7 Training Drills That Help Your Players Develop Athletic Skills

With the following basketball training drills, your players will be able to develop athletic skills they need to succeed: first step explosion, vertical jump, better acceleration, lateral movement quickness. These are all skills that are going to transfer into better basketball.

Linear and Lateral Jump and Stick

This is to get more balance and structural integrity into the joints for multi-directional sports. We need great body control. Start by jumping straight ahead and sticking and holding the landing–it’s a one-foot hop. Then switch legs and come back.

We want to force body control and stability out of ourselves. Suck and tuck so you keep good control of your core. The more you control your core, the more you can control your arms, legs, your opponent, and control the game.

Now go backward. Just take a moderate jump backward and try and stick and hold it. When we take that backward step and we need to break forward, we have to have the muscle strength and balance to be able to do that skill.

Let’s do lateral, going side to side. Push to the side, land on the opposite foot, stick and hold that position. Get control of the body for great multi-directional movement.

Do three sets of five with each leg.

Quarter Eagles

Start in a good athletic position. Just using the hips to move the feet, jump one-quarter turn each direction. One right and one left is one repetition. Do 5-10 repetitions per set.

We want to keep the head and shoulders facing forward and use the hips to move the feet. This is great rotational movement for agility and body control.

Balance Pick-Up Game

These are single-leg squats that work on balance, power, stability, and control. Slowly sit your hips down and back. Pick up an object, then slowly put it back down. It’s 5-7 seconds on the down and on the up. We want to isolate your power and keep the core locked in.

Each leg has to work independently. You’re going to balance it out by doing equal numbers with each leg. This drill is going to help you to get greater vertical jump, greater balance, and better body control.

Try and do sets of five with each leg. Start with one set a day, then build up so that you’re doing 3-5 sets three days a week.

Skip and Crossover

Skip and Crossover

Use the knee and the hip to do the crossover move–not the feet. Your feet will always follow your hips. Start with good posture. Suck in the belly button and tuck in the back for good body control. Drive the knee across the body by turning the hip. Try and lift the knee up as high as your hip. We want a full range of motion to teach all that whole muscle group what we want it to do and how we want it to react.

Down and back is one repetition so we have balance with each leg. Do five repetitions, three sets.

Carrioca

Carrioca

Here we’ve got hip control as well as our foot mechanics. We simply start with a backward step and then cross over in front. We want that knee to come high across the body. Full range of motion explosiveness on the crossover.  Suck in the belly button and tuck in the back for good posture. We want to work equally each direction.

Use the width of the court or the length of half the court as your measurement tool. Down and back is one repetition. Do three sets of three repetitions.

Drop Skip

Here we’re going to lift the knee up and open up the hip. The knee rotates out as we step down to the ground, staying on the front part of the foot. All good court athletes need this dropping action. Opening up those hips so you can open up to your opponent, open up to the play. That nice full range of motion makes for great agility.

Down and back is one repetition. Do three sets of three repetitions.

Linear and Lateral Run and Slide

Start with the run and stick drill. We want to stop the body from going one direction so that we can change and go another. Keep the hips down and under control. Make a solid core by sucking in your belly button and tucking in your lower back. Step down to the ground.

Now let’s take it just straight into a running action. Run forward, plant your right or left foot, and explode right into a back pedal. On your next repetition, use the other foot to plant and push back with.

Now let’s go backward to forward. Start with backward to stick and hold. Turn around, now plant with the other foot.

Now just go straight from a backpedal into a plant and break forward.

Next is lateral movement–right and left. We move to the right, stop and hold the landing. We want to stick that position so we have good body control. We have to stop the body from going one direction before we can get it to go the other. Once we get control, now we can go to continuous slide side to side. We want to have a good stable core by sucking in the belly button, tucking in the back, so we have more force at the ground.