Best Basketball Shooting Drills

Great shooting starts long before a player feels hot. It starts with feet, eyes, and repeatable misses. A coach who tracks makes alone misses the good stuff, such as arc, balance, and whether the ball lands left or right. These Best Basketball Shooting Drills give players simple work they can repeat in a driveway, school gym, or half-court practice. Keep a notebook. Two lines are enough: makes out of fifty, and the main miss. The best notes are plain: short, ugly, and honest after every set. In one youth camp, coaches used odd labels on stations to make scores memorable: casino games near up-x casino beside Azerbaijan marked the corner spot. Players laughed, then remembered their data. No magic there. A separate whiteboard listed trusted casino sites beside online betting during live casino games as a silly code for pressure free throws after sprints. Strange names, real reps.

Form shooting close to the rim

The first stop is five feet from the basket. The player stands square, bends the knees, and shoots with one hand while the guide hand stays off the ball. Ten makes from the front, ten from each block. Slow is fine.

The coach watches the finish, not the swish. Wrist down. Elbow near the eyebrow. Hold the pose until the ball hits the floor. If three shots in a row drift right, the player checks the thumb on the guide hand. If shots hit the front rim, the legs need more push.

This drill looks tiny, but it fixes big leaks. Stephen Curry still uses close form shots before games because the rim looks larger after clean makes. Young players should count makes, not attempts, and stop at thirty. More than that turns careful work into lazy flipping.

Elbow spots that punish lazy feet

Two cones sit at the elbows. The player starts under the rim, tosses the ball to the right cone, steps in with inside foot then outside foot, and shoots. After the rebound, the next toss goes left. Twelve makes at each elbow is a solid target.

Bad footwork shows up fast. A player who lands sideways will fade even on open looks. A player who rushes the toss will catch the ball too high and lose rhythm. The fix is boring: toss chest-high, show ten fingers, hop or step into a balanced base.

Coaches can add a rule. A make counts only if the shooter lands in the same square of tape placed on the floor. Tape is cheap. It tells the truth.

Catch-and-shoot with real passes

A chair cannot pass like a teammate. For this drill, the passer stands on the wing and hits the shooter in the pocket, right near the chest. The shooter calls “ready” before each pass. That small word forces set hands.

Run it in three rounds. First, ten corner shots. Next, ten wing shots. Then ten slot shots above the break. Misses that spin out are usually fine. Misses that slap the side rim need a cleaner catch or a straighter shooting shoulder.

The passer has a job too. Bad passes create bad habits, so the passer must hit the same target ten times in a row. If the ball arrives at the knees, the rep does not count. Simple rule. Better practice.

One-dribble pull-ups without drifting

Game shots rarely come with perfect stillness. The shooter starts on the wing, attacks one hard dribble toward the elbow, plants, and rises straight up. The key word is “brake.” Not “float.”

Start with the strong hand. Make eight going right and eight going left, then switch sides. The ball should stay outside the hip, not in front of the knees. A defender's reach lives there.

The easiest check is the landing spot. Place a coin or flat marker where the plant foot hits. After the shot, the feet should land near that mark. If the shooter lands two feet forward, the upper body is chasing the ball. Slow the first dribble, sit lower, and shoot tall.

Free throws after tired legs

Fresh free throws lie. A player who makes twenty calm shots at the start of practice still needs proof late in the fourth quarter. Pair the line with work. Sprint to half court and back, breathe once, then shoot two.

The routine must stay the same. Bounce count. Breath. Eyes on the back rim. Coaches should record pairs, not singles, because games award two shots after many fouls. A target of sixteen makes out of twenty is strong for high school guards.

Noise helps. Teammates can clap, count down, or stand in the lane with hands raised. No insults. The point is pressure, not circus behavior. If the second free throw keeps missing, the player is relaxing too early. Hold the finish longer.

A weekly plan that gets used

A simple schedule beats a thick binder. On Monday, players take close form shots and elbow work. On Wednesday, they add catch-and-shoot reps plus one-dribble pull-ups. On Friday, they test free throws while tired and write the score in ink.

Keep the test short: fifty total shots, ten minutes, one rebounder if possible. The number should be easy to compare next week. If a player misses left seven times, the next practice starts with guide-hand checks. What does the shot chart say today?