How to Get Your Team to Play More Up-Tempo

How to Get Your Team to Play More Up-Tempo

by Coach Pat

originally published in - Online Basketball Drills

There are many different things coaches must focus on during basketball practice–shooting, dribbling, techniques, plays…the list goes on and on. But how often to you spend on getting your team to play more up-tempo? These drills will help to get your players quicker on the court.

2 on 0 Break Drill

2 on 0 Drill

With this drill, you’ll want to get one of your bigger guys and one of your guards to pair up. Give just one basketball for each pair. This is real simple. Teach your guys as soon as that ball goes off that glass, if you’re a point guard, you want to sprint to the sideline.

You want to be able to see both the outlet pass and anybody in front of you because if you turn and all of a sudden you start running, that’s where you get a charge. You’ve always got vision in both directions.

At the beginning of this drill, you’re going to sprint to the sideline and drive to the middle of the floor. Dribble it right to the elbow. And we’ll get a lay-up from the big guy.

And then we’ll switch it and let your players work on some ball handling. Your player will get the outlet, rebound, and throw it to his or her partner. The first player should be touching the sideline. Then he or she’s pushing the middle, then giving his or her partner a lay-up.

This is a good way to work on passing, laying the ball up, staying wide, and getting good spacing.

2 on 0 Drive and Kick Drill

2 on 0 Drive and Kick Drill

For this drill, your player will run the lane wide. He or she is going to drive into the middle, come to a two-foot stop, and then come behind and take a shot. Now your player’s job is to change direction.

When your player is running the lane and sees his or her partner driving, they’re going to do one of two things. If the partner’s going really deep, your player is going to V-cut. On the other hand, if the partner’s spotted a little bit earlier, your player can create some space by going to the baseline.

5-Man Motion Drill

Tight Cut

When we do this drill, we do two more different things that incorporate how we play offensively. This time when your players come down, a coach will get added on both ends of the court. So your player’s coming down, running wide. This time your player’s going to hit the coach. And then we’ll work on down screens and flare screens.

Your player will come down and set a screen with his or her back to the basketball. We’ll do what we call a tight cut. The other one we’ll work on is called a bump. We call them bumps because we want the guys to start thinking about if that defender starts cheating here, we change the angle of the screen and we bump off that screener to get this shot in here. Your players can do either one–the tight cut or the bump.