• These drills will help improve your gamebasketball image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
  
  Just like any sport, you must work hard to improve your skills and conditioning for the game of basketball. Although hard work is involved, it can be kept interesting with a number of drills that make improvement more fun. Not only do these drills make working at basketball more fun, but they can significantly improve your fundamental skills and your conditioning if done the right way. Whether with a team, or individually, these drills will help you.
  
  

Box Out Drill

• A drill that helps rebounding, this is best done in the half court circle and requires two or more people. Much like a sumo-wrestling match, two players start in the center of the half court circle facing opposite directions in rebounding position. With legs bent and behinds touching, once the whistle is blown the two players try to push each other out of the circle using only their behinds. The winner stays in the circle until he loses. The player who lasts in the circle the longest wins.
  
  

The Speedy Drill

• A good team conditioning drill, this is best utilized when there is a coach present. Get in the correct defensive position and when the coach blows the whistle and points in a direction, defensively slide in that direction. Wait for him the blow the whistle again and change direction and then slide in that direction. When the coach yells "ball" dive on the ground and immediately jump back up into defensive position. When the coach points up, jump straight up and down in place with your hands in the air. When he points backwards, back pedal.
  
  

Dribble Tag

• One player is designated as "it". While dribbling, he tries to tap the other players' ball out of bounds. If he is successful at knocking another player's ball out of bounds, that player must do push ups or run a lap. After a set time period, switch the designated "it" player to ensure that everybody gets a turn. To make this drill harder, make your players dribble with their weak hand.
  
  

Caterpillar Dribble Weave

• Once all the players are in a line, they begin to jog around the outside of the court. The ball at the front is passed back over the heads of the players. Once it reaches the back, the player in the back of the line will dribble it forward through the line weaving through the players as if they are stationary obstacles. This drill improves conditioning, coordination and ball-handling.
  
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2 on 2 Killer

• This drill starts with one line in each corner. The first two players in each line on one side of the floor are on a team and will play against the first two players in each line on the other side of the floor. With the ball placed in the middle of the court, the coach will blow the whistle. The players will sprint toward the and whichever team gets it will play two on two against the players who didn't get it. The teams will play until one team scores. The team that scores stays on the side of the floor they are on, while the loser sprint to the opposite end of the floor.