Basketball Coaching - Planning Practices

By James Gels, from the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook, @

http://www.coachesclipboard.net

"The structure of your practice is the most determining reason for your success or lack
of success as a coach." - Bob Knight

I have been asked by coaches to show a sample practice plan, so I have included three
below... (1) first practice of the season, (2) a mid-season practice, and (3) a tournament-
time practice.

Now these are just examples. We will vary the drills and skills, and the team skills from
practice to practice. Certain skills should be practiced every practice, such as the ball-
handling and dribbling drills, and shooting drills. Depending on your schedule, the
amount of practice time you have and what your specific team needs are, you vary your
drills.
A rough rule of thumb for high school teams is to spend about half the time on
individual fundamentals and half the time on team skills. If you are working with
younger kids, you would slant this more toward fundamental skills.

When teaching a new offense, defense, plays, press offense, press defense, and other
team skills, select your drills and teach by progression. See "Teaching Basketball by
Progression".

You must plan each practice. John Wooden has said he and his assistants often would
spend more time planning a practice than the actual practice itself lasted. Keep a loose-
leaf notebook of each of your practices that you can refer back to. After each drill or
after practice, you can scribble additional notes on your practice plan from that day..
things that you have learned, or things that you feel need special emphasis.

Don't just come to the gym each day without a plan and think you can just "wing it".
You have to plan for success and plan your practices just like a teacher creates a lesson
plan for his/her English or math class. Your practice should be like a classroom and you
are the teacher.

Pointers:
Stretching exercises.
Stretching is done at the start of practice in order to avoid injuries (although some recent
studies have shown that stretching really may have little value in reducing injuries). I
always dislike wasting precious "gym time" on stretching exercises. So players are
asked to come 10-15 minutes early and do their stretching on the sidelines, so we are
ready to go once practice starts.

This might not be practical, and you may need to do 10 minutes of stretching at the
beginning. While the team is stretching, you can discuss your plans for the day, or
explain what things need to be worked on, use the time to praise good things that have
happened, reflect on your "quote of the day" (see below), etc.

Selecting drills.

Select drills that help teach individual and team fundamental skils, as well as teaching
what you are trying to accomplish, or trying to correct. Use the guidelines below.

Select your drills from the "Selecting and Using Drills" page, which gives a brief
description of each drill and about how much time to allow. You might have a "core" of
selected drills that you use all the time. But you can throw in other drills from time-to-
time to teach a specific skill, or just to avoid boredom and spice things up a bit.

Move quickly from one drill to another.

Don't spend half of your practice time on one drill. The kids will get bored and won't
learn much after the first 5-10 minutes into the drill. If they mess up, they will get
another chance to run that drill tomorrow.

Make drills competitive.

Whether you are doing 1-on-1 or 5-on-5 drills, shooting drills, etc., make them
competitive with a winner and loser. We have losers do 5-10 push-ups. In free-throw
shooting drills, we will often have missed shots followed by running a lap, as this
simulates the running and fatigue in game situations.

Budget your time for each drill.

If you are introducing a new drill, play, offense, defense, etc, you will have to allow
more time the first time. If you are reviewing something, like a set of plays or your out-
of-bounds plays (that they should already know), move quickly through these... you are
reinforcing their memory (a brief repetitive exercise that can be done each day).

Follow an up tempo exhausting drill with 5 minutes of something less

aerobic.

Make them work hard, but don't be unreasonable.

Free-Throw Shooting

Do your free-throw shooting after an aerobic, running drill when the players are tired, in
order to simulate the leg and body fatigue that occurs in the real game setting.

Have every player do dribbling and ball-handling drills.

I have been asked, "Why have my post players waste their time doing guard-type
dribbling drills?" Doing these drills will make your post players better athletes in
general, will help their overall coordination, and will improve their "hands". Also, how
do you know a certain player will be a post player all his/her life (especially younger
players).

Break-down post/perimeter drills.

If you have a good assistant, you can plan some time for individual skills with perimeter
players on one end of the floor, and your post players on the other end. See: Post Player
Breakdown Drills, Guard Breakdown Shooting Drills, and Motion Offense Drills.

Do not show favoritism.

Do not favor certain players in practice. Make them all work equally hard. Try to instill
in your star players that they must lead by example, and be willing to work harder than
anyone else on the team to be a great player. Don't ignore your "role players" (a better
term than "subs", or "bench players")... make them feel they are contributing and
encourage them.
Conditioning drills

Early in the season, I would run a lot of conditioning drills. I believe your players and
team will improve much more by doing conditioning drills than a lot of push-ups and
running without the ball.

If you are going to make your players run, make them do it with a ball... like full-court
speed dribbling, using the right hand one direction and the left hand coming back.
Rather than running a "gut buster", or a "suicide" (which is a terrible name), do a fast-
paced aerobic drill like speed dribbling. The kids will get just as tired, will hate it just as
much, but their dribbling and conditioning will both improve.

Tournament time

Getting into tournament play, or a crucial game, you might spend most of your time on
team skills preparing for the big game, working on any special situations necessary to
play the upcoming opponent.

