How To Develop A Team Full Of Stephen Curry's - Skilled Shooters & Ball Handlers

Great advice! One of my favorite 1 on 1 drills is to have the players line up on the baseline while the coach stands between them with the ball. The coach then lobs the ball so it takes a high bounce a bit before center court. At the same time, the coach yells "go." The first player to the ball, provided the player controls it, becomes offense on a fast break to the basket on the far end of the court, and has to finish with a layup. The player who didn't get the ball becomes defense on the play. Note, with an assistant coach on far end, the same two players run the drill back the other direction. Several of these in a row not only improves dribbling, finishing layups, and aggressiveness, but also physicality. My middle schoolers love this drill, and gain a lot of individual confidence to finish the play on a fast break, and they always want to continue the drill.
Ok, I know many of you probably already do this drill, but it is my favorite and hopefully someone new to coaching younger players, and not familiar with this drill, will give it a try.

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Joe Haefner says: 5/5/2015 at 8:02:23 AM Thanks for sharing, Alan! I will definitely add that to the repertoire. Like     login   register

I agree with Joe Haefner regarding the dribbling limits in practice.

I believe they are very helpful in that they teach players to not over dribble in a game. As a HS coach for 26 years, I have never had a problem with a player dribbling too little but have had problems with too much dribbling.

I have even used a ball that is deflated so it can not be dribbled at all and this makes the other players set screens, v cut, etc... to get open before the time expires. It helps get players to be aware that they need to move with a purpose within the offense.

That's my 2 cents worth.

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Good suggestions. the only one I question is the dribble limit. not due to it being bad but in a real game you will not have such a limitation. some situations may occur off certain moves where a player may be able to beat a player on that last dribble but remembers that he or she remembers the restriction and may take a uncomfortable shot(internal rhythm disrupted).

other restrictions to limit bad habits are

no back downs from outside the post(can call for limited post play unless game is strictly post or perimeter 1 on 1)

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I agree with JC on the dribble limit. Though I understand the objective of the limit, we can see on all levels how beneficial it is for a team to have players able to handle the ball for prolonged periods under pressure. Coupled with good decision-making, this ability might arguably be the most important skill for a star backcourt player.

I would say p. 6 on the list above sums the whole thing up nicely and includes everything else. In a real game you''re not very often limited to a certain number of dribbles or seconds. Instead, what you have to deal with is constant help, attempts to direct you where you don''t want to go, etc.

One thing that makes most of the 1-on-1 drills inefficient is when both parties are stationary at the beginning of the drill. "Give me the ball", all that stuff.
On the other hand, any drill that would include catching the ball on the go (after a screen, curl, etc.), quick help in case of any hesitation (double teaming the offender should she turn her back to the defender, for example) and somewhat unbalanced starting conditions for participants (for they''re always unequal in a game, and I don''t think many coaches like it when their players, however talented, try to force the thing without having any situational advantage over their opponent) should be very useful for development of all players involved.

So, to me, the task really divides into two parts: how to find or create advantage over your opponent; and then how to use this advantage. It''s not like you play 1 on 1 plain and simple; there should be some additional components to a drill allowing even a relatively weaker player come out on top if she is able to use situational benefits to her advantage. Becoming better in using such situations, in my opinion, is a more reliable way to success than trying to do too much.

For example: if a guy can''t beat anybody with 10 dribbles, I wouldn''t have him try to beat them with 3; instead, I''d create a somewhat beneficial situation for this weaker player and challenge him to use it. Before, it was too hard for him and too easy for his opponent; now, they both have to work hard with equal chance of success.

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Thank you for your input, Stepan & JC!

The dribble limits are not a hard & fast rule. They are too be used for certain drills and not for other drills.

For example, we use drills like 30-second guard war and 1v2 full court. These drills will have more dribbling.

Of the teams and players that I've coached, I've never had an under-dribbling problem, but I've had plenty of over-dribbling problems. Hence, the dribble limits.

Here are why these rules are important to our teams:

1. Catch and dribble. Too many players have the habit of catching and immediately dribbling. They instantaneously lose the advantage maintaining their pivot foot. This allows the help defense to get set. It also stalls ball movement. The more the ball moves via the pass or the dribble, the more likely the defense will break down.

2. Extra dribbling allows help defense to get set. If you are taking more dribbles, this is taking more time. This enables the defense to get set.

Taking the extra dribbles gives the advantage back to the defense.

Also, due to human error, the more you dribble, the more likely you are to make a dribbling error which can result in a turnover.

3. The dribble limits teach you to be efficient with your dribble and attack the goal immediately. You are quicker to the basket. The defense is more likely to be out of position which often leads to a scoring opportunity or the defense committing a foul.

As for the taking a bad shot due to dribble limits, I can not think of one time that we took a bad shot because of a dribble limit. It doesn't mean that it didn't happen, but I'm sure it's rare.

To me, that's a teaching error. If you don't have a good shot, quick stop, pivot and find the open player. We teach you to take a high-percentage shot that you know your coach would expect from you.


These are just a few reasons that popped into my head... we appreciate your thoughts as it causes us to really study our concepts effectively. Sometimes, us coaches, forget to analyze why we do things.

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Joe, I agree with your points. What I tried to get across was just some slightly different angle at the problem. I'm for changing starting conditions of a drill rather than imposing conditions on the players. I mean, you might use 15 dribbles to score from the paint while ALREADY having your opponent on your back (because that's what we have constructed as a pre-condition, that an offender has this advantage), but will you? Even the slowest-thinking, mega abusive dribbler will take one or two to score an easy bucket. Or not so easy, it depends on the drill.
Anyway, the nature of the drill guides you, not some rules that you have to remember. And then in a real-game situation you might ask your player: have you had that kind of advantage seconds ago when you started dribbling against three defenders with your back to the basket, 30 feet away? You haven't? Then next time don't dribble at all. When do I dribble? When you have an advantage. How do I get one? By working your defender the way you did in practice and then using the situation the way you did in practice.

I'm pretty sure we're talking about the same thing, and there is a lot of great drills of "my" type on your wonderful site. I just tried to emphasize the point that sometimes it's better to construct a situation and let players do whatever they like in that situation—without having to remember any extra rules.

To give yet another angle: some guys are more of a catch and shoot type, some others need to nurse the ball a little to feel confident. They might overdribble at times... they might somewhat hinder the progress of the offense. But that's what they need to feel involved in a game. And you as a coach might want to encourage them to do that because, eventually, it will help your team.

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Thanks for the explanation, Stepan. I appreciate it!

"Do what you're good at." Some of the best advice a player could ever use.

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