Five Offseason Basketball Shooting Drills

Shooting is a highly perishable skill. Use it or lose it. Coach Bob Knight decried "free shooting" where a player just goes out and shoots.

1) When possible, shoot with a partner/rebounder, dragging both of you into the top 10 percent. More fun, more competition. 

2) "Be a tracker." Monitor your progress, seeking PBs - personal bests. 

3) Add constraints - "x number" of makes in a given amount of time, consecutive makes, or percentage (have to make 9/10)

4) Practice a variety of shots (e.g. catch and shoot, off the dribble, pump fake and shoot, etc.)

5) "Closer" shots. If you're the closer, what's in your bag?

6) Take a few minutes for emergency shots (fallaways, flyaways, one-footers) 

"Make shots not excuses."

Here are five specific ideas:

1) Warmup "Get 50" from Jay Wright 

An alternative - Curry Warmup If you walk out and start shooting threes, you're not a serious shooter. Whether it was Steve Nash or Steph Curry, warming up your shot improves form, results, and confidence. 

The greatest shooter of this (and maybe any) generation, Steph Curry, takes 5 shots from 5 spots at each 'radian'. 

2) Bueckers "grab and go" from Chris Oliver... 

3) Championship 38

Shooting drills like "Championship 38" (18 shots, including 3 free throws) are highly competitive and easily tracked. Add constraints like time or number of shots allowable to meet your goals.

4) Elbow shots on the move

Game shots, on the move catch and shoot... elbow to sideline, elbow to elbow. 

5) Pitino "quarters" - 84 shots, 168 possible points (42 points per quarter)

Competitive, volume repetitions won't guarantee you anything. Not doing them guarantees you nothing. 

Lagniappe. Find one band, one sound. From Eric Kapitulik, The Program, "If the head coach decides that the team must focus on their Core Value of selflessness, then an athlete is hearing that message from his head coach, his positional coach, all of his strength coaches, the athletic trainers, the director of football operations, and the head coach’s assistant too."

Lagniappe 2. Everyone can learn to cut. 

Rick Majerus on cutting:

Cutting is the easiest skill in the game to learn, and it requires the least amount of talent.

Set up most of your cuts, time your cuts, finish your cut, and relocate after you cut.#MondayWithMajerus

Lagniappe 3. BOB with options. "Learn how to play." 

This Gonzaga Box Set Gives You 5 Ways To Score on a BLOB

REPLY BELOW TO GET ACCESS TO A PDF WITH 12 GONZAGA BLOBs

As many experienced basketball coaches preach, you can easily score 6 to 12 points per game off highly-effective baseline in bounds and out of bounds (BLOBs) plays.… pic.twitter.com/bMaxJ1hFVn

— Joe Haefner | Breakthrough Basketball (@BreakthruBball) April 7, 2025 

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— Paul Biancardi (@PaulBiancardi) April 14, 2025