Zone Passing Drill

Very simple zone passing drill that can be used at any level. You have to search quite a bit to find a lot of good zone offense drills out there. This drill is simple and I think does a great job of teaching the importance of using pass fakes.

Sometimes I wonder how many thousands of times I have said fake hi to pass low, fake low to pass hi, fake left to pass right, or don't throw a shoulder high pass against a zone. Great drill to work on all of these.

http://www.box.net/shared/fk19dce5zn

Jay Wright Notes

Bradley Jumpers
Player is in lane at 6-8 feet away from the basket. Player jumps three times with the ball above his head where his shot is normally released. On the third jump the player shoots the ball at the top of his release without bringing the ball down at all.

Finishes
Bully- Player drives in and 2 foot jump stop and finishes up by the rim for a strong hi finish.

Hop Jumper
Player drives into lane and performs 2 foot jump stop and extends for a hi jumper

Post Play: Go baseline to score- Go middle to explore

Post Position: Don't post up in a spot but instead your posting up in front of your defender making contact with that defender to get position.

During Practice: Picks apart every little thing his players do in practice then gives them freedom in games.

Taken from Zak Boisvert's Notes at the New Heights Coaching Academy

Baylor 3 on 4 Defensive Drill

During the off season I think it's a great time to look at how you can make your practices better. One thing that I have been looking at for the upcoming year is how to work on closeouts and rotations. Making 3 defenders guard 4 offensive players forces player to communicate and make decisions based on what they are reading on the court. When doing odd number drills it forces the weak side defender to make these reads. Also very important that whoever is on the ball keeps that man from getting to the basket or allows him to make an easy direct line pass.

This is not a drill that I would want to do every day in practice, but it can make your defense better for sure. This also goes along very well with my favorite Hubie Brown quote "Mismatches don't beat us, but open shots will"

http://www.box.net/shared/eyt9aylsuh

More 3 on 3 Shell Drills

Sorry about not having any posts the past couple of days.

I decided to just create a pdf file for the rest of my 3 on 3 shell drill ideas now there are 15 different drills instead of 4.

Even if 3 on 3 shell drill isn't something you are interested in maybe you can find some ideas that you could use in your defensive drills. I have had some great feedback and questions already on this topic, but want to hear more from our readers. Already added a couple of more ideas today from emails.

http://www.box.net/shared/txqisbfuq2

bmoore@plano88.org

Diagram Software

Play Diagram Software

Jes Basketball Software- Version I always used up until this spring. Free program http://www.jes-basketball.com/playbook/download.html

Fast Draw- The best program available http://fastmodelsoftware.com/products/College.php

Most of the diagrams I put up through this blog are done with an awesome program called fast draw. I started using this program this past spring and it has been a great tool for our staff. I can quickly draw up a play or drill and email them or print them off for my staff. I used the Jes software program for about 5 years but couldn't get it to work with our schools mac computers. Thats why I changed to Fast Draw and not sure if I could ever go back. The link I provided to the fast draw program allows you to download their program to your computer in a couple of mins for $35 per year. You can also call the number provided on their site and talk to a sales rep. I was able to get them to do a lifetime liscence for a little over $100. I absolutely do not work for or get sponsered by either of these companies but just thought I would share this info with you.

3 on 3 Shell Drill

I love this drill as a change up for our daily defensive work. Instead of doing your basic 4 on 4 shell drill work we are going 3 on 3. My favorite thing about this drill is that we can break our team in half with one coach doing the same type of drills at the other end or working on something else. Going to add some additional drills that we do with our 3 on 3 work over the next several days.

http://www.box.net/shared/oftbim9b3j

Send thoughts or comments to bmoore@plano88.org

Closeout Drill

Simple drill to work on closeouts and or keeping the ball handler out of the lane. This one can get pretty physical and hard if your players are going hard.

http://www.box.net/shared/mcicyjh5ec

Shell Drill Ideas

Looking at posting some of my ideas for shell drill variations. Would love to hear some ideas from people checking out the blog. Have been getting around 25 downloads a day and want to hear more from people checking out the drills.

