2 Easy Drills to Improve Passing and Break Pressure

By Joe Haefner, Breakthrough Basketball

In today's dribble drive world, players can often undervalue the effectiveness of the pass. If you are having problems with dribbling the ball too much, breaking pressure, or just need to improve overall team passing, here are two great drills that are sure to help!

3-on-3, No Dribble

This is simply 3 on 3 basketball. However, there is only 1 rule. The players cannot dribble the basketball. This is great, because it teaches the players how to get open and create shots without using the dribble. It also teaches players how to pivot, use ball fakes and rip-throughs to create more space when the dribble is not available.

This is not only a great drill for coaching youth basketball but it also is a great drill for all levels that can be used in a half court or full court setting.

2-on-8, No Dribbling

This is a super-effective drill that emphasizes all of the same skills mentioned above and also really challenges the offensive players to break full court pressure and take care of the basketball.

Two defenders are placed in each quarter-court. However, they cannot leave their quarter-court area.

So two defenders will be:

• Baseline to free throw line extended.
• Free throw line extended to half court.
• Half court to free throw line extended.
• Free throw line extended to the baseline.

Two offensive players will try to make it baseline to baseline without turning the ball over.

If you can find two players that make it baseline to baseline, you know they did a great job because this drill is extremely challenging.

Hopefully, these passing drills will help you reduce turnovers, build better fundamentally-sound players, and improve your overall team offense.