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How to do good in basketball practice
7 Tips for Running a Great Basketball Practice
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Posted by Timothy Sayles
Running a basketball practice can be a daunting task at any level and coaches seldom feel like they have enough practice time. With time constraints always an issue, trying to figure out how to maximize the time with your players is essential. Considering the fact that most kids do not love to practice - how do you get your team to buy into what you are in doing in the time frame available?
Always be prepared. Every minute of practice should be planned out - though one must always be flexible to change if need be. The preparation is a guideline, but should always be fluid. Start with a plan in your head of where you want your team to be and then design your practices to build them up to that point. Remember: Rome was not built in a day.
Be accessible, but firm to your players. Practices should be hard and challenging. Challenge your players to give all that they have, but also make sure to praise them often and loudly when they do. This will promote the atmosphere you desire.
Decide what you will and will not tolerate. Every coach has different thoughts on what is ok behavior and what is not. You must set the tone for this early and stick to it. For example, do you want them on the floor ready to stretch at the beginning of your practice? Or do you want them already there and stretched out so that you hit the ground running at the beginning of your practice? For my team, if someone is late for my practice and has not let me know beforehand - they all run. Also, whenever I blow my whistle they have to sprint to me from wherever they are. These are just a few ways that you can set a tone of what your practice behavior should be like. Be strong, firm, and consistent.
Limit the amount of talk. As mentioned, practice time is limited. There is a lot of teaching to do for sure, but try to speak efficiently to keep things moving. Every minute that you are speaking they are standing and not working.
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Keep them moving. Try to keep everyone moving as much as possible. Standing promotes laziness and is not an effective use of practice time. Use drills that will utilize as many players as possible at once.
Make everything competitive. All games are competitive, so practices should be. You don’t want them to get in a game and be taken back by the competitive nature of it. I try to make every drill competitive in some fashion. If it is a defensive lane slide drill, I make them partner up and try to touch more lines than their partner. You won’t believe the difference a competitive nature makes to a team.
Don’t do any one thing for too long. If you want to hold your team’s attention, break up what you are working on into short periods. If you work on one thing for too long, they will lose interest and you will start to see the opposite of what you want. I like to break my practices into 10-minute segments. Constantly changing what you do keeps a team fresh and refocuses them mentally.
About the Author: Tim Sayles has been a youth coach for basketball leagues for 10 years and a varsity boys' basketball coach for Grace Academy in Matthews, N.C.
100 Basketball Training Drills For Players
Home > Player > Training Drills
Do you want to take your game to the next level?
Check out these basketball training drills given to us by proven coaches with years of experience at the high school, Div I college, and NBA level.
We created this page for you, THE PLAYER, so you don't have to search and sort through all of the drills to find what basketball drills will work for you. Many of the basketball drills can be done by yourself, but there are a few that you need a partner to perform the basketball drill.
Coaches, click on Basketball Drills For Coaches for drills that apply to you.
Players, use this menu to jump to the drills you want.
Shooting Drills
Offensive Moves
Lay Ups & Finishing
Rebounding
Defense & Agility Drills
Passing Drills
Dribbling Drills
Warm Up Drills
Post Play Drills
Conditioning Drills
Footwork
Training Tips
Running Basketball Drills the Right Way
The first thing to realize is that the great players focus on the little things.
Too many players make the mistake of starting the basketball drill and just running through the motions.
To get better, each basketball drill needs to have a purpose and you really need to focus and work hard to improve.
We urge you to take the time to learn the detailed fundamentals of basketball. And then run the drills to train your body to perform those fundamentals without even thinking about it.
You'll notice that we tried to categorize the drills for you, but many of the drills here are multi-purpose which means they work on other skills as well. A ballhandling drill may include footwork and passing. A shooting drill may include conditioning. The multipurpose format helps to simulate gameplay and is time efficient to get the most out of the skill work.
