From Floyd…
One basketball drill I like is to have a coach under a basket with two balls. The basketball coach rolls the ball out on the court and the player,facing the basket, has to turn, find the ball, pick the ball up, and make a lay-up. If the basketball is on the right side of the court he/she must use their right hand if on the left he/she must use their left had. While the player is picking up the first ball and making a lay-up the coach rolls the second ball on the court. Without stopping the player now must turn find the other ball retrieve it and make a lay-up. This continues for 30 seconds.

1.The player must find the ball and pick it up, not try to dribble it before picking it up. This teaches to secure the ball before trying to do something with it.
2. Once the player retrieves the ball he/she must drive hard to the basket on the side of the basket the ball is on and use that hand to make the lay-up. This is a good drill especially if you are using a trapping defense.
3. 30 seconds may seem like a short time, but this is also a great basketball conditioning drill.

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From Sean…
An excellent basketball conditioning drill for all ages, the “7-Minute” drill.

Split your basketball team into two groups and line up at opposite baselines to the right of each basket (when facing the court) where the FT lane and baseline meet.

Both groups will run the following route for seven minutes: full court (baseline to baseline) at half-speed; when the player hits the opposite baseline, they immediately get into a defensive stance and shuffle diagonally to the near sideline to the FT line extended; turn and sprint across the court to the opposite FT line extended and shuffle back diagonally to the intersection of the near-side baseline and FT lane.  The player then repeats that route going the other way.  Every leg of the route is at full-speed with the exception of the baseline-to-baseline trip.

Much is revealed during these seven minutes regarding conditioning, effort and attitude and I have found it a very valuable basketball drill.

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From Tracy…
Here are a few tidbits on basketball conditioning:

1) Circuits in the weightroom during the season - 45 seconds, then switch with a 5 sec. break before beginning again

2) 2 legged bounds down the floor and back (watch “The Biggest Loser” they have some different strength/conditioning drills)

3) Trivia about your basketball program or big moments in basketball history - it has helped me to get my kids realizing the tradition of the school they are playing for.

At the beginning of basketball practice I give the kids a Question & Answer, then at the end of practice they have to recall it - if not, conditioning of some sort. I have incorporated other game shows into this as well, like they can use a “lifeline” if they can’t remember the answer. 

The kids enjoy it and occasionally they try to stump me!

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From Chris…
Basketball Conditioning Drills

Paris Islands:  Players divide into 2 groups, and each group takes a baseline.  When one group finishes, the other group starts.  We will make at least 2, 2 1/2, or 3 trips (each trip is down to the opposite baseline and back to the starting baseline; a 1/2 trip would be down to the opposite baseline).  Each time a basketball player nears 1/2 court, he must dive to the floor and complete a given number of push-ups — we usually do 5 push-ups each time.

Hustle Drill: Players start in a line at the baseline/laneline.  Player A calls the ball and defensive slide to the sideline.  As they reach the sideline a basketball coach, manager, or the next player in line rolls a ball towards the sideline-1/2 court line.  Player A must sprint and dive for the loose ball.  Once he gains possession of the ball he will throw it to a coach/manger who is standing at the top of the key, and then sprints towards the basket.  Player A will receive a pass from the coach and attach the basket looking to score.  Player B will start as player A gets the pass from the coach.  Variations include running a fade cut for a jumper or a 3pt shot; missed lay-ups =  push-ups.

Combination Drill:
Foul shooting: (Runner/Shooter/Rebounder)  Players make groups of three at a basket.  Player A is the shooter, player B is the runner (he will sprint the length of the court until it is his turn to shoot) and player C is the rebounder.  The shooter will shoot two foul shots then becomes the next rebounder, runner is the next shooter, and the rebounder starts in defensive rebounding position and becomes the next runner.  Rebounder must “box out” by stepping up the lane, then rebound the ball.  Each player shoots a total of 10 foul shots.

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From Terry…
My basketball drill is this–last year I did not have much talent, so we played zone all year while we worked on man on man in practice.

One of the hardest things about playing zone is keeping your arms and hands in the passing lanes. So what I would do whenever we would drop our hands down in our next practice we would all line upon the baseline with our hands above our heads.

The player in the front would have a basketball above his head. From there we jog around the court, in a shooting action we pass the ball to the next player in line; everybody must keep their hands above their heads the whole time.  If the ball hits the floor everybody stops and does push-ups.  When the ball gets to the end, that player runs on the inside to the front of the line and it continues until everyone has a chance to get to the front.

They really don’t like this drill so I remind them in the game to keep their hands in the passing lanes or else!!!!!

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From Jason…
One basketball drill that I used to help my younger kids see the floor and watch for the open man.  (I coached 6th grade, and was assistant to higher up teams).

I would put 5 guys spread on the floor on offense.   I would use their numbers (1-5) depending on their position.  I would then take 4 defensive guys, give them all a number to guard (not telling the offense who would be left open), and have them all go on the foul line.

