Teaching Shooting

Drill #1
In middle of the lane–-
Have your player to bend his knees and get his butt down low. Get the basketball in the shot pocket and come up in one motion and jump and shoot.  Get good extension, and stick the landing with his feet. He should look at his feet prior to
the shot and then look at his feet after he is done shooting.
This is “stick your landing”.  Your feet need to come down in the same position.

Drill #2 same as above except change the position – back is to the sideline and player will pivot on foot closest to the basket, down in that low stance and shoot – again stick his landing

Drill #3 same as drill #2 except – pivot to square and pivot back to the original position and pivot again and shoot. Stick the landing.  This is pivot,pivot,pivot and shoot.

To emphasize – these 3 basketball drills teach someone to shoot a jump shot well!

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As I coached a 7th grade team, I noticed that FT’s had such individual unimportance to the players!   I now do the same in my practices that my college basketball coach did.  I have early conditioning and they have to hit two in a row to get a drink.

At the end of basketball practice we shoot 10 FT’s a piece and the players have to hit 8 out of 10 because our team goal is 80%.  Those who achieve this sit out the end of practice conditioning.

I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but I saw this team go from an early season 42% FT shooting team to a 74% team and they continued to push towards 80%. We are hitting our FT’s at the end of the game and our opponents are not, because they are tired.

This team now take shooting free throws personally!

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Have three teams line up 15 feet from the basket. Give the teams a target – say, first team to hit 10 baskets.

Player rebounds his own shot and passes to the next in line, shouts out the running total if he/she scores.

After the total is reached the teams swap positions (ie. left, right and center of basket). Again it’s the first to 10, but this time if the player misses he/she has to run the length of the basketball court before joining the back of the line.

Third time it’s first to 10 – only now, if the shot is missed the whole team has to run!

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I start my girls on the baseline. I ask for a volunteer and this athlete comes to the free-throw line.
Those players that think she will make the shot, line up outside the key. Those that think she will miss, stay on the baseline.
If she misses, the believers run a down–n-back. If she makes it, the non-believers run.

The kicker is that they can only miss 3 in row then they all run. I was surprised how many of the girls started to spend their free time at the free-throw line instead of throwing up 3 pointers. This has increased our free-throw percentage by almost 10%.

My other free throw basketball drill is called Spellers.

I have my players shoot around from within the three point circle.
One shot per player for every letter of the alphabet. The team, made up of three girls, gets to keep the letter that comes up on any basket they make. First shot is A, so if they make it they get to keep the letter. If they make three shots in a row they get to keep three A’s. Then they go on to B and so on.

The more shots they make as a team the more letters they get. The team that can spell the most words with the letters they earn is declared the winner and they get to choose the conditioning drill that the losing teams are required to do.

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Pass & Shoot Drill
2 players
1 basketball,
Chair at top of key to simulate defender
One player rebounds and one player shoots, making sure to step into the ball and use proper technique.

- Same Drill but start from the 3 point line, two jab steps and
then jump shot; ball fake, jab step and then jump shot
- Same Drill, ball fake up, dribble around chair and shoot
- Same Drill, ball fake right, dribble left around chair and shoot
- Same Drill, ball fake left, dribble right around chair and shoot

Timed Shooting Drill
What works well for me is the “Timed speed dribble and shooting drill”.  I time my players while dribbling right handed and left handed through suicides.  I challenge them to beat their times each day for 3 straight days.  The players that do receive some Gatorade or coaches award that we may designate such as most improved practice player for the week, which gets them a free lunch at the local subway shop.  Builds competitiveness!

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• Using about 10 players, select 3 shooting locations (front of basket, and one more to each side).
• Each player takes 10 shots rotating to a new spot after each shot and the basketball coach tracks how many out of the 100 (or 90 or 80 shots) were made.
• Start out at the 3 point line, then move to free throw length and then move to 3 foot shots.
• The increasing shooting percentage as you move in clearly shows why we want to work for shots closer to the basket.

This basketball drill is especially good for 7th /8th graders who think they are capable of making the 3 pointer when few are really capable of a decent shooting percentage from the 3 point line.

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There are 4-6 players with 3 basketballs assigned to a basket. Each player has a partner. At the whistle each one of the partners who has a ball takes a shot, then immediately follows their shot and gets their own rebound. They then pivot to find their partner through the traffic caused by all the other players doing the same thing. They pass the basketball to their partner and he takes a shot.

The person who passed the ball finds a spot on the court where he wants to shoot from and goes there. When the next shooter rebounds his shot he must pivot to find his partner and so on. They can do this for 10 shots each or for as long as you want. With everyone shooting at the same basket and all running around  the same area it creates the kind of traffic you might see in a basketball game.

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Shooting Drill
Objective : To improve percentage of the high-percentage shot

Drill : Each player shoots from either block using the backboard (5-6 feet away from basket). 10 shots are taken at either block before rotating to shoot from the opposite block. Each player retrieves their own basketball.
Time :

This basketball drill should last at least 10-15 minutes each practice.  However, it is actually in my opinion one shot that is missed the most by all players, even good shooters. I attribute the high percentage of misses to the lack of time that is given to this shot in basketball practice.

Most players go in the gym to practice on free-throws, 3-pt shots and then more free throws. Therefore, their percentages for these shots are a little higher than they would be for the closer shot.

To make this shot, using the backboard, has become an art. In my opinion it is a lost art in the game of basketball.

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My players line up for a one and one with 2-3 players at each goal.  If the shooter misses the first shot, then he must run to the other end of the gym twice and get back in rotation around the lane.  If they make the first and miss the second, they only run down and back once.  If they make both, they don’t run that time.  Usually, when the runner finishes their laps, it is close to time for them to shoot again.

This basketball drill incorporates pressure and conditioning into free throw shooting.

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I break the team up into two teams.  At one end of the floor the teams line up at the elbow of the free throw line.

Team “A” on the left elbow, team “B” on the right.  Each team has a basketball.  When the basketball coach tells them to go, the players  shoot the jumper from the elbow, get their own rebound and drive the length of the floor to the other basket for a layup.  Then they get their own rebound, drive back to their spot at the front of their line and take another jump shot from the elbow.  Get their own rebound and pass to the next player in their line.

The goal is to be the first team to 21 points. The jump shots are worth 2 points each, the layups worth one.  Therefore each player has the potential to score 5 points for their team.  Losing team has to do gut busters or push-ups, etc.

When I want them to work on following their shots and rebounding, we do the same game only it is done on one end of the floor using one basket.  This variation is that if the player misses his jump shot he has to get the rebound before it hits the floor.  If he does, he can dribble in and shoot the layup or take a short jumper.  Scoring is the same, 2 points for the jumper from the elbow, 1 pt. for any shot made after that as long as they ball has never touched the floor.

They can keep shooting until they make it as long as they get the rebound every time before it hits the floor. Once they score they pass to the next player in line.

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