Point Guard Development Drills

Jordan and I talked on the way home about the point guard position.  It is the most important position on the team for many reasons, and it take a special person to want to take on the pressure of being a point guard.  If you want to be a point guard, here are some drills that I want you to be working on in the off-season.

Point Guard Workout Video Part 1
Point Guard Workout Video Part 2

Ball Handing

• Ball Slaps:  start by "waking up" your hands before you begin your workout.  Start with the ball in one hand and slap the ball with the other.  Go back and forth between hands until you feel a little sting in each hand.  Don't slap it so hard that you break your hand, but wake them up!
• Fingertip Strengthening Drill:  Everyone has seen the drill where you tip the ball back and forth between your hands using only your fingertips.  In this drill, instead of tipping the ball back and forth, try squeezing the ball with your fingertips, popping the ball into the air. 
• Circle Drills:  Move the ball in circle around your ankles, knees, waist, torso, etc.  Make sure that you work both directions as you will find that one is easier than the other.  Focus on the direction that you find difficult and work on it!  Do the thing that's hard to do and the power will come!  Eyes up so that your hands and fingers are getting used to finding the ball.
• Figure 8:  Start with figure eight around your legs.  Again, one direction will be much more difficult than the other so work on it so that they are both equal.  Eyes up the entire time.
• Figure 8 dribble:  Focus on finding the ball with your hands.  This is an easy drill to do when looking at the ball, but much tougher with your eyes up.  Find a spot on the other end of the court to look at to force yourself not to look at the ball.  You can vary this drill by dribbling high, low, fast, or slow.  
• Rhythm Dribble:  This is a hard one to explain, but I will try.  Look for a video coming that helps illustrate it.  Start with the ball between your legs, right hand in front and left hand behind you.  Let the ball go so that it bounces off the floor while you quickly switch hands (now your left is in front and right behind).  Push the ball behind your right leg and then take it all of the way around the front of both legs and behind your right leg.  Now you should be back where you started.  When done right, you can hear the rhythm of the ball hitting the floor and your hands.  This is probably one of my favorite ball handing drills!

Dribble Drills

There are as many dribble drills as there are basketball coaches out there.  I am a proponent of trying to dribble with two balls as much as possible when working out on your own.  You have to be able to move with the basketball, and using two at one time just helps your hands and fingers get used to finding the ball on it's return from the floor.

• 2 ball dribble/stationary:  You can do many different stationary dribbling drills with 2 basketballs.  A quick search of the internet will yield many different and similar drills.  The focus here is to challenge yourself to work with two basketballs while keeping your eyes up.
• 2 ball dribble/moving:  Start at one baseline and dribble to the other baseline and back using 2 basketballs.  Start at about 1/2 speed and work up until you are at full speed.  You can try dribbling the balls simultaneously, or you can alternate as you move up and down the court.
• Standard change of direction drills:  The three most common change of direction dribbles that a good point guard needs are the crossover, between the legs, and behind the back dribble.  Using chairs, cones, or lines on the court, will help give you a "defender" and simulate the need to change direction.  Start working at 45 degree angles up and down the court using one of the three change of direction moves when you meet the "defender."  These are basic drills that are done in youth sports, but often overlooked in middle school and high school programs.  We will work on these almost daily, so get a head start by working on them on your own.

Whatever drills you find and choose to work on, remember that it is imperative the your eyes are not on the ball.  A good point guard MUST be able to see the entire court and the nine other players on it.  The more you work on your dribbling skills, the more natural it becomes to do so without seeing the ball.

Lay-ups

A point guard that can handle the ball is likely to be able to beat his defender off of the dribble.  That means he will have opportunities to finish at the rim and needs to be able to do so in different ways.

• From your basic 45 degree angle, start with the ball in triple threat position.  Use a jab step and crossover step and take the ball to the basket at game speed and finish at the rim with right hand on right side and left hand on left side.  Add the reverse layup on each side of the basket to increase the difficulty of the drill.
• With the ball on the baseline, simulate a baseline drill using your left hand on the right side and right hand on the left side.  Also add the reverse layup from underneath the backboard.
• From the top of the key, work on driving the ball down the lane and finishing on both side of the basket as well as straight on.  In all three of these positions, make sure to start in triple threat and make a move to get to the rim.

Jump Shots

Another skill that point guards need to have is the ability to pull up and shoot the mid-range jump shot when their path to the basket is cut off by help defenders.

• Start at the top of the key, in triple threat position, and dribble the ball into the lane at game speed.  Work on pulling up for the jump shot in all areas of the lane.  Make sure to get good arch on the jump shot in the lane so as to simulate shooting over the post defenders that have rotated over to help.  
• Move to different spots on the floor to work on different angles for the jump shot.
• Use a chair as a defender to simulate a screen and work on various angles of coming off of down screens to get your jump shot.  As you get more confident and successful, move your jumper back to 3-point range.   

Wrap-Up

As with any individual workouts, you will find things that you need to work on more than others.  Tailor your workout to not only work on those things that are strengths of your game, but to focus on those areas that you need to improve. As long as you are working hard to develop your game, and making good use of your gym time, you will see results.