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Follow along as Bob Knight leads you through three high-intensity drills that are ideal for opening practices with. Coach Knight has used these same drills throughout his esteemed coaching tenure. The drills work on ball handling, pair shooting, and passing fundamentals while under pressure. See if you can incorporate these effective drills from the Coach Knight playbook into your practices this season.
According to Coach Knight, it’s important to conduct drills and have practice organization that leads to your offensive and defensive play – peripheral things key to you being able to develop your team into a good team. With that said, it’s vital to start practice with exciting drills in which players are forced to pay attention to what’s going on. Here are three that do just that….
Every player starts with a ball in place. When the coach is ready he yells “go” and the players start by dribbling up court and continuing until they hear a new direction. The directions may be anything from “change hands” to “go left” or “go right.” The key is for the players to pay attention to what they are doing out there. Start practice with the very basic fundamentals, such as keeping your head up, seeing where the floor is, and dribbling with both bands.
Next, have the players dribble with both hands, going up and back according to the coach’s instructions. You don’t need to do this very long, maybe 2-3 minutes. But the goal is to get the players thinking and working on the fundamentals.
Start with eight players. They will be working in pairs and each group has a ball. Start out above the foul line right on the edge of the key. According to Coach Knight, the more you can do that puts pressure on the kids in practice, the better you are going to do. Knight likes this drill as a daily shooting drill. It doesn’t necessarily have to go very long, either. It’s an effective, quick drill, and you can go about 3 or 4 reps with it.
When the coach yells to start, the shooter shoots and he rebounds his own shot. Then throw it back to your partner. Play to 10 and call out the numbers as you make the shots. The winner is the team that gets to 10 first. The drill should move quickly. Players should turn and pass back to the partner with authority. Get the entire team doing this drill, incorporating the main and side buckets of your gym.
The team that wins selects the next spot that they want to shoot from. The other teams must run a sprint.
Overall, it’s a drill that goes quickly and a good way to shoot the ball in practice. It’s an effective way to get the kids active and involved at the very beginning of practice.
This is a 2-on-1 drill basically carried out in place. It involves two offensive guys and one defender. The offensive players stay in place and use their footwork to pass around a defender. The defender goes back and forth between the two looking to intercept the pass. When the coach shouts out “Change”, players should rotate out.
Defensively, the goal here is to become quicker players. Look to get a hand on the ball and pick it off.
Keep the spacing between players at 12 feet. Don’t expand the spacing during the drill. Rotate through players and start again. Meanwhile, this is a great drill for practicing feeds into the post player. Remember, we are working on simulating game conditions, but making them tougher than in the game.
The previous clips can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “Bob Knight: Essential Drills for Building a Championship Program.” To check out the entire Bob Knight catalog, click here.
In this week’s edition of All-Access, we take you to Storrs, Connecticut for a behind-the-scenes look inside a University of Connecticut men’s basketball practice. Watch as legendary head coach Jim Calhoun leads his squad through an early pep talk plus a variety of team drills during one of the first practices of the season.
This All-Access look is a terrific way for coaches, players and parents to see exactly how one of the nation’s most renowned basketball programs conducts practice. In this particular instance, Connecticut runs through several team drills that include three-man weaves and 3-on-3 half-court simulations.
Be sure to pick up some tips, insights and new drills from this exclusive look and look for ways to incorporate them with your own program.
Coach Calhoun emphasizes three areas for these early-season practices: Get out and run, play with intensity, and use tempo to create an advantage. Next, Calhoun sets expectations for his team and gives them a short and long-term game plan. As for the very near term, it’s all about having a positive practice – one in which the team gets stuff done and everyone improves.
Using just one section of the court in a half-court setting, the team moves into a 3-on-3 offense/defense drill. While the post man is looking to establish positioning on the block, the guards are looking to use screens to get open and then get the ball down low (and not far away from the hoop).
