2 Ways To Make Shooting Drills More
Competitive In Team Workouts and Practices

If you are working out multiple players or if you’ve having a team practice, here are a couple of great ways to make your shooting drills more competitive.

This creates an environment that forces your players to execute cuts at game speeds which will translate to making more shots during the game.

Not to mention, players will like this and enjoy coming to your workouts or practices.

1. Time Limit

   You determine a set amount of time... usually anywhere from 2 minutes to 5 minutes works great. The team with the most baskets at the end of the allotted time wins.

2. One Player Wins

   You can run a drill where each shooter rotates after every shot. The first shooter to X amount of made baskets wins.

   Usually, anywhere between 5 and 10 makes is sufficient. With younger teams, you might do 3 made baskets.

   In order to make the shots, I have found that some players will not execute the drill at game speed.

   In order to execute the drill at a game speed, we implemented a rule that said, “The basket does not count if the cut is not game speed.”

Rotating Players In Drills:

For rotating players, you can have the drill function in two ways.

Rotation #1 - Same Shooters (1 to 2) for Set Time or Reps

For smaller groups of under 6 or less, I like to have one or two players shooting during the drill at a time. This also implements a conditioning aspect with a very effective work-to-rest ratio that simulates the game of basketball.

I will rotate the shooters every 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on my objectives.
I blow the whistle or yell “rotate” when I want the shooters to switch.

However, I don’t give any instructions on how to rotate the shooters. I want players to communicate and figure out the solutions on their own.

Usually, the best communicators transition more efficiently and take more shots. Often, this results in them winning the competition. Good communication often correlates to success on and off the court.

Here are some rules...

• You can’t shorten the distance of the cut. If you do, the shot does not count. You can usually use a cone to make sure players do this properly.

• The second rule is that each shooter must complete a rotation before any shooter starts their next rotation. For example, each shooter must complete 3 rotations before another shooter completes their 4th rotation and so on.

This drill Fast Break Shooting Drill - 12 Players, 1 Hoop will show you how the rotation works.

Rotation #2 - Rotate Shooter Every Rep

This is where you have players rotate between lines on every shot. I like this for larger groups when we have more than 6 players.

Like the rotation #1, I will use cones to make sure players execute the full distance of the cut and don't cheat the drill.

The drill below shows the rotation.

For splitting up the teams, you can have a team of 3 to 8 players at each basket. You can also split a basket and have a team on each side.

We hope this helps you develop better players and have more competitive, fun practices.

Let us know what you think of the ideas above and if you have any additional ideas to share to make shooting drills more competitive.

Related Resources:

Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Camps

Recommended Shooting Resources - Training Aids / Videos / Etc.

3 Competitive Shooting Drills

What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...