CONDITIONING

Great tool for bringing focus to practices. Began using it last year...
Eric, Coach

DESCRIPTION

Once you are properly warmed up we get to be a bit more creative with the next 10 minutes. These drills are made up by you and can be varied from day to day. I call them combination drills because they include a bit of everything including sprinting, defensive slides, back pedaling steps, stop and go, ball handling and finishing with a shot. You are going to do 4 different combo drills you create for 2 minutes at a time as a circuit and then give yourself about 30 seconds to rest in between. The purpose of these drills is to get repetitions doing some basic basketball movements such as changing speed and direction, defensive footwork, and dribbling skills along with a shot while pushing your cardiovascular fitness and power requirements as a player. Here are four examples you could use, but be creative and make up your own as well.

Drill 1 is called the X Drill. Do this for 2 consecutive minutes starting on the red dot. Keep in mind that you are dribbling the ball whether you are sprinting, back pedaling, penetrating or doing the defensive slide. You can change the drills up simply by changing hands as well. In the X Drill start facing the baseline and make a lateral defensive slide from corner to corner using your left hand as the dribble hand. At the corner turn and sprint diagonally with a right hand dribble to the left side mid-court line. Proceed from there to back pedal using a right hand dribble, then at the right side mid-court line, make a sprint dribble with the left hand to the 3 point line where you execute a one on one dribble move (crossover, spin, stop and go or combination) and finish with a jumper in the paint. On a miss put the ball back in and dribble the ball back to the red dot and start the sequence over again. Remember two minutes, and take a 1 minute break in between this drill and the next. Shoot free throws during this one minute.

Drill 2 is named the Trapezoid. From the red dot make a very hard right hand dribble along the three point line to the right side corner and then back pedal using your left hand dribble to the mid-court line. From these make a lateral defensive slide across the court using the right hand to dribble and from there make a spin move with a sprint and pull up at the 3 point line for a 3 point shot. Retrieve the make or put back the miss and repeat this sequence again for the full 2 minutes, then take another 1 minute break.

Drill 1- X Drill

Drill 2- Trapezoid

Drill 3, The Triangle starts from the red dot with a diagonal defensive slide with the right hand dribbling to the mid-court line right side followed by a left hand sprint dribble across the mid-court line. From there make a crossover move and sprint with the right hand to the left corner and back pedal across the baseline to the right corner. From there immediately make a sprint dribble with the left hand along the 3 point line where you break off into a penetration move and shot into the paint.

Drill 4 is called the Lateral Vertical. From the red dot start with a left hand speed dribble to the right corner making a crossover move and right hand sprint dribble to the mid-court line. From there back pedal back to the right corner with the right hand dribbling and sprint back across the baseline using your left hand using 2 stop and go moves. From the left hand corner where you started make a defensive slide using the right hand to dribble along the three point line until you get to the top of the circle and them make a crossover move to penetration and shot in the paint or near the elbow.

Drill 3- Triangle

Drill 4- Lateral-Vertical

Each of these drills can be adjusted in a wide variety of ways. Get creative but try to stick to the same set of drills for a week or two then vary them up a bit. The idea here is you want to be using both hands in both sprint and back pedal dribbles, include some defensive slide to sprint action, and incorporate some type of one on one move at each corner or when attacking the basket. You will be building not only your ball handling skills but going a long way toward improving your athleticism because you are training your body in terms of both conditioning and in learning explosive movements in a wide array of ways. These are drills similar to what are being used by professional players for conditioning in the off and pre-season and can be of great benefit.

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