1 Shooting Drills for Guards-hoopskills.com

Shooting Drills for Guards -by Coach Brian Schofield http://www.hoopskills.com

Cut, Catch & Lay-up

Great scoring guards know how to create

space and get open. Practice and work hard

at establishing position by either performing

a solid v cut or using the lane to get open.

Once you've come up the lane and popped

out the ball should be on its way to you.

You should have taken a mini hop-step

already to get in position to shoot the ball.

Now instead of going right into a jump stop,

take an immediate dribble and go in for the

lay-up.

The footwork on this is tricky. Some players travel because the hop-step throws off

their timing a little bit. It takes practice.

If you've hopped in the air and landed with both feet you should be in an excellent

position to drive for the lay-up.

Cut, Catch, Dribble & Shoot

Come up the lane and pop out to the wing. Take the hop-step before the ball

arrives and immediately take one hard dribble in either direction. After one or two

hard dribbles, immediately go into your jump shot. The hop-step will set up

everything if you've done it correctly. It prepares you to shoot quickly and tells the

defender that you can shoot quickly. If he gets close to you simply drive past him

and if he's worried about you driving past him then the shot off the dribble will

work every time because he will be on his heels.

When I work on these drills, which I still do today, I do them in order starting from

the jump shot. The jump shot sets up everything else. It is like a great fastball from

2 Shooting Drills for Guards-hoopskills.com

a pitcher. Once a great pitcher shows his fastball and that he can throw it for a

strike, the pitcher has the edge. Good scorers use the jump shot as a way to set up

everything else.

Cut, Catch & Shoot

This drill should be done exactly as the drill above with one exception - there is no

dribble. As you get the ball you immediately go up for the shot. This will probably

feel a little uncomfortable for most players in the beginning but it's crucial for you

to eventually be able to hit this shot. If you can't hit this shot your defender will

constantly sag off you when you receive the ball and prevent you from making a

break to the basket or getting a shot off the dribble.

Wing or Corner Jumpers

As young players get older a couple things happen. First, everyone gets bigger,

stronger and faster. Secondly, as a result it gets tougher to get open and create a

shot. Something I've learned over the years has made it very easy for me to be able

to get off a shot quickly and effectively. Start with the ball at the top of the key.

If you are a coach, I suggest starting this drill with two lines on both sides of the

top of the key. A line of shooters should also be formed on the wing or the corner.

When the pass is made from the top of the key to the wing player I want the wing

players to take a mini hop right before the ball gets there. Immediately shoot the

ball when it arrives. If you have to gather yourself before the shot goes up then

you have a problem that needs fixing.

Players ask me how they can practice this by themselves and I tell them to get a

toss back. What a great invention. Some people talk about their car in high school

when I talk about my toss back. If you aren't comfortable shooting off the hop yet,

then practice by throwing the ball off a wall or the toss back and just getting your

feet correct. Have each player shoot within their range from the two spots then

switch out to different areas. After all, nobody only shoots from the wing or the

baseline. Don't just stand there and shoot jump shots either as that doesn't help

nearly as much as shooting off the hop.

Pass, Cut & Shoot

3 Shooting Drills for Guards-hoopskills.com

A little bit of a modification of the drill I just talked about is the pass, cut and shoot.

A player that stands still is extremely easy to guard so I coach my guards to cut

once they pass the ball. To practice this drill, have a player line up at the high post

and start the ball on the wing. The line should be at the wing position. Once the

ball is passed to the high post the player should cut to either the baseline or the

top of the key. Once the cut is made, the passer throws the ball with the wing

player taking the hop-step before the ball comes so he can get off a quick shot.

The drill should be practiced with the ball coming from the high post and also from

the low post as those are the most common areas of double teaming. When the

high post receives the ball many times you'll see 2-3 defenders collapse on the ball

and if you, as a shooter, can get to an open spot where the defense can't recover

quickly, you'll get an uncontested shot. This drill isn't one to practice at a slow

pace. The cuts need to have a point and has to be quick. Players that play hard are

not easy to guard. That's worth repeating, players that play hard are not easy to

guard.