Summer Basketball: Individual Development Drills

Summer Basketball: Individual Development Drills

Summer stands out as one of most integral points for any basketball program from year to year. This stretch of time allows for both individual and team-wide development, depending upon your set up. No matter if you’re participating in summer basketball team camps or simply conducting workouts, giving your players specific summer basketball development drills will make all the difference come next season.

However, like teams, not all developmental drills are created equal. Coaches need to scale the drills to optimize the success for their players. Provide your team with different phases to progress through as the summer moves on, and this will allow your basketball players to maximize these developmental drills.

Summer Basketball Individual Development Drills: The Basics

The first phase of your summer basketball development drills should address the basic skills your players need to master. This set of exercises remains particularly useful for youth basketball teams, especially those with younger players just getting into the sport. The drills here help players with the familiarization of necessary skills for competitive play. (Court length is 94 feet from baseline to baseline.)

  • Full Court, Right-handed Dribble
    • You should go down go down and back the court without losing control once before switching to the next drill. If you lose control, start over. Practice maintaining control, balance and stability in dribbling. ​
  • Full Court, Left-handed Dribble
    • You should go down go down and back the court without losing control once before switching to the next drill. If you lose control, start over. Practice maintaining control, balance and stability in dribbling. ​
  • One-handed layups, right side
    • You should make at least 70 percent before finishing. Don’t run for these layups, stand under the basket and use the backboard. This is a variation of the Mikan Drill.
  • One-handed layups, left side
    • You should make at least 60 percent. Don’t run for these layups, stand under the basket and use the backboard.
  • One-handed form shooting
    • Start within 2-3 feet of the basket standing in the paint. Practice same form every shot. Once you’ve made three in a row, take one step back, and do the same process. Must make three in a row to move back. Continue until you reach the free throw line.
  • Free Throws
    • Complete the same pre-shooting routine every time. Take a deep breath before you shoot and don’t move over the line. Start with 20 free throws and keep track of how many you make.

Summer Basketball Individual Development Drills: Intermediate Work

The next phase of your summer basketball development drills should up the skill-level necessary to complete each exercise. This intermediate work stands to sharpen each player’s skill if completed correctly and consistently.

  • Full Court, Crossover Dribble
    • You should go down go down and back, using a crossover dribble to switch hands every two dribbles,  without losing control once before moving on to the next drill. If you lose control, start over. Practice maintaining control, balance and stability in dribbling. ​
  • Wing Layups
    • Start from the three-point line and complete slow, half, and full speed layups where you finish under the basket. From the right side, make at least 70 percent of your shots. From the left, at least 60 percent. Use the backboard with each layup attempt.
  • Elbow Shooting
    • Start on the right side, free throw line extended. Similar to the form shooting drill from the basics phase, practice same form every shot. Once you’ve made three in a row, shift to the left side and do the same process. Add a set number for completion.
  • Spot Shooting
    • Find a spot on the court within the three-point arc. Start 8-10 feet away from that spot, dribble quickly to it, pull up and shoot. Focus on stopping and shooting with good form. Complete a walk through the first couple of times if necessary. Do this for the same spot at least 15 times and keep track of how many shot you make.
  • Free Throws
    • Complete the same pre-shooting routine every time. Take a deep breath before you shoot and don’t move over the line. Start with 20 free throws and keep track of how many you make.

Individual Development Drills Progression

These summer basketball development drills can be completed both individually or within a team setting. The beauty of these basic and intermediate exercises is they can be incorporated into team workouts or players can complete them on their own at a neighborhood park or with at their basketball hoop at home.

Over the summer, players should look to complete these drills at least five times a week, unless they’re involved in other sports. But even if a player is participating in summer training for another sport, they should crave out time to complete these summer basketball development drills so as to not fall behind.


Related: Summer Team Basketball Work

Resources:


Coach Unplugged Podcast

Ep: 1083 Summer Basketball Takeways

Ep: 1072 Favorite Summer Coaching Books


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Lessons Learned From The 2018 NBA Playoffs

Lessons Learned From The 2018 NBA Playoffs

“Lessons Learned From The 2018 NBA Playoffs”

*S.E.O. Words: Intensity, Desperation, Motivation

Year after year, the NBA Playoffs offer us all a front row seat to the game of basketball being played at it’s highest level. However, even the top seeded teams can often fall short of that level when it comes to playing with maximum effort. In any given game, most NBA Teams can be trusted to play their hardest, but in a “best of 7” series, there are far more opportunities for human nature to sink in. Following a loss, the most common NBA Playoff Team adjustment is usually not schematic, but simply to play with more energy and determination.

