Basketball training is what makes the difference between a successful, fun playing experience and a disappointing game. Equipment, conditioning, and drills all go into adequate training preparation. This article will cover what you and your team need in each of these areas to succeed.

Equipment

Naturally, every basketball team needs a ball and a court. Beyond this, other important training equipment includes clothes, conditioning equipment, and drill equipment.

Coaches have found that team discipline improves if players are supplied with a standard uniform. Ideally this should include reversible t-shirts (for changing sides during practice), shorts, pants, athletic supporters, socks, and shoes.

Conditioning equipment covers the wide range of equipment available to improve cardiovascular endurance, leg strength, and coordination. Out of the huge number of items available to athletes, a few that are especially useful for excelling in basketball games are:

• Extra heavy basketballs to build the muscles used when dribbling, passing, and shooting
• Running parachutes to increase running strength and stamina
• Plyometric jump training shoes to build calf strength and increase jumping height
• Jump boxes to increase jumping height
• Agility ladders to improve foot coordination and stepping speed
• Speed hurdles to improve agility, quickness, and jumping ability
• Weight resistance equipment to build leg muscles and upper-body muscles used in ball handling

In the drill equipment category, there are a few particularly handy items:

• A basketball return is a simple funnel attached to the bottom of the basket that will save you time running to retrieve balls after shots, giving you more time to focus on shooting.
• A basketball funnel rebounder is a more expensive version of a basketball return that funnels back missed shots as well as successful shots
• A basketball shooting machine can pass the ball from the basket back to you at set distances, heights, angles, and intervals, saving you time and enabling you to do repetitions of specific passing and rebound patterns

Conditioning

Each of the equipment items mentioned above has its own conditioning drills that go with it. In addition to these equipment-specific training methods, here are some useful general training methods that don’t require particularly specialized equipment. These are a great place to start with basketball training for kids.

To improve cardiovascular performance, agility, and running ability, these are some tried and true drills:

• Deep breathing exercises to improve oxygen intake and usage efficiency
• Running in place
• Jump roping
• Lateral stepping
• Pivoting in place
• Quick starts to half court
• Sprinting down the court
• Sprinting down the court and back
• Running laps around the court

To build upper-body coordinations, flexibility, and muscles for ball handling, a regular basketball, extra-heavy basketball, or other weight can be used for drills such as:

• Dribbling in place with each hand
• Raising the ball from waist level to chest level and back
• Pushing the ball out from the chest and bringing it back
• Raising the ball from chest level to over the head and back
• Free throws with an emphasis on flexing the wrists during delivery

To improve vertical leaping ability, a comprehensive training program should target a number of key factors, including:

• Balance
• Jumping form  
• Jumping coordination
• Leg, waist, and lower back flexibility
• Leg, waist, and lower back strength
• Leg quickness

Diet and the need for refueling and breaks should be factored in when pursuing any of these conditioning goals.

Drills

In addition to general conditioning drills, a wide variety of drills can be practiced to improve specific basketball skills, such as dribbling, passing, shooting, and defense.

Some classic dribbling drills include:

• Dribbling by touch alone in a stationary position, either by keeping the head upright without looking at the ball or by using blindfolds. Practice with each hand and switching hands.
• Dribbling while moving in different directions: forwards, backwards, left, right, pivoting. Practice with each hand and switching hands.
• Dribbling in directions prompted by visual cues from a coach on the sidelines. This combines directional dribbling ability with the ability to dribble without looking at the ball.
• Dribbling from a group of teammates stationed at one of the four corners of the court rapidly to the center of the court, pivoting, and then dribbling back to join the group at the next corner. Can be done with either hand or switching hands.
• Dribbling down the full court, first with each hand one at a time, then with switching hands. Can be done in groups as a shuttle relay.
• Dribbling with one hand while moving forward, stopping on a whistle and dribbling in place, and upon the next whistle continuing forward dribbling with the other hand.
• Dribbling down a gauntlet line or multiple lines of teammates who stand in place at six-foot intervals as obstacles. They must be dribbled around, and can try to snatch the ball.
• Dribble tag, where one person who is “it” has the ball and must dribble while trying to tag teammates who are free to move normally. The first person who gets tagged becomes “it.”

