Use the following basketball conditioning drills to vastly improve your quickness, strength, stamina, running and jumping abilities.
If you want the ability to outlast your opponents on the court, use these proven conditioning drills. Eventually you’ll be running circles around everyone as they stand around gasping for air.
We’ve listed a few general muscle building drills first and then the more specific basketball conditioning drills second.
(Be sure to stretch and warm-up first)
General Conditioning Drills
1) Pull-Ups
Grab the pull-up bar with your palms toward your face.
Pull your body up slowly until your chin is even with the bar.
Do 2 sets of 10 reps.
Now do the same with your palms facing away from you.
2) Push-Ups
Begin this basketball conditioning drill, or exercise, on your stomach and your legs apart slightly. Place your arms about shoulder-width apart and push yourself off the ground. Your back should stay straight and your toes provide balance. When you go back down, don’t allow your body to touch the ground. Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
3) Squats
Begin with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your toes turned out slightly. Your back should be straight, your hands on your hips and your weight on your heels. Bend straight down and then come back up. Do this drill slowly and under control. This basketball conditioning drill, or exerxise, will help strengthen your quadriceps.
4) Sit-Ups
Lay on your back with your legs apart slightly, knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Cross your arms over your body so your right hand is on your left shoulder and vice versa. Bring yourself up off the floor about a third of the way, leaning in toward your knees. Go back down and up again. Do 3 sets of 15-20 reps.
Basketball Conditioning Drills
5) Six Inches
This basketball conditioning drill helps to build the upper body.
Start drill by laying on the floor and putting your hands under your head.
Then lift your feet about six inches off the floor. Hold that position until the coach’s signal. Don’t drop your feet. This is a good exercise to do before practice or a game.
6) Jumper
A basketball conditioning drill to increase your vertical jump. Jump up as high as you can at least 10 times right before you go to bed and when you wake up.
7) One Mile Run
This basketball conditioning drill will keep players in shape while building mental toughness as well as the leg muscles. It also helps players play harder and last longer during games. Start jogging for 20 seconds, then run for 20 seconds, then jump for 20 seconds and then walk for 20 seconds. Do this continually for one mile. Run this drill three or four times per week for maximum benefit.
8) Suicide
Cardiovascular drill that builds leg strength. Begin the drill at one of the baselines and run out to the foul line and then back to the baseline. Then run out to half-court and back. Next, run to the opposite foul line and back. Finally, run the full court down and back. Don’t slow down or stop – just keep truckin’.
9) Pyramids
A variation on the “Suicide” drill. Start the players at the baseline, sprint to opposite baseline and do one push-up. Then sprint back and do two push-ups. Continue this up to five push-ups. When this is done, continue the drill using sit-ups, jumping jacks and then five straight sprints. This basketball conditioning drill will end at the same baseline where it began.
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10) Venture Drill
This basketball conditioning drill really works on agility, speed and endurance. Cones should be used and be sure that the players make good, sharp cuts.
Begin on the baseline on the lane line. Sprint to the near sideline even with the foul line. At the foul line, change directions and sprint to mid-court. At mid-court, slap the floor into a defensive stance, continue diagonally to the foul line, change direction and proceed to the lane line at the baseline. Finish with a sprint to the near sideline and then back-pedaling to the opposite baseline. This drill can be done for reps or time.
11) Turn About
This basketball conditioning drill works on different fundamentals like defense, rebounding and running. It helps simulate running down the court in quick bursts, quick back-pedaling to get into position on defense, maintaining proper footwork, jumping for a rebound, etc.
Line the team up in one corner. Player 1 sprints down the sideline to half-court, immediately spins around and runs backwards down the rest of the sideline. Once they reach the opposite baseline, they immediately drop into a proper defensive stance and step/slide along the baseline until they are under the basket.
At this point, Player 1 should jump up and try to touch the bottom of the backboard, then drop back into their defensive stance and step/slide the rest of the way across the baseline. Player 1 is in the opposite corner from where the drill started and they now repeat the same routine down the other side of the court. Player 2 starts drill after Player 1 has reached half court, Player 3 starts after Player 2 reached half-court and so on. Each player should do at least 2-3 laps.
Be sure your players push themselves throughout the entire basketball conditioning drill. Run, jump and back-pedal as fast as possible, maintain the proper defensive stance and footwork.
As a variation, have each player try to catch the player in front of them. Whoever is caught must run an extra lap. Watch how much this makes your team work even harder.
12) 15 man scrimmage
This one works on your transition offense, secondary break and defensive communication and turns it into a fun game. Assemble three teams of five for this basketball conditioning drill (blue team, gold team and white team).
The gold team starts at one basket, blue team at the other basket, and the white team at mid-court. Give the white team the ball first and have them play five on five against the blue team while the gold team does another drill (a shooting drill, inbound plays, free throws, etc). Once the blue team gets the ball by either a turnover, rebound or off of a made basket by the white team, they (blue) push the ball up the floor and play five on five against the gold team while the white team does another drill. The gold team must call out the number of the person they are guarding while the blue team goes directly into the secondary break into the offense. Once the gold team gains possession, they push it up the floor against the white team and the cycle continues.
A good time limit on this drill is eight minutes. Keep score of all three teams and make the two losing teams run. As variations, you can give points to the defense for turnovers, defensive rebounds, etc and extra points for the offense on offensive rebounds.
13) 40 in 2 Minutes
The idea for this basketball conditioning drill is to make 40 combined lay-ups in 2 minutes. Start with half the team at one end and the other half at the other end. Have one player from each team dribble as fast as possible to the other end and try to make a lay-up. When one player finishes, the next person under the basket rebounds and sprint dribbles to the other end.
14) Criss-Cross
A basketball conditioning drill to help shooting, passing and conditioning. You need four passers, each with a ball, two located in the low corners and at two the foul line extended. Two rebounders are also needed, and one shooter. The shooter starts at the left low block in post up position. The shooter receives the bounce pass from the corner, squares up, shoots, then hustles up to the right elbow where they receive a pass, catch it, square up, and shoot. Then hustle straight down to the right block, catch the bounce pass, square up, and shoot. Turn and cross to the left elbow, catch the pass, square up and shoot. Then hustle down to the left block and the pattern starts over.
Give each shooter one minute. Put an emphasis on receiving the pass and squaring up. As a variation, you can have the two rebounders play hand up defense when the shooter gets in the block area. Or, you can add extra rebounders and play hand up defense at the elbows.
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