20 Basketball Shooting Drills
The ONLY Shooting Drills Resource You EVER Need
Form Shooting
Ray Allen Shooting Drill
Kevin Durant Shooting Workout and Drills
4 Spot Fast Break Shooting Drill
Wing to Wing
Chair Curl /Chair Curl with 2 Chairs
Improve Your Shooting & Conditioning With The Hornacek Drill
Short-Long Shooting Drill
Three Competitive Shooting Drills
Wing Screen
5 Unique Form Shooting Drills
Shooting Off The Dribble - 30 Point Drill
Drop Step Shooting Drill
555 Shooting Drill
2 Player Decision Shooting
Rocker Shooting Drills
Shooting Drill - Improve Decision-Making Off The Catch
String Spacing - Dribble At Post
String Spacing - Dribble At Wing
15 Offensive Moves Drills
One on One Moves Drill
Improve Getting Open and Scoring With The 1 on 1 Multi-Spot Game
High Five 1on1
1v1 Dribbling Drill and 3 Back Up Dribble Moves
1 v 1 Speed Dribble
1v1 Overlap
The Forgotten Lay Up Situation (Includes Drill)
1 on 1 Trailing Lay-Up Drill
2 Beilein Finishing Drills
Finishing Moves Off the Pass
Euro Finishing Drill
Foster 1v1 Drill
4 Small Guard Finishing Moves (Some Advanced Moves)
1 on 1 Post Moves Drill
Baseline 1 on 1 Escape
18 Layup And Finishing Drills
Kyrie Irving Mikan Drill With 12 Variations
Tight Cone Warm Don Kelbick
Wichita State Attack Series
2 Beilein Finishing Drills
3 Competitive Dribble Penetration Shooting Drills That Improve Spacing, Ball Handling, Passing, and Team Offense
Ballhandling Drill: Chair Changes
Ballhandling Drill: Drop step Dribble
Ballhandling Drill: Two Up, Two Back
Lay Up Progressions
1 on 1 Post Moves Drill
The Arc Finishing Drill
Euro Finishing Drill
1 on 1 Trailing Lay-Up Drill
Figure 8 Hook Shots
Beatem to the Left
4 Small Guard Finishing Moves (Some Advanced Moves)
7 Rebounding Drills
Basketball Drill: McHale Lay-Ups
Improve Your Post Player's Touch Around The Basket With These 5 Drills
Mikan Drill
Taps Drill
Two on Two Box Out
1 on 1 Post Moves Drill
15 Agility / Defense Drills
Basketball Defense & Agility Drill: Diamond Drill
Man in the Hole
Defensive Footwork Progressions
Star Close-Out Drill
Cat & Mouse Drill For Ball Handling & Defense
Foster 1v1 Drill
Tight Spaces Ball Handling Drill
Bounce Closeout 1 on 1 Drill
1 on 1 Wing Close Outs
Deflect More Passes With This Drill
1v1 Ball Handling & Defensive Drill - Earn Your Dribbles
Basketball Defense Drill: Corner Close Live
Defensive Slide Drill - Cup Slides
8 Passing Drills
Two Ball Combo Drill
Pair Passing
Monkey in the Middle
3 Wall Passing Drills
String Spacing - Dribble At Wing
String Spacing - Dribble At Post
Partner Pass and Pivot Drill
10 Creative Passing & Footwork Drills - NO Partner Needed
15 Dribbling Drills
2-1-0 Stationary Dribbling Drills
Ballhandling Drill: Two Up, Two Back
Utilize Three Ball Drills for Advanced Guards
The Arc Finishing Drill
Cone Grab Finishing Drill
Extension Footwork
Tight Cone Warm Up
Separation Dribble - Down and Backs
4 Dribble Moves To Complement A Killer Crossover
Tight Spaces Ball Handling Drill
1v1 Ball Handling & Defensive Drill - Earn Your Dribbles
1v1 Dribbling Drill and 3 Back Up Dribble Moves
Dribble Screens
Two Ball Dribbling
Basketball Pick and Roll Drills
1 on 2 Pressure Ballhandling Drill
12 Post Play Drills
1 on 1 Post Moves Drill
Figure 8 Hook Shots
2 Beilein Finishing Drills
Mikan Drill
Kyrie Irving Mikan Drill With 12 Variations
Low Post Chair Pivot
Split Post Chair
Power Dribble Into
Rapid Fire Post Moves
Drop Step
Drop Step Counter
Develop Your Drop Step Move With This Roll The Ball Drill
9 Warm Up Drills
Dynamic Warm Up
Cat & Mouse Drill For Ball Handling & Defense
3 Cone - Groove Finishing Drill