For example, you might want to refine your press break, or your full-court press, or how
you will defend a certain star player, or how you will attack their zone defense, etc.

Later in the season during tournament time, we will often reduce our practices from 120
minutes to 90 minutes or less and focus on team skills and the upcoming game. It has
been said that more tournament games are lost by over-practicing than under-practicing.
Players can get "burned-out" by the end of the season. We want our tournament run to
be fun... mostly looking forward to playing games, with short practices in-between.

"Open" or "closed" practices

Whether to allow parents, spectators in the gym during practice is up to you and your
philosophy. But make sure you have rules established from the start of the season.

If you allow parents in the gym, make sure they understand that it is a classroom and
they must keep quiet and not "coach" the kids from the stands. In the event that this
becomes a problem, you reserve the right to close your practices at any time.

End practice on an upbeat, positive note.

We like to end our practices with a drill that builds team spirit. This is fun thing to end
with. With our varsity and JV teams, we have each player shoot a shot from half-court.
If no-one makes it, everybody runs. If just one player makes the half-court shot,
NOBODY runs!

So when a player makes the shot, usually the team celebrates with a lot of "high-fives"
and hugs, since they don't have to run. Usually in our first practice of the year, we will
tell our players that when someone makes that shot to get emotional and celebrate and
be pretty happy about not running.

Sometimes, when we feel we've had a really good, hard practice and no-one makes the
shot, coach will have one of the assistants or a manager try a 3-point shot or free-throw
to "save the day".

Sometimes we will tell them that they don't have to run if John (the smallest player on
the team) can dunk the ball in 10 seconds... they quickly realize that they must grab
John, as a team hoist him up to the rim, as John dunks it. All these little things help
build team spirit.

NOTE: Also see Coach Ken Sartini’s practice planning form.

Important Points to Consider When

Planning a Basketball Practice - by
Michael May
From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook, @ http://www.coachesclipboard.net
Michael May has been a highly successful basketball coach for 28 years on the
international, junior college and high school levels. Currently he is president of
"Practice Planner Live Software," a new cutting edge web-based practice planning
solution. Please check out www.practiceplannerlive.com. It's a great practice planning
tool that gets my endorsement - Coach Gels.

Practice Planner Live

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When you think about it, is there anything more important in your coaching
responsibilities and duties than planning an effective practice session? John Wooden
once said, "Failure to prepare is preparing for failure." Obviously the level of player
talent you have in your program will be one of the strongest determining factors in the
level of success you will achieve.

But where the rubber really meets the road in utilizing that talent to its fullest potential
is your ability as a coach to create the most effective practice plan possible. Of course
you can create the greatest practice plans ever devised but they must be carried out with
great discipline and execution on the practice floor on a consistent basis.

Quite a bit of information has been written on how to structure a daily practice plan.
Keeping drills short, making drills competitive, and having players move quickly from
one drill to another are some of the important points that can help maintain intensity and
productivity on the practice floor.

However, when you look at the big picture, how do you determine what to practice and
when? This requires some serious thought and analysis because there are a number of
factors to be considered. From where do you draw your information in determining
what your weekly practice outline is going to be? And what about the daily practice
plan?
The Master Practice Plan
You are one step ahead if you have a general idea of what fundamentals you are going
to teach your team as well as when you are going to teach them in practice. It begins
with the first day of practice and ends with the last.

A master practice plan is a schedule of all your practice sessions and an outline of
what is going to be covered in each of those practices for the entire season. Practice
time is precious as you all know, and it is every coach's goal to make the most of it.

A master practice plan will provide a foundation for the season. It will provide you a
reference point in creating monthly, weekly, and daily practice plans. The master
practice plan by itself is too broad and general to provide the basis for creating a daily
practice schedule. It is not set in stone, but rather it is flexible because coaches have to
be flexible. Here are some benefits of having a master practice plan:

1. Creating a specific playbook -- It allows you to be organized in terms of

defining your system of play for the season.

2. Having a better understanding of your own system -- It helps you to analyze

and identify all the individual component fundamentals that you want your
players to learn.

3. Using the right tool for the right job -- It causes you to evaluate and update
your list of drills that will enable you to effectively teach those fundamentals
that you have identified.

4. Preparing for the big game won't sneak up on you -- It gives you a better
perspective of your whole season as it unfolds.

5. If you are prepared, you shall not fear -- It provides the organization and
preparation necessary to promote confidence in the program to everyone, from
the coaching staff to the players.
"I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice coach." John Wooden

Bringing Technology Into the Picture

It may sound a bit overwhelming to think about what you are going to practice in
February but February will come around all too soon. For those coaches who have
created a master practice plan and are using it consistently, you will probably agree that
the most difficult part of the whole thing is creating the first one. But it generally does
not change much from season to season.

Using computer technology can make creating a master practice plan easier. Using a
word processor, calendar-maker, database, or spreadsheet program can definitely help
save time in a number of ways. It is easy to make changes and modifications to your
plan because it is stored as a file in your computer's hard drive. All you do is open the
file and go to work. You can also make multiple copies of the plan at any time.

