Categories: Ballhandling / Dribbling  Offensive Moves  
Ages: All Ages  Youth  Middle School  High School+  

Purpose of the Drill:

The purpose of this drill is to allow players to work on creating space while using their back-dribble and then change directions.

Instructions

• The player will attack each chair off the dribble, one after the other, at full speed.
• As they approach the chair, they should use their back-dribble to create space for themselves as the chair represents a defender.
• They will then change directions with a change of direction move (crossover, between the legs, behind the back, etc.) and attack the rim for a finish.
• They then repeat the process at each chair.

Points of Emphasis:

• Attack at full speed. Not doing this, will defeat the purpose of using the back dribble.
• Push off the front leg in order to create more space for themselves.
• Work on attacking with both hands.
• Stay low in the backdribble and attack off the change of direction quickly.
• Work on finishing at the rim and shooting the jumper off the dribble.
• You can even incorporate a post player into this drill to allow the guard to drop off a pass to them.

Motivation/Teaching Tips:

• Use a prescribed number of made shots before moving on to the next chair.

Purpose of the Drill:

The purpose of the this drill is to apply pressure on the ball handler in a full court situation by forcing the ball handler in the direction that you want him to go. It also focuses on closing out in a full court situation and containing the dribble.

Instructions

Have the defender pass the ball to the ball handler and close out on him.

 

• As the player is closing out on the ball handler, it is one on one live to half court.
• The defensive player is zig zagging the offensive player.

• As the player is closing out on the ball handler, it is one on one live to half court.
• The defensive player is zig zagging the offensive player.

• Once at half court, the offensive player now turns and passes to the new ball handler and closes out on him, thereby becoming the new defender.

Points of Emphasis:

• Keep your ball handling low and quick.
• Change speeds and directions effectively while handling the basketball.
• Having active hands and active feet as you guard the ball handler.
• Turn the ball handler at least twice before half court.
• As you approach half court, force the ball handler toward the sideline. Do not allow him to come down the middle of the court.
• Sprint to your closeout. First steps are large then choppy feet as you approach the ball handler. Your feet should be heard.
• Closeout on the defender in a low, athletic, and balanced position with active hands in order to deflect passes and active feet in order to move with the ball handler.

Aside from training with sandbags, another great way to build stronger hands is to incorporate smaller medicine balls (4 or 6 pounds) into your basketball training workouts.  Playing catch with these size medicine balls will build grip strength because they are small enough to catch in your hand but large enough and heavy enough to make catching them difficult. 

Start by just tossing the medicine ball up and catching it with your elbow and forearm horizontal to the floor (like you would have your guard arm up while handling a basketball) and palm facing down and out.  This will challenge your hands to really grip the medicine ball as you catch it and force you to keep your guard arm up (anther common mistake that novice ball handlers make).  Do not catch the medicine ball under hand!  This is too easy and defeats the two main purposes of the drill: building grip stregnth and getting your guard arm up.  As you progress through this drill, the next step in this series would be to pound the basketball while executing the toss and catch with your opposite hand.  Once again, make sure that you are catching the ball with your arm up and palm facing out.  You could also have a partner toss you the medicine ball while you are dribbling the basketball.  This is a little more challenging since the medicine ball is now travelling a greater distance towards you for you to catch.  Finally, execute a change of direction move such as a crossover, a between the legs move, or a behind the back move while the medicine ball is in flight.   This will make the drill even more of a challenge because you now have to focus on the change of direction move as well as the medicine ball catch.  (These last two progressions that I mentioned are viewable in the video below).

If you have any other ideas on how to incorporate the smaller medicine balls into you basketball training workouts please let us now in the comments section.

A ball handling drill that can be used during your basketball training to help keep your head up is dribbling a basketball while tossing a tennis ball to yourself and catching it.  This drill requires extreme concentration and focus on the tennis ball in order to catch it, so there is no way that you can look down at the basketball while you are dribbling it.  Start this ball handling drill off by simply standing in place, pounding the basketball with one hand, and tossing the tennis ball up and catching it with the other.  The next step would be to add a change of direction dribble (ie. a crossover, between the legs, behind the back, etc.).  So stay in one spot, toss the tennis ball up, do a crossover dribble, and catch the tennis ball with the other hand.  The third step after you have mastered the first two would be to add movement.  Going full court using a zig zag pattern dribble the basketball and when you change direction with the basketball, toss the tennis ball up and catch it with the other hand.  You can and should use all your change of direction moves with these drills.  The final two steps would be to add double moves (double crossover, behind the back crossover, behind the back between the legs, double between the legs, etc.), and then double moves with movement. 

These final three steps can be seen in the video below where the player is first going full court zig zag  with a single move while tossing the tennis ball to himself.  Then he does a stationary double between the legs while tossing and catching the tennis ball.  Finally, he does the double between the legs move while dribbling full court.

When we train for ball-handling, things are no different.  There is always a series of fundamental ball-handling drills that my players start off with in order to  improve their base.  These drills usually consist of finger tip control, figure eights, circles, pounds, cross-overs, dribbling figure eights, push-pulls, etc. and they can be done for either a set amount of time or for a predetermined number of reps.   

Below is one of the fundamental ball-handling warmups that my players use before beginning their full court dribbling series.  The warmup only takes about five minutes and is great for building finger tip control, grip strength, balance, posture, and keeping their head up.  All of these are essentials to being a great ball-handler.