If you have any thoughts or ideas on shell drill or anything else dealing with practice give me an email.

bmoore@plano88.org

Thanks to all the people that have emailed me ideas so far.

Basketball Newsletter

I have been receiving Brian McCormick's newsletter for the past couple of months. He has some really interesting thoughts on the game and shooting in particular. I don't always agree with his thoughts on shooting, but sometimes opposing views can make you understand your thoughts a little better.

To subscribe email him
hard2guardinc@yahoo.com
write subscribe in message

Hubie Brown Thoughts

If something works for another school use it, don't think your too good to use someones ideas

There will always be 3 ways to do everything. Do the one that you teach the best.

Always use a post defender for offensive post drills it teaches them to bang.

15 Minutes of Hell

I don’t run into a lot of coaches that claim to use sprints very much in practice. I agree with them that it’s a waste of practice time to spend 10-20 minutes out of your practice and none of your kids have a basketball in their hand. When I played the two things that I hated the most were sprints without a ball and timed running. My coach loved to put 15 minutes on the clock and have us run around the gym. I could go on and on for hours about training styles for basketball and I’m not sure if any of them are completely right or wrong. Over the past several years I have tried to focus on putting 3 short drills together that force kids to get reps and conditioning at the same time. I don’t always use the same 3 drills but here is the most common routine that we do.

http://www.box.net/shared/estmgi0dep

Coaching Quotes

Bob Hurley

Bad Coaching = Spending too much time on one thing.

States that he loves teaching but how long can you keep your players attention.

Holds players accountable for two things in every practice- Mood and Enthusiasm

Doesn't agree with coaches that don't use a whistle at practice. When he blows the whistle he wants all of his players to sprint to the center circle and meet. Feels that this simulates them sprinting off the court for a timeout.

If players are late to practice without a phone call the player watches whole team run hardest set of sprints. One of the few times he uses sprints in practice.

Billy Donovan Drill

Here is a post positioning drill focusing on the secondary break. I found this going through some of Billy Donovan's notes and love this drill. With the style of play that we use we want our bigs to sprint rim to rim. Only problem is positioning once they get there. Too many post players will just stand once they have made the effort to get up the court. This drill works with them thinking positioning once they cross half court.

http://www.box.net/shared/refo1bqzja

6 Man Passing

Old school drill that my dad used. I loved this drill at the lower levels because of the number of touches players get at a fast pace. Some days when making a practice plan I have the focus of getting as many touches as possible for all of our players. If we are having problems with turnovers simple passing drills often help.

http://www.box.net/shared/b2tqbnjbu9

Vacation

No blog entries until late next week while on Vacation

Augustine Drill

Just figured out I messed up the link last time I posted this one.

http://www.box.net/shared/2i9pi20qzy

1 on 1 Chairs Drill

Great off season drill to work on beating your man 1 on 1. More and more coaches are telling their guys to make a play. I have followed Jay Wright quite a bit through videos and coaching notes. At a clinic this Spring he had to have said just go make a play if the play breaks down at least 25 times in 1 hour.

http://www.box.net/shared/4ih0hm1ofm

55 in 5

We use this drill instead of layup lines in practice. It puts a premium on passing, catching, and full court finishing with layups. To get 55 a team has to be nearly perfect in all three areas to get 55 layups in 5 minutes. Most of my teams have really liked this drill because it allows them to compete. This is a drill that has been converted from a previous drill I had been around. I converted it to get more guys into action and out of sitting in line.

http://www.box.net/shared/ked3ae54yo

One thing that I love that Coach Eastman talks about on his twitter account and his web site is making yourself better in the off season. I have talked to my coaches about adapting their drills to make them better. We want players to get as many touches as possible. If that means making changes to a drill that I do or one of my coaches does to make it more effective now is the time to be doing it. I think drills are a lot like basketball plays. There are small adaptations to 5-10 different drills that most coaches are doing. The game and practice isn't being re invented but just being adapted and improved.

