I believe that the most important basketball drills to use are ones that translate into your game plan and that must be a plan that fits the talents and skill level of your team. These are two basketball drills and plays that I have developed myself for my current team.

Match Your Man Drill – I will place cones on each sideline half and baseline about 5 strides apart. One player (out of bounds ) will be the offensive player and move between the cones sliding and juking while the player on the inbounds side will be trying to stay in front of her man by matching her moves. I will be stressing good defensive positioning with head up, butt down, hands out and good step slide technique. Our pressure this year will focus on keeping your man in front of you and we hope to build quickness, reaction time and anticipation among our many small quick players. After a specified time ( 10-12 sec) the defensive player will rotate to the next offensive station and the offensive player at that station will rotate to the same stations defensive position. This will give different matchups and skill levels as they rotate around the court.

Another drill that I implement is called “PUSH” and is a drill to help us get the ball off the board and go rather than wait for a specific player to come to the ball. It also helps us with passing on the move against open court defenders to enhance our fast break.

We will position 3 players across the lane area about 4 -6 feet in front of the backboard . The coach at the foul line will toss up a miss that will deflect to one of the three players. That player will dribble out and push the ball in her lane while the other two players will run their lanes. The first defender will be at half court and as she reacts to the ball the offense will make the first pass . The second defender will be at the top of the three point circle and as the ball approaches they will play a 3 on 2 break with only 2 passes allowed in this area to keep the play a fast break situation. We want a layup or short open jumper to finish the play.

New offense and defense will rotate in and continue from end to end stressing the PUSH off the rebound. All players regardless of position will be expected to run the PUSH outlet dribble.

Have you tried this drill in practice? Did it work for you? Please let me know by leaving a comment in the box below. And be sure to check out this article before you leave the site: Basketball Offense – 15 Laws For Success