Tight Cone Warm Up
Separation Dribble - Down and Backs
3 Wall Passing Drills
Star Close-Out Drill
Capture The Flag Dribbling
Dribble Tag - Everyone It
10 Conditioning Drills
Defensive Slide Drill - Cup Slides
Improve Your Ability To Finish At The Rim With The Corner Finishing Drill
Improve Your Shooting and Conditioning With The Hornacek Shooting Drill
Man in the Hole
1v1 Overlap
Star Close-Out Drill
Videos from app with ballhandling drills
Rapid Fire Post Moves
Continuous 1 on 1 Games
Best Speed Drills
12 Footwork Drills
1 on 1 Ball Tough Drill
1 on 1 Zipper Cut Drill
Jump Stop Drill
Chair Pivot
Post Moves and Skills: Drop Steps
Wing Combo
Partner Pass and Pivot Drill
Perimeter Chair Rips
Getting Open - Wing Cuts
How To Greatly Reduce Turnovers With These Body Control Drills
Defense Drill: 1 2 3 Progression
Improve Getting Open and Scoring With The 1 on 1 Multi-Spot Game
Training Tips: Partner Shooting Drills or Shooting By Yourself
If you are training with a partner or by yourself, here are some great ways to organize your shooting drills to maximize efficiency and to make the drills as game-like as possible. That way, you actually shoot better during games instead of just during practice!
You also learn a great way to practice game-like reactions that are random without a defender. Prior to the shot, you dont know what youre going to do. Just like a game, the repetition changes each time on whether to shoot, attack, or pass.
Partner Shooting - Change Location of Passer
Many players make the mistake of practicing all of their partner shooting drills with one rebounder under the basket who continuously rebounds and throws the pass back out. There is certainly a time and place for this.
However, if you always practice this way, youre making a big mistake! How many times during the game do you receive passes from many different locations on the floor? Probably a lot.
Instead of having the passer under the basket, you position the passer to different locations on the floor where you typically receive passes during the game. That way, you are practicing shooting from areas that you actually receive passes.
In the following video, NBA trainer Don Kelbick explains how to do this with your shooting drills.
Shooting Drills By Yourself - Spin Outs
If youre shooting by yourself, many shooting drills can be adapted to work for you.
One simple way is to use spin outs. You would spin the ball out away with backspin. Then you would cut to the ball, turn and face the basket, and shoot.
Here is a video that shows you how.
Using Chairs - For Cuts Where Spin Outs Dont Work
You can also place the ball on a chair prior to each shot to practice cuts where spin outs are too difficult to use and still execute the cut. L-Cuts, fades, and curl cuts would be good examples of this.
Here is how to use chairs to do this.
Using Chairs With a Helper
Chairs can also be good to use if you have somebody to help who is not a very good passer. This can be a friend, sibling, guardian, or anybody. After each shot, they can retrieve the ball and place it back on the chair. That way, you dont have to waste your time rebounding. You can immediately start your next repetition and you can get more shots up.
Important! How To Game-Like Random Shots With No Defenders
Every time you catch the basketball, you have to make choices. However, how often do you do that in your shooting drills!? A lot of players and even coaches neglect this important aspect of shooting drills. This can be part of the reason that some players shoot great during drills but poorly during games! They never train this way!
