

After the passing player passes the ball, he will curl around the player he passed to and then catch the ball from the opposite line, shoot it, and then get his own rebound and give the ball to the same line from which he received the pass. The drill continues from here. You work on layups, then 6-8 foot shots, and then shots from the elbow. Work on catching the ball in triple threat position with the ball at about chin level. This will work on catch and shooting skills as well as footwork skills.

Titan Drill....one line at the top of the key and one player at the wing. The player at the wing will go down to the box and come back using a V cut technique. The player at the top of the key will pass the ball to the V-cutter. The V-cutter will catch the ball in triple threat position, do a rocker step, and then either drive to the hoop using a ROCKER STRONG or ROCKER WEAK move. strong and weak depend on the players strong hand. Example: Rocker strong would be a right-handed drive to the hoop finishing with a right-handed layup for a right-handed player.

After working on driving to the hoop for layups, then work on a rocker strong or rocker weak move that has one or two dribbles and then pulls up for a 12-15 foot jump shot.

Add a pick and roll to the drill. The player at the top of the key will pass to the V-cutter and then screen and roll with him. You can work on the layup, jump shot and hitting the cutter with this drill.

Brock Layup Drill...Two lines at the wing or the three point line. One line will pass across to the other line. The passer will then cut off of a screener who will be standing near the free throw line. The cutter will rub off the screener and then catch the pass and go in for a layup. The screener will get the rebound and pass it to the layup line. Rotation of this drill will be layup line, pass line, screener, layup line, pass, screener, etc.

Defensive Slides...start at a corner of the court and slide to the elbow, the player will drop step and slide to halfcourt, drop step and slide to the opposite free throw line, drop step and finish in the other corner.

You can add a sprint to this drill by having the player sprint halfway to a spot and then slide the rest of the way.

Dribble Drill....in the same pattern as the defensive slides, the ball handler will dribble to the elbow and then do one of many options (cross over, retreat and cross over, between the legs, behind the back).

Garbage Can...place a garbage can or a chair in the middle of the court.  Have four lines at the corners of the court.  The players will all dribble toward the obstacle and then perform a dribbling skill and then procede to the line on either the left or right.

Ex. "Right to left crossover"...players will dribble with their right hand to the obstacle, break down and cross over to the left hand and dribble to the line located to their left.

• crossover
• behind the back
• between the legs
• retreat and crossover

Collision Dribbling...players will partner-up and line up across from each other at least 30-50 feet apart.  Each player will have a ball and dribble toward each other.  At the midpoint each player will perform the skills the coach called.  Ex. "Behind the back, left to right."  Both players will dribble on a collision course at one another and then at the midpoint each of them will dribble the ball behind their backs going from the left hand to the right hand.  Since the ball is going to their right hand they will each avoid each other by stepping off to the right.

Other Drills

• Speed dribbling (right hand, left hand)
• Zig-zag dribbling drills (between legs, behind back, retreat and crossover)
• Pivot drills (with ball and without ball)
• Lay-ups (right hand, left hand, reverse pivot off defender)
• "Feed Me" *similar to around the world, but we have 3-4 rebounders continually feeding the shooter in an attempt to shoot as many shots as possible in 60 seconds.
• Stations (Free Throws, Low Post Moves, Pick & Roll or Pick & Pop, Elbow Madness with a defender closing out, etc.)
• Defensive slides with the defenders hands behind their back.
• Shell Drill
• "First to Five" A four on four half-court game in which a made basket will count as 1 pt, a 3-pointer will count as 2 pts, offensive or defensive rebound will equal 1 pt, a steal is 1 pt, and a block is 1 pt. The first team to 5 points will stay on the court and take on the next group of four.

Other Cool Games to Play

1. Hot Shot...Players will have 45 seconds to score as many points possible from seven shooting spots.

• Left and Right Layup (1 point each and 1 made basket from each side allowed)
• Left and Right Elbow (2 points each and unlimited shots allowed)
• Left and right corner approx. 10-15 feet from hoop (2 points each and unlimited shots allowed)
• Three-point shot (3 points each and unlimited shots allowed)
• BONUS of 5 points if you take a shot from each of the seven locations and it doesn't matter whether you make the shots or not.

2. Free Throw Competition...Each player shoots ten consecutive free throws. Report the number made to coach.

3. 3-point competition...Shoot as many three pointers as you can in 60 seconds. Have three rebounders and one passer to make this more efficient.

4. Full-court continuous lay-ups...Lines form behind each free throw line. One player will go in for a (R or L) lay-up to one hoop while another player is going in for a lay-up on the other hoop. The first guy in line at the free throw line will be the rebounder for the lay-up. The player that shot the lay-up will quickly get out and be the outlet man immediately after shooting the lay-up. The rebounder will throw and outlet pass to the outlet man and then get wide while sprinting down the court. The outlet man will throw a nice arching pass that allows the new lay-up man to run under the ball and put it in the hoop. This drill continues for usually five minutes and we use the score clock to keep score of made lay-ups versus missed lay-ups. We set goals for how many lay-ups we will make in five minutes and reducing the amount of conditioning is usually the reward for a great effort.

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