Free Throw Drills FIBA

PAGE 04 | 28 2007 | FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE

FIBA EUROPECOACHES - FUNDAMENTALS AND YOUTH BASKETBALL

Stan Jones coached at the MiamiUniversity from 1995 to 2000, going forthree times to the NCAA tournament. In2000-01 season, Jones was assistantcoach for the Washington Wizards in theNBA and the following year he went backto college basketball, leadingMississippi State to the NCAA tourna-ment. Since 2002, he is part of the techni-cal staff of Florida State as associatehead coach.

Early in my career as a high school coach,an old-school coach said to me, "Show mea team that shoots free-throws well, andI'll show you a lazy practice coach." Beinga respectful, impressionable young coach,trying to learn my craft, I wanted to givethat statement some merit, due to thatcoach's status, but I just couldn't acceptthat. I kept hearing my college coachpound into us as player's: "That makingfree-throws and lay-ups win games!" Evenwith the advent of the 3-point shot as anoffensive weapon, I have grown deeper inthe belief of my college coach and movedfurther away from the lazy coach state-ment to a point of total disagreement.

I heard the legendary Detroit Pistons headcoach, Chuck Daly, talk about how thePistons became champions once theylearned how to use the free-throw line asan offensive weapon. By getting to the foulline, they increased their scoring efficiency,foul trouble for their opponents enhancedmatch-up problems, and they always hadtheir defense set when shooting free-throws and defensive transition was less ofa concern. Having been fortunate now tocoach many years at a high level in collegebasketball and as an assistant in the NBA, ithas been a constant that when our teamshave shot well from the free-throw line andhad significant more attempts than ouropponents, we have had some of our bestyear's record wise. The year we went to the

Drills to improve Free-ThrowPercentage by Stan Doherty

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FIBA ASSIST MAGAZINE | 28 2007 | PAGE 05

Sweet 16 at the University of Miami, wehad the ninth best team free-throw per-centage in the country. At MississippiState, we had the best record in schoolhistory and made the seventh most free-throws in a season in the school recordbook that year. And in 2006-07 at FloridaState University, we had the fifth best

team free throw percentage in the coun-try while reaching the quarterfinals of theNational Invitational Tournament. I trulyconsider the teaching and development ofgreat free throw shooting as a criticalasset to the ultimate success of a basket-ball team.To improve our team free-throw shoot-

ing, there are two phases of develop-ment that we emphasize. First, wespend considerable amount of timeteaching the proper mechanics ofshooting and then incorporating thoseskills into shooting free-throws.Fundamentals of shooting we stressinclude; 1) set up and alignment toshoot the free throw, 2) establishing arhythm to the shooter's routine, and 3)correct hand position on the ball,release off the correct finger pads andfinishing the shot with a complete fol-low through. Second, we develop aprogression of drills to acquire instinc-tive muscle memory through volumerepetition and to challenge the psy-chological development of the free-throw shooter in pressure situations.We want every free-throw to feel thesame, whether shooting in practice orwith no time on the clock in the cham-pionship game. Positive mental devel-opment should include; emotional sta-bility, success visualization and that"killer instinct" that finishes an oppo-nent in end-game situations. Our free-throw shooting drills are a three-foldprocess. Our pre-season individualimprovement drills have a heavyemphasis on correct shootingmechanics and one-on-one instruc-tion. As we get closer to pre-seasonpractice, we move into high volumerepetition drills where we look totransfer the correct shooting form intomuscle memory along with using posi-tive self-expectancy through visualiza-tion. Finally, as we get into our playingseason, we concentrate on shooting insimulated game situations. Here are 10drills, five in individual work, and fivein whole team involvement, that havebeen super in my career in helping ourteam improve dramatically at the freethrow line:

INDIVIDUAL DRILLS (1-3 PLAYERS AT ABASKET)

1. 100 in 7. Drill needs: 2 balls, 7 min-utes on the clock, passer andrebounder. This is a great drill foranytime in a workout or even inpractice if you have the manpower.This is a version of the 2-ball rapid-fire jump shooting drill that we alluse but it is adapted to shootingfree throws. The objective of thedrill is on the mechanics of theshooting stroke. We want the vol-ume of shots and the constant paceto allow the shooter to really getthe muscle memory feel for his

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shot. To begin the drill the shooter willtake his normal routine to shoot thefirst free throw and this starts theclock. I am a big believer that greatfree throw shooter's have an obviousstop in their routine after their move-ments once the ball has been placed intheir possession to when they starttheir motion to release the shot to thebasket. Thusly, the passer will bestanding on the shooting side of theplayer with the ball held in front of theshooter where that pause takes place.The shooter will continuously finish hisshot then return to that pause positionto receive the ball and shoot anothershot from that position. There is noemphasis on speed in this drill. It's allabout tempo and finish with the cor-rect form and follow through. Mostshooters will complete 100 shots inseven minutes, but don't make that themain objective. The goal is to see howmany shots can be replicated correct-ly for 100 straight shots. Coachingpoint: after the first shot, there are nomore dribbles until the drill is com-plete. Challenge each player with hisown high score, the high score for theteam that season or the score for thebest ever with your program.