Pivot Drill

Quick post today between Football camp and Basketball League Tournament.

Last year we were really struggling with pivoting which was really making me frustrated as a Varsity coach. I talked with our coaching staff and came up with a really simple thing to do. We put 3 minutes on the clock and had players partner up. I would call out a foot and offensive player would have to pivot and sweep the ball for 30 seconds while the defender mirrored the ball. At the horn players would switch and do the same. I know there are some better pivot drills out there but I wanted something that we could do without taking time to set up and have lines which are my biggest pet peeve of any practice.

If you have any ideas on pivoting or any other drills I would love to hear them.
bmoore@plano88.org

Bruce Weber Ladder Shooting Drill

I thought this was a good twist on the common nothing but net shooting drill that so many coaches use. Bruce Weber demonstrated this drill at the Nike Clinic in the Wisconsin Dells and calls it Ladder Shooting.

Once a player makes 2 shots in a row they move back to the next spot. Once they reach a point where they can’t make 2 in a row they start to work their way back in.

Their guide hand is behind their back while doing the drill.

Coach Weber added a couple of things that made the drill even better. He had them working on stepping into the shot (left right shoot). And he had them shooting medicine balls for a while. We did this drill in summer camp and thought it did a pretty good idea of showing players where there shooting range ends while working on form.

http://www.box.net/shared/p9u3i7vq68

Pressure Drill

1 on 2 to 1 on 2

This is one of my favorite drills and we do it several times per week. Some of you might have seen it but I have only worked with 1 coach that did this in practice. Drill works great at creating a high speed trapping situations and fast ball handling pressure situations. You can change the drill around to fit your style of play very easily.

Like most drills this one has probably been around for a long time. I thought it was a new drill until my dad who coached 20 years ago told me he used to do this one.

http://www.box.net/shared/lbr0fzl3k4

Tape on the floor

I think just about every coach has used tape to create a mid line on the basketball court. One thing that I found myself saying all the time last year was to start at the NBA 3 point line for guards. It drives me nuts when we kick out to a shooter and he isn't ready to shoot, is in an uncomfortable shooting position, or is too close to the line. My solution at camp this summer was to tape a NBA 3pt line on the court.

Benefits
1. Helps spacing on the court
2. Works well with our step in shooting form
3. Easy cue for kids to pick up on
4. Even if someone can't shoot very well the idea of looking like you might shoot opens up a lot of driving and passing lanes.

I have seen coaches tape off other areas of the court. We are looking at putting floor tape down for our trapping areas and zone coverage areas when starting next season.

Kevin Eastman Coaching Cues

Kevin Eastman
· take game shots from game spots at game speed
· be ready on the catch – knees bent; feet ready; hands ready
· have 10 toes to the rim – if you have 10 toes to the rim you will be squared up
· keep feet under shoulders – gives us balance
· remember that the quality of your feet determines the quality of your shot



Very few days have gone by in the past year where I haven't quoted Kevin Eastman in our practice. He has the best coaching cues that I have found anywhere.

http://twitter.com/kevineastman

Illini Shooting

This is a drill that I picked up in 2003 when working on the staff at IVC high school near Peoria IL. I was told that this was a drill they picked up from a Bill Self Clinic when he was at Illinois. Works really well to work on squaring up during shooting. We keep a very close eye on players having them land 6 inches closer to the basket. If you run a hi low offense this is a great drill for that 15 foot jumper.

We usually put 5 minutes on the clock and have our manager hit the horn button every 30 seconds. We switch up between counting individual makes and makes between partners. We always try to turn this drill into a competition. You can also do this drill very easily with 4 people at each basket.

http://www.box.net/shared/ixub5r1nxl