Creating a Master Practice Plan

There are different approaches to creating a master practice plan. The plan is generally
broken down into three phases: (1) Preseason (2) Midseason and (3) Conference and
Postseason. It is important to remember that what you cover will vary from one phase to
another. The following is a suggested procedure for creating a master practice plan:

1. Playbook - This is where it all starts. You must have a specific system of offense and
defense in place before beginning any kind of practice planning. It should include the
type of team offense and defense you are going to employ, special set plays, or special
situations, etc.

Using a simple word processor will allow you to create a playbook that you can edit,
update, and store in a file in your computer for easy access. Word processing programs
make it very easy to create a format that will make your playbook look truly
professional. You can insert charts to help you create categories or topics to help you
organize your system of play. You can even make multiple copies from your computer
to give to your coaching staff and players.
2. List of Fundamentals: Once you have your system of play in place, it is important to
identify all the necessary fundamentals that your players will need to know to execute
that system in a game. Both team and individual fundamentals need to be taken into
account.

If your offense against man-to-man defense requires a screen-and-roll to be executed,

then that involves two players. This would be considered a team fundamental. You
should also consider physical conditioning such as weight training. Your ability to break
your system down to its component parts and identify the necessary fundamentals is
crucial in determining what you will eventually cover in practice.

You can compile your list using a word processor. It is just a question of organizing
topics and sub-topics for categorizing the fundamentals. Using a database program is an
even better way to do it. A database allows you to create fields or categories to
specifically organize information.

You could break the list down into individual fundamentals and team fundamentals.
Within the individual fundamentals category you could create post and perimeter
categories, etc. This provides you an easy way to be highly organized and very specific
in identifying the fundamentals of your system.

Drill Directory: Earlier it was mentioned that having the right tool for the right job is
important when it comes to the use of drills. Identifying the type of drill you are going
to use to teach the specific fundamentals to your players is crucial to your success.
There are a number of factors to consider in choosing which drills to use such as the
number of players it will involve at one time, the number of baskets necessary, etc.
Once you decide on your list of drills, you can then organize them into meaningful ways
much as you did with the fundamentals list.

Again a database program will allow you to create categories such as two-man, three-
man, four-man, and five-man drills. You can categorize your defensive drills into zone
and man-to-man. Within the man-to-man drills you can create sub-categories such as
"on ball" and "off ball" defense.

3. Practice Calendar: The practice calendar will provide important information to you
in determining your overall master practice plan. The amount of practice you have
before your first game, stretches where you will be playing a number of games with
very little practice time, and the amount of practice before your conference opener are
all important factors to be considered. You also need to take into account practice time
during holidays, mid-term exams, etc.

A calendar-maker software program is a valuable tool in laying out the entire season's
schedule. You could actually do it on a word processor but you would not get the same
visual effect as seeing the months, weeks, and days in a calendar format. The program
allows you to enter text in any specific day to indicate practice times, game times, etc.
After entering all your available practice times, you will then have a better idea of what
needs to be done in terms of covering specific thing in practice.

Putting It All Together

Using the calendar maker program, you can now begin to lay out a general plan of what
you want to cover in your practices throughout the season. Using your list of
fundamentals, drill directory, and practice calendar as references, you will have a much
better idea of what you want to do and when.

Some coaches will put down the specific fundamentals to be taught along with a few of
the drills to be used. For example, December 12th- On Ball Defense: Zig Zag Drill,
Around the World One on One, etc.

An important point to consider when you are allocating time for different aspects of
your system is to decide what percentage of time during a game you will use the things
you are trying to teach. In other words, it is important to spend the majority of time on
the areas that are used a majority of time in a ball game.

It is also important to remember that the master practice plan is a general outline of
things and can be and will be updated and modified as the season goes on. That is the
advantage of using computer technology in your planning. It is very easy to update your
drill directory, practice calendar, etc. You are just a click of the mouse away to keeping
your program organized and on track. If it were only that easy with our players!
Michael May has been a highly successful basketball coach for 28 years on the
international, junior college and high school levels. Currently he is president of
"Practice Planner Live Software," a new cutting edge web-based practice planning
solution. Please check out www.practiceplannerlive.com. It's a great practice planning
tool that gets my endorsement - Coach Gels.

