Basketball Drills - Full-Court Dribbling Drills

From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook, @ http://www.coachesclipboard.net

These full court dribbling drills feature the speed dribble, lay-ups, using the weak hand, and the hesitation (rocker step) move, in and out move, etc. They are also all good conditioning drills. See Dribbling.

3-Minute Left-Hand Lay-up Drill

Have your players line-up behind O1, on the baseline (see diagram). O1 speed dribbles down the court with the left hand. After reaching point B, O1 angles toward the basket for the left-handed lay-up, gets the rebound, and starts back up the floor on the opposite side, again using the left hand, finishes the lay-up and moves to the end of the line.

The next player starts as soon as the preceding player reaches half court. Have all the players go around several times.

We often do this drill as our last thing in practice. Set a time limit (such as 3 minutes), and require the players to make a certain number of lay-ups in that time (our boys varsity has to make 75). If they fail to "beat the clock", you have them run! If they make the goal, they should celebrate enthusiastically as a team (with a lot of "high-5's") that they achieved their goal and don't have to run, and can go home.

Oftentimes, if we feel the kids have worked hard in practice (and we want to give them a break), and yet have failed to make their goal, we give them a second chance where everyone gets to shoot a half-court shot. If just one player makes it, he/she is the hero as nobody has to run, and the team mobs the successful shooter with hugs and "high-5's". I know this sounds stupid... but it helps to build team spirit. Sometimes, if no-one makes the half-court shot, we will let a manager shoot a "3", or an assistant coach shoot a free-throw, or tell the shortest player on the team that he/she has 10 seconds to go dunk the ball... they quickly realize that the "bigs" have to hoist the smaller player up on their shoulders, hand him/her the ball so that he/she can dunk it before the 10 seconds are up.

Younger teams can also run this drill first with the right hand, and then do the left (even more conditioning).

Variation #1, Adding a Dribble Move.

Have each player do a prescribed move when reaching points A, B, C and D. You can do a rocker step, in and out, crossover, behind the back, thru the legs, spin move, etc.

Variation #2, Finish the Lay-up Against Pressure.

Place a defender in the paint at each end (a coach or manager), who offers a token defense against the lay-up... no blocks or steals allowed (nothing that would slow the flow of the drill).