Basketball Daily World

Here’s a drill which will help you develop quick reaction to the ball, but it is not as dry as drills which involve only footwork and no work with the ball.

Learn another great defense drill geared at conditioning your players and increasing their
overall skill on the basketball court.

Drill Purpose

This drill works great to improve players’ footwork for blocking out and also teaches players to maintain contact while blocking out.

Instructions

1. Player 1 is facing Player 2 - About 2 to 3 feet of separation is appropriate.
2. A Ball is placed about 5 to 10 feet behind player 1.
3. On either the whistle or when you say go. Player 1 will try to keep player 2 from getting the ball for 3 seconds.

Points of Emphasis

Continually tell your players to…

• When blocking out, make sure player 1 takes his left foot and steps
  across his body to put it on the outside of player 2’s foot. (Outside of Player 2’s left foot)
• Then player 1, does a drop-step with his right foot to maintain to create full contact while blocking out.
  (Player 1’s right foot should be outside of Player 2’s right foot)
• Make sure the player stays low and wide. Player 1’s feet should be wider apart than Player 2. He should stick both his elbows straight out (BUT DO NOT SWING ELBOWS). The arms should stay in a stationary position.
• Player 1 needs to slide his feet to maintain contact with Player 2.

Motivation / Teaching Tips

Tip #1 - If the defensive player does not keep the player away from the ball for 3 seconds, have the defensive player either do push-ups, sit-ups, or run.
Tip #2 - While doing this drill make sure that offensive player DOES NOT DIVE!!!!!! In my first year of coaching, I had a player lose his two front teeth diving after the ball. Players also landed on each other’s heads, legs, arms, etc. That’s how broken arms, fingers, and legs occur.

Credit: Winning Drills

This video teaches shooting off the screen, emphasizes slow to fast movement, and catching the ball with the inside hand before the shot. The coach mentions that 95% of coaches teach catching with the outside hand. The best you can do is to try both and decide which one suits you better.

Credit: Hoops King

Cross-over is the easiest and the most difficult change-of-direction move in basketball. Why? It’s one of the first moves young players adopt, and it’s the last one they do right.

Tobin Anderson explains how to do it right. In order to execute it properly the player has to have a good handle on the ball and perfect foot work.

Credit: Five-Star Basketball

The Half Crossover or Inside Out is a devastating move that’s been used by
fluid offensive playmakers from Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant.

Here are the steps to perform this move right handed. After you master this pattern,
master it left handed as well.

While dribbling the ball right handed:

1. Take big hard step with left foot, making the defender jump.
2. Take the ball and go inside out halfway across your body. This makes the defender jump even more.
3. Blast by your defender body to body. Do not step too wide of the defender. Tight spacing is key because this denies the defender any maneuvering space to cut you off.
4. Remember to stay low as you blast by.

Credit: Five-Star Basketball

Footwork involves getting your feet to the right place at the right time. Once you have proper stance, it is your first step that will allow you to move in the right direction with proper control.

Training your first step involves direction of movement, types of steps, and maintaining positive shin angles.

The Negative Step: A common mistake is to take a step backwards before moving in the correct direction.

Positive Shin Angle: A Positive Shin Angle is one that allows you to apply the proper force against the ground. To achieve this, your feet should hit slightly behind your center of gravity. This puts you in the best position to use your powerful hip extensors. A Negative Shin Angle would be one that is too far from your center of gravity, causing you to pull yourself towards your foot.

Types of First Steps

Open Step: For short distances and quick movements, your lead foot will step out while you push off with your back foot.

Crossover Power Step: When you have to reach a great distance, this is the one to use. Your lead foot stays and your back foor crosses over it. You push off with your lead foot.

Jab Step: For quick reaction and shorter distances, your lead foot can actually move backward relative to your center of gravity, then push off with your back foot.

Drop Step: When you need to move backwards or diagonally backwards, your lead foot moves back and you push off with your back foot.

Your first step is the one that can make the move or allow the defender to anticipate your movement. Proper knowledge of your center of gravity and those defending you will help you to catch them off guard. Often a good first step is all you need to stay a step head of them and make the play.

Credit: JumpUSA

Becoming a dominating shooter in basketball has more to do with getting yourself in the right position for the shot than with mechanics of shooting, or the quality of your form. This is not to say that form is not important, or that you don’t need a quick draw, this is to say that if you can’t get open your form doesn’t matter - you will simply never have a chance to shoot.

Who’s the best to teach you the skill of moving without the ball? Nobody, in today’s game, does it better than Rip Hamilton. Watch the video, do the drills he recommends, but even more importantly, watch Rip during the game and you will realize that his running never stops, well, until he gets the ball and makes the shot.

Credit: TNT Fundamentals

Being a good defender means playing great on-ball defense, and also getting a hand up on shots (to put additional pressure on the offensive player).

Start in one corner of the court (where the sideline meets the baseline), in a good defensive stance, and slide quickly and powerfully to the elbow (where the free throw line meets the corner of the lane). As you get to the elbow, imagine that the player you are guarding is going up for a jump shot. So as you near the elbow, gather yourself and leap up to block the shot. After you come down from your jump, turn to block out the shooter. Do this drill five times from each side of the court.

There will be lots of times where you have to quickly transition from a defensive slide to a jump (either to block a shot or grab a rebound). So practicing this will translate into being a better defender in game situations.

Credit: http://www.bestbasketballdrills.com

Cone drills are great at making you faster. Here are a few good drills I use with my clients:

• Sliding drills (place 2 cones 6-8 feet apart and defensive slide from one to the other…then move them 10-12 feet apart and do the same. They key is to slide fast…very fast.)

• The T-Cone drill (place 3 cones in a straight line about 3 or 4 feet apart, then place 2 other cones about 10 feet apart at the top of the “T”. Now, start off running back and forth between the 3 cones and out to one of the cones at the top, then back-pedal to the starting spot. Do the same thing again, this time out to the other cone at the top, and back-pedaling to the start). Go FAST.

Credit: http://www.bestbasketballdrills.com

Luckily, Michael Jordan doesn’t speak Chinese here, only subtitles are in Chinese.

The Mikan Drill is a basketball drill commonly credited to George Mikan and Ray Meyer. It is designed to help basketball centers and forwards develop rhythm, timing for rebounding, and scoring in the paint. It is also used for outside players to better their layup skills and increase stamina.

The drill is practiced as follows: From under the basket, make a layup with the right hand, rebound the ball under the net with the left hand and make a layup with the left hand. Rebound with the right hand and layup with the right hand. Continue to repeat this, alternating hands. Eventually the player should learn how to quickly grab the ball and take a shot while taking their two steps.

Virtually every great forward and center since Mikan has practiced this drill. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar describes how he taught it to some kids he coached in his book "A Season on the Reservation". Shaquille O’Neal, who admired Mikan so much that he paid for his funeral expenses, learned the drill from his coach Dale Brown, when Shaq played college basketball at LSU. The drill is more or less a standard practice procedure for all basketball "big men".

Source: This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia.

Here is a very extensive footwork exercise. The whole exercise should be completed at least once a week, maybe twice. It could be combined with the loose ball fight exercises.