2. 10 in a row. This has always been one ofour best drills to finish a workout orpractice. You can adjust the consecu-tive made shots based on the skill levelof your team or the individual. Ten hasalways been a positive number for anaverage to above average shooter tofinish practice with. We divide into ourshooting groups based on the number ofplayers we have on our team and avail-able baskets. Each player shoots until hemisses, then rotates out if did not maketen in a row. If he hits ten in a row, he isdone for the practice. This drill createstwo psychological pressures on the freethrow shooter; 1) to complete the drillsuccessfully, the shooter must concen-trate on every shot, and 2) the shootermust deal with the increasing internalpressure (which can come from bothnegative and positive thoughts) as heapproaches the tenth make. You can dosome neat team-building competitionswith this drill, i.e. - let players continue astreak until they miss and have a teamrecord board for personal best, put alimit on the total number of shots theycan take to get to ten consecutivemakes or face some punishment, etc.

3. 3 or 2. This is a really good free-throwshooting drill to start practice with as



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part of your warm-up period. Just asthe drill before, divide your team intoshooting groups at available baskets,2-3 players are best. Each shootercontinues to shoot at the foul line untilhe hits three free throws in a row,misses two free throws in a row, ormisses the third consecutive freethrow the second time he has theopportunity to hit three in a row. Theobjective of this drill is to get eachshooter to re-focus after a miss and tostay focused after a make. When the

player hits three shots in a row, theplayers rotate at the basket. If he miss-es two in a row or misses the thirdmake on the second chance, he imme-diately performs whatever physicalconditioning contingency we havegiven the team for that day. Coachingpoint: the players waiting to shootalways line up in the free throw lanespaces to simulate what a shooter willsee during a game.

4. Back Tap Drill. Here's where we

think out of the coaching box forthis free throw shooting drill. Inteaching correct shooting mechan-ics, we emphasize with our playersto focus on a small target point.With that in mind, the objective ofthis shooting drill is to get eachshooter to focus on a target spotthat if they hit will force a missedshot to come off in a certain area inthe lane and to practice back tap-ping out to an area as part of ourgame situations for short clockneeded shots. We will instruct ourplayers as to the target to hit, howwe want the potential reboundersto move into the lane and whatdirection to back tap the miss towhere shooters will be moving in toposition to receive the tap. With 3players at each basket, 2 playersline up in the second position onthe lane line spaces and they workon executing the actions we havein place to jump and tap the ball outto an area. If you want to put aplayer in the drill to work on mov-ing to the back tap spot and shoot-ing that is a great addition to thedrill. It has been my experiencethat after practicing misses thefocus on the spot we have workedon to correctly make a free-throwbecomes more acutely aware tothe shooter and his success rategoes up.

5. The Jordan Drill. One more differentthinking drill we use, especially inindividual workouts but can beincorporated into team practice aswell. We created this drill after see-ing an old film clip of MichaelJordan shooting a free-throw withhis eyes closed to impress a hecklerin a NBA crowd. The objective ofthis drill is to incorporate mentalvisualization and to enhance thephysical senses of the body shoot-ing a proper free throw. Aftershooting some volume of freethrows correctly with a proper set-up routine, we then finish the drillby charting the number of freethrows the player can make withhis eyes completely shut.The pro-gression of the drill has the playercomplete his set-up and routinethen as he concentrates on his tar-get point, we ask the player toclose his eyes and see that targetpoint in his mind. Once he sees thattarget, we challenge him to thensee the ball going into the net per-

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fectly as he starts his shootingmotion. You will see a tremendousgrowth in the player's confidenceas he begins to feel the propermechanics and the ball goes intothe basket. We have had playerswho have made as many as 22 outof 25 blindfolded free-throws and asyou can expect they had great per-centages with their eyes open.

