If you want to become a better shooter in basketball so that you can score more, the simplest way to improve your shot is to practice shooting more. The more shots you take, the better the shooter you will be.
However, while you will definitely become a better shooter by simply shooting the basketball more, by using some proven basketball shooting drills in your training sessions (rather than just shooting strict stationary jump shots), you will maximize the amount you get out of your training sessions.
In this guide, I’ve included some of the best drills for shooting a basketball found on the internet. These basketball shooting workouts are designed to improve five different aspects of your shot:
- Section I: Shooting Form Drills
- Section II: Shooting Accuracy Drills
- Section III: Game-Scenario Shooting Drills
- Section IV: Quick-Release Shooting Drills
- Section V: Drills to Develop Longer Shooting Range
These shooting drills for basketball all come from four of the best online basketball coaches around, including: ShotMechanics, EGTBasketball, ILoveBasketballTV, and Howard Elite Basketball.
Ultimately, if you’re looking to take your shooting to the next level, incorporating a few of these drills into your shooting sessions will help you become an elite shooter.
I. Form Shooting Drills
In order to become a good shooter, you need to know how to shoot a basketball correctly. The basketball shooting drills below will help you improve your shooting form.
1. One-Handed Form Shooting
In this drill from Coach Rocky Ullah, you simply stand a foot or two from the rim and shoot one-handed shots from the front and both sides of the hoop, all the while focusing on good shooting form. Coach Rock has you aim to hit five shots in a row from each spot without hitting the rim before you move onto the next spot.
2. One Hand Touch Shooting
This drill from Coach Drew Hanlen is basically the same as the drill by Coach Rock listed above, except that, instead of moving between the sides and the front of the hoop, you start at the front of the hoop and work your ways backward.
3. One-Leg Shooting
In this third drill to help you improve your shooting form, Coach Rock has you shoot from the freethrow line off of one leg. He argues that if you have any flaws in your shot, shooting from one leg will expose that flaw, allow you to recognize it and fix it, as well as to help you lock in good shooting form.
4. Arcade Shooting
In this drill from Coach Howard, a partner will pass you the ball as quickly as possible and you will shoot as quickly as possible (maintaining perfect shooting form) until you have made 10 shots from each spot. You will start a couple of feet away from the rim and shoot until you have hit 10 shots. Once you have hit 10 shots, you will step back a step and repeat the process until you have made 10 shots from 5 different spots.
5. Quarter Shooting
In this creative drill from Coach Hanlen, you are to pinch a quarter in between your guide-hand thumb and pointer finger and then shoot short jump shots from about 7-8 feet away from the hoop. By pinching the quarter between your guide-hand thumb and pointer finger, you will eliminate any influence from your guide-hand thumb and you will be forced to shoot with better form.
6. Shoot Free Throws
This one is a really simple way to improve your shooting form… shoot free throws. Obviously, being a better free throw shooter will help your game out on its own, but by shooting hundreds of free throws and focusing on shooting them with good form, you’ll become a more accurate shooter on every other shot you take as well.
II. Accuracy Shooting Drills
The basketball shooting games and drills listed below are designed to improve your shooting accuracy in general. These drills are more focused on improving your stationary shooting, rather than shooting on the move or coming off of screens.
1. Elite Spot Shooting
In this remix on traditional spot shooting, Coach Howard has you hit five shots from five spots (ideally mid-range or deeper) around the hoop. The catch is that you can’t miss three shots in a row. If you miss three shots in a row, you have to do a down and back (or a suicide if you want to up the ante). This is a good drill to help you improve your shooting accuracy while under pressure (as well as a good drill to get in some condidioning as well).
2. Alternate Range Shooting
This is probably one of my favorite shooting accuracy drills as it helps you get used to shooting at different ranges. In it, Coach Hanlen has you start from about 12-15 feet away from the hoop, close to the baseline. You then catch and shoot four mid-range jump shots. Once you’ve made four shots, you’ll step back behind the three-point line and shoot until you hit four shots in a row from there. Once you’ve hit four three pointers, you’ll alternate between the two ranges until you’ve hit another four shots (mid-range, three pointer, mid-range, three-pointer). You’ll follow that sequence from five different spots around the arc, hitting 12 shots at each spot.
3. Five Spot Combo
This is another involved shooting drill from Coach Hanlen. In it, you start from the corner, and hit two catch-and-shoot three pointers. Then you have to hit two one-dribble pull-up jump shots. Finally, you hit one more catch-and-shoot three pointer. If you miss, you start the sequence over. And, you have to complete the sequence from five different spots around the arc (corner, wing, top, wing, corner).
4. 5 Spots in A Row
This drill from Coach Hanlen is pretty straightforward: you start at the corner and hit three three-pointers in a row. Once you’ve hit three in a row, you can advance to the next spot (corner, wing, top, wing, corner). To finish the drill, you have to go back around the arc and hit a shot from each spot without missing. If you miss, you have to go back to the corner and start over (just hitting one shot from each spot, though, not the entire drill.)
5. 71-75-100
In another good high-quantity shooting drill, Coach Hanlen has you start at the corner and shoot seven shots. You have to hit 5 out of 7 shots to advance to the next spot. You’ll shoot from seven spots around the arc (corner, low wing, high wing, top, high wing, low wing, corner). When you go around the arc, you’ll then work your way back around, but this time you have to 3-out-4 shots to advance to the next spot. Once you have completed that, you will work your way back around the arc again, this time having to go 2-for-2 on your shots to advance to the next spot.