Coaches have used several different buzz words over the years to describe either how an abundance of effort led to victory, or how a lack of effort led to defeat. In the past, the most frequently used buzz word was “desperation”, which has graced the narrative of many post-game press conferences and off-day interviews. However, in 2018, the new buzz word appears to be “force”, which ironically has been used most by Head Coach Steve Kerr of the Defending Champion Golden State Warriors. Regardless of whether “desperation” or “force” best describes maximum effort. What’s most important is why it alludes a team to begin with, and how to get it back when it does.

Overconfidence is the most common contributing factor, and also the most damaging. Overlooking any opponent brings about consequences that often cannot be reversed. Coaches of all levels can learn a valuable lesson from this years NCAA Tournament, in which a #16 seed beat a #1 seed for the first time ever. The concept of “rest vs rust” is also a major factor, when a team is affected by having either too much rest, or not enough. Lastly, is a lack of 3-dimensional preparation. Most preparation is based on 1-D and 2-D tendencies, such as preparing for an opponent that plays fast, or tries to dominate the paint. An example of 3-D preparation would be discovering that your opponent has a hidden motivation, such as a team member dealing with a tragedy, or perhaps a hidden revenge angle. That hidden motivation could make this game extra emotional for them, causing them to play with maximum effort and increased intensity. That could be huge problem if you as a coach are unaware of it, and your players enter the game at only a standard motivation level. Bottom line, there are infinite reasons why a team can lack effort in any game, at anytime, at any level. These are just a few details to keep an eye on.

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Summer Basketball : Building a Basketball Program

Summer Basketball : Building a Basketball Program

First, I want to say thank you to Coach Collins for asking me to do this Blog for Teach Hoops.  Two things you need to know about me is that I am not all knowing, and I am always learning how to better myself as a coach.

 

Right now at the college, we are just kinda at a wait and see period for some recruits with an attempt to find that gem that went under recruited by the 4 year schools.  Yes, I am assistant at junior college in Wisconsin, but before that I coached 5 years as a varsity boys coach and I almost coached every level below that since my coaching journey started in 2005.  As I sit typing my Blog in the sun over Memorial Day Weekend, I ponder the question….why are coaches so busy in the summer?

 

First, I think it’s important to know that all coaches are not busy in the off-season.  For example, I consider myself as a college coach to have a lot of free time. But, my position is much different from when I coached Varsity Boys Basketball at the high school level.  My current summer commitments reside in help running two youth camps and support supervision for open gyms. But, I know how much work consist in the summer for High School coaches in the summer.  And in reality without summer, I think it would be impossible for coaches to function without it. Summer is a time for development, trial and error, and logistics. Here is a list of items I have done in one summer as a head coach.

 

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  1. Coach summer league games

  2. Support and watch JV summer league games

  3. Open and supervise skill sessions 3-4 times per week

  4. Plan and Run 3 different youth basketball camps

  5. Watch and review 8 different basketball coaching dvds

  6. Organize and host summer fundraiser

  7. Attend overnight summer tournament with players

  8. Coach summer tournament at a local high school

  9. Plan fall fundraiser

  10. Complete practice schedule for HS program

  11. Weekly open gym

  12. Plan out special game nights for the season: Goldout, Parents’ night, Throwback Night, and etc

  13. Rank and evaluate talent for the upcoming season

  14. Plan and meet with youth program board monthly to plan for fall registration, budget, and other agenda items

  15. Facilitate 10,000 Shot Club

  16. Host HS Summer Camp

  17. Diagram and review old sets for all situations

  18. Try and tweak new sets, defenses, offenses with team opportunities

  19. Meet with High School staff weekly

  20. Plan and organize online shoe and apparel stores for upcoming season

 

Wow!   I forget how much I did in the summer for preparation for the upcoming season.  The question you really asking is why? Winning is hard work, and frankly my tenure at my previous job  had only small moments of success. I worked harder than most of my players. Personally, I saw more growth in the youth program with future players coming up the ranks in next the 5 years.  But, building a program takes time and making the right decisions through the journey. The worst decision I made was not facilitating the workload to others to provide more time for my own team.  My advice to young coaches is create a pipeline of people to work under you. Build and maintain positive relationships with other coaches, parents, and community members to support building your program.  Your support system comes down to finding individuals that believe in your program and our invested in the program not their child. Again, the process takes time to build a program, which you have to be careful about picking the right job.  That is something I can address in a later Blog.