TEAM DRILLS (GAME SITUATIONS, COMPETITIVE)1. 1-and-1's. This is a great drill for our

team following physically demandingsegments of practice. When the drillsegment ends, the squad breaks up tothe main baskets usually in the teamcolor's assigned for that practice. Weline up along the lane line spaceswith a manager or coach acting asthe referee who will put the free-throw in play to the shooter. The shoot-er has a bonus free throw. He makesthe first then he gets a second shot.Just as in a game. If he misses eithershot, he turns to his left and completesthe assigned conditioner for that daywhile the next player rotates into theshooting position. If the shootermakes both, the squad rotates to thenext shooter and the original shooterrests until his next turn. We continuethe rotation for a certain amount oftime, until a designated player makestwo in a row, until the squad makes acertain number of consecutive freethrows or a certain number of totalmakes by the group.

2. 1-and-1's to 21. This is a great drillwhen the season is beginning to geta little long and you want to injectsome competitive fun into that day'spractice. We line the team uparound the lane alternating colors.The coach can decide the squads oryou can let the guys draft theirteams. Each player then shoots a 1-and-1-bonus situation with some-one keeping score. If they miss, theteam rotates. If he hits the first shotthen he gets a second shot. I reallybelieve this helps players learn toget comfortable into their mechan-ics for the first shot in a game situ-ation, so that is why we put the 1-and-1 into play. We play first teamto a certain number wins, usually to21 with the loser's having to run. Asthe game comes down the wire theplayers really have fun challengingeach other and force each shooter

to really focus with a lot of noise allaround him.

3. 1-on-1 Competitive. This drill is proba-bly more like an individual drill, but welike to use it two ways: 1) to finishpractice with one teammate chal-lenging another to make the compe-tition enhance each player's prac-tice focus, or 2) to make it like a"king of the hill" competition whereyou have to earn your way frombasket to basket to play at thechampionship basket. Either waythe drill starts with one playershooting free throws until he miss-es. Let's say he hits eight. So thescore is eight to nothing as histeammate begins to shoot. Let's saythat player hits seven. The score isnow eight to seven after one round.The rounds continue until one play-er reaches the designated score forthat practice. Normally if it's just 1-on-1 to finish practice, we will playto 50. If it's "king of the hill", thenumber will be much lower and wewill continue to rotate for a certainlength of time with the two playersat the designated championshipbasket shooting for the right to notrun that day when the clock runsdown. This is another great drillduring the season to keep concen-tration up through friendly competi-tion and boredom down.

4. Streaks. This is a great drill to use ongame day walk through practices. Ittakes no energy out of your team butencourages them to concentrate forthe team and to build some goodcamaraderie, as you get ready forthat night's competition. We split upinto even numbers at both baskets.Players will shoot and rotate to theleft with non-shooters in lane linespaces. We will shoot a segment oftwo shots and rotate. Then switchends and shoot one shot and rotate.The non-shooters will clap in unisonthe number of consecutive number ofmakes for that team. We will shootfor time and the team with the mostmakes wins. We keep a record forthe season of most consecutivemakes and remind the players beforewe start at the next game day prac-tice. This drill sets a good mind-setfor the team especially on the roadand creates good positive energygetting ready for that day's competi-tion.

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5. 4-minute Drills. I truly believe this drillteaches your team how to close outgames when you have a lead. In pre-season practice, we will do this drilltwo to three times a week. Once theseason starts, we try to do this drillalmost every practice. We start thedrill with different times on the clockthat could be after our last mediatime-out that occurs under the four-minute mark. We incorporate asmany different situations as we canfor our team in regards to time andscore, shot clock time remaining,strategy, etc. We sometimes havereal game officials or coaches and/orstaff will officiate the game as closeas they can. We want to work on foul-ing situations when we are behindand we challenge our players on theteam that is ahead to dominate theiropponents from the free-throw linegiving their opponent no chance tocatch up and win the game. Lookingback over my career, we have hadour best records in close gameswhen we have challenged our play-ers in practice to make this part ofpractice as much like a game as pos-sible. And we have also been muchbetter in terms of winning the endgame when we have not sacrificedthis part of practice do to whateverreason. I challenge you as a coach toput a great deal of emphasis in thisarea and I believe the emphasis onshooting free throws under thesescenario's we make your team a farmore confident foul shooting team inall situations.

In conclusion, we have spent this articlegiving you ideas on how to put free-throw shooting into your team's practice.None of these drills will improve yourteam's free throw percentage muchunless as you put in the work you continueto reinforce and instruct the proper shoot-ing fundamentals with each of your players.Many coaches are afraid to teach shoot-ing and change mechanical flaws in theirplayers' shots. But, if the great TigerWoods, after terrific accomplishments inhis golfing career, has twice totallyrecreated his swing, we should chal-lenge our players to not settle for lessthan their best from the free throw line. Itake great pride in seeing my team shootfree throws and learning to use the freethrow line as an offensive weapon.Remember my old college coach,"Making free throws and lay-ups wingames!"

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Free Throw Drills FIBA