Progressing Decision-Making Shooting Drills

Evolving basketball shooting beyond block practice and form shooting.

Decision-making — deciding whether or not to shoot — is a part of shooting, and shooting drills should incorporate these decisions. Many coaches and trainers have added defense into shooting drills — a relatively new addition for most — but often the drills practice only shooting under pressure or contested shooting, ignoring the decision-making. One player is designated the shooter, the other the defender, and the shooter shoots a designated shot with the defender flying at the shooter after running around some cone to create a split-second of separation. These drills add defense, but not decisions, as players essentially follow directions: Player X shoots from spot Y. Without player decision-making, and a passing option, these are not game-like shooting drills.

Game-like shooting drills require a defender and a passing option, at minimum. As such, not all of the below drills are game-like drills, although all include a decision to shoot. The decision to shoot is part of game shooting, and practice, by and large, should include the decision to shoot as part of the shooting practice.

Here is a progression, based on Fake Fundamentals, Volume 4, to show a progression from simple to complex, in terms of increasing decision-making and the drive/pass/shot decision into shooting drills.

Partner Shooting

As a two-player drill, Partner Shooting does not include the passing option. However, players read the closeout and decide to shoot or drive, so it is a simple drill to use as a starting point. We use Partner Shooting frequently to introduce the shot/drive decision, practice shooting with defensive pressure, and train different closeouts.

4v1 Spanish Shooting

4v1 Spanish Shooting eliminates dribbling, reducing the decision-making to a pass/shot decision. With a big offensive advantage (4v1), players should shoot only open shots, so this works as a beginner shooting drill. Players need to be ready to shoot and think shot on every catch.

4v2 Serbia Shooting

4v2 Serbia Shooting eliminates dribbling, reducing the decision-making to a pass/shot decision. With a big offensive advantage (4v2), players should shoot only open shots. Just the small amount of decision-making in this drill — choosing whether to shoot or pass to a teammate — has been shown to reduce shooting percentages on open shots with future NCAA Division 1 and NBA players.

4v3 Serbia Shooting

4v3 Serbia Shooting eliminates dribbling, reducing the decision-making to a pass/shot decision. With a small offensive advantage (4v3), players should shoot open shots. We added scoring: A made basket starts as three points, and the offense gets one free pass. After the first pass, the offense loses a point for every additional pass. Make it, take it.

2v1 Shooting

This beginning baseline drive and kick drill starts with the passer reading the defender to complete the pass with the goal to shoot. However, the pass receiver has the shot/pass decision. Shoot when open or make the next pass to the more open player.

Eventually, this becomes two-vs-two and the passer follows his pass to become the second defender.

2v2 Shooting

Next, we add a defender on the passer to create a live two-vs-two. Players on the first catch have the pass/shot decision, and if they make the next pass, the next player has a shot/drive decision. Again, we want the catch-and-shoot attempt, but if the defender closes out quickly and can disrupt the shot, we prefer a one-dribble pull-up to a contested three-point attempt. We start with a free shot off the dribble, and move to live two-vs-two where players can drive to the basket if needed to create a good shot.

3-Player String Shooting

Three-player drill incorporating movement and decision-making. On the catch, players have option to shoot, drive and kick, or pass; the pass directly after the catch is used less frequently because of the spacing. On a pass out, players close out, so players begin to read the defense when making the drive/pass/shot decision.

5-Player String Shooting

5-Player String Shooting is 3v2, but restricted to catch-and-shoot attempts (because it is a shooting drill). On the catch, players can drive, pass, or shoot; when they drive, they drive to touch the paint (three-second area) and pass out. Defense closes out and contests shots.

3v3 Wildcat Rules

3v3 game with an emphasis on penetrate and kick and shooting. Players can receive a pass only outside the three-point line (initial rules). On the catch, they can drive, pass, or shoot. Game works on spacing in relation to dribble penetration, reading closeouts, stopping penetration, and shooting.

Summary

There are many drills a coach can use to progress and regress based on players' needs. These incorporate different levels of decision-making into shooting drills rather than practicing shooting only in isolated or individual drills devoid of the game context.

Decision-making shooting is more than just adding a defender to contest shots or flashing numbers to complicate the directions (#FakeFundamentals). Players improve at that which they practice. If they practice rushing contested shots, they improve their ability to shoot rushed shots; if they practice shooting when a coach flashes the #1 instead of the #2, they improve their shooting when looking for the coach’s hand signals. To improve game shooting, players need to improve their decision-making when shooting, their understanding of the time and space needed to shoot comfortably, and the quickness of their shots to increase their shooting opportunities, especially better shooters. Practicing with live closeouts and real drive/pass/shoot decisions is the best shooting practice for improving game performance.