As I have mentioned before, the game of basketball requires so many skills. Successful basketball players must be able to pass, dribble, shoot, and finish. They must also have strength, power, speed, agility, and endurance. All of these attributes are skills that can and must be incoporated into a player’s basketball training regimen. Upon first look, this really seems like it would take a inordinate amount of time to train. However, if you get creative and combine multiple skills into the same drills you can cut down on training time and make the workout efficient and more basketball specific.
One way to combine skills is to incorporate the agility ladder into your workouts with the basketball. Agility is the ability to change direction efficiently and effectively. It requires balance, speed, strength, and coordination. In order to improve agility, a basketball player, or any athlete can work on each of those components (balance, speed, strength, and coordination) separately and also practice them together while training. One tool that accomplishes this is the agility ladder. Basketball requires many different movements from multiple angles thereby putting your body in unfamiliar positions. Agility ladder drills are designed to work a wide range of foot and movement patterns. When consistently practiced, these patterns become second nature to the player and consequently, they are able to respond to the various angles and movements that basketball requires.
Overall, agility ladder drills are functional and sports specific in nature, but by adding a basketball to the drill they become more basketball specific. In the video below, you will see how we have turned the agility ladder drills into two separate finishing drills. In the first drill, the ladder is set up on an angle to the basket ending near the three point line. The player is required to run through the ladder with the basketball and when they get to the end, push the ball out and finish at the rim. Any foot pattern that involves the player running through the ladder facing forward can be used in this drill. The player can also work on different types of finishes such as a regular layup, a reverse layup, jump stop and finish, or finish the front of the rim. A change of direction dribble can be added after the push out dribble and you can even push the ball out and pull up for a jumper. The combinations are endless.
In the second drill, the ladder is set up horizontally at half court. The player must now run through the ladder in any side to side foot pattern and upon finishing the ladder sprint to the rim for a pass and finish. This drill can be done with the basketball in hand as well. The player can hold the ball or pass back and forth to a partner at the three point line facing him. Once again the possibilities for this drill are limitless and you can incorporate different finishes, change of direction dribbles, and jump shots into the drill. It should be noted that whatever foot pattern you complete in one direction, you should also complete in the other direction.
By adding the agility ladder to your basketball training drills you are ultimately creating a drill that is more basketball specific and in the process, saving yourself a whole lot of time.