Basketball Drills, Selecting and Using

Drills
From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook, @ http://www.coachesclipboard.net
Shooting Drills
Team
Basketball
Shooting Drills Drill
Guard
Breakdown Shooting Categories/Me
Shooting Drills
2-Man nu
Lay-up
Drills
Free-
Throw Shooting Drills  Partner Drills
Hook Shot  Ball-handling
Drills and dribbling
Wissel's drills
Shooting Drills
 Passing drills
Off the
Dribble Shooting Drills  Shooting drills
Individual  Offensive drills
Shooting Work-Out  Full-court
Dribbling Drills transition
List of offense-defense
Stationary Circle Drills drills
Ball-  Defensive drills
Handling Drills
 Rebounding
Stationary
1-Ball Dribbling Drills drills.
2-Ball  Alan Stein's
Dribbling Drills Strengthening
Sideline and Conditioning
Dribbling Drills Drills
Full-Court  Tim Springer's
Dribble Moves Drills Player
Tight- Development
Chairs Dribbling Drill
Drills
Dribble
Tag Drills  Ganon Baker's
Ball- drills
Handling/Dribbling Video  YouTube drill
Clips
Passing Drills
 Basic videos
Half-Court Passing Drills
Fast-
Break Passing Drills
Weave
Passing Drills
More Full-
Court Passing Drills
Press
Break Passing Drill
Defensive Drills
1-on-1
Drills
Z-Drill
Close-Out
Drills
Shell Drill,
Half-Court Live Drills
Man-to-
Man Positioning Drill
M2M
Defense Breakdown Drills
2-3 Zone
Defense Breakdown Drills
1-on-1
Drills from Coach Costa
Deny,
Corner Trap Drill
Take the
Charge Drill
3-on-3
Defensive Drill
Offensive Drills
1-on-1
and 2-on-1 Drills
Post
Player Drills
Guard
Breakdown Drills
Motion
Offense Drills
Dribble-
Drive Drills
Footwork
Drills
Le
arning the Jump Stop
Fo
otwork Drill
Drive and
Kick Drill
2-3 Zone
Offense Drills
Screen,
Pick Drills
50 Points
Drills
Special
Situation Drills
Video Clip
Drills
Transition Drills
Match-up
Press Drills
Fast-
Break Drills (2-on-0,etc)
5-on-0
Full-Court Drills
3-on-2, 3-
on-3 Transition Drill
4-on-4-on-
4 Transition Drill
5-on-4
Transition Drill
2-on-1
Transition Drill
Memphis
Transition Drills
MSU
Transition Drill
Transition
Fast-Break Drills
Full-Court
Transition Drills
4-on-4
Transition
11-Man
(and 7-Man) Drills
Rebound-
Outlet-Break Drill
Rebounding
War Drill
Box-Out
Drills
2-on-2
Drills
Hustle
Drills
More Drills
Partner
Drills
Tim
Springer's Player Dev
Drills
Ganon
Baker's Player Dev Drills
Alan
Stein's Training Drills
We have discussed the importance of teaching fundamentals. There are many basketball
drills that we can use for personal player development. We also need to teach teams
skills, and oftentimes the best way to do so is to break those skills down with simple
basketball drills.

Below are many basketball drills that you can use to help teach the skills your players
and team require. You might have a "core" of selected drills that you use all the time.
But you can throw in other drills from time-to-time to teach a specific skill, or just to
avoid boredom and spice things up a bit. See "Planning Practices" on how to best use
these drills and how to plan a good practice. Also see "Teaching Basketball by Drill
Progression".

Basketball Drills - Ball-Handling and Dribbling Drills

All players should do these drills.

List of Stationary Circle Drills... coaches use/print this list of our standard ball-
handling and dribbling circle drills.
 Ball-Handling... stationary ball-handling drills, especially important for young players
(5 min).

Stationary Dribbling Drills... basic one and two-ball drills (5-10 min), especially
important for young players.

2-Ball Dribbling Drills... Coach Krzyzewski's Duke teams do 2-ball dribbling drills
nearly every practice.

Tight Chairs Dribbling Drills... dribble-moves, get lots of reps attacking the chairs (5-
10 min), a favorite of ours.

Sideline Dribbling Drills... teach dribble moves and get conditioning at the same time
(10 min).

Full-Court Dribble Moves Drill... dribble-moves, attacking the chair on the wing (10
min), a favorite of ours.

Dribble Tag Drills... a fun dribbling game for younger kids (5 min).

Video Clips of Ball-Handling and Dribbling Drills... See all the video clips of ball-
handling and dribbling drills.

Basketball Drills - Passing Drills

Fast-Break Passing Drills... full-court passing on the move, good conditioning, a

favorite of ours (10 min).

Weave Passing Drills... the full-court 3-man weave, full-court weave with 3-point shot
option, full-court 5-man weave, and half-court weave with shooting/close-out (5-10
min).

More Full-Court Passing Drills... "Laker" passing and lay-up against pressure, 2-Man
speed-dribble and passing drill (10 min).

Basic Half-Court Passing Drills... Rapid fire drills, partner drills, "monkey in the
middle", triangle passing drill, drive and dish drill, find the receiver drill, Bennett drill,
Coale drill.

Press Break Passing Drill... passing out of the press trap (5-10 min).

Motion Offense Drills... see the "Pass to Wing, Feed the Post Drill", and V-cut and
back-cut drills on this page (10 min).

Basketball Drills - Shooting Drills

 Team Shooting Drills... several good competitive team shooting drills.

Guard Breakdown Shooting Drills... sixteen (16) breakdown drills for perimeter
players.

2-Man Shooting Drills... partner shooting drills, catch and shoot, shot-fake and jump-
shot, shot-fake and lay-up, Bird drill, etc.

Lay-up Drills... several good lay-up drills.

Free-Throw Shooting Drills... several free-throw shooting drills.

Coach's Wissel's Free-Throw Drills

Coach Wissel's Hook Shot Drills

Coach Wissel's Basic Lead-Up ShootingDrills

Coach Wissel's Off the Dribble Shooting Drills

Individual Shooting Work-Out

Basketball Drills - Miscellaneous Offensive Drills

Learning the Jump Stop... footwork, jump-stop drills (5 min).

