4 Everyday Practice Drills: Box Outs & Jab Series

By adam.warner - Last updated: Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Learn four daily practice drills from one of college basketball’s top coaches. With Stanford women’s head coach Tara Vanderveer leading the way, you’ll pick up effective drills for boxing out, closing out, layups, and jab steps. Before each simulation goes live at full speed, Coach Vanderveer describes and demonstrates how the drill is run and how the team incorporates it into their offensive system.

Close-Out and Box Out Drills

Every practice, Stanford implements a series of partner drills: Passing, closing out, and boxing out. Also, the team will run through these before games as a helpful warmup. You can really get a feeling if repetition, doing things over and over in order to get better.

Close-Out Drill: Players work in pairs and start by standing apart and facing each other. One player will roll out the ball to the other player. The player now with the ball will look to dribble, drive, or shoot. The defender must close out effectively, getting a hand up in their face before getting into proper positioning to cover ground. Players must be aggressive in their first step and move the correct foot.

Box Out Drill: Like before, players will face each other, but now when the coach yells out “Shot”, the defensive players must also yell out “Shot.” After this, they will turn and a get a body on the offensive player and box out. The offensive players must make a move one way or the other to simulate going after their shot for the rebound.

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Layups & Jab Sweeps

Layup Drills: This is something that Coach Vanderveer’s team does every day. The squad also tries to partner this series with their pick ‘n roll. Players will go at three baskets and get into groups of (at least) three.

The drill begins with simple layups, one player at a time. Start on the right and then switch to the left side. Players make a crossover dribble before going in for a layup. Next, the drill moves into reverse layups. Players should keep their eyes on the rim when going up to the basket. After this, the drill moves into jump shots from about 10-15 feet out. Look to use the glass to your advantage.

Jab Series: To begin, one at a time, players must work to get open. When they receive the ball, the must make an effective jab step before taking the ball to the rim aggressively. Be sure to use proper footwork and make a strong move.

Next, players move into a jab & cross, incorporating a crossover move and then an aggressive drive to the bucket. After this, it’s on to jab & shoot with no dribble. Essentially, it’s a jab step and then jump shot. Make sure you move to the opposite side of the court and do the same reps. Look to freeze the defender with that jab step every time.

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The previous clips can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD ”Tara Vanderveer: 30 Practice Drills for Building Champions.” To check out more videos focusing on key practice drills, click here.

All Access Richmond Basketball Practice: Dribbling Fundamentals and Multi-Option Layup Drills

By adam.warner - Last updated: Wednesday, December 28, 2011

In this week’s edition of All Access, we take you to Richmond, Virginia for an exclusive look at a University of Richmond men’s basketball practice. Watch as head coach Chris Mooney walks through several team warm-up drills for you and highlights overall strategies, general tips, goals, and player movements.

This behind-the-scenes glimpse comes from the first few days of practice during the 2009-2010 basketball season. Also, watch as the cameras go into the locker room where Mooney and his staff discuss practice plans and player adjustments for the opening days.

Dribbling Fundamentals

This warm-up is exactly how Richmond basketball starts practice every day — a series of fundamental drills that work on all player skills. The team begins with dribbling and five minutes is placed on the clock. Everyone gets a ball and dribbles as if they are a point guard, even if they are 6-9 forwards. Players imagine that a defender is on them and work on making good hard moves.

Coach Mooney and his staff really likes to vary speed and direction in all of their drills. The team emphasizes dribbling with the big guys because they’re out on the perimeter a lot in the offense. Dribbling shows up everywhere, even for post players, and it’s key that everyone is able to dribble.

The coaches also teach the players to dribble nice and high so the ball is in their hands for as long of a period as possible. The squad also talks about using the whole court; make a move and get somewhere. It’s not just beating a guy to a spot, but it’s also about using the whole court and setting up and making sure that the offensive players dictate what they’re going to do.

This warm-up usually sets the tone for practice. You get the chance to work on individual skills, but it also shows the kind of energy you will have during the course of practice.

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Multi-Option Layup Drills

Notice how quickly the team transitions between drills. There’s no gap. Next, the squad moves from the star drill to multi-option layups. According to Coach Mooney, it’s important to do many types of layups during practice — right handed, left handed, reverse, dunks, etc. The team focuses on not doing the same ones every time.

This first drill is a pass and cut drill. Players should be fast and make quick cuts to the basket. Notice how there are a lot of righty layups being shot on the left side, and reverse. Try and master every kind of layup there is – and do them as fast as possible.

Next, the Spiders move into dribble layups. Players catch the ball and imagine making a move in the open court. It should be a good hard move as players look to finish as close to the rim as possible. Be sure to finish in all kind of ways. Remember, in a game, you never know what kind of layups will be presented, so it’s better to master them all. Don’t slow down, fly in there. It’s key that you don’t have any misses.

Finally, the last set is a drive down the baseline for a layup. Players should lower the shoulder and look to hit all kinds of different layups from this angle.

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The previous clips can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “All Access Basketball Practice with Chris Mooney.” To check out more videos in our All Access lineup, head over to our basketball library.