Sherri Coale: More of My Favorite Drills

with Sherri Coale,
University of Oklahoma Head Women's Basketball Coach from 1996-2021;
Back-to-Back NCAA Final Four appearances (2009-2010);
10x Big 12 Championship Coach;
Head Coach for the Women's 2013 USA World University Games (Gold Medal)

Legendary coach Sherri Coale uses this on-court presentation to demonstrate more of her all-time favorite drills. She covers her philosophy of what makes a good drill, small games, and shooting drills designed to maximize performance in order to give you drills that can be utilized at virtually every level of basketball.

Philosophy and Goals of Drills

While not a big drill coach, Coale goes through her keys for effective drills. The first of these is that drills should grow organically. In other words, they should come from areas where you want your team to get better. The second key is that drills should be game-like - they need to have some degree of unpredictability to teach skills. The last key is drills must be competitive. That means competing against time, aiming for a personal best, or keeping score against an opponent. Competitiveness will also increase buy-in from players who will give greater effort during the drill.

In addition to discussing what makes an effective drill, Coach Coale also discusses her goals for drills:

• They must make you good at the things you do a lot.
• Be efficient when drilling.
• Everything you do allows for massive repetitions.

Small Games

To work on fundamentals and build up for massive repetitions, Coale introduces her small games. These are breakdown drills that take up 75 percent of drill time in her practices. Starting from 1-on-1 and building up to 4-of-4, these drills meet her philosophy and goals for effective drills.

In her small games, Coach Coale discusses the purpose of her drills. In daily 1-on-1 drills, the purpose is to develop trigger reads on offense and thresholds on defense. In 2-on-2 drills, the offense looks to score and drive off the catch against guided defense. Drills that build to 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 take the concepts learned in 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 and are used to run offensive concepts. While the offense runs concepts, the defense is put in the position of guarding what they might see in a game.

Additional Drills

Next, Coale gets into drills that develop what her team needs to play at their best. The first of these drills is the Fast Drill, which develops the skill of making outlet passes and sprinting the floor to attack while utilizing guided defense in transition.

To create a degree of competitiveness and work on conditioning, Coale demonstrates 3 Cone Shooting. With three cones along the sideline at different distances, a player will shoot a free throw. On a miss, a player will have to run around a cone corresponding with how many free throws are missed.

To teach "point and holler" with a challenge, Coale demonstrates her Blind Matchup drill that is run at the start of practice daily. With four defensive players with their backs turned to the offense, the offense runs movements without a ball. On the coach, the defensive players turn around and point and holler at who they are guarding.

Coach Coale's presentation shows why she's one of the best coaches in the history of women's college basketball. Her understanding of what it takes to be successful, combined with her knowledge of the game, make her an all-time great.

69 minutes. 2021.