This is one of my favorite basketball drills and plays that I use with new teams or beginning players.

This basketball drill is to help get the players used to moving without the basketball to the open spot in the paint.

Set up a defense using a zone you can use players or cones.

You will have 2 offensive players on both sides of the paint (2 and 3 positions) and a point guard.

A player (cutter) will start under the goal and flash to the open spots (one side of the paint (first), then to the free throw line (second), and then to the other side of the paint (third).

At each open spot the offensive players will make a pass to the cutter and the cutter will pass the ball back, rotate out and then the next cutter will go.

Once the players get used to this part of the drill you start letting them take the jump shots from the positions.

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I find teaching new players the fundamentals of boxing out can be challenging.  Here are two basketball drills for beginners I use to teach this concept.

This first basketball drill I find useful for helping teach the fundamentals of boxing out:

4-5 offensive players form a circle about 15 feet in diameter, facing center.
The same number of defensive players form a circle facing an offensive player that they are “guarding”, in defensive position.

A basketball is placed on floor in the center of the circle.
The basketball coach blows the whistle and the defensive players turn and box out the offensive player that they are guarding, and try to keep them away from the basketball for 3 seconds, when the coach again blows the whistle to stop.

Offensive players try to get the basketball when the coach blows the first whistle.

Another fun drill encompasses offense/defense/boxing out/rebounding and a lot of fun.
1. Line up players on half court arms length apart, facing the hoop.
2. Assign them each a number…..out of sequence
3. Place a ball on the foul line.
4. Call out 2 random numbers.
5. Players who’s numbers were called race to the ball. Player who gains control takes it to the hoop while other player plays defense, calls for shot, boxes out etc.
6. Play continues until someone scores.

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Here are some basketball practice drills to liven up your practices and have some fun.  We like to mix things up so to make training more fun every so often have a relay race session.

We split all the players up into teams of 5 so there are usually 4 teams of 5 and then do different races. For each race the team that wins gets 4 points, the team that came second gets 3 points and so on. At the end the team that wins doesn’t have to do any running and whereas the team that came second runs 1 suicide, the team that came third 2 suicides and the team that came last 3 suicides.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of races we do during basketball practice:

Two ball dribble
Backwards two ball dribble
Pretzel run
Backwards pretzel walk
Through the legs dribble
Backwards through the legs dribble
Bounce one basketball in one hand and roll another ball along the floor with the other hand
The above drill backwards
Dribbling around cones
Straight sprint
Backwards sprint

Each player on each team must complete this basketball drill full court and back before the team has finished. This drill is very easy to adapt and change!

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A good basketball drill to use for warm-ups when you’re coaching youth basketball is an endurance drill.  This drill is great for youth basketball as it gets everyone involved and you can always split the groups half court, ten on each side.

• Line everyone up and number them for example one to ten.
• Number one will shoot, 2 free throws, and everyone else is jogging up and down the court.
• Then number 2 will get number one rebound then pass it to him.
• Once number one has taken his second shot, number one then joins in with everyone else and jogs and number two gets his own rebound and shoots.
• If there are ten players, the target will be 30 shots; if I see anyone walking I add another five shots and so on until they reach they target.
• While they are jogging they need to be going at a reasonable pace.

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If you are looking for fresh ideas for youth basketball drills, try out this fast break basketball drill with your kids.

This is a fast transition down the court that I used with my under 12 girls basketball team!
Player 1 rebounds the ball. Player 2  v-cuts past 1 to receive pass, then passes to 4 who has run out to right wing. 5 cuts to left wing, crosses over to middle, receives pass from 4 near half-court, then dribbles to top of foul line. At this point there are a couple of options for player 4, ie. layup or give and go with player 5.

Player 1 should be to the right of & behind 5 as protector, 2 has filled in trail position behind 5. 3 has crossed from left low post at one end through middle of court and ends up at right low post at opposite end. 4 continues across middle of court after passing to 5 from right wing and ends up in left low post at opposite end.

Option:

If 1’s pass goes to 3 instead, this fast break basketball drill can then be run with 2 & 3 exchanging positions as well as 4 & 5 exchanging.

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