Meanwhile, the drill works on offense and defense at the same time in the half-court setting. As soon as the wingman passes to the man in the post, he should immediately set a screen for the opposite guard. If a defender overplays you, reverse the ball. Eventually after a few reps, the players switch to the left side of the court.
First in the 3-on-0 drill, players look to get the ball up the court quickly. It’s a two-pass drill with layups to start. Eventually, the drill moves into quick off-ball screens and splitting the post.
In 5-on-0 action, the goal is to move the ball quickly up the court in an effort to beat the defense. As Coach Calhoun reiterates, 5-on-0 means you run it like there is five guys against you. Use your imagination. Calhoun also talks about positioning frequently, such as where you want to post up exactly, where to play depending on a defender’s positioning, etc. Players should stay wide and go full speed at all times.
The previous clips can be seen on the Championship Productions’ DVD titled “All-Access Basketball Practice with Jim Calhoun.” To check out more exclusive videos featuring Coach Calhoun and the Huskies, click here.
For Villanova head coach Jay Wright, the team’s shooting drills are typically set up in such a way to mimic shots taken in the offense and situations where they get shots in the offense. All the while, the drills are multi-dimensional and cover a number of situations. Remember, if you just run drills where everything goes perfectly every time, you aren’t preparing players for game situations.
In this week’s player development feature, we highlight a pair of effective shooting drills that should pay immediate dividends with your players. The shooting drills are used frequently by Coach Wright and the Villanova men’s basketball program and can also be used across every level of the game.
There are certain situations in a game when you need a three-pointer and your opponent knows it, too. According to Coach Wright, this is one of the tougher game situations to deal with and that’s why Villanova practices this often.
With Slide Threes, we’ll catch the ball, make a fake, and slide dribble in order to get off a three. Watch the players below go through the drill simulation. There’s a catch, rip, one dribble and slide. This drill really works the shooters and gets them working on game-like situations. Many times, Villanova will have shooters doing this drill while the big guys are working on something else.
This drill really simulates shots that Villanova takes in their offense and situations where they get shots in the offense. We’ll start with two players at a basket and separate them by forwards and guards. The forwards are the screeners and the guards are the cutters.
Here, we are simulating screener/cutter situations. Any time that you have these situations, the cutter should set his man up and always come off the screen ready to plant his inside foot and be ready to step and shoot. Players should think shot before they get the shot – and this a perfect drill to practice that.
Meanwhile, the screener should hold the screen until the cutter passes him. The cutter should look to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the screener before going shoulder-to-shoulder at the last second. Once he clears his shoulder, the screener now becomes the cutter. And if the defense takes that away, the cutter looks back to the screener in any screener/cutter situation.
As for player movement/positioning in this drill, start with one player up top and one player on the wing. The player up top makes a screen for the wing player. The cutter then comes around the pick, receives the ball, pivots and makes a bounce pass to the former screener in the corner for a shot. Next, the passer receives a pass and steps into a shot. It’s all about footwork and getting a feel for game situations. Start out with straight cuts and then move to curl cuts and curl & pops.
The previous clips can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “Jay Wright: 28 Competitive Drills for Shooting and Footwork.” To check out more videos in the Jay Wright/Villanova collection, click here. For more shooting-specific videos, click here.
Look to add these dynamic team rebounding drills to your practice plan this season. The drills work on a number of rebounding concepts and situations, including transition basketball. The drills can be used at any level and will keep your players motivated, working hard, and best of all, improving.
Submitted by Don Hess, Highstown HS, Highstown NJ
Set up 3-on-3 action in a triangle formation with X’s as the defense and O’s as the offense. Get two players on the low blocks and one at the FT line. On the coach’s command, the X’s rotate clockwise or counter clockwise to box out the offensive players. On the coach’s shot, the defensive players locate the offensive players and both teams fight for the rebound.
Play to 10 points. You receive one point for each offensive rebound or defensive rebound. Each player keeps their own score and says his cumulative score out loud after each round. The first player to 10 points wins, with consequences for the losers. Then switch the X’s to offense and O’s to defense.