Footwork Drills... footwork drills combining a jump-stop, reverse pivot, V-cut,

forward pivot, and triple threat (5 min).

1-on-1 and 2-on-1 Drills... competitive 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 drills (5-10 min).

Screen, Pick Drills... screening drills, pass and screen-away, pick and roll (5-10 min).

Motion Offense Drills... breakdown drills for teaching motion offense (10-15 min).

Dribble-Drive Motion Offense Drills... breakdown drills for teaching the dribble-drive
motion offense.

Drive and Kick Drill... drive and kick drills for teaching dribble-drive options.

2-3 Zone Offense Drills - breakdown drills for attacking the 2-3 zone defense.

Guard Breakdown Shooting Drills... fifteen (15) breakdown drills for perimeter
players.

Low-Post Breakdown Drills... several low post drills for developing your post players.

Video Clips of Guard and Post Moves... video clips of standard guard and post player
moves.

"50-Point" Full-Court Drills... drills used to help teach offense (10 min).

Special Situation Drills... from Coach Sar.

Basketball Drills - Full-Court Transition Offense-

Defense Drills

Match-up Press Drills... breakdown drills for teaching the full-court match-up press
(15-20 min).

Transition Offense Drills... rebound and outlet, filling the lanes, 2-on-1 and 3-on-2
breaks (10 min).

Full-Court Transition Offense Drills... Fred Hoiberg's speed drill, Coach Sars
rebound-outlet-break drill, and pepper-runner drill, and also the Piston and Pitch 'n Fire
drills (5-10 min).

Weave Passing Drills... the full-court 3-man weave, full-court weave with 3-point shot
option, full-court 5-man weave, and half-court weave with shooting/close-out (5-10
min).

2-on-1 Continuous Transition Drill... transition offense-defense, conditioning, passing

on the move, 2-on-1 offense-defense.

Michigan State Progressive Transition Drill... transition drill used by Tom Izzo at
MSU.

Memphis Transition Drills... competitive transition drills.

Fast-Break Drills (2-on-0,on-1,on-2)... a favorite passing on the move transition drill,

2-on-0, 2-on-1 and 2-on-2 (5-10-min).

5-on-0, 5-Trips Drill... use this drill for teaching the secondary numbered break, or for
running plays off the break (5-10-min).

3-on-2, 3-on-3 Transition Drill... 3-on-2 and 3-on-3 drills for both offensive and
defensive transition (10 min).

4-on-4 Transition... transitioning from offense to defense, defense to offense (10 min).

4-on-4-on-4 Transition Drill... a favorite full-court 4-man teams drill (10-15 min).

5-on-4 Transition Scramble Drill... a great full-court transition 5-on-4 drill (10-15
min).

11-Man (and 7-Man) Drills... a popular full-court transition drill (10-15 min).
 Rebound-Outlet-Break Drill... transition drill getting the fast break going (10-15 min).

Basketball Drills - Defensive Drills

1-on-1 Drills... half-court and full-court (cut and pressure) drills, defending in the
open court (5-10 min).

Close-Out Drills... several drills for teaching good defensive close-outs (5-10 min).

Shell Drill... a favorite used for teaching man-to-man principles of deny, helpside, etc
(10-min).

Man-to-Man Positioning Drill... teaching man-to-man positioning, on-ball, deny and

helpside (5 min).

M2M Defense Breakdown Drills... this has many of the drills that will help you teach
team man-to-man defense.

Breakdown Drills for Teaching the 2-3 Zone Defense... how to build a good 2-3 zone
defense.

1-on-1 Defensive Drills from Coach Joao Costa... by Coach Joao Costa, on-ball, off-
ball, helpside, defending cutters.

Deny, Corner Trap Drill... deny and trap the corner (5 min).

Take the Charge Drill... teach players how to take the charge (5 min).

Z-Drill... teach players defensive footwork, full-court (5-10 min).

3-on-3 Defensive Drill... pick up your defensive intensity with this competitive drill
(10 min).

Basketball Drills - Rebounding Drills

Rebounding Box-Out Drills... competitive box-out and rebounding drills.

2-on-2 Drills... competitive 2-on-2 box-out and rebounding drills.

War Drill... a variation of Michigan State's team rebounding drill.

Hustle Drills... loose ball, hustle drills.

