182 basketball drills, free to read
Shooting, ball handling, finishing, defense, passing, IQ, and conditioning — filterable by skill, with age group, duration, and equipment for every drill. Build these into a full practice plan free in the app.
Every drill here lists the skill it develops, how long to run it, the age bands it suits, an intensity rating, and the equipment you need — enough to slot it into a session and know what it's for. 20 of them also have a full breakdown: setup, numbered steps, the coaching points that matter while it's running, the mistakes players actually make, and how to scale it up or down. We're working through the rest.
If you're building a session from scratch, work backwards from the skill you want to move rather than picking drills you like. Pick one primary skill per practice, give it the longest block while players are fresh, then layer in the secondary work. Competitive and conditioning drills belong at the end — they raise intensity but they also degrade technique, so anything you're trying to teach should come first.
The counts below are live. Filter by skill area, or start from a ready-made practice plan if you'd rather not sequence it yourself. For the reasoning behind how a session is put together, see how to build a basketball practice plan.
Drills by skill area
Shooting drills build a repeatable release through high-rep, low-distraction reps before adding movement, defense, and game speed. Track makes, not just attempts, and keep form the priority until it's automatic.
Ball-handling work develops control at increasing speed and pressure — stationary control first, then movement, then live reads against a defender. Both hands, every time.
Finishing drills train footwork, touch, and body control through contact near the basket. Reps with both hands and both feet build the habit of finishing strong regardless of angle.
Individual defense is built on stance, footwork, and effort before scheme. Drill the fundamentals — stance, slides, closeouts — until they hold up at full speed and under fatigue.
Basketball conditioning should mirror the stop-start demands of the game — short, intense bursts with real recovery, not steady-state cardio. Tie conditioning to competitive targets whenever you can.
IQ and decision-making drills put players in live, small-sided situations where they have to read a defender and choose correctly — the muscle memory of good decisions, not just good mechanics.
Passing drills build accuracy, timing, and footwork on the catch. The best passing work is done on the move, since that's how the ball actually gets delivered in a game.
Footwork is the foundation under every other skill — pivots, jump stops, and change-of-direction work should be drilled on their own before they're asked to hold up inside a live move.
Rebounding is won with positioning and effort before jumping ability — teach the box-out first, then the pursuit of the ball, then the outlet. All three, every rep.
Team offense drills build spacing, timing, and decision-making between multiple players — the goal is a correct read repeated until it's automatic, not just running a set.
IQ and decision-making drills put players in live, small-sided situations where they have to read a defender and choose correctly — the muscle memory of good decisions, not just good mechanics.
Shell Drill (Help & Recover)
4-on-4 shell working help-one-pass-away, jump-to-ball, and closeouts on rotation.
Pick & Roll Reads
Ball-handler + screener reading drop, hedge, and switch coverages. Make the right read.
Transition 2-on-1 Decisions
Attack a single defender at speed — read commit, finish or dish. Both sides.
Blitz & Rotate (Live 5v5)
Trap the ball-screen and rotate behind it. Scramble, recover, contest. Film it.
Shot Selection Read
Play small-sided live offense where a made shot only counts if it came from a defined 'good shot' zone or an open catch-and-shoot look, with contested pull-ups worth zero. Trains players to value shot quality over just getting a shot up.
Advantage/Disadvantage 4-on-3
Offense plays four against three defenders in transition, forced to identify and attack the numbers advantage quickly before the defense recovers to even the count. Teaches recognition of when the offense has a numbers edge and how to exploit it fast.
Help Defense Recognition
Four defenders start in a shell while a coach passes the ball around the perimeter and drives gaps, and each off-ball defender must point and slide to the correct help position before the ball arrives. Builds the habit of reading ball position to know where help is needed.
2-for-1 Clock Management
Scrimmage with a visible shot clock and game clock, and offense earns bonus points for correctly pushing tempo to get an extra possession before the period ends. Teaches end-of-quarter clock awareness that is easy to overlook in practice.
Spacing Recognition Walkthrough
Walk through a five-out alignment and have players call out who is standing too close before running it at live speed. Builds the habit of scanning the floor.
