Just about every basketball player likes a big, air-conditioned gym with a luxurious parquet floor and two shiny glass backboards on either end of the court. But oftentimes, a player makes his biggest progress during the thousands of hours he spends working on his skills at home in the family driveway.
Stretching and Warming Up
Before doing anything, get your heart rate up with five to 10 minutes of light jogging. Then, devote equal time to thoroughly stretching your calves, quads, thighs, forearms, triceps and back muscles. Once sufficiently limbered up, take a few dozen shots from close in to the basket. Get your mind and body focused on your workout and pay attention to your shooting form to ensure that your mechanics are correct. It's easier to detect and fix flaws when you're shooting little 5-feet jumpers than when you move on to 23-foot three-pointers.
Layup Drills
Start off on the right-wing side of the basket, about 15 to 20 feet from the rim, and run in for a standard layup off the backboard. Then take the ball to the left wing and drive in for a layup from the other side, using your left hand. Perform 10 standard layups, and start back at the right wing position. Now, drive to the baseline, up and under the basket, and put in the reverse layup with your left hand. Duplicate the same move going from left to right. Be mindful of the need to keep your head up when driving toward the basket and avoid the impulse to look for the ball.
Shooting Exercises
Most shooting exercises benefit from having a partner or teammate standing near the basket to rebound and pass the ball out to you, but that’s a convenience and not a necessity. Start your shooting exercise by standing on either baseline, 15 feet from the basket. Shoot 10 shots from that location before moving to the next spot on the wing. Once you're done on the wing, proceed to the top of the key, then the other wing, then the other baseline until you've taken at least 10 shots from every spot on the semi-circle around the basket. Vary these regimented routines with random shots at varying distances, including three-point range.
Dribbling Drills
One of the best ways to become good at dribbling is simply to do a lot of it in half-court settings, either in one-on-one games or in shadow-matches against an invisible opponent. When playing alone, pretend you’ve got a fleet-footed defender guarding you aggressively, forcing you to protect the basketball and make decisive moves. Practice straight dribble drives to the basket, frontal, behind the back and through-the-legs crossovers, pull-up jump shots, step-back jump shots and pump fake step-through bank shots. For more formal dribble training, set up cones in a triangular pattern lengthwise along your driveway. Start at one end of the driveway, and dribble the basketball as quickly as you can between the cones on either side until you reach the other end of the pavement.
Passing
Passing is a bit more difficult to work on at home, outside of a team setting. If you have a sturdy concrete wall, you can practice a variety of chest and bounce passes against it. If you play in a more rural setting, see if you can hang an old tire from a tree limb and practice accurately rifling passes through it. Become good at traditional two-hand dishes, but also try to develop skills passing with each hand individually, as this will often allow you to get a split-second advantage on defenders in real games.
Free Throws
The driveway basketball court is an excellent venue for getting in a virtually unlimited number of free throws. Take the exercise seriously and be mindful of your shooting mechanics. Perform whatever free throw routines you do in a game, so that the practice is as authentic as possible. And keep track of how well you shoot. Aim for 75 percent or better on 100 free throws or more, and always keep trying to improve.
Member Comments