On making changes to drills

I think one of the most important things we can do as coaches is to review our drills quite often. Not just find new drills, but to actually look at the drills we run and ask; Is this drill capable of giving more to the players than it already is?

A few months ago I asked that of the Walberg DDM Attack Layup drill of the Daily 45. The drill is great for teaching attacking layups and different moves, it focuses the act of training layups, and it only takes a few minutes each training session.

I had a good look at the drill because I found that the movement of the rebounder isn’t consistent with the way a player in that position would move in the Dribble Drive Offense.

I had a look at several different options for correcting this before asking myself; Why does the rebounding line have to be at mid court?

This is what I came up with:

Walberg Layups with post player rebounders

In Walbergs original drill, where the layups are run from two lines at mid court, they give you little else but practicing 1-on-0 layups.

Instead of running them from the traditional two lines I suggest you work on your offensive timing and/or making shots under pressure at the same time.

First option; Offensive timing

As with Walbergs original layups you have a layup line which can be placed at either guard spot. The other line, however, is moved to the post position, and the player in that position moves like he would in a game, including cleaning up any misses.

This gets all players used to the timing of the movement between the penetrator and the post players.

Second option; Get low and finish under pressure

Have a coach/manager at the foul line and possibly one near the basket, both with pads (football or rugby pads do nicely). The players must seek the contact with the pads, getting used to finishing under pressure.

At the same time the coach at the foul line extends his arm, and the players must be low enough to get under the arm as they attack.

This can easily be worked into the offensive timing option of the drill.