Coach Pete Newell prioritized footwork, balance, and maneuvering speed. "You play 100 percent of the game with your feet."
We don't need expensive equipment; we need imagination.
Footwork:
Front and back pivots. Hop into a jump stop and practice front and back pivots with a ball. Protect the ball from an imaginary defender during the process.
Jump rope. In high school, we started practice with five-minutes of jumping rope. Okay, we led the league in jumping rope...
USA basketball suggests five jumprope exercises to promote quickness and coordination.
Balance:
The Hexagon. Use duct tape or chalk and lay out a hexagon (six equal sides) and quickly jump in and out of the hexagon, first clockwise and counterclockwise.
One-legged jumps.
Alan Stein emphasizes PRACTICAL, SAFE jumping exercises off one leg in this video - including POGO (like Pogo Stick), box jump onto two feet, and SPEED SKATER (side to side). He notes the importance of developing explosiveness symmetrically with each leg.
Maneuvering speed:
Maneuvering speed implies both how quickly you move but moving under control.
3 Cone Drill. 3CD does impact basketball footwork. Defensively, crossover steps relate to 'catch up' speed.
With the basketball, I advocate training to score layups with one dribble from the three-point line and two dribbles from half-court. With younger players, we usually ask them to score on two dribbles from the hash. If you're not playing quickly, you can't complete those tasks.