 

Summer is a period of time for coaches to eliminate clutter during the season.  It’s impossible to do the items above plus coach your team during the season. It would be overload.  I feel the many of items on my list provide clarity and direction for the season to come. You can learn about your players and how they respond to certain offense and defensive schemes.  The regular season has not enough for trial and error and building your identity. 10 practices and your competing in your first game.


Finally, coaching isn’t a full-time job that pays the bills unless you make it to the big time.  I currently still teach 5th grade and coach other sports as well. Without using summer, I believe no one could function during the regular season, unless your single and retired.  Please email with questions regarding my blog at jacobjaysteger@gmail.com.

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Why my son IS playing AAU Basketball

Why my son IS playing AAU Basketball

This is one of many letters I received about the video and podcast I did concerning my son not playing AAU and summer basketball.  I thought I would share

 

Steve,

Appreciate your views on this and agree with much of it.  However a few observations:

I train my son  and his skill development has exploded in the last few years.  But, as you know, there are tons of kids who can “kill a drill” but can’t perform when there’s 10 guys on the court.  When you have defensive pressure and lots of decision-making in a game situation, those skills can all of a sudden look a lot different.  You just can’t simulate that environment in the quiet of a gym while developing skills.  I know every good trainer tries to develop an athlete’s skills while doing “game-like” drills.  But it is just not the same.  Actual “games” must be played and it’s becoming really hard to find them outside of the AAU tourney scene.

In AAU ball, my son has learned “toughness” that he never had before, and would have never developed, in a training session in any kind of drill.  There’s a clock, there’s a scoreboard, there’s fans, there’s referees, and there’s personal “pride” at stake.  When he was getting beat up in an AAU game, he either had to fight back or get crushed.  He chose to fight back and it has served him so well.  He hasn’t turned into an aggressive maniac, but acquired just the right amount of toughness and aggressive mentality that will enable him to play high school basketball.  I guarantee he would not be in the same place at this moment without AAU basketball.  (He’ll never be a college recruit, but he setting himself up to have a ton of fun playing HS basketball.)

It’s really difficult to supplement skills training with “games” without having a place to actually play games.  You and I know there aren’t a lot of parks or gyms that young athletes use to play meaningful “pickup” games that aren’t tied to their schools.  We’ve tried playing in the local clubs and the games are mostly garbage for development purposes.  Please don’t take this personally, but being a father who is a head coach gives your son access to a gym and I’m only assuming a place where players can get together to play decent pickup games (if WIAA allows, which I believe it does) during the summer.  Not everyone has that.

I do agree that AAU travel is ridiculous.  I myself coach a boys AAU team  and my HS daughter plays AAU and I see that the competition 1 hour away is not substantially different than competition 4+ hours away.  I also agree it’s way more games in a weekend than necessary.  But of course, the tournaments are making money and they aren’t going to set up tournaments where you only play 2-3 games — which in my opinion would be plenty to supplement skill development.

AAU is ridiculous for kids under 12 years of age (and maybe that’s too young).  The most physically mature kids dominate and nothing real productive gets done an AAU format for those young kids.  But parents are feeling good that their kid “played AAU”.

I assume the birth of AAU must have been to get the very best players exposure for college.  And it probably then trickled down to younger and younger age groups.

Bottom line — I think there’s value in AAU but I think it’s overhyped.  At the same time, in order to become a better basketball player, it takes more than reps in the gym.  Those skills have to be tested in a game format.  I played DI college baseball and there was plenty of guys who hit .300+ in “batting practice” but in a game, for some it was a completely different story.  It’s all a “balance” (skills practice + games) which I know is what your message is all about.

Thanks for making your video and providing quality content on Teachoops.com !!!

Regards,

Concerned Father

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