Online Basketball Drills

Basketball Drills, Plays and Coaching Tips

Take The Charge Drill

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Purpose

Players learn how to get into position to take the charge.

Drill Setup

  • Player 1 has the ball at the top of the key.
  • Player 2 stands in the foul line extended area.
  • Player 3 is a defensive player guarding an imaginary player on the block.

How it Works

  1. Player 1 passes to Player 2 and makes a give-and-go cut directly into the lane.
  2. Player 3 leaves his imaginary defender and steps up to cut off Player 1 and take the charge.
  3. Rotate positions
Absorb the contact and safely fall backwards

Coaching Tips

  • The offensive player should make contact with the defender at medium speed. Use common sense to make sure players are not injured
  • To take the charge, players should get low to the ground and protect their groin area.
  • Players should absorb the contact into their chest and torso, falling back slightly as they are hit. Players should fall with their hands pointing forward. They should avoid bracing their fall with their hands backward, as this can lead to wrist injury.
  • Players should let the official know the extent of the contact by making a loud yell or grunt.

Defensive Stance Chair Drill

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Purpose

Players learn the proper fundamentals of a defensive stance

Drill Setup

  • Have your entire team stand with their backs to a bench, bleachers, or a row of chairs.
  • If there’s not enough space for the entire team, split the team in half and take turns.

How it Works

1. On the coach’s signal, all the players will sit back slowly into the chair.

2. Assume the defensive stance position while sitting – feet shoulder width apart, back straight, head up, hands in front, palms up.

Sit in chair.

 

3. On the coach’s signal, rise out of the chair while staying in the defensive stance.

Rise up into regular defensive stance.

 

4. Hold that position for 10-15 seconds.

5. On the coach’s signal, take one step and slide to the right. Then one step and slide to the left.

Step and slide.

 

6. Sit back down and repeat.

Coaching Tips

  • This is a great chance to walk through the ranks and review individual defensive stances. Make corrections, point out the best stances.
  • Keep the head level and torso centered on the step and slide. Maintain the space between your feet – never cross the feet over.
  • This can also work as a conditioning drill if you have players hold the defensive stance for an extended period.

Pick and Roll Defense – Fighting Over

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Purpose

Teaching players how to fight over and properly defend the ball screen

Drill Setup

  • Split team into groups of four, two on offense, two on defense, with each group at their own basket
  • Ball handler starts out on the wing, screener on opposite block with defense matching up

How it Works

  1. Screener comes up to set pick for ball handler
  2. Screener’s defender calls out screen location to teammate
  3. Ball handler uses screen, forcing on ball defender to fight over the screen
  4. Screener’s defender in drop coverage, staying a couple feet below the free throw line, protecting the hoop but also far enough out to contest a mid range pull up if the on ball defender has trouble with the screen

Coaching Tips

  • The Screener’s defender must call out which direction the screen is coming from, alerting the on ball defender to the action and allowing them to get into position
  • Before starting the drill, walk players through the whole action step by step so that they understand where to be and what is expected of them When the on ball defender knows the screen location, they should begin to slide in that direction, preparing to fight and get their lead leg above the screener, allowing them to shuffle around them while staying with the ball
  • Explain that this coverage is designed to prevent shooters from getting an open look behind the screen, for non-shooters, simply have the on ball defender go under the screen

 

Simplified Basketball Team Defense: The Pop Out Drill

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The Pop Out Drill for Simplified Basketball Team Defense

This is a great drill to work on basketball team defense and defending the basic cuts. There are going to be a lot of different types of cuts in a game, and if your players can identify those cuts as they happen, and then have been taught to defend it correctly, they are going to be able to make quick changes to what they can do offensively.

In this situation, the Offensive player is trying to get himself open on the perimeter without the benefit of a screen – he is just trying to “Pop Out” to the perimeter.

The defenders goal is to deny the offensive player the ball in a position where he can score with it. So, If the offensive players shooting range is, for example the 3 point line, the defender will have to deny him and make him catch the ball one step further out. This takes the pressure off the situation because now you know the shooter is out of his shooting range.

If you want to deny the player from getting the ball at all, this particular skill is going to be critical for you in all cases of denying a pop out.

 

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