Basketball: Core Practice Drills (Part Two)

 

Everyone wants better players. Our best option is development. 

Today, I'll share Part Two of core development drills. 

Shell drill works both offense and defense. Start with basic shell with perimeter passing to practice on and off-ball positioning. Expand the drill to include cutting, screening, dribble handoffs, and dribble attacks. Shell advantage-disadvantage calls a player out of defense to touch the center circle and get back into the play. Others must talk and scramble. 

Manmaker pressures the ball full court, 3 v 3. You must stay in your lane and with each catch you are allowed one dribble. Learn to pivot out of trouble and go high and low. 

Kevin Eastman's "Dog Drill" tests ball containment and dribbling in a confined lane versus pressure. We struggled with ball containment last season. 

Transition 3 v 5 calls two defenders out to touch the baseline and recover into play. 

Speed layups for warm-up via the Lithuania team at the #JonesCup. I like it because most of warm-up IMO is about getting shots as we shoot more than we get layups in games...the other part is a short burst of energy & enthusiasm so this would take care of that. pic.twitter.com/UQXy7w1Ozg

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) July 29, 2018

Lithuania layups are a good practice and pre-game volume layup drill. 

Racehorse works passing, catching, sprinting, conditioning and finishing (layups). Change passers each minute. 

3 by 3 by 3 continuous shooting. Three balls are at each end. First shooters start in the middle. Shooters run towards one end and the passer calls their name and passes to them at the level of the foul line. They catch, shoot, and rebound and become the passer. After passing, they run to the other end to become the shooter again. Demanding conditioning drill that we usually run for five minutes. 

Kentucky layups...two sets of two minutes. Track makes. Speed dribble for layups. Group should make a minimum of 50. 

"One More" pass and follow. Coach and players call out "one more." Finish with a basket attack and you can vary the finishes. 

Argentina passing drill, another passing/conditioning drill. Argentina ran it full court and player would fight NOT to be in the corners. 

28 Special or "Gauntlet" with 2 vs 8 advance the ball. One dribble per catch. The goal is to advance the full court and score. Tough! 

Argentina drill explained. 

Hoiberg speed transition drill. Easier to visualize it. 

These are just some ideas to work into practice. I hope they help your players. Many are hard for younger players but that's my world.