3 Offseason Drills to keep you in basketball shape over the Summer!
I urge you to get outside and play some tennis, go swimming, do some hand cycling over the summer, but there are some drills that you can do in order to keep the feel for the game. These will not take long, and can be done in the morning, at night, or even just on weekends. If you can take just a few minutes to do these drills, then you will be ahead of the curve come the start of next season when so many other players are rusty and inconsistent.
1. The Tire Drill:
One of the most important skills to have in basketball is the ability to make clean, crisp passes to the open (or not so open) man. Like every other skill in any sport, a player can only improve his passing with a ton of practice. Unlike many of the other sports, however, not much equipment is needed for basketball. For this drill, all you need is a tire and a basketball. First, you set the tire up against a wall or a board and all that you need to do is try to make chest passes and bounce passes through the hole of the tire. At first, you should stand about 5-10 feet away and alternate five chest passes with five bounce passes. Once you have mastered the skill from that distance, you can move back and try again. After that, you can incorporate making passes off the dribble to the left and to the right, maintaining the five chest to five bounce ratio. If you do this every day for about ten minutes, you will notice a huge difference in your passing ability once you step on that basketball court for the start of the season. You can also do the same drill with baseball and hook passes.
2. Coast to Coast:
Probably the most important skill to master in basketball is the ability to dribble well with both hands. Some players cannot dribble well even with their strong hand, but if you truly want to succeed in basketball, you must be able to create your own shots off the dribble. An easy and great drill to practice dribbling is by simply finding a long stretch of pavement (empty parking lot) and dribbling from one end to the other. The longer you have to go, the better. You can start this drill by dribbling down with your strong hand, crossing over to your weak hand at the end, and dribbling back with the off hand. Once you have mastered that, you can set predetermined spots where you can pretend there are defenders, and dribble with one hand to the spot, cross over to the other when you get there, then dribble to the next spot and cross back over, repeating this until you reach the end. Then, do the same thing back to starting line. You can also do the behind the back cross over and pivot turn cross over. This will work both hands and it will also help you develop a strong crossover dribble. This drill can be ten minutes long or you can do it for an hour, creating different variations as you go, depending on the time you have.
3. Around the World:
This is a competitive game, but it can also be a practice drill. In the game, the players start in one corner with a basketball. He must make a shot from five spots that go from one corner around the perimeter to the other corner. The spots are: baseline, 45, elbow, foul line. This will force you to practice your shooting from every area of the court. Many kids develop a deadly shot from one area, and if the defender takes that shot away, then he doesn't score because he can't make it from anywhere else. By doing this drill, you are practicing every shot, and since you don't move on to the next spot until you make it, you are getting extra practice with the spots that trouble you. You can do this a few times, depending on how long it takes to get around, and it is a great drill that makes sure the player doesn't lose the feel of his or her jump shot during the offseason. When I was growing up, my coaches always told me to take a thousand shots a day. For the diehard player, who only plays basketball, this might work. But for those athletes who play multiple sports and have to deal with practices for their other in-season sports, this drill will keep him shooting the basketball throughout the off-season, which will most definitely give him an advantage over much of the competition once it is time to start playing the real games.
This article is a modified version of something written by Coach Dan Severs.
