Basketball Practice Drills

In the game of basketball, it is often said that "practice makes perfect". We've always taught our players and coaches that practice by itself is not enough... Its knowing what to practice and how to practice that makes all the difference.

For example, you could spend hours in front of a basketball hoop randomly taking shots and working on your dribbling. Will this help you improve? Probably. Now, what if you had an actual routine from a college or NBA basketball player, that lays out the exact drills you need to do and what kind of benchmarks to achieve?

Knowing the right basketball practice drills is essential, because all drills are not created equal. One drill can seriously challenge you and prepare you for gametime, while another drill can be easy and laidback.

The number one key when doing any basketball practice drill is to work at game speed. This means that whether you're dribbling, shooting, conditioning...whatever it may be...you do it at speeds and intensities that you would in a competitive game. Otherwise, if you take it easy in practice, how will you ever show up for the game?

If you're a coach looking for team drills, then you have to think about choosing the best possible practice drills that will allow you to maximize your time. Use the 1 or 2 hours you have to run some killer drills that will improve every player on the team. We recommend combination drills that work on more than one skill set withing a single drill. For example, a simple yet effective combination drill is to have a player(s) take a mid-range shot, grab his own rebound, and then lay it up...and start over. This is an example of a basketball practice drill that teaches shooting, rebounding, and layups.

If you're an individual player, its important that you find a partner and work on doing drills with him/her. Compete with each other and push each other to become better. A good two man drill is to have one player with the ball at the three point line, and the other player defending. The offensive player is only allowed three dribbles to get a shot or layup off. The defensive player has to try his hardest to block the shot. This simple drill teaches how to make get your shot off without wasting time, space, or extra dribbling, and it teaches solid defense.

For coaches, here's a variety of team practice drills that you can run.

For individual players, here's a variety of basketball tips & drills that you can use.