Basketball Drills

Basketball Defensive Drills and Knowledge

“Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.” This is usually true because to win a championship, you have to win many games in succession and your offense may not always show up, but your defense will never let you down if you work hard. So why is it that you never see kids practicing their defensive drills in their driveway? Because they are either too flashy or do not know any. These individual defensive drills will make you the player your coach puts in to shut down the other teams stud.

Drills to build quickness

Lines-Jump back and forth, and side to side over lines with both feet and one foot at a time.

5 dots-Make five dots in an x shape. One in the middle and four around it. Do every combo and pattern imaginable jumping from dot to dot.

Bounding-This teaches you to bound on defense like all great defenders. In this go on one foot and jump for horizontal distances as far as you can and land on one foot, and then from that foot jump again as far as you can horizontally. And do it in random directions for short periods at a time. This is to train muscles, not exhaust them. So go very hard for a very short period of time.

Game Situations

Shuffle-Use the push slide step technique, not overlapping your feet. (The push slid step technique is push with one leg; slide the other one next to it, and the step.) Go back and forth across the lane staying in the defensive stance. While doing this, you must have one hand inches from the ground and one hand up. The one hand up is to be in the players face in game ready to block/distract shot while the low hand is the pesky hand  preventing the crossover and therefore forcing the playing you are guarding one direction and always making him uncomfortable.

Closing Out-Start on the baseline and put a cone at the three point line as an imaginary person. Run at it and then shuffle when you get close with your but down and hands up being ready for the shot and drive. Make sure you do this like it is a game or you will be sloppy in the game like you are right now while practicing.

Ball Drill-Shuffle along the wall while passing it off the wall at the same time back to yourself. Remember in all these drills the most important thing is to stay in your defensive stance at all times and that it is about technique, not how fast you go.

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Basketball Shooting Drills and Advice

“Good shooting covers over a multitude of mistakes.” This truth in basketball can be one of the biggest daggers to the opposing team in all of basketball. Everyone has experienced it. You are playing great defense forcing turnovers, getting good shots, dominating the boards, but you are still losing because you just cannot hit your shots and the other team just cannot seem to miss. To be that person who other teams hate because “he never misses”, you need positive repetition on all parts of your shot.

The first part of your shot you must drill is the stroke. This is the end part of your shot. You start with a 90 degree angle in your armpit and 90 degree angle at your elbow pit as if you are a waitress. Then you just go straight up with the release of the ball , then follow through.

The next part is the motion. In this you hold your arm out parallel to the ground as if asking for money. You then bring it to your shot pocket with your elbow pointing to the ground and your forearm parallel to the ground and then go up to the waitress position and then stroke the ball. Both these can be done anytime, anywhere. While watching TV, or for the first minute before you play. This motion is your shot and you will want to perfectly smooth. This motion though is just the guidance of the ball and nothing with it should change no mater where you are on the court.

The next part you must drill are your legs. To do this sit with your but on the edge of a chair, and stand up, using your motion form shot that you got from those other drills, and shoot it. This will teach you to use your legs for power and your arms just to guide it.

The nest step is footwork. Every basketball player must be able to shoot the ball going left, right foot, right, left foot, or a hop off both feet at the same time. To practice this, simply spin the ball out to you and do it.

The last drill you must do is simply positive repetition. Get out their and shoot a lot of good shots. Work on of the dribble and off the pass. Work on situation shots. Know your teams offense and work on those shots. The best individual drills I find are ones made be the individual. If you want to improve on this of your shooting, then work on that. Other ideas are to use cones as defenders, or to use them as if coming off picks. Having a partner to help you and encourage you is also very helpful with encouraging you and pushing you to new limits. You can run a variety of drills with them getting off more shots than you would have by yourself. In all these things remember to always have a lot of positive repetition.

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