With the off-season here, small group workouts become even more important to the development of your players’ individual skills. Instead of exclusively practicing stand-still shooting or random off-the-dribble shooting, why not use the summer months to improve both your team shooting and your offensive system as a whole?
Our team runs an offense resembling Dribble Drive actions. So not only do we want them driving to score, we also want them developing the skills of stopping, pivoting, passing, and relocating. Here are three drills that incorporate those skills along with the player movement required to effectively run our offensive system.
Attack the Triple Gap
One of the fundamental actions within DDM is the drive off the slot-to-slot pass. Creating space after the pass then attacking the “triple gap” forces corner defenders to decide whether to give help or stay home on shooters. If the help comes, it’s a quick pitch for a shot.
Escape the Drive
After the pass is made to the corner, a quick closeout by the defense may force the shooter to drive the ball middle or to the baseline. When that happens, the passer must be ready to give space to the driver, reposition beyond the three-point line, and catch and shoot with confidence.
Kick Back to the Shooter
On the initial “triple gap” drive, it’s possible that the on-ball defender cuts off the drive and the corner defender takes away the pitch to the shooter. If those two things happen, the ball-handler must be able to stop on the drive, pivot, and pass behind. We tell players to sprint to the “kickback spot” (i.e., the same-side slot) in order to receive a clean pass from the driver.
While these three drills fit great for our adapted DDM, they’re really teaching good spacing and movement for any offense. With a slight change, you can fit these drills to work within your team’s specific offensive system.
Shooting Machine Drills
Whether you’re running individual training sessions or working with small groups, you’ll find shooting machine drills for all ages of shooters with my Shooting Machine Drill Book with Videos! Even if you don’t have access to a shooting machine, you can still use these drills with your players.
Additional Resources