1v1 shooting drills and other 2v2 and 3v3 drills can easily take care of this. And you should definitely do a lot of this in your training.
However, what do you do if you dont have a defender to compete against? Or maybe you just want to get a lot of shooting repetitions up to develop some rhythm and confidence?
Its simple. You just need to find somebody who can rebound and display visual cues.
Even if you have defenders available, this can be used as a great progression prior to playing against live defenders.
Coach Chris Oliver shows you how to do this in the following drill. Its pretty cool!
Comprehensive Workouts for Players - And All Around Development Drills
Attack & Counter Basketball Workouts Developed by NBA Skills Coach (Over 300 Drills)
Progressive Ballhandling & Footwork Workouts You Can Do At Home - App Includes Over 200 Drills
Basketball Camps
If you are looking to take your game to the next level through basketball camps and regional training, check out these pages.
Breakthrough Basketball Skill Development Camps
How to get results in basketball
"Any experienced basketball player will tell you that there is a huge difference between learning and applying technique!"
Online basketball expert, national level player
Any experienced basketball player will tell you that there is a huge difference between learning and applying technique! It's only natural that beginners (or those who are returning to play after a long break) get caught up in the game on the court - all you hear is "rush...to the rim...lead...use the whole court". All your strength is focused on not making mistakes, in order to know that you do not let your team down. What exactly are you doing? Positions? rebounds? Blocks? Intercepts? This is really important, but there are other great ways to add value to the team. Take a break from your own achievements - this will allow you to become a more valuable player. This article does not contain obvious advice on keeping fit, working on speed, dribbling, serving, etc. But here you will find 5 ways to become more efficient from the very next game. You are much closer to success than you think!
The main reason basketball players lose passes and miss comfortable rebounds is because their hands aren't ready. This seems obvious, but still deserves special attention. Your hands should always be ready to receive the pass, and your palms are directed towards the ball - the server will perceive them as a target.
Here are a few exercises you can do during your warm-up to prepare for the game:
POWER DRIBLING HITTING THE BALL
The correct execution of passes gives confidence on the court. However, there are a few things to keep in mind here.
The basics of technique play a huge role for beginners. Practice a 2-handed chest pass and a bounce pass. After that, you can move on to other methods.
Don't pass just for the sake of passing. Determine who can take the pass, who can't, (identify strong offensive players, weak defenders) and go for it!
IMPORTANT: DO NOT KEEP THE BALL - make passes and passes will be made to you.
Low, wide stance: There are only 2 cases where you should deviate from this rule - this is rebounding and covering the ball. In any other situation, it is important that the stance is low: straight back, bent knees, feet shoulder-width apart, arms extended forward. In this position, you are firmly on your feet and ready to respond to passes. It is very important to be between the defender and the ring.
This is the main way to participate in offense without the ball! If you are a beginner basketball player, then you will most likely score infrequently. Perform screenings to:
give partners the opportunity to open up
open yourself
Shield the dribbler, shield your opponents without the ball (to help your teammates) and keep moving. The ball will find its way to you.
SITE 9 LOCATION0002 There are 8 main points on the court that attackers usually occupy to attack. Simple arithmetic suggests that at least 4 of them are free at this moment. Make sure you don't get too close to the rest of your team. Why?
This allows you to strengthen the attack - so it will be more difficult for defenders to keep track of all opponents;
You will be in a better position to shoot/pass/dribble to the basket when you receive the ball.
Do not forget that your hands should always be ready.
Try to consciously change positions (moving quickly between two points on the court) so that you get used to playing from different points. A conscious change of position will bring you the location of your team, but the enemy defender will clearly dislike you!
This is certainly not a complete list of tips, but rest assured that if you follow them, your next game will be better than the last!
Forward!
