During today’s blog post, we’re going to talk about a basketball drill that’s perfect for helping your players improve upon their 3-point shooting skills.
Five-Spot Warm-Up Drill
The reality is that when they pick up a ball the first time every day, most players come out here, they dribble around the first time, then they come out to the foul line and they take their first shot. And maybe it goes in and maybe it doesn’t.
And the negative thing about the whole process is that you have parts in your body called muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, tissues, that are tight and contracted. You’ve been sleeping all night. You haven’t really run up and down yet. And so the first shot you put up from the 3 is just tight.
Not only are you not warming up properly, but you’re also changing the habits of good shooting mechanics.
We’re going to introduce to you what we call a five-spot warm-up drill. We call it five spots because you warm up from five different positions.
Spot #1 is what we call a lay-up spot. We go to triple threat and all you’re going to do is always have a goal. Your goal is to always make a minimum of 10 shots.
Now I’m warming up nice and close. I’m trying to get my muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, tissues, all loosened up so that before I go farther out, not only are my muscles warmed up, but I’m also shooting the ball the same way every time with proper shooting mechanics.
Spot #2 is the line on the foul lane. And you want to be at shoulders’ width apart. We’re going to do a principle we call standing on the rim. Left foot is always on the left side of the rim. Right foot is always on the right side of the rim.
When I’m in triple threat, I should always have my toe, knee, elbow, and ball in a straight line. If my elbow is out and that’s the habit I practice, the farther out I go from the rim, the greater the chances are of my missing a shot to the left or to the right.
Quickest distance between two points is a straight line. We want to shoot the ball straight–not flat–but we do want to shoot it straight every time. That will eliminate 5-10% of your misses right now.
So we’re going to do that by standing on the rim, always making sure we have a straight line–toe, knee, elbow, ball, and rim. And then we’re just going to go through this process.
If we miss, we’re not going to be discouraged because that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re just trying to warm up, trying to get a feel for the ball, a feel for the position, a feel for the spot we’re shooting from. And we’re going to stay here until we reach our goal of 10 shots made.
Spot #3 is the second hash mark. Normally from this position you couldn’t shoot off the backboard. Because we’re going to focus on aiming at the back of the rim, for the warm-up purpose drill, we want to aim at the back of the rim. So we’re squaring up, standing on the rim, same thing.
Let’s say you walk in the gym one day, you’re not having a very good day, and you’re not getting the 10 very quickly. Now what’s going to happen is out of a really basic shooting drill that is teaching you proper shooting mechanics, you’re also going to learn how to be dedicated because you’re going to have to stay here until you make all 10 shots.
Spot #4 is the third hash mark. We square up to the rim, same principle.
I don’t want to have my shoulders too far back because that’ll force me to shoot the ball short. I want to have toe, knee, shoulders in a straight line. We also call this position a correct sports position.
Now we go back to this. You come into the gym, let’s say you miss two or three in a row. You’re having a bad day. Now we’re going to find out what you’re made of. Are you dedicated enough to make 10 from each spot? That’s what we’re going to find out. So we go through this process, you start throwing the ball, you start swearing, you get mad.
The benefit of having a goal of 10 is that it works on your dedication. It enforces your concentration because you have to focus more. And if you’re having a bad day, the last thing it does, if you’ll stay with it, is it also builds your determination. From a very simple warm-up basketball drill we’re getting an awful lot of good benefits.
Spot #5 is the foul line corner. This is a game shot for anybody. Your goal is 10. And in the process of a day, when you go and shoot, you should have 15-20 mini-goals.
If you’re consistent in how you shoot the ball, you will also become consistent in how well you shoot the ball. If you’re going to miss, you want to miss short or long. You don’t want to miss left or right.
Do you think your players will benefit from this warm-up basketball drill? Why or why not? Share your thoughts below!