Basketball Drills

While solid shooting skills are crucial to a basketball team’s success, no team would win games without strong, efficient passes. Basketball is a team sport and getting the ball to the right person on the team cannot be done without learning how to pass. These simple basketball drills are a great way for your team to work on their passing skills on a variety of different types of passes.

The first type of pass we’ll look at with these basketball drills is the chest pass. Throwing a strong, accurate chest pass is a crucial aspect of any player’s game. For this drill, divide the team into pairs. Have each pair stand facing each other approximately five feet apart. Player 1 throws a chest pass to player 2, stepping forward with his or her right foot as the pass is being thrown. Player 2 catches the pass then throws it back. Have each pair make 10 passes apiece, 5 where the right foot is forward and 5 with the left foot.

After the 10 passes are complete, have the pair step back 5 feet and repeat the drill. Continue repeating the drill and moving back 5 more feet until the partners are no longer able to make good passes to each other.

The next type of pass that these basketball drills focus on is the bounce pass. Bounce passes are the secret to playing a good offensive game. While they can be trickier to successfully execute, they are often more effective in certain situations than chest passes.

A good basketball drill to work on your players’ bounce passing skills is to have your players partner up and stand ten feet apart. Player 1 throws a bounce pass to player 2 where the ball hits the floor about two-thirds of the way to player 2. As with chest passes, your players should step forward with their right foot for half the drill and left foot for the other half. After 10 passes each, have your players step back 5 feet, continuing this process until they are no longer able to make successful passes at each other.

Push passes are also very important to the game of basketball. They are a necessary skill when attempting to get past the opposing team’s defense. There are many situations when the opposing team is blocking and crowding your offense such that the only type of pass that can be executed is the push pass.

This drill will help your players ameliorate their push passing skills. Once again, have your players partner up and stand about eight feet apart. Player 1 starts by going to his or her right to make the pass by taking a big step forward with their right leg and while keeping their hands on the ball, plant the right foot firmly on the ground and push the ball out to players 2 using the bounce pass technique described above.

As with the previous 2 basketball drills have each player execute 10 passes, 5 for the right foot and 5 for the left before moving back 5 feet and continuing this process until successful passes can no longer be executed.