Competitive Practice Drills & Quick Hitters Out of the Swing Offense

Over the last few seasons, Jeff Gard’s program has developed a reputation of fielding a team full of highly competitive players every night they hit the floor. Gard has accomplished this end result by making his practices competitive and tough and as a result, his teams have finished in the top end of their conference and consistently nationally ranked.  

In this instructional coaching video, Coach Gard shows some of his favorite competitive drills to build toughness and presents several entries to help you get into your 4-out, 1-in motion offense. 

Competitive Culture, Competitive Drills 

Creating a competitive culture is the first step in building a competitive program. Coach Gard explains that knowing what you do best and building off that teaches both the players and your coaching staff to develop a thirst for knowledge.

Gard spends time going over what has helped him create and build great team chemistry and culture that overrules a system of star players and helps his players focus on making the team elite. He provides some terrific real-life lessons on teaching players how to lead on the court and you can help them create ownership in the program, especially in crunch-time situations.

Making your drills and practices as game-like as possible is what most coaches strive to do. Elevating practices each day helps to define your program. Coach Gard shows examples of drills that help your best shooters learn to control their body language and reaction to made or missed shots with a cool and calm in-game demeanor. In the ‘Run-The-Rack Drill’ players are put into groups of three and have them shoot from five different designated spots on the floor. In this modified ‘around-the-world game,’ Coach Gard shows how your players start to work as a team to beat other teams of players at other baskets. By focusing on your makes, your players can string together a hot streak in practice and games.

In the ’10-Clean-Passes Drill,’ players are set up to play 4-on-4 with no ball screens and no dribbles allowed. Players must cut and get open, which teaches them to keep proper spacing and work extra hard to set their defender up.

In the ’20-Possessions Game,’ Gard demonstrates how players must work on their offensive efficiency while in a game-like simulation and must use actions that are built into your offense. The added stipulations in the game helps to level the playing field if you don’t have 10 dynamic players that could start for you and helps keep your players focused on getting everyone better around them!

Offensive Entries

To stay competitive against even superior opponents, you must have a few tricks up your sleeve as a coach. Coach Gard offers up some quick entries to help you create misdirection in your offense and gets your post player open for an easy duck-in basket.

Learning from one of Wisconsin’s best coaches, Bo Ryan, Coach Gard has often used the Swing Offense to get easy looks around the paint. In a play he calls ‘Diagonal,’ a quick back screen opens up a ball-reversal post-entry, which gives a dominant big an ‘And-1’ look in the middle of the paint.

In a game called ‘Alley,’ Coach Gard shows actions that utilizes a one-slot ball-screen that creates a flare-screen skip pass for another post entry look that offers a post player another ‘And-1’ high-percentage option in the paint.

Competitive cultures win. It creates ownership with the players in your program and helps them crave more knowledge to gain a competitive edge against your opponents. Once established, a competitive culture allows players to push each other in practice  - from starters to the last person off the bench.

Coach Gard has developed a competitive culture that has led his teams to top conference finishes and top rankings in the country at the collegiate Division III level. In this must-watch instructional video, Gard showcases several drills you will want to use right away to help establish a competitive culture in your next practice or workout session!

Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 Stars. ‘Love the drills and entries that Coach Gard uses to push his players to perform at their best every day.’  

73 minutes. 2023.