Basketball Drills You Can Do On Your Own
The basketball season has begun, and you can already sense your competitive nature. You want to practice alone, but there isn’t a team or a hoop close by. Do not worry! We’ll discuss basketball drills you can do on your own in this blog post. It doesn’t matter where you live or how much time you have to practice because all of these drills are simple to set up.
Benefits of Solo Training in Basketball
Solo basketball drills are a great way to get in the physical and mental fitness you need for competition. They’re also perfect starting points if you’ve just started playing. Because you can focus on one thing at a time and build your skills up slowly over time.
If that’s still not enough, here are some additional ideas: As solo practice requires relatively little space and is less expensive than joining a team or paying a coach, even city dwellers have no excuse!
Also, if you improve your basketball skills on your own, no one will ever be able to direct you. This puts you in complete control of your training experience. You are very clear about the level of effort and success you intend to put forth today.
Solo basketball drills are great for building all sorts of skills. But four main types will help you become a better player overall: shooting, footwork/agility, ball-handling, and free throws.
Why Practising on Your Own is Also Important
Practicing basketball drills on your own is crucial to becoming a better player. Not only does solo basketball practice help you work on your skills. But it also helps build confidence and increase athleticism. To perform at your best during games or tournaments, you need to be able to do the things that made those plays successful in practice!
In this blog post, we’ll go over some drills that can easily be done by yourself. It’s important not just do these types of practices once a week either; they should become part of your regular basketball training. You can do them every day, or at least multiple times a week to improve your game! Let’s dive right into the first drill!
Ball-Handling Routine
What’s nice in playing solo and developing your handles on your own is the fact that you can do this at home with just little space! These are some great stationary dribbling drills for all skill levels to do. These drills improve your feel for the basketball, develop hand-eye coordination, and get you warmed up and ready to play.
- One Ball Pound Dribble – Low, Waist, Shoulder
- You want topound the ball into the floor. You want the ball to spend minimal time out of your hand. You want to push with your fingertips and finger pad.
- With the pound dribble, you start in a low, athletic stance. You want to have your butt down, chest up, and your head above your shoulders. You don’t want to be leaning over.
- Dribble Jab Fake
- With the dribble jab, you jab your foot in the direction of the defender as you are doing the pound dribble.
- This is a great way to use fakes to back the defender off. It is also a good way to practice the footwork needed in a hesitation jab step move.
- Side to Side, Front to Back
- Here is an advanced dribbling drill where you alternate from dribbling the ball side to side in front of you to dribbling the ball front to back on the side of you.
- If this is too difficult, you can also isolate the side to side dribble or the front to back dribble, so you’re only doing one at a time.
- Dribble Circles – One Leg
- With this drill, you are dribbling the ball around one leg with one hand. Make sure to use the armbar to practice protecting the basketball.
- Make sure to practice going clockwise and counterclockwise around your leg.
- When dribbling around the right leg, use your right hand. When dribbling around your left leg, use your left leg.
- A way to make this easier for beginners is to use both hands when dribbling around one leg.
- Figure Eight – One Hand
- This is another advanced dribbling drill. You dribble the ball in a figure eight motion around both of your legs. However, you only use one hand.
- You want to practice going both directions with each hand.
Shooting Routine
The second basketball drill is a shooting routine. Start with your feet set up at their regular position, and aim for high percentage shots from there. From mid-range, practice pulling off different types of jumpers such as a step-back jumper or pull-ups.
Free throws should be the final component of this solo basketball exercise; don’t skip them because they are crucial to any player’s success! Practice out these shots from a distance of about 15 feet depending on the space you have available and whether or not anyone else might be monitoring what you’re doing.
To further improve your shooting, focus specifically on;
• Free Throws – practice free throws by yourself until you’re making at least 80% of them! You should have already learned about proper form in basketball, but it’s important to practice those movements again and again so they become second nature.
This will improve both your hand-eye coordination and mental attention, which can be challenging when shooting alone. It’s crucial to maintain appropriate form here, so pay attention to your elbows and wrists.
• Corner/Wing Shots – aim for the corners and wings of the court to practice shooting from different angles. You should also take a few steps back after each shot so that you’re working on your range too (make sure there’s nothing behind where you’ll be aiming).
If indoors, make sure not to shoot towards other rooms; if outdoors, consider using something like an outdoor basketball net or even just some spare cones set up in two rows about three meters apart. For both these drills, don’t forget to use proper form!
It’s crucial to maintain a locked elbow throughout the motion, as well as a solid wrist when releasing the ball. These are frequent errors that substantially decrease accuracy.
Footwork/Agility Routine
We advise a footwork/agility routine for the third basketball solo exercise on this list. If no one else is passing to you during games, work on your crossover and behind-the-back dribbles first since these will help you get past defenders. Try some crossovers while running forward once you’ve mastered that; layups only count for 50% here. Jumping rope (jump rope), speed ladders (speed ladder), and even sprinting up hills are just a few of the many activities that may be done for agility training.
Some variations for footwork/agility drills, which you can do on your own and is great for practicing footwork movements are;
• Side Shuffle – run sideways as fast as possible, trying not to cross over your feet (this will make it harder).
• Lateral Jumps – jump side-to-side quickly while staying low to the ground like you’re playing defense. Make sure that your knees are always bent when jumping! This helps develop explosive movement in different directions without losing any speed.
• Back Pedal – run back as fast as you can, and then switch to running forward quickly too! This will work on your acceleration/deceleration abilities which are crucial for any sport. It also requires a lot of balance so make sure that if the ground is slippery or uneven, use a mat instead.
Using Screens
This next one will help you learn how to use screens when playing pick and roll against defenders. Try setting two cones up on either side about ten paces apart from each other (if possible). One cone represents the defender while the other represents where you want your teammate to be.
Try using the screen to create separation from your defender, and either hit your teammate on a shot or drive past them for an easy layup!
Dribble Hand-Offs
The next basketball drill you can do is dribble hand-offs with another player (or yourself). If possible, get someone else involved – it’s more fun that way anyway. Face each other about ten feet apart.
One of you will pass the ball off to their partner who will then use that momentum into making one dribble move forward before passing back again. Keep repeating this sequence until both players are satisfied with what they have accomplished!
You can also go through a whole variety of different dribble moves in this drill. Make sure to practice both hands too, and see how far you can push the envelope with your creativity!
Ball Control
The sixth basketball exercise you can perform emphasizes ball control primarily but also calls for some coordination. Place two cones about five feet away from one another for this solo exercise. It’s not enough to simply bounce the ball off the ground each time; instead, dribble between them in any way you can without letting the ball touch the ground.
Try keeping your head up while doing so too because that will help with passing later on during team practice or games where you’re playing at full speed.
Our Recommendation
Now that we have covered some solo basketball drills you can do on your own, it’s time for us to talk about another important aspect: what should be included in each drill. All these drills are very easy to set up; Their viability depends solely upon the type of movement involved during them.
For example, when doing a shooting routine (such as one from mid-range), make sure you’re using proper form while keeping yourself balanced to maximize consistency and accuracy throughout all reps. The same goes for any other types of solo basketball drills you try out.
Conclusion
We hope you found the basketball solo drills we’ve shared to be helpful. If so, please share them with your friends and teammates. Many more basic basketball drills could not fit in this blog post but if any come to mind for you, please let us know below!
