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

This finishing drill will improve players' conditioning, agility, dribbling, confidence, ability to make lay ups off a baseline drive, and finish near the basket.

The video below is an excerpt from our 30 Competitive Game-Like Skill Building Drills.

The offense and defense begin in a back to back position under the basket.

On the whistle, offense and defense go around the cones and go to the basket.

With reps and persistence, players learn how to finish at a high percentage and gain confidence.

Variation - Move defensive cone closer

This simumlates a situation where the offensive player has to figure out a way to finish when the help defense arrives early. This can be accomplished via side steps, floaters, runners, jump stops, reverse lay ups, etc.

More Variations

1. Play "make it take it". If the offensive player scores the basket, they get to go one more time (max of two shots in a row). Otherwise, they take one shot and go to end of line. One of the biggest benefits to "make it take it" is that players get different matchups almost every time through the line.
2. Instead of blowing a whistle, let the offensive player initiate the drill. Defense starts when they see the offense move. You can also let players in back of the line say "go".
3. Move cone so help defense comes from wing
4. Move cone so help defense comes from top
5. Limit players to certain moves (ex: floater, one foot lay up, or power lay up only)

Points of Emphasis

• No hard fouls. Light contact is fine, but we do not want our shooters hitting the deck in this drill. Defense can go for a block, but do not go hard into the body.
• Make sure you are switching sides after a few reps in all of the finishing drills to get your players accustomed to attacking from both sides of the floor.
• Work to get to the basket.
• Eyes on the rim when finishing.

Related Pages and Helpful Resources:

30 Competitive Game-Like Skill Building Drills
Competitive Finishing Basketball Drill Versus Weakside Help
How To Make Basic Lay Ups and Finish At The Goal
5 Pro Finishing Moves for Guards - Lay Ups
SKLZ Agility Cones - 20 2" cones

Comments Most Likes First   Oldest First   Newest First Coach Berry says: 10/19/2012 at 10:42:53 AM Nice drill idea for tryouts! Good job. Like     login   register Rick Kaplan says: 10/21/2012 at 8:19:58 AM I am an AAU coach and the drill shown here is unique and teaches players important skills. Like     login   register Steve Dilley says: 10/23/2012 at 3:33:56 PM Like the drill (from the corner) and the concept. We do this with the cones at the elbows. also, place players in corners -- off cone is @ mid-court & defense cone around VB spike line. Play it 1-on-1. These situations create a game like situation. Like     login   register Willard Chakanyuka says: 7/24/2016 at 9:02:53 AM I am a high school coach. The drill helps with all ny teams from junior to senior Like     login   register

Leave a Comment Name : Email (not published) : Four plus fifteen is equal to?  (Prevents Spam) Answer :  Load New Question Comments : Leave this Blank :