Practice is there to help you improve as a team – but if your players really want to be great, they’re going to need to put in the time on their own.
Ray Allen once said that he hates when people tell him that god blessed him with a beautiful jumpshot – he says it undermines the hours and hours he’s put in the gym to get his game so smooth.
Well if you’ve got players with aspirations of developing a silky smooth game like the Ray Allens, Kobe Bryants and Kevin Durants of the world, here’s a great drill you can show them in practice that’s great for individual improvement.
Combo Drill
This is one of the great individual improvement drills of all-time. You can work on any combination of moves, and any combination of shots to go along with it.
Set up two obstacles – I like to use garbage cans, something closer to the size of a real defender than a cone preferably. One on the wing just inside the three point line, roughly where a defender would lineup, and the second obstacle around where a second defender rotating over from their man to help on your penetration would be.
The players will start at half court, dribbling up to the first obstacle,“ pulling off one dribble move past it, before getting to the next obstacle which they’ll perform another move around on their way to the hoop.
The important thing to remember is to try and visualize and react to every situation you would see in a game. Go left sometimes, right others. Go all the way to the hoop sometimes, or take the easy jumpshot. It’s all about read and react, and you’ll get the most out of this drill if you can create real-game situations in your mind that play out differently every time.
That’s all folks! If your looking for more drills to help improve your wings, or maybe just some pure shooting drills, click the links and check them out! And remember, as always, if you’ve got any questions or comments, let me know below!