A three-ball obstacle-course basketball drill.

In attempting to make our off-season open-gym workouts more meaningful and intriguing, I came up with a full-court drill that incorporates dribbling, passing, shooting, and footwork.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

One other thing: Anytime you ask your players (big and small) to run the floor up and back in less than 30 seconds, you can be sure you are going to have no worries about physical conditioning.

As you can see in the diagram, the drill starts with a foul shot. Since we time each player, we wait until he begins shooting to start the clock. We don't want him to rush the free throw.

After a made free throw, the shooter rebounds the ball and starts dribbling (speed dribble) up the floor, then around a cone at the sideline and then around a second cone above the key and comes to a jump stop.

He must then make three pivots and pass-fake until he is facing the player on the sideline (#1). He then fires a chest pass to him.

Second, after his chest pass, the player picks up the ball on the other side of the court (ball #2) and dribbles toward the two cones in front of him. He makes a crossover move at the first cone, which takes him toward the middle of the floor and into the lane for the second cone. He then thrusts the ball between his legs and goes in for the lay-up. After the lay-up, the player lets the ball roll on the floor.

Third, the player picks the ball up at the baseline and fires a chest pass to player 2 on the right sideline. He then gets it back, and the passes are repeated with players 3 and 4.

Upon receiving the chest-pass return from player 4, player 1 dribbles hard at the last cone beside the free-throw line extended, makes an inside-out dribble move around the cone and finishes with a lay-up.

The drill incorporates many important fundamentals that are executed fast pace to accentuate quickness and explosiveness. The circuit should be completed in 20 seconds by the guards and 25-27 seconds by the forwards.

Make sure the players are aware of violations and add time to their score accordingly.

By Michael Joseph, Associate Head Basketball Coach, Hazelton (PA) Area H.S.