On my go, the defense had to run and pick up their man (1 man is open).  If offense scores, they get point, defense gets a rebound or doesn’t allow a basket,  D gets a point.  Play to three, loser runs a few laps, etc.

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From Jason…
Cut-Off and Close-Out

Abasketball drill that I run at practice quite often works great on offense and defense.  For offense, it works on driving strong to the basket and finishing a lay-up contested and for shooting in rhythm with a defender closing out in your face. For defense, it works great for the defender to cut off the drive to the basket with hands straight up to take a charge or contest the shot and closing out low on the shooter with a box-out to finish.

Start–the coach is standing on at the top of the key with two basketballs, one defender standing with his/her back to the basket on the free throw line, one offensive player at the 45 degree angle on the right and one offensive player at the 45 degree angle on the left.

The coach throws the first basketball to the offensive player on the right side.  This offensive player catches the ball and drives to the basket for a lay-up (works on finishing).  Once the pass is thrown, the defender is allowed to move to cut off the offensive lay-up, take the charge, or play solid defense with hands straight up.

As soon as the lay-up goes up, the second basketball is passed to the offensive player on the left side.  This defender quickly sprints out to the left at a 45 degree angle to closeout low and contest the shot.  The offensive player’s goal is to catch and shoot the ball in rhythm and the goal of the defender is to closeout low to contest the shot (not fly out hight, past the offensive player) and box-out.

The players rotate from right to left with new players starting as the offensive player on the right.

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From Phil…
I like to do basketball drills that combine many skills so that my time is used most efficiently.
DIAMOND
I start with four players in a diamond shape.
The offense can not dribble or move other than to catch the pass.
I have 2 players in the middle, one with a ball. The player with the ball passes to one of the diamond players, who must hold the ball until the passer breaks down and gets into his defensive position. The other player in the middle of the diamond, is reading the pass receiver in anticipation of the next pass.

Once the pass is made, the player in the middle follows the pass and breaks down into defensive position, unless he makes a steal. If a steal is made, he takes the place of the passer who threw the interception. Meanwhile the other middle player must recover to the middle of the diamond.

The ball movement is slow in the beginning to get the defensive players accustomed to flashing to the ball, then recovering to the middle. As players become more comfortable with the drill, speed up the passing.

I have found that it helps the players defensively and offensively. Defensively, players learn to anticipate passes and get to the ball faster, as well as conditioning. Offensively, players learn to find the open man under pressure and make good decisions with the ball. This is a half court drill.

A variation is to place 3 defenders in the middle and allow the offense to move side to side only to better passing position.

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From Jim…
We created a game we call Dodgeball which helps kids improve their free throw shooting, gets them in shape, and gets them used to shooting free throws when they are tired.  We find this works better than the standard basketball free throw drills.

The winner of the game is the team who gets all the players from the other team running at the same time.
Split your kids into even teams and put them on opposite baskets.  Players shoot free throws one at a time and try to make two in a row.  If they make two free throws in a row, they can call out the name of a player on the other team who they want to run.  This player will run down and back continuously until a player on his own team makes two free throws.

Example:
Joe, Mike, Dan, Tom, and Chris are on Team A.
Drew, Mark, John, Kyle, and Justin are on Team B.
Both teams start shooting and Drew from Team B makes two free throws in a row.  He says he want Joe to run, so Joe starts running down and back.  Mark shoots and makes his first shot and misses his second.  John steps up and sinks two free throws in a row and says he wants Mike to run.  Meanwhile, team A still has not made two free throws in a row.  Kyle from Team B makes two free throws in a row and says he wants Chris to run.  We now have Joe, Mike, and Chris from Team A running, while no one from Team B is running.

Tom from Team A now steps up and sinks two free throws.  He says he wants Kyle to run.  Kyle now begins running down and back and Joe from Team A stops running and begins shooting free throws again.

(The idea is the person from each team who has been running the longest gets to stop running when a person from their team sinks both free throws.)  If another person from Team A made two free throws, they would choose a player to run and Mike would stop running, because he has been running longer than Chris.

We have found that at the end of games, even though the kids have done a lot of running they are used to making free throws when tired.  The kids beg to play this game.

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From Roger…
A basketball drill I started using in practice this year for my 6th grade traveling team was a passing drill.  My team tends to dribble first and then look for the pass.  Here’s how it works:

Drill: Make 8 passes without dribbling moving the ball up the court.  (Start out with 4 on 4 moving to 5 on 5)

Start out with 4 on 4 with one group taking the ball out.  The objective is to make 8 passes without dribbling.  If 8 passes are made and the ball is brought across the half court line, the team gets one point.  If the defense gets the ball before 8 passes they get one point.

After making 8 passes, the offense can take two dribbles after receiving a pass.  Now the goal is to make a basket running plays.  If the offense scores a basket, they get another point.  If the defense stops the basket, they don’t get a point but stop the offense.  You then start back the other way with the defense becoming the offense and the offense playing defense.  The first team to reach 10 points wins.

This is a great drill for getting your team to pass the ball.  It teaches them how important the give and go is and also to anticipate passing lanes.

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