Championship Productions Blog

6 Effective Shooting Drills Designed for Point Guards

This week’s player development feature focuses on ways that point guards can hone their shooting skills. With 2011 NBA MVP Derrick Rose and University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari as your guides, follow along and discover six effective shooting drills that are easy to implement and have been used at every level of basketball.

Remember, an elite point guard must learn to play fast and yet still be in balance and have the skills to gather themselves and make shots. Learn the techniques through these easy workouts that Calipari and Rose used frequently while at Memphis.

Transition Shooting Drills

According to Calipari, if you’re going to play fast and be able to attack the rim, you need to gather yourself and still shoot the ball (often with a one-dribble pull up). It’s important to make big steps as a point guard. This is key for any player in order to get necessary separation from defenders. By having great separation, defenders now need to close out to guard you. As they close out, you can now beat them and become an effective point guard. Remember, the goal here is that you’re looking to score and create for your teammates.

Start these transition shooting drills at half court with the ball. Throw the ball to your  coach in front of you and then run to the top of the arc before anticipating a pass back from your coach. Catch the ball and take a shoot at the top of the arc. After the shot, the player will then jog back to the half court line and then run to the top of the arc again before receiving a pass before another shot at the arc, and so on.

This drill should go through three sequences and produce three shots per player at the top of the arc.

1. Jog and shot.

2. Sprint and shot.

3. Big steps and shot.

Keep in mind that by using those big steps, it’s one less step to get where you need to go. You’ll be faster ultimately with those bigger strides.

Big Steps from Baseline

In these big steps drills, players should start out in the paint under the basket and facing away from the hoop. Drill techniques include “Flat”, “Curl to Elbow”, and “Fade.”

Flat

Start under the basket facing out. Make a fake to one side and then come off to the wing area behind the three-point arc with big steps. Catch and shoot in full stride.

Curl to Elbow

Here, instead of flying out to the wing area, the player should curl to the near elbow before catching and shooting.

Fade

Finally, make your fake before fading into the near corner for the shot.

Always use big steps with all three drills. This will ensure you’ll never be out of balance. Also, you must set-up your defender at the start. Get the defender on your hip and then by using big steps, you can create space to be effective. Keep in mind that you need to have space to catch the ball, give a ball-fake and then have time to shoot the ball or drive it.

The follow clips can be found on the Championship Productions DVD “MVP Training: Basic Point Guard Skills & Drills” starring 2011 NBA MVP Derrick Rose and University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari. Check out additional videos featuring Coach Calipari in our extensive library.