Read the Defense Freeze Drill
Coach freezes play mid-possession and asks the ball handler to identify open teammates and defender positioning before continuing. Builds real-time court reading.
Two-Possession Clock Scramble
Offense gets one scrimmage possession to get a shot up early enough to earn the ball back for a bonus possession before the period ends, while the defense must both contest and sprint back to stop it twice.
Kick-Ahead Outlet Read
A rebounder in live transition must instantly decide between dribbling the ball up himself or firing a kick-ahead pass to the sprinting wing, based on whichever gets the ball downcourt faster.
Shot Quality Scramble
Play live 3-on-3 where the coach grades every shot attempt out loud as a great, good, or bad shot based on spacing and contest, and a bad shot turns the ball over immediately.
Closeout Discipline Scramble
In a 4-on-4 shell, defenders must closeout under control on every pass and hold their help responsibilities, losing a point every time a shooter gets a clean, unchallenged look.
Live Ball-Screen Coverage Recognition
In a live 5-on-5 possession, the defense randomly plays drop, blitz, or switch on every ball screen, and the offense must recognize the coverage in real time and attack the correct counter.
Post Double-Team Read
A post player catches deep against a live double-team and must locate the open skip-pass read to the far corner before the second defender fully arrives.
Transition Push-or-Pull Read
Ball-handler brings the ball up against a random 2-on-1 or 2-on-2 look each rep and must instantly decide whether to push for the numbers advantage or pull back into a controlled offense.
Call the Coverage (Live 5v5)
Before each live possession, the on-ball and screener's defenders must verbally call their ball-screen coverage to the whole team, then execute it, building the habit of communicating reads before contact.
Good Shot / Bad Shot Recognition
Coach or partner varies closeout speed and distance on each catch; the shooter fires only when the closeout is fully beaten, otherwise fakes and resets.
All 182 drills
Every drill in the library, A–Z.
Basketball drills: common questions
- How many basketball drills should be in one practice?
- For a 90-minute practice, six to eight drills is a workable ceiling — roughly 8–12 minutes each once you account for transitions and water. Fewer drills held longer beats more drills rushed: players need enough reps in one drill for the correction to stick. Young teams (U10 and below) do better with shorter blocks and more variety, closer to 5–6 minutes per drill.
- What basketball drills should a beginner start with?
- Start with stationary ball handling (both hands), form shooting close to the rim, and simple footwork like the triple-threat pivot series. Beginners need the movement pattern before speed or defenders get added. The Mikan drill is the single most efficient beginner finishing drill — it teaches touch, footwork, and both hands at once. Filter this library to Ball Handling or Shooting and sort for the shortest, lowest-intensity drills.
- What's the difference between a drill and a practice plan?
- A drill is one activity — the Mikan drill, shell defense, a 3-man weave. A practice plan is the ordered sequence of them with timings, so a two-hour session actually fits in two hours. Every drill here shows its duration and intensity so you can build a plan that balances high-intensity work against teaching segments. There are ready-made practice plans if you'd rather start from a template.
- How long should each basketball drill run?
- Most drills in this library run 5–15 minutes. Skill-acquisition work (shooting form, ball handling) rewards longer blocks because repetition is the point. Conditioning and competitive drills should be shorter and harder — if intensity drops off, the drill has run past its useful length. Each drill page lists a recommended duration and an intensity rating.
- Are these basketball drills free?
- Yes — every drill page here is free to read, and nothing is paywalled. Each lists its skill focus, duration, intensity, age bands, and equipment, and a growing number include the full breakdown: setup, numbered steps, coaching points, common mistakes, and progressions. No account needed. The paid side of SixSevenBall is the coaching app: building and saving practice plans, tracking attendance and stats, and running your program day to day.
- What equipment do I need for these drills?
- Most need only a ball and a hoop. Every drill page lists its equipment explicitly, and a good number are marked no-hoop or no-equipment so they work in a gym with limited baskets, a driveway, or a hotel hallway on a tournament weekend. Cones and chairs are the most common extras and can nearly always be substituted with anything that stands up.