Basketball Passing Drills - 3 Things a Good Drill Should Do

Author: Gary Donovan

Author: Gary Donovan

There can be no overstating the importance of basketball practice drills that teach the fundamental skills of the game. Every player at every level needs to continually work on developing his basic skills - NBA greats still shoot hundreds of foul shots a day, dribble through cones and run basketball passing drills. That's why they're great. No matter how complex your plays are, or how strategically-minded your players are, to get the ball into position for someone to score requires good basic skills. And to do that consistently requires good practice drills that place importance on the right areas. Effective passing drills should do several things: 1. Stress Good Fundamentals. In the first couple of practices of the pre-season, many of your passing drills will focus solely on one type of pass - how to throw a chest pass, or an overhead pass, for example. From the beginning, teach proper form and enforce it. And then, as you introduce more complex passing drills, be sure to continue to stress good passing fundamentals - proper form needs to be enforced throughout all drills, at all times. When game time arrives, you want your players automatically using proper fundamentals - they can't be out on the court trying to remember how to pass. 2. Teach a Variety of Passes. Be sure players know how to use a variety of passes - chest pass, bounce pass, overhead pass, push pass - since different situations will require different passes carried out. In your basketball passing drills, this could mean a simple drill run several times, each time focusing on a different style of passing; or one drill that requires several types of passes to be used in some pre-determined combination; or a drill that places the player in a situation and he must react appropriately, choosing to use the most effective pass for the situation 3. Simulate game situations. At the beginning of the pre-season, your passing drills will be stand alone - two players passing the ball back and forth, working on form. But that only lasts for a couple of practices. Once the skills are learned well enough (which should only take two or three practices) basketball passing drills need to become more "game-like" - with players passing to players on the run, passing with defense creating pressure, making decisions and executing passes instantly under game-like pressure. Because that's how they will respond in the game. All basketball passing drills should emphasize best form and proper concentration, to build muscle memory so that, when the players are in the game, good mechanics come second-nature. In a game, there will be many situations in which players will not be able to use proper form - they will need to adapt their passing style to suit the situation. But without a base of good form, they will have little control and great difficulty passing effectively. We can't expect perfect passing form in the game all the time - too many variables that we can't control, and players require some freedom to improvise if they are going to be effective. But we can enforce good basketball passing techniques in practice. The better their form is in practice, the better it will transfer to the game. You'll find more of my thoughts on how to coach passing as well as some basketball passing drills on this page: Basketball Passing Drills from my Better Basketball Coaching website.About the Author:

Gary Donovan has been coaching varsity basketball for over fifteen years, and playing the game for many years more than that. Read more of his coaching advice on his website Better Basketball Coaching.

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