Drills
Fifty practice drills from the coaches who teach them, each drawn as its own play with the setup, the sequence, the coaching points, and a video or article to go deeper.
One-hand form shooting from two or three feet, the first thing I do at every workout and the first drill I teach a young player. Why it works: there is no…
A shooting game against an imaginary pro: a make is one point for the shooter and a miss is two for the pro, first to twenty-one. Why it works: the consequence…
Archie Miller's Celtic Drill, also called the Bird drill: five spots across the arc, a two-minute clock, and the shooter has to make two in a row at a spot…
Nine spots sweeping the arc from the right corner to the left corner, two shots at each: a three for three points, then a shot fake, one dribble, and a…
Elbow to elbow shooting, in the three-player two-ball Knight version with a one-minute clock: the shooter runs from elbow to elbow, a passer in the free throw…
Three players, one ball, two wings: shoot, chase your shot, pass to the next shooter, and sprint out to close out on him. Why it works: every rep is a two-way…
Three players, two balls, one minute: a shooter runs wing to wing, a passer at the free throw line feeds him every time he arrives, and a rebounder keeps the…
Two chairs stand in for down screens at each elbow extended, and a line at the top of the key takes turns cutting off them: curl, pop, flare, or backdoor on the…
Five spots in a star: right corner, left wing, right wing, left corner, top, and the shooter sprints the long diagonals between them, catching and shooting at…
Coach's Clipboard's team free throw competition: at the end of practice, when everyone is tired, the team splits between two baskets with the score set tied…
The two-minute handle warmup: pound dribbles, kills, the figure 8, the spider, and the crossover, each for thirty to sixty seconds with a ball in every hand on…
Two-ball handling on the move: a line of chairs down each lane of the full court, the first player dribbles two balls up the floor and makes the called move at…
Change of direction at pace: a player dribbles two hard dribbles at a forty-five degree angle, plants the outside foot, crosses over low, and goes two dribbles…
The game sequence rehearsed: approach the defender at speed, make the move at his reach, accelerate past him, and finish. Why: cone courses teach moves but not…
George Mikan's drill: layup right-handed off the left foot, catch the ball out of the net before it drops, land on the other side of the rim, layup left-handed…
The layup lines every team runs, done right: a shooting line beyond the arc at the right wing, a rebounding line beyond the arc at the left wing, two balls. The…
Five cones just outside the three-point line, right corner, right wing, top, left wing, left corner, and a player who starts under the rim with the ball…
Two minutes, twenty-two made layups, left hand only: half the team at each baseline to the right of the lane, the first two players at each end with a ball, and…
Five lines at the points of a star, top, two wings, two baseline spots, one ball, and a pass that goes across the star every time: top to left wing, left wing…
Four lines in a square around the key, two at the baseline corners and two at the sideline extended from the top of the arc, a ball at the front of each. All…
The weave from half court, three passes to a layup: the middle player passes to a wing and sprints behind him, that wing passes across to the other wing and…
The first two seconds of transition: a coach shoots from the free throw line, the two rebounders on the blocks call shot and box out the offensive rebounders…
The shell is where I teach the three relationships every man defense lives on: on the ball, one pass away in deny, two passes away on the help line. Why it…
The closeout is the most repeated defensive action in a game, which is why I drill it until it is a reflex. Setup: three lines of defenders under the basket…
Five cones around the arc and one defender who closes out to each one in turn, which is why I use it as a warm-up: it is five full closeouts and five box-outs…
Shell exposes the help-to-closeout sprint but rarely isolates it, which is why I run this 2v2 version on its own. Setup: two offense on opposite wings, two…
Pure footwork for staying in front of the ball, which is why Jim Boone's pack-line course lists it as a core drill. Setup: five cones in a zig-zag up one third…
Every scheme depends on one defender containing one dribbler, which is why I run this full court and why it tells me who my best on-ball defender is. Setup…
This installs the deny stance and the jump-to-the-ball habit the shell drill assumes, which is why I teach it before shell. Setup: three stationary offense at…
The difference between stopping the ball and leaving your man, which is why every pack-line program has a version of this. Setup: 3v3, one ball, the point at…
Players will not take a charge in a game until the fear of the fall is gone, which is why this drill exists. Setup: a line of offense on the right wing with a…
A team needs at least two ball screen coverages so the offense cannot predict the read, and drop is the one I install first, which is why it is the one drawn…
The box-out pivot and the hold, isolated from everything else. Why it works: there is no shot to watch and no rebound to chase, so the only thing a defender can…
The toughness drill: a coach shoots, the defense hits and rebounds, the offense crashes, and whoever gets it plays live until the defense owns the ball. Why it…
One player, one ball, and the pursuit footwork rebounding demands. Why it works: throwing the ball high off the glass at an angle makes the player chase it…
The simplest game-realistic rebounding rep: closeout, shot, contact, pursue, outlet. Why it works: the shot is live and the shooter wants his miss back, so the…
The box-out linked to the first pass of the break, the step most rebounding drills skip. Why it works: a rebounder who has to find an outlet before he lands…
The classic numbers-advantage read, with transition defense and conditioning built in. Why it works: the ball handler has to make a defender commit before he…
The staple conditioner that keeps a whole roster moving through constant 3-on-2 reads and outlet passes. Why it works: nobody stands in a line; every rebound…
Lane discipline and the secondary-break spots, installed before a single defender gets added. Why it works: five players with no defense have no excuse for a…
Transition defense when the numbers are wrong, which is when it actually gets tested. Why it works: two defenders have to touch the end line before they…
Tempo, pass-ahead habits, and conditioning in one timed, countable block. Why it works: the clock and the target make the pace honest, and the only way to hit…
The post breakdown I run first every season, because it gives a post player a baseline move, a middle counter, and a step-through counter from the same two-foot…
Post scoring is decided before the catch, and this isolates the position battle, which is why I use it more than any finishing drill. Two posts, two coaches as…
Jack Sikma's inside pivot gives a face-up to bigs who cannot shoot over their shoulder, and it is the footwork every face-up series is built on, which is why I…
Youth and high school teams lose post possessions because the passer freezes after the entry, and this makes pass and move a habit, which is why it is in my…
The most common two-man action in the game, which is why I break it in two: the 2v0 teaches the footwork and the 2v2 teaches the two reads that decide…
Every motion and floppy offense depends on the cutter reading the man chasing him, and the chair isolates that read, which is why I run it before any screening…
The flare is the hardest off-ball screen to guard and the easiest to run badly, and the chair fixes the shooter's angle and timing, which is why I use it before…
The counter that punishes a hedge or a switch, and it teaches screeners to read their own defender, which is why it is mixed into every ball-screen breakdown I…
Traveling calls and freezing on the catch are the two biggest youth problems, and this drill fixes both in five minutes a practice, which is why it opens every…
The game that forces vision and change of pace under chase pressure without the coach ever saying head up, which is why it beats any stationary dribbling drill…
The first offensive concept a youth team should own, which is why it is the first thing I teach after footwork: pass, then cut to the basket, and expect the…