Basketball Drills from Ganon Baker

 Ganon Baker Basketball Drills... Stance N Step - 4 Cone Drill, Circle Gladiator Drill

Basketball Strengthening and Conditioning Drills from

Alan Stein

Alan Stein's Drills... strength, conditioning, warm-up and more drills

Warm-Up Drills

Strengthening Drills

Agility, Quickness & Reaction Drills

Conditioning Drills

Core Strengthening Drills

Pre-Season Drills

Drills for Ankles and Knees

Stretching and Mobility Drills

Basketball Drills from Tim Springer

Guard Workouts

Spartan Guard Skills Workout

Spartan Skills Drills

Shooting Guard Workout

Forward Scoring Workout

Spartan Gun Shooting Drills

Team 3-Point Shooting Drills

15 Point Per Game Workout

College Point-Guard Workout

Lebron James Scoring Workout

Tony Parker Scoring Series

 Kevin Durant Scoring Workout

Derrick Rose Scoring Workout

Tim Duncan Scoring Series

Manu Ginobili Scoring Series

George Hill Scoring Series

Defensive Rotations into Transition Drills

Basketball Performance Training Drills

Becky Hammon Floppy to Pick and Roll Drill

Kyrie Irving Scoring Workout

See these video drills on You Tube:

Basketball Drills

Basketball Post Drills

Basketball Guard Drills

Basketball Shooting Drills

Basketball Dribbling Drills

Basketball Passing Drills

Basketball Defense Drills

Basketball Drills, Selecting and Using

Drills
From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook, @ http://www.coachesclipboard.net
 Shooting Drills
Team
Basketball
Shooting Drills Drill
Guard
Breakdown Shooting Categories/Me
Shooting Drills
2-Man nu
Lay-up
Drills
Free-
Throw Shooting Drills  Partner Drills
Hook Shot  Ball-handling
Drills and dribbling
Wissel's drills
Shooting Drills
 Passing drills
Off the
Dribble Shooting Drills  Shooting drills
Individual  Offensive drills
Shooting Work-Out  Full-court
Dribbling Drills transition
List of offense-defense
Stationary Circle Drills drills
Ball-  Defensive drills
Handling Drills
 Rebounding
Stationary
1-Ball Dribbling Drills drills.
2-Ball  Alan Stein's
Dribbling Drills Strengthening
Sideline and Conditioning
Dribbling Drills Drills
Full-Court  Tim Springer's
Dribble Moves Drills Player
Tight- Development
Chairs Dribbling Drill
Drills
Dribble
Tag Drills  Ganon Baker's
Ball- drills
Handling/Dribbling Video  YouTube drill
Clips videos
Passing Drills
Basic
Half-Court Passing Drills
Fast-
Break Passing Drills
Weave
Passing Drills
More Full-
Court Passing Drills
Press
Break Passing Drill
Defensive Drills
1-on-1
Drills
Z-Drill
Close-Out
Drills
Shell Drill,
Half-Court Live Drills
Man-to-
Man Positioning Drill
M2M
Defense Breakdown Drills
2-3 Zone
Defense Breakdown Drills
1-on-1
Drills from Coach Costa
Deny,
Corner Trap Drill
Take the
Charge Drill
3-on-3
Defensive Drill
Offensive Drills
1-on-1
and 2-on-1 Drills
Post
Player Drills
Guard
Breakdown Drills
Motion
Offense Drills
Dribble-
Drive Drills
Footwork
Drills
Le
arning the Jump Stop
Fo
otwork Drill
Drive and
Kick Drill
2-3 Zone
Offense Drills
Screen,
Pick Drills
50 Points
Drills
Special
Situation Drills
Video Clip
Drills
Transition Drills
Match-up
Press Drills
Fast-
Break Drills (2-on-0,etc)
5-on-0
Full-Court Drills
3-on-2, 3-
on-3 Transition Drill
4-on-4-on-
4 Transition Drill
5-on-4
Transition Drill
2-on-1
Transition Drill
Memphis
Transition Drills
MSU
Transition Drill
Transition
Fast-Break Drills
Full-Court
Transition Drills
4-on-4
Transition
11-Man
(and 7-Man) Drills
Rebound-
Outlet-Break Drill
Rebounding
War Drill
Box-Out
Drills
2-on-2
Drills
Hustle
Drills
More Drills
Partner
Drills
Tim
Springer's Player Dev
Drills
Ganon
Baker's Player Dev Drills
Alan
Stein's Training Drills
We have discussed the importance of teaching fundamentals. There are many basketball
drills that we can use for personal player development. We also need to teach teams
skills, and oftentimes the best way to do so is to break those skills down with simple
basketball drills.

Below are many basketball drills that you can use to help teach the skills your players
and team require. You might have a "core" of selected drills that you use all the time.
But you can throw in other drills from time-to-time to teach a specific skill, or just to
avoid boredom and spice things up a bit. See "Planning Practices" on how to best use
these drills and how to plan a good practice. Also see "Teaching Basketball by Drill
Progression".
Basketball Drills - Ball-Handling and Dribbling Drills
All players should do these drills.

List of Stationary Circle Drills... coaches use/print this list of our standard ball-
handling and dribbling circle drills.

Ball-Handling... stationary ball-handling drills, especially important for young players

(5 min).

Stationary Dribbling Drills... basic one and two-ball drills (5-10 min), especially
important for young players.

2-Ball Dribbling Drills... Coach Krzyzewski's Duke teams do 2-ball dribbling drills
nearly every practice.

Tight Chairs Dribbling Drills... dribble-moves, get lots of reps attacking the chairs (5-
10 min), a favorite of ours.
 Sideline Dribbling Drills... teach dribble moves and get conditioning at the same time
(10 min).

Full-Court Dribble Moves Drill... dribble-moves, attacking the chair on the wing (10
min), a favorite of ours.

