We try to make every drill we do as close to playing in a game as we can. When we practice team free throws we use these basketball shooting drills. We setup the following game.
Game Style Free Throw Shooting Drill
We break up into two groups.
The 1st shooter in each group sprints the court 2 complete times then shoots 2 free throws.
While he is shooting the 2nd shooter sprints up and down the court until the 1st shooter is finished. This is repeated until a certain number of free throws are hit or they win or lose the game we play. The rest of the players are lined up in rebounding position.
The game we play is a scoring game.
For each free throw made it is +1; For each free throw missed it is -1;
To win the game the team must get to +10; Team loses the game if they get to -5;
The numbers can change to be whatever you want them to be.
Shooting free throws this way gives them a feel of being in a game, because in a game you only get 2 free throws at a time. Also there are not many times when you get to shoot free throws in a game without running up and down the floor first.
Since we started using this drill, our team free throw percentage went up 12%, from 72% to 84%.
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