Like anything else, to develop a good passer, the player and/or team must practice that particular skill.  With limited time during the season to work on your team’s defensive and offensive schemes, passing drills tend to take a back seat if they even get a seat at all.  So that pushes the development of that skill to the offseason, and players usually do not incorporate passing drills into their workouts.  Consequently, players do not end up learning the fundamental skill of passing.   For players to be effective passers, they must work on passing as an individual skill but also within the team concept.  In doing so, the following teaching points should be focused on:

• Crisp passes.  There are too many players that float their passes and that leads to steals for their opponent.  Using a medicine ball or a weighted basketball will help develop this skill.
• Follow through.  Following through will help with making the pass crisper and also more direct.  Players should point their index finger of the hand they are throwing with at the target that they are throwing to.
• Ball fake.  Often times players throw the ball directly off the hands of their opponent because it is telegraphed. A good ball fake will help alleviate this issue.
• Vary your passes.  Players need to be able to throw all kinds of passes with both hands…YES, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO PASS WITH YOUR OFF HAND TOO. 

It is a necessity that passing gets incorporated back into a player’s skill development as well as team practices.  This will go a long way toward eliminating this major defficiency in the game of basketball.  When doing so, emphasize the key points that are mentioned above and do not let your basketball players develop bad passing habits.   The following video is of a drill that is called Footfire Passing.  It is a simple drill that can be used to develop crisp passing while also incorporating footwork and conditioning.

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.

Proper footwork keeps you balanced throughout the basketball game.  Balance is achieved while players are in a good athletic stance, but what is a good athletic stance?  To start, a player’s feet should be underneath their hips.  From there, slightly bend at the knees and hips so that your shoulders are over the center of your feet.  A simple way to achieve this is pretend to sit down and as you are doing so, shift your hips back.  This position is a good athletic stance.  Maintaining this stance will help you keep your center of gravity thereby giving you proper balance.   

Pivoting while maintaining good balance and footwork is a skill that needs to be practiced.  Whether defending, dribbling, or trying to get a shot off, there is a good chance that you will have to pivot.  In order to keep your balance while pivoting it is imperative that you are on the balls of your feet.  By doing so, you will be able to pivot more efficiently consequently allowing you to change directions faster or get your shot off quicker.

In the video below, the player is going through a series of pivots and taking different types of shots.  This drill is called that Quick Reaction Series.  As the passer passes the player the ball, he calls out a direction (right or left).  The player then pivots in that direction and takes his shot.  The goal is to get the player to achieve proper balance and footwork on the pivot in order to get his shot off efficiently and at a game like speed.  There are many other variations of this drill that can be done, one of which is doing it on the side rather than straight on.  If you have any others, feel free to let us know.