Most of my former players will attest to our conditioning program, it works, is one of the hardest things in basketball they have done, but they have really gotten better because of it! This series will push your players conditioning-wise and improve their skill through the process. It is excellent for pre-season or off-season development. We use it during the early season or after a break when we need to build our conditioning.
Wolf Power is a series of 2 player drills that I put together in order to maximize our pre-season conditioning program. It is called Wolf Power as we are the Wolves at Joliet Junior College. Rename it to what fits your system. One of the main goals of our pre-season program is to get our players in the best basketball cardiovascular condition as possible. A goal is to incorporate ball handling, passing, and shooting to work on an individual skill in a short period of time. I want our players to have an opportunity to improve their offensive skills while building transition offensive habits while conditioning. I like that our players are working on their individual skill improvement instead of just running up and down the floor doing sprints, suicides, or ladders. Don’t get me wrong as we do more than our share of those as well. But in this series, each player gets in a good number of shots and skill work which I feel is important. These drills also set the parameters for what we want in our transition game. In these workouts, our players get into excellent shape and it is not a chore.
To get the most out of these drills players must really work at game speed when on the floor. The rotation to the next line is quick but they will have several seconds to catch their breath in between reps. Make your players talk to each other constantly. This will help develop communication. The importance of good passing and receiving on the move is at the forefront of these drills. Players will learn who they can and can’t pass to on the run. Proper footwork to eliminate traveling should be stressed. We stress that players should “show their foot” to the official to eliminate traveling calls. The shooter is working on showing their hands, proper footwork, balance, shot fakes, and a variety of moves.
It is my hope that you can find something that you can use in these drills or that it sparks an idea for you. These drills can be modified to fit the needs of your system and the number of players you have. The drills can be used occasionally during the season by shortening the time for each drill. Depending on your goal, or the time of year, you can do the entire series, shorten the times, or execute fewer of the drills.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Joe
