100 Basketball Training Drills For Players

Home > Player > Training Drills

Text:100+ Training Drills for Players, Image player completing lay-up drill

Do you want to take your game to the next level?

Check out these basketball training drills given to us by proven coaches with years of experience at the high school, Div I college, and NBA level.

We created this page for you, THE PLAYER, so you don't have to search and sort through all of the drills to find what basketball drills will work for you. Many of the basketball drills can be done by yourself, but there are a few that you need a partner to perform the basketball drill.

Coaches, click on Basketball Drills For Coaches for drills that apply to you.

Players, use this menu to jump to the drills you want.

  1. Shooting Drills
  2. Offensive Moves
  3. Lay Ups & Finishing
  4. Rebounding
  5. Defense & Agility Drills
  6. Passing Drills
  7. Dribbling Drills
  8. Warm Up Drills
  9. Post Play Drills
  10. Conditioning Drills
  11. Footwork
  12. Training Tips

Running Basketball Drills the Right Way

The first thing to realize is that the great players focus on the little things.

Too many players make the mistake of starting the basketball drill and just running through the motions.

To get better, each basketball drill needs to have a purpose and you really need to focus and work hard to improve.

We urge you to take the time to learn the detailed fundamentals of basketball. And then run the drills to train your body to perform those fundamentals without even thinking about it.


You'll notice that we tried to categorize the drills for you, but many of the drills here are multi-purpose which means they work on other skills as well. A ballhandling drill may include footwork and passing. A shooting drill may include conditioning. The multipurpose format helps to simulate gameplay and is time efficient to get the most out of the skill work.


20 Basketball Shooting Drills

The ONLY Shooting Drills Resource You EVER Need

Form Shooting

Ray Allen Shooting Drill

Kevin Durant Shooting Workout and Drills

4 Spot Fast Break Shooting Drill

Wing to Wing

Chair Curl /Chair Curl with 2 Chairs

Improve Your Shooting & Conditioning With The Hornacek Drill

Short-Long Shooting Drill

Three Competitive Shooting Drills

Wing Screen

5 Unique Form Shooting Drills

Shooting Off The Dribble - 30 Point Drill

Drop Step Shooting Drill

555 Shooting Drill

2 Player Decision Shooting

Rocker Shooting Drills

Shooting Drill - Improve Decision-Making Off The Catch

String Spacing - Dribble At Post

String Spacing - Dribble At Wing


15 Offensive Moves Drills

One on One Moves Drill

Improve Getting Open and Scoring With The 1 on 1 Multi-Spot Game

High Five 1on1

1v1 Dribbling Drill and 3 Back Up Dribble Moves

1 v 1 Speed Dribble

1v1 Overlap

The Forgotten Lay Up Situation (Includes Drill)