III. Game-Scenario Shooting Drills
The game-scenario shooting drills are drills that are designed to recreate the feeling of real shooting opportunities that occur during games. A lot of these drills incorproate the movements necessary (both off-ball and with-ball movements) to help you get open looks.
1. Elbow-to-Wing
In this drill from Coach Rock, you’re going to alternate hitting shots from the elbow to the wing. If you don’t have a rebounder, you can spin the ball to yourself. You’ll notice in the video that Coach Rock comes off receiving the ball and turns into the shot. This mimics the feel of coming off a screen, catching the ball, turning, and shooting in one smooth motion. You can hit 10 shots from each spot and the switch to the other side of the hoop and repeat. Then, you repeat the process, but instead of shooting right off the catch, you can take one dribble to the side and shoot a jumper.
2. Chase Downs
In this video, Coach Collin shows you how to do chase downs. Essentially, you throw the ball up in the air towards a spot on the court, you run to it, catch it, load, and shoot. This is a good drill to do if you don’t have a partner, but you want to create the feel of reacting to the ball and catching and shooting it.
3. Spin Outs
Coach C’s Spin Outs drill is similar to the Chase Downs drill above, except that in Spin Outs, you’re going to start face-up to the hoop, spin the ball out to the side of you, react to it, catch it, load, and shoot it quickly. This is another great drill if you don’t have a rebounder, but you want to simulate reacting to the ball and quickly getting up a shot.
4. Baseline-to-Baseline
In Coach Howard’s Baseline-to-Baseline drill, you will run around the arc back and forth and a partner will yell “ball” and pass you the ball. You will then catch the ball, turn into your shot, and shoot. In Coach Howard’s drill you have to make seven to complete the drill. However, you can adjust this to whatever you want. And, of course, you can adjust the depth of your shot as well.
5. Trigger Step on Catch 135 Degrees
In Coach Handlen’s Trigger Step on Catch 135 Degrees shooting drill, you are to start with your back to the basket, with your outside leg and foot in a lunge stance. Then a partner will pass you the ball and you will turn, catch, and shoot the ball. This drills mimics the feel of coming across the screen and can help you improve your turn-around jumper.
IV. Quick Release Shooting Drills
A quick release on your shot will help you get more open looks. The three basketball shooting drills below are geared towards helping you develop a quick release on your shot so that you are tougher to defend.
1. Scissor Shooting
All three of the drills in this section come from Coach C. This one is called Scissor Shooting and it is designed to help you get quick footwork, which will, in turn, help you develop a quicker release. In it, you start from the elbows and scissor your feet back and forth quickly along the free throw line, spin the ball to the side, load, catch it, and shoot it. You can also move back to the three-point line or anywhere else on the court and do the drill there as well.
2. Arc Runs
In Arc Runs, Coach C has you throw a high pass up to yourself along the three-point line and you will run to it, catch it, load quickly, and shoot. The idea here is to simulate a quick catch-and-shoot off of the pass. Speed is the key here, so you don’t want to take time setting and shooting. You want to maintain good mechanics, but your goal is to get the shot up quickly. You can also dribble around the arc and pull up quickly as well.
3. Double Hops
Double Hops is another drill from Coach C that is designed to help you develop a quicker release on your shot. In this drill, you will spin the ball out to yourself, catch it with a two-footed hop, hop straight up with your hands and ball above your head, then land, and shoot the ball quickly.
V. Longer Range Shooting Drills
For those youth players who don’t quite have the power to shoot three-point shots, these drills for shooting in basketball will help you improve your range without sacrificing good form and accuracy.
(Alternatively, if you want to increase your shooting range, you could work on increasing your leg strength by using our guide on how to jump higher.)
1. Elbow Above Eyebrow Close Distance
In this drill Coach Hanlen has you work on doing some form shooting from right underneath the basket. The goal here is to focus on fully extending your arm so that your elbow is above your eyebrow. Since you’re right under the rim, you’ll be forced to put a lot of arc on the ball and you won’t be able to “push” the ball (which is what a lot of younger players do when they don’t have the strength to shoot three-pointers with proper mechanics) in order to make it.
2. Spin, Sync, and Shoot
In this drill from Coach Hanlen, you’re going to spin the ball to yourself, sync as the ball is coming to you (hopping on two-feet and bending at the knee a bit as you land), catch it, and shoot it. This will help you A) develop the leg power necessary for shooting longer shots, and also B) rely on generating power for your shots from your legs, rather than from poor mechanics (like turning at the waist when you shoot.)
3. Jump Forward Shots
In this last drill that focuses on helping you develop a longer shooting range, Coach Hanlen has you jump forward while you shoot from a further distance away. Essentially, this drill is the same as the drill above, except that you are going to shoot from further away and, when you shoot, you are going to jump forward to help you develop more power (without sacrificing good shooting mechanics.)
Conclusion
Ultimately, if you want to become an elite shooter, you have to practice. And, by using the shooting drills for basketball that are listed above, you’ll not only ensure that you have proper shooting form, or that you can hit wide open shots, but you’ll also be able to knock down those tough game-changing shots that everyone loves to talk about.
So, if you want to get in more consistent and better basketball shooting workouts to help you become an accurate shooter, you should definitely consider adding in some of these drills.
If you have a video of a specific basketball shooting drill that you want to include here, just use the contact form and we will consider adding it!
Leave a Reply