Dribble Tag Drills... a fun dribbling game for younger kids (5 min).

Video Clips of Ball-Handling and Dribbling Drills... See all the video clips of ball-
handling and dribbling drills.

Basketball Drills - Passing Drills

Fast-Break Passing Drills... full-court passing on the move, good conditioning, a

favorite of ours (10 min).

Weave Passing Drills... the full-court 3-man weave, full-court weave with 3-point shot
option, full-court 5-man weave, and half-court weave with shooting/close-out (5-10
min).

More Full-Court Passing Drills... "Laker" passing and lay-up against pressure, 2-Man
speed-dribble and passing drill (10 min).

Basic Half-Court Passing Drills... Rapid fire drills, partner drills, "monkey in the
middle", triangle passing drill, drive and dish drill, find the receiver drill, Bennett drill,
Coale drill.

Press Break Passing Drill... passing out of the press trap (5-10 min).

Motion Offense Drills... see the "Pass to Wing, Feed the Post Drill", and V-cut and
back-cut drills on this page (10 min).

Basketball Drills - Shooting Drills

Team Shooting Drills... several good competitive team shooting drills.

Guard Breakdown Shooting Drills... sixteen (16) breakdown drills for perimeter
players.

2-Man Shooting Drills... partner shooting drills, catch and shoot, shot-fake and jump-
shot, shot-fake and lay-up, Bird drill, etc.

Lay-up Drills... several good lay-up drills.

Free-Throw Shooting Drills... several free-throw shooting drills.

 Coach's Wissel's Free-Throw Drills

Coach Wissel's Hook Shot Drills

Coach Wissel's Basic Lead-Up ShootingDrills

Coach Wissel's Off the Dribble Shooting Drills

Individual Shooting Work-Out

Basketball Drills - Miscellaneous Offensive Drills

Learning the Jump Stop... footwork, jump-stop drills (5 min).

Footwork Drills... footwork drills combining a jump-stop, reverse pivot, V-cut,

forward pivot, and triple threat (5 min).

1-on-1 and 2-on-1 Drills... competitive 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 drills (5-10 min).

Screen, Pick Drills... screening drills, pass and screen-away, pick and roll (5-10 min).

Motion Offense Drills... breakdown drills for teaching motion offense (10-15 min).

Dribble-Drive Motion Offense Drills... breakdown drills for teaching the dribble-drive
motion offense.

Drive and Kick Drill... drive and kick drills for teaching dribble-drive options.

2-3 Zone Offense Drills - breakdown drills for attacking the 2-3 zone defense.

Guard Breakdown Shooting Drills... fifteen (15) breakdown drills for perimeter
players.

Low-Post Breakdown Drills... several low post drills for developing your post players.

Video Clips of Guard and Post Moves... video clips of standard guard and post player
moves.

"50-Point" Full-Court Drills... drills used to help teach offense (10 min).

Special Situation Drills... from Coach Sar.

Basketball Drills - Full-Court Transition Offense-

Defense Drills

Match-up Press Drills... breakdown drills for teaching the full-court match-up press
(15-20 min).
 Transition Offense Drills... rebound and outlet, filling the lanes, 2-on-1 and 3-on-2
breaks (10 min).

Full-Court Transition Offense Drills... Fred Hoiberg's speed drill, Coach Sars
rebound-outlet-break drill, and pepper-runner drill, and also the Piston and Pitch 'n Fire
drills (5-10 min).

Weave Passing Drills... the full-court 3-man weave, full-court weave with 3-point shot
option, full-court 5-man weave, and half-court weave with shooting/close-out (5-10
min).

2-on-1 Continuous Transition Drill... transition offense-defense, conditioning, passing

on the move, 2-on-1 offense-defense.

Michigan State Progressive Transition Drill... transition drill used by Tom Izzo at
MSU.

Memphis Transition Drills... competitive transition drills.

Fast-Break Drills (2-on-0,on-1,on-2)... a favorite passing on the move transition drill,

2-on-0, 2-on-1 and 2-on-2 (5-10-min).

5-on-0, 5-Trips Drill... use this drill for teaching the secondary numbered break, or for
running plays off the break (5-10-min).

3-on-2, 3-on-3 Transition Drill... 3-on-2 and 3-on-3 drills for both offensive and
defensive transition (10 min).

4-on-4 Transition... transitioning from offense to defense, defense to offense (10 min).

4-on-4-on-4 Transition Drill... a favorite full-court 4-man teams drill (10-15 min).

5-on-4 Transition Scramble Drill... a great full-court transition 5-on-4 drill (10-15
min).

11-Man (and 7-Man) Drills... a popular full-court transition drill (10-15 min).

Rebound-Outlet-Break Drill... transition drill getting the fast break going (10-15 min).

Basketball Drills - Defensive Drills

1-on-1 Drills... half-court and full-court (cut and pressure) drills, defending in the
open court (5-10 min).

Close-Out Drills... several drills for teaching good defensive close-outs (5-10 min).

Shell Drill... a favorite used for teaching man-to-man principles of deny, helpside, etc
(10-min).
 Man-to-Man Positioning Drill... teaching man-to-man positioning, on-ball, deny and
helpside (5 min).

