The Best Point Guard Dribbling Drills

January 5, 2015
/ By Tom

Few skills are more important to any position in basketball than dribbling for point guards. Being able to handle the ball is important for running and offense, attacking the basket, and finding an open teammate.

The best point guard dribbling drills for basketball take a complete approach to ballhandling. You won’t maximize your ability if you just play basketball, it is important to drill. Below are seven excellent dribbling drills you can do whether you are a beginner or advanced. You will find an explanation of each and a video demonstration of the technique as it can be easier for some to learn that way. The drills are:

Spider
Figure 8
Floor Pound
Kill Dribble
Shuffle
Triple Crossover
Double Ball

There are many different drills you can do, but these seven have been proven for many years to improve skills. You don’t have to do each of them at every practice, but you can pick and choose a couple as a warm-up to your training session. You can switch it up at each practice at try to incorporate all of them over the course of a week or two.

As you get more comfortable with each drills, make sure you continually make each exercise harder. Some drills can be done at a faster speed. Others you can work on not looking at the basketball at all or having a more precise handle. The progression is totally individual to your skill level and the individual drill.

Spider

The spider is a good drill for beginners to get used to coordinating dribbling and get comfortable handling the ball. In it, you take a wide stance and dribble between the legs. You will dribble four times in each rep. In order: left hand in front of body, right hand in front of body, left hand behind body, right hand behind body. When you first do the drill, it is ok to look at the ball and get comfortable, but eventually you will want to be able to do this without looking.

Figure 8

There is also a non-dribbling version of this drill. You begin in a basketball stance and dribble around your right leg with your right hand once the ball comes between your legs, you switch to dribbling with you left hand and dribble around your left leg. You then repeat this. As the name implies, this forms a figure 8. You can see a video demonstration below.

Pound

This is another stationary single basketball drill. This is just one handed dribbling from an athletic position. You perform a hard, pounding dribble onto the court at different heights. They can be done at ankle height, waist height, and shoulder height. For an example, you can perform ten repetitions at each height with the right hand and then switch over to the left hand, performing ten repetitions at each height there as well.

Kill

The kill dribble drill can help point guards adjust to dribbling the basketball at differing intensities and height. In this, you rotate from a high, hard dribble, to a softer, low dribble. You can perform 3-5 reps at each height before switching to the other height.

Shuffle

The shuffle consists of actually shuffling back and forth. You can start with a left hand dribble and slide shuffle to the right and then back to the left, keeping the ball in your left hand. You then switch to having the ball in your right hand, completing the same process. A good distance for this is down to half court and then back to the baseline.

Triple Crossover

The crossover is an important skill for point guards to have. Crossovers are generally known as being with two hands, but you can perform a crossover dribble with one hand. The triple crossover drill takes both styles into account. You can do it by performing a left to right crossover, then performing a right hand only crossover dribble, then switching to the left, and repeating the whole process. The video below shows NBA MVP Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors practicing the drill.

Double Ball

When it gets too easy to use one basketball, try adding another. Using two balls at the same time is a great way to increase your skill. You can begin by standing in the triple threat position and dribbling one ball in each hand and keeping the rest of your body stationary. You dribble the balls in sync. Once you are comfortable with this, you can progress towards walking, jogging, and eventually sprinting while dribbling with the balls.

Point guard dribbling drills are a great way to improve ballhandling skills. These need to be done in a progressive way and used frequently to be able to continue to take your skills to the next level. Make sure you continue to challenge yourself so you can take your game to the next level.