Hi!
Thanks for all the sharing you do.
I enjoy reading the information you put out there and I appreciate your efforts to make others better!
We have strict guidelines we have to follow for COVID safety protocols so we can not have any defenders or any scrimmaging at all presently.
If you have some great drills to share that are as game like as possible without having defenders that would be particularly useful with the circumstances we are currently faced with. Any of your best ideas would be welcomed.
Thanks so much!
Have a great day!
Sean

Here are a few ideas...

You can take any shooting, dribbling, passing, cutting type of drill and make it more game-like by making players go FASTER.

As an example, in our offense we'd back cut and face cut to get some occasional catch and finish shots/layups. For the drilling of this skill without defenders, we'd have two lines. Players on right wing have a ball, players on left wing do not. Left wing player would take a few steps toward the ball and then back cut. Get rebound and do to end of other line. The second time through they would face cut. Repeat.

So that part is really simple. Nothing special. The difference is I required our players to go AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. I had to stay on them. After a few reps I explained we're not doing it right and explained the type of speed we needed and why we were going so fast. We want to run twice as fast so you might in a game so the game seems slow. I also made them get the ball to the basket and out of their hands as quick as possible. HIGH INTENSITY.

Because in reality, that's what often happens in a game. You're trying to catch the ball in a tight window (with hands and bodies blocking vision) and then quickly get the ball up before the defender can recover and block the shot. So we make the drill a bit chaotic and fast. The first couple days, it's a little ugly. After more practice, more of the shots start falling at that speed and it seemed to help us finish more of those shots in games.

Now that I think about it, I might have had two lines on each wing. Passing line and cutting line. So we could alternate and keep more reps and make it a little more chaotic.

With imagination you can do all kinds of things to get players doing faster in drills. You can have partners chase (while keeping 10 ft distance) to speed up layups. You can have players race while keeping distance. You can time players with stop watch so they have to finish dribble moves and get to basket in certain amount of time.

Another option is to add decision making with cues. Hands up could mean drive, hands down means shoot. You could have players drive and then if help defender moves to perimeter, continue to basket. If reference defender, stays in lane kick to perimeter player for a shot. So you can have lines or make it a 3 person drill. I know there's a reference defender but just make sure they stay 6-10 feet apart and make decisions early.

Lastly, you can randomize drills trying to simulate what happens in a game. Let the partner call out the shot choosing from while the shooter has to start from a different place on perimeter for each rep:
- lay up
- euro step
- catch and shoot
- pull up jumper
- shoot 2 free throws

Hopefully that gives you a few ideas to run with.

Very good advice, thank you!

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