M2M Defense Breakdown Drills... this has many of the drills that will help you teach
team man-to-man defense.

Breakdown Drills for Teaching the 2-3 Zone Defense... how to build a good 2-3 zone
defense.

1-on-1 Defensive Drills from Coach Joao Costa... by Coach Joao Costa, on-ball, off-
ball, helpside, defending cutters.

Deny, Corner Trap Drill... deny and trap the corner (5 min).

Take the Charge Drill... teach players how to take the charge (5 min).

Z-Drill... teach players defensive footwork, full-court (5-10 min).

3-on-3 Defensive Drill... pick up your defensive intensity with this competitive drill
(10 min).

Basketball Drills - Rebounding Drills

Rebounding Box-Out Drills... competitive box-out and rebounding drills.

2-on-2 Drills... competitive 2-on-2 box-out and rebounding drills.

War Drill... a variation of Michigan State's team rebounding drill.

Hustle Drills... loose ball, hustle drills.

Basketball Drills from Ganon Baker

Ganon Baker Basketball Drills... Stance N Step - 4 Cone Drill, Circle Gladiator Drill

Basketball Strengthening and Conditioning Drills from

Alan Stein

Alan Stein's Drills... strength, conditioning, warm-up and more drills

Warm-Up Drills
 Strengthening Drills

Agility, Quickness & Reaction Drills

Conditioning Drills

Core Strengthening Drills

Pre-Season Drills

Drills for Ankles and Knees

Stretching and Mobility Drills

Basketball Drills from Tim Springer

Guard Workouts

Spartan Guard Skills Workout

Spartan Skills Drills

Shooting Guard Workout

Forward Scoring Workout

Spartan Gun Shooting Drills

Team 3-Point Shooting Drills

15 Point Per Game Workout

College Point-Guard Workout

Lebron James Scoring Workout

Tony Parker Scoring Series

Kevin Durant Scoring Workout

Derrick Rose Scoring Workout

Tim Duncan Scoring Series

Manu Ginobili Scoring Series

George Hill Scoring Series

Defensive Rotations into Transition Drills

 Basketball Performance Training Drills

Becky Hammon Floppy to Pick and Roll Drill

Kyrie Irving Scoring Workout

See these video drills on You Tube:

Basketball Drills

Basketball Post Drills

Basketball Guard Drills

Basketball Shooting Drills

Basketball Dribbling Drills

Basketball Passing Drills

Basketball Defense Drills

Basketball Coaching – Game Situation

Skills and Drills Part 2
From basketball-drills-and-plays.com
Focus Your Practices on Impactful Skills & Drills that
Win Games - Part 2

It was a day I'll never forget. I was teaching my last period Algebra class and it was
time for the end of the day announcements. "Girls basketball practice has been
canceled." The three girls basketball players in the class let out a whoop like they had
just won the state championship! I was the boys coach, so I didn't take it personally, but
it did make me think. If they didn't see the value of practice, my boys players probably
didn't either.

I went on a mission to make it clear to the players I coached that if you want to play
well on game night, you must be a great practice player. Practice performance, good or
bad, carries over to games.

Here are six things a coach can do to have maximum positive carry over from practice
to games:

1) It's not practice, it's rehearsal. Stage shows have rehearsals, so should basketball
teams. Drills in practice should be nothing more than rehearsing the things that happen
in games as close to the way that they happen. Break down what you want to happen so
that you aren't running drills, you are playing basketball at game pace.

2) What's the score? Find a way to make every drill you use competitive. It can be
against another player or team, or against a standard of excellence that you require.
Players must know if they are performing at a level that translates to success in games.

3) It's on you, coach. You will get in games what you emphasize and specifically teach
in practice.

That requires being consistent in coaching basketball with energy...every minute of

every drill of every practice. If it won't work in games, you can't tolerate it in practice.

4) Less is more. Doing 10 reps in a drill requiring game like all out effort, perfect
technique, penalizing turnovers, finishing with a rebound battle, and requiring all
defensive slides to be game pace will prepare you for games better than double the reps
with no accountability.

5) Break the rules. Overload your players to make it tougher in practice than games.
Make the defense play with only 4 players, have players dribble 2 basketballs in drills,
allow the second team defense to use their hands to guard, and anything else that will
push your players beyond their current abilities.

6) Let's go to the replay monitor. Regardless of when it happens, if you don't get the
expected standard of excellence in a drill or scrimmage possession, stop, make the
needed corrections, and then do it again. And again if needed. I once saw a Division 1
Coach do 2-line layups for 20 minutes because he wasn't getting the effort he wanted.
Passes were sloppy, missed layups, no hustle, and other problems. They did it until it
was right.

The final piece of the practice puzzle is for you, the coach, to work on yourself so that
you consistently summon the energy to inspire your players to practice excellence and
to confront and correct when it isn't there.

How do the best teams make big shots consistently game after game? Click the link
below to subscribe to the Elite Coaching Newsletter and discover the little-known
tactics boosting your team's shot-making in big games:

http://basketball-drills-and-plays.com/elite-success-system-1.html

Basketball Skills and Drills - Part 1