1 on 1 Trailing Lay-Up Drill

2 Beilein Finishing Drills

Finishing Moves Off the Pass

Euro Finishing Drill

Foster 1v1 Drill

4 Small Guard Finishing Moves (Some Advanced Moves)

1 on 1 Post Moves Drill

Baseline 1 on 1 Escape


18 Layup And Finishing Drills

Kyrie Irving Mikan Drill With 12 Variations

Tight Cone Warm Don Kelbick

Wichita State Attack Series

2 Beilein Finishing Drills

3 Competitive Dribble Penetration Shooting Drills That Improve Spacing, Ball Handling, Passing, and Team Offense

Ballhandling Drill: Chair Changes

Ballhandling Drill: Drop step Dribble

Ballhandling Drill: Two Up, Two Back

Lay Up Progressions

1 on 1 Post Moves Drill

The Arc Finishing Drill

Euro Finishing Drill

1 on 1 Trailing Lay-Up Drill

Figure 8 Hook Shots

Beatem to the Left

4 Small Guard Finishing Moves (Some Advanced Moves)


7 Rebounding Drills

Basketball Drill: McHale Lay-Ups

Improve Your Post Player's Touch Around The Basket With These 5 Drills

Mikan Drill

Taps Drill

Two on Two Box Out

1 on 1 Post Moves Drill


15 Agility / Defense Drills

Basketball Defense & Agility Drill: Diamond Drill

Man in the Hole

Defensive Footwork Progressions

Star Close-Out Drill

Cat & Mouse Drill For Ball Handling & Defense

Foster 1v1 Drill

Tight Spaces Ball Handling Drill

Bounce Closeout 1 on 1 Drill

1 on 1 Wing Close Outs

Deflect More Passes With This Drill

1v1 Ball Handling & Defensive Drill - Earn Your Dribbles

Basketball Defense Drill: Corner Close Live

Defensive Slide Drill - Cup Slides


8 Passing Drills

Two Ball Combo Drill

Pair Passing

Monkey in the Middle

3 Wall Passing Drills

String Spacing - Dribble At Wing

String Spacing - Dribble At Post

Partner Pass and Pivot Drill

10 Creative Passing & Footwork Drills - NO Partner Needed


15 Dribbling Drills

2-1-0 Stationary Dribbling Drills

Ballhandling Drill: Two Up, Two Back

Utilize Three Ball Drills for Advanced Guards

The Arc Finishing Drill

Cone Grab Finishing Drill

Extension Footwork

Tight Cone Warm Up

Separation Dribble - Down and Backs

4 Dribble Moves To Complement A Killer Crossover

Tight Spaces Ball Handling Drill

1v1 Ball Handling & Defensive Drill - Earn Your Dribbles

1v1 Dribbling Drill and 3 Back Up Dribble Moves

Dribble Screens

Two Ball Dribbling

Basketball Pick and Roll Drills

1 on 2 Pressure Ballhandling Drill


12 Post Play Drills

1 on 1 Post Moves Drill

Figure 8 Hook Shots

2 Beilein Finishing Drills

Mikan Drill

Kyrie Irving Mikan Drill With 12 Variations

Low Post Chair Pivot

Split Post Chair

Power Dribble Into

Rapid Fire Post Moves

Drop Step

Drop Step Counter

Develop Your Drop Step Move With This Roll The Ball Drill


9 Warm Up Drills

Dynamic Warm Up

Cat & Mouse Drill For Ball Handling & Defense

3 Cone - Groove Finishing Drill

Tight Cone Warm Up

Separation Dribble - Down and Backs

3 Wall Passing Drills

Star Close-Out Drill

Capture The Flag Dribbling

Dribble Tag - Everyone It


10 Conditioning Drills

Defensive Slide Drill - Cup Slides

Improve Your Ability To Finish At The Rim With The Corner Finishing Drill

Improve Your Shooting and Conditioning With The Hornacek Shooting Drill

Man in the Hole

1v1 Overlap

Star Close-Out Drill

Videos from app with ballhandling drills

Rapid Fire Post Moves

Continuous 1 on 1 Games

Best Speed Drills

12 Footwork Drills

1 on 1 Ball Tough Drill

1 on 1 Zipper Cut Drill

Jump Stop Drill

Chair Pivot

Post Moves and Skills: Drop Steps

Wing Combo

Partner Pass and Pivot Drill

Perimeter Chair Rips

Getting Open - Wing Cuts

How To Greatly Reduce Turnovers With These Body Control Drills

Defense Drill: 1 2 3 Progression

Improve Getting Open and Scoring With The 1 on 1 Multi-Spot Game



Training Tips: Partner Shooting Drills or Shooting By Yourself

If you are training with a partner or by yourself, here are some great ways to organize your shooting drills to maximize efficiency and to make the drills as game-like as possible. That way, you actually shoot better during games instead of just during practice!

You also learn a great way to practice game-like reactions that are random without a defender. Prior to the shot, you don’t know what you’re going to do. Just like a game, the repetition changes each time on whether to shoot, attack, or pass.


Partner Shooting - Change Location of Passer

Many players make the mistake of practicing all of their partner shooting drills with one rebounder under the basket who continuously rebounds and throws the pass back out. There is certainly a time and place for this.

However, if you always practice this way, you’re making a big mistake! How many times during the game do you receive passes from many different locations on the floor? Probably a lot.

Instead of having the passer under the basket, you position the passer to different locations on the floor where you typically receive passes during the game. That way, you are practicing shooting from areas that you actually receive passes.

In the following video, NBA trainer Don Kelbick explains how to do this with your shooting drills.


Shooting Drills By Yourself - Spin Outs

If you’re shooting by yourself, many shooting drills can be adapted to work for you.

One simple way is to use spin outs. You would spin the ball out away with backspin. Then you would cut to the ball, turn and face the basket, and shoot.

Here is a video that shows you how.


Using Chairs - For Cuts Where Spin Outs Don’t Work

You can also place the ball on a chair prior to each shot to practice cuts where spin outs are too difficult to use and still execute the cut. L-Cuts, fades, and curl cuts would be good examples of this.

Here is how to use chairs to do this.


Using Chairs With a Helper

Chairs can also be good to use if you have somebody to help who is not a very good passer. This can be a friend, sibling, guardian, or anybody. After each shot, they can retrieve the ball and place it back on the chair. That way, you don’t have to waste your time rebounding. You can immediately start your next repetition and you can get more shots up.


Important! How To Game-Like Random Shots With No Defenders

Every time you catch the basketball, you have to make choices. However, how often do you do that in your shooting drills!? A lot of players and even coaches neglect this important aspect of shooting drills. This can be part of the reason that some players shoot great during drills but poorly during games! They never train this way!

1v1 shooting drills and other 2v2 and 3v3 drills can easily take care of this. And you should definitely do a lot of this in your training.

However, what do you do if you don’t have a defender to compete against? Or maybe you just want to get a lot of shooting repetitions up to develop some rhythm and confidence?

It’s simple. You just need to find somebody who can rebound and display visual cues.

Even if you have defenders available, this can be used as a great progression prior to playing against live defenders.

Coach Chris Oliver shows you how to do this in the following drill. It’s pretty cool!


Comprehensive Workouts for Players - And All Around Development Drills

Attack & Counter Basketball Workouts – Developed by NBA Skills Coach (Over 300 Drills)

Progressive Ballhandling & Footwork Workouts You Can Do At Home - App Includes Over 200 Drills


Basketball Camps

If you are looking to take your game to the next level through basketball camps and regional training, check out these pages.

Breakthrough Basketball Skill Development Camps