How to Train for Success: Michael Jordan's 10 Secrets
American Michael Jordan is a basketball legend, one of the best defenders in history. He possessed explosive power, and for high jumps he was nicknamed "Air Jordan" . The recently released miniseries The Last Dance on Netflix provides a behind-the-scenes look at the historic 1997-1998 NBA season as Michael Jordan fought the Chicago Bulls for their sixth championship. The series turned out to be dramatic, shocking and frank. He revealed the stories of many players and allowed us to better understand the character of Michael Jordan - a man who was ready to do anything to win.
Find out what Michael Jordan did to get into his best shape.
He got up very early
Morning workouts were a must for Michael Jordan. They started at 5:30, the athlete was usually accompanied by teammates. They wanted to gain an edge over their rival, the Detroit Pistons. And it really worked: soon after the introduction of morning workouts into the training plan, the Bulls were able to beat the competition.
He trained hard for many years
Michael's trainer Tim Grover wanted to add morning workouts for a month to help athletes get in shape and overcome temporary challenges. After those 30 days, Jordan continued to train at the same pace for the next 15 years. Waking up early in the morning is not easy, but it was the morning workouts that gave Michael an advantage over other athletes.
He worked on explosive power
In order to keep the Chicago Bulls from winning, the Detroit players came up with a tactic: they tried not to let Jordan jump, because when he was in the air, it was impossible to beat him. Michael understood this and worked hard on explosive strength in the gym - improving his vertical jump and squat jump, and these movements helped him in the fight. Thanks to explosive strength training, Michael Jordan became faster, it was impossible to stop him.
He ate a lot of protein
Working out in the gym is only half the battle. Just as important is what you eat. Michael Jordan burned a lot of calories while playing and training. He had to increase his daily calorie intake when the volume of training increased. He began to consume more protein, because this is the main building block for muscles.
He paid attention to stretching
It was important for the best basketball player in history to remain agile and flexible, so Jordan did dynamic stretching before each workout and static stretching after it.
He did bodyweight exercises
Not all workouts Michael Jordan lifted dumbbells and barbells. Many of his classes consisted only of bodyweight exercises such as pull-ups. Everything in the complex helped Michael in the jump - he was really invulnerable when he flew into the air, thanks to a combination of explosive strength, muscle strength and agility. Training made him invincible.
He went beyond
Michael trained with dedication and was always willing to do more than he was asked to. For example, if the coach told him to do 8 reps of an exercise, Michael did 12, even when it seemed like he had used up all his strength.
There is a lot of teaching to do for sure, but try to speak efficiently to keep things moving. Every minute that you are speaking they are standing and not working.
If you want to hold your team’s attention, break up what you are working on into short periods. If you work on one thing for too long, they will lose interest and you will start to see the opposite of what you want. I like to break my practices into 10-minute segments. Constantly changing what you do keeps a team fresh and refocuses them mentally.
Many of the basketball drills can be done by yourself, but there are a few that you need a partner to perform the basketball drill.
That way, you actually shoot better during games instead of just during practice!
L-Cuts, fades, and curl cuts would be good examples of this.
However, how often do you do that in your shooting drills!? A lot of players and even coaches neglect this important aspect of shooting drills. This can be part of the reason that some players shoot great during drills but poorly during games! They never train this way!
This article does not contain obvious advice on keeping fit, working on speed, dribbling, serving, etc. But here you will find 5 ways to become more efficient from the very next game. You are much closer to success than you think! 
The ball will find its way to you. 
He possessed explosive power, and for high jumps he was nicknamed "Air Jordan" . The recently released miniseries The Last Dance on Netflix provides a behind-the-scenes look at the historic 1997-1998 NBA season as Michael Jordan fought the Chicago Bulls for their sixth championship. The series turned out to be dramatic, shocking and frank. He revealed the stories of many players and allowed us to better understand the character of Michael Jordan - a man who was ready to do anything to win. 
After those 30 days, Jordan continued to train at the same pace for the next 15 years. Waking up early in the morning is not easy, but it was the morning workouts that gave Michael an advantage over other athletes. 
He began to consume more protein, because this is the main building block for muscles. 
