I helped coach 7th and 8th grade boys with another basketball coach and he came up with some interesting new basketball skill drills the other night. Give this basketball drill a try this with your teams to keep everyone involved.

5 players under one hoop on defense (red practice jerseys).  5 players under the other hoop on defense (white practice jerseys).  A third group of 5 in red is offense.  They go down the court red O vs white D until they score or the defense gets the ball.

The 5 white on defense outlet and move the ball up court and go white O vs red defense, while the team that was red offense stays at the other end and switches to white defense.

When the red defense gets the basketball and goes down vs the white defense, the next group of 5 steps in and replaces the white team as red defense.

At first, I didn’t like it because it cut down on the amount of running.  The real plus for it though was that all 20 kids were involved in the drill.  The most you were out of action was one trip down and one trip back, then you were on the court for 4 possessions.

It really kept everyone involved and when you are dealing with 20 kids, that is terrific.

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If you’re looking for girls basketball drills for your next basketball practice, try this Three Girl Weave drill.  The object of this basketball drill is to create a 2 on 1 fast break situation.

Three Girl Weave:
Girls perform a typical three girl weave from under one hoop to the other.  We concentrate on keeping the weave tight, making good passes, not traveling and making the final pass a bounce pass for a layup.

The shooter then sprints back to the opposite free throw line and becomes a defender.  One girl grabs the rebound and begins a “fast break” towards the opposite hoop.  The last girl has chosen a side of the court & is heading up court towards the hoop.

Focus on the dribbler keeping her head up, dribbling with good form and making a good pass to the other offensive player.  The defender must first defend the basketball and rotate back to defend the pass and box out.

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I’ve been coaching a fast breaking team with a lot of good athletes. Here is one of the basketball coaching drills we do once per practice.  We run a 3 on 2 then 2 on 1 continuous drill.

We have 3 lines at one end, middle and two wings.  One wing will yell outlet and the middle will throw to this person.  The person throwing to the outlet will then go behind the person he just passed to and the outlet player will dribble the basketball to the middle of the floor creating a fast break to the other end of the floor.

On the other end we will start with two defenders in a staggered position to guard against the break.  I really stress on the D side to talk to each other ” who will take the first pass and who will guard the lane”. I prefer the back person take the first pass with the top person once the lead dribbler picks up his dribble to drop straight backwards once a pass is made to a wing player.

I then play it that whomever takes the shot needs to hustle back on defense and guard the two defenders turned now into the offensive team,  leaving the other two offensive players as the next defenders.

This basketball drill is run continuous. I only allow one shot on each end of the floor. If no shot is taken and a bad pass is made, the person who throws the bad pass is now the defender.

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If you’re planning your next practice with basketball shooting drills as a focus, try this one. It was a basketball drill originally used with a high school girls team.  It was so successful that I recommend for all players.

Start your  basketball practice using a form shooting drill the first week. You’ll start seeing a pay off immediately. Everyday have your players shoot 25 form shoots at the side of the backboard. Make sure they line their feet up the same every time then have them execute a good form shoot.

The first week they may miss badly, considering the backboard is about 2 inches wide but after a week they will start to hit it regularly. You’ll see their release point become consistent and the fg% will go up!

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Many coaches struggle with motion offense plays.  Here are the instructions on how to teach a simple motion offense basketball.

Set four cones around the three-point line and position a player at each cone (i.e., left baseline/wing, top left, top right & right baseline/wing).

The basketball starts at top right and the rules are simple.
1. Players closest to the ball V-cut to get open
2. Player with ball passes to open team mate
3. Whenever a pass is made, the passer cuts to the basket, looking for a give-and-go
4. Players without the ball automatically go to an open cone that is closer to the ball than their current position
5. If the return pass is not given, the passer returns to the three-point line to the cone that is now vacant (there will always be one)

Notes :
a.  If the player with the ball is on the baseline/wing, they will always return to the cone they just vacated (i.e., after running a back door cut to the basket); if you work it out, you’ll see why.
b.  If the player with the ball is at the top (right or left), they will either end up in the wing position on the other side of the court (if they passed it to the wing on their side) or in the wing position on their side of the court (if they passed it to the other top position.
c. Don’t forget to remove the cones for games.

Once the basic flow is established, the fifth (post) player joins.  The rules for this player are also simple:
1.  Travel the perimeter of the key with back to the basket, always following the ball.
2.  Whenever a pass is made along the three-point line, set a back screen for the passer (to help spring them free for the give-and-go); then, follow the ball.  Notes :  When the ball is passed to a wing, the post slides down to the block (after the cutter) for what could be an easy basket on a pass from the wing.

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