To practice passing, here are some drills that have proven effective:

• Line passing: Line your team up in two lines facing each other and pass the ball from one line to the other in different patterns as rapidly as possible.
• Line exchange passing: Line up two lines with the first person in each line facing the first person in the other line. The first person in one line passes the ball to the first person in the other line and then runs to the end of the other line. The person who caught the ball repeats, passing it to the front of the other line and then running to the end of the other line. The pattern continues until everyone has gone through both lines.
• Pivot passing: Five players stand with four in a line holding one ball and one at pivot holding another ball. The four players on the line take turns trying to pass their ball to the pivot man faster than he can pass his to the next person on the line.
• Fast-break passing: Form three lines on each side of the court. One line lays up the ball. The second line rebounds and passes to the third line, which is positioned for a fast break. The third line receives the ball and dribbles to the other side of the court for a lay-up to repeat the cycle.
• Three-man weave: Three players begin in three lines at one end of the court, with one in the middle of the court and one at either side. The middle player passes the ball to either of the other players slightly down court and then goes behind them. The player who caught the ball then passes to the other player further down court and goes behind them. The pattern continues until the group has reached the end of the court.
• Five-man weave: Similar to the three-man weave, except when the three lines start off, the lines on either side have two players in line, for a total of five players counting the player in the middle. All five players participate in the weave as they advance down the court.

To practice shooting skills, some essential drills include:

• Free throw drills: The most essential shooting drill in basketball. To practice shooting free throws, there are a number of methods you can practice, but for my money, your best bet is to practice what’s demonstrated in this tutorial by Rick Barry, the second leading free-throw shooter of all time.
• Lay-up drills: Basic lay-up drills should be practiced almost as frequently as free-throw drills. For a more advanced variation to emphasize coordinating jumping high during lay-ups, practice doing a lay-up with a chair in front of the point where you execute the lay-up. If you jump up, you land in front of the chair. If you jump broad, you crash into the chair. Lay-ups can also be practiced in combination with receiving passes.
• Jump shot drills: Jump shots should be practiced from all angles around the basket and out to the three-point line. They should also be practiced from a stationary position, on the run, and on the run after receiving a pass.

Finally, here are a few drills for practicing basic defensive skills:

• Pick/screen drills:
• The players form three lines at the top of the key facing the basket. The middle line passes off to the first player in the right line and then forms a pick to screen off the first player in the left line. The player from the left line cuts around the screen player to receive a pass from the player in the right line and go in for a lay up. Meanwhile the screen player rolls off the pick.
• A player at the top of the key and a player on the wing each have a defender on them. The wing player comes over to set a pick for the player at the top of the key. If the defenders don’t adjust, the player at the top of the key goes around the wing for a lay-up. If the defenders adjust, the wing player tries to get clear to receive a bounce pass.
• Pass blocking drills: The team forms a circle with one player in the center. The players on the circle pass the ball to anyone except the person directly next to them. The player in the center tries to block the pass. When someone throws a bad pass or a pass that gets blocked, they take their place in the center.
• Stealing drills: Stealing should be practiced first in simple patterns, such as one player dribbling forward with the right hand while the defender tries to cut across diagonally with their own right hand for a steal. More advanced drills involve trapping formations where multiple defenders are working on one dribbler.
• Rebound drills: Rebounds can be practiced by forming two lines. The line closer to the basket represents the defense, the other represents the offense. The coach bounces the ball off the backboard, and the defensive line attempts to block the offensive line from getting the rebound.

These drills are just a few examples of the many drills which are available or can be improvised by a creative coach or player, and can be used for basketball training for kids as well.

A Worthy Basketball Training Video

For more information on these kinds of drills, see basketball training videos and books. An excellent video to start with is Steve Nash MVP Basketball: Fundamentals of Basketball.

Steve Nash MVP-Basketball Fundamentals

Worthy Basketball Training Resources

USBA
IMG Academies
Yes I Can Basketball for Boys and Girls

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