This drill is perfect for practicing communication on defense, boxing out, and offensive rebounding techniques.
Submitted by Keith Cooper, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA
Divide your team evenly into squads of three players. Three offensive players start out around the perimeter with one at the top of the key and two on the wings. Next, there are three defensive players stacked one in front of the other in the paint. The coach will yell out “Rebound” and then the offensive players will proceed to crash the boards.
Meanwhile, the defenders box out outside the paint and hold their blockouts. After holding their blockouts for 2-3 seconds, the coach intentionally misses a shot and players fight for the loose ball. If the defense secures the rebound, they’ll immediately outlet and go 3-on-0 in transition. If the offense scores on transition with either a jumper or layup, they are awarded one point. If they miss the shot, they do not get a point. The offense also gets a point for an offensive board and one point for a putback. On any putback, the offensive player may dribble but cannot pass.
After the 3-on-0 transition break, offense goes to defense and a new team goes to offense. The first team to 10 points wins.
Submitted by Bobby Lutz, UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
This is a 5-on-5 team transition rebounding drill. You can use different offensive alignments, pass the ball around, and make adjustments defensively until a coach shoots the ball. On the shot, two of the X’s box out and two of the defenders run into transition.
After the ball is thrown to an outlet player, the coach passes full-court to the other coach stationed on the other end of the floor. The offensive players must now get back on defense as the coach shoots. The defenders then get to simulate boxing out on the three-pointer while in transition. This forces both teams to concentrate on rebounding in both full and half-court situations. You can also work on your man-to-man double teams in the post. Plus, it’s a controlled 5-on-5 and very similar to game situations.
The drills above – any dozens more – can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “Over 30 Team Rebounding Drills” produced by Winning Hoops. Check out more rebounding videos by visiting our extensive DVD library.
In this week’s player development feature, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo demonstrates a few of his favorite team rebounding drills. The drills have become a cornerstone of his Michigan State basketball practices and have proven to be effective for years. Coach Izzo first breaks down each drill step-by-step before letting players demonstrate them in live action. See what pointers and tips you can take away from this coaching session and then implement with your own squad this season.
Start with one player under the basket and then another player out on the wing area. One coach should stand with the ball on the opposite elbow area. He will shoot the ball and purposely miss, allowing the players to battle each another for the rebound.
This rebounding drill exemplifies the “hit, find, and get” technique. The job of the players is to hit each other. The minute that the player under the basket hits the other player, he will turn, find the ball, and then go get it.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest keys for a team is to get rebounds above the rim – as long as they aren’t on the ground. Get all rebounds above the shoulders. This means we are aggressively pursuing the ball instead of letting the ball come to us.
Defenders must hit their man and then immediately release to find the ball. Don’t hold. If the player is doing the drill right, the ball shouldn’t ever hit the floor. In terms of sequence, go from offense to defense and then to the end of the line.
Tips for good rebounding: The ball is caught above the head, the ball is caught with two hands, and the ball is pulled down to chin level.
Also, be sure to remember offensive rebounding techniques. Try to avoid contact as an offensive rebounder. But at the same time, you need to read the rebounder. Too many times guys will take the path of least resistance. Coach Izzo prefers players who hit and like to be hit.
The 1 on 1 and 2 on 2 drills are both conducted at Michigan State every day. This time, we’ll get two players down low in the paint and tow players at the top of the key. It’s one team against the other as the offense faces the defense in live action.
Make sure the players go after the ball and pull it down with two hands. The offense should be trying to avoid contact and the defense should be trying to make contact. Meanwhile, the job of the offensive rebounder is to get even (AKA even footing with defenders). Once even, they have done half their job already. Also, don’t just lean on the guys’ back. According to Coach Izzo, that’s lazy and a poor tactic.
The above clips can be seen on Championship Productions’ DVD “Tom Izzo’s Basketball Smorgasboard of Drills and Basketball Wisdom.” Check out our entire Tom Izzo/Michigan State DVD catalog by clicking here.
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