Basketball Practice with One Basket

Alex Sarama did much of his early learning at one hoop. At St. Peter's Catholic School in Guildford, England, the outdoor hoops stood at the turning point of the school buses, each at a different height. At every break, Alex and his friends played on the only one the buses hadn't damaged. In the introduction to his first book, Transforming Basketball, which was read on EP57, he describes how they played: an imaginary three-point line, teams of mixed ages, sometimes 3-on-3, 5-on-3 or 8-on-8.

Looking back, he wrote that virtually all his improvement came from his backyard and those break-time games, while his organized practices, built on dynamic stretching, the shell drill, the three-player weave and 1-on-0 finishing, "simply limited me or possibly even made me worse."

Nobody at that hoop stood in a line, and nobody at yours needs to either. Later, coaching and running clinics in more than 40 countries, Alex kept seeing the same habits in very different gyms. One item on the list in the book's introduction is "players waiting in lines or practicing on one basket with low time-on-task rates." One hoop is common. Low time on task doesn't have to come with it.

Transcending Basketball measures practice by time on task: how much of the session players spend active, compared with waiting around or listening to instructions. The book names "keeping all the players on one basket for certain drills" as one of the habits that drags it down. It's the drill that causes the waiting. Run a layup line or around-the-horn at one basket and most of the group is standing still.

Youth coaches see this every week. On EP27, Alex described the familiar picture of a coach with a group of seven-to-ten-year-olds "keeping them all on one basket so they're easier to manage", and called it unrealistic for that age. On EP95, Jon Yu remembered seeing one hoop with 30 kids at it: "It's a lot of standing, a lot of lines."

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On EP37, a solo episode on drill makeovers, Alex said that if you're short of baskets, you're better off playing different advantage 1-on-1 games at the same hoop than running a layup line, as long as players understand when to start their rep. His limit for a normal setup is three 1-on-1 games at once.

When space is tight, he has run four:

At a live clinic recorded for EP13, a coach asked Alex how to keep time on task high with 20 or 30 teenagers who all want to get going. Alex's answer was that everything he was about to show could be done with 10 or 12 players on a hoop. He'd run tryouts at the Lions for around 120 players, maybe 140 on one day, with four hoops: "we made it work." The first game he demonstrated was this one.

Alex's comment as the game ran: "you can see the time on task, it's sky high, and we get dribbling, finishing at the same time."

A burst keeps the same players in the same roles for a set time, usually a minute, while the reps run back to back. Nobody walks back to a line between reps, which is exactly what one basket needs. Two bursts from Transforming Basketball each use five players. Run one at the rim and a passing game away from it, then swap.

Once you move to team games, have a team waiting instead of a line. With a large group, use 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 with a team ready to come on. Keep the waiting team outside the playing area and agree before you start when they enter.

For 12 players, our default is 4-on-4-on-4 Defensive Shutdown: three teams of four, two playing on the half court and the third waiting, first team to five defensive stops. The full rules are in our small-sided games guide. Its rotation (a stop keeps the defense on, a score sends the scoring team to defense) means you work on creating an advantage, defending it and securing the rebound in one game.

With nine players, Alex uses a three-team version of his own as a replacement for the shell drill:

Keep an eye on how playing time is spread. If one team spends too long waiting, adjust the rotation so every team gets repeated chances to play.

Once players know the rotation, leave it alone. You can change the emphasis of a 3-on-3 or 4-on-4 game without reorganizing the group. To work on coverages, specify the trigger the offense has to use and the coverage the defense has to play, so players work on coverage solutions while their teammates work on spacing and off-ball movement. To emphasize rebounding, use the Shutdown rule that subtracts a stop when the defense gives up an offensive rebound.

Because players already know where to stand, the new constraint gets their attention, and no practice time goes on explaining the rotation.

Alex's EP37 habit of having two ways to win works well here too: a team wins at 12 points, or by forcing three turnovers. A team on 11 points that commits its third turnover loses. Offense and defense are both live in every game, so you don't need separate offensive and defensive segments to share out the one rim.

In the games at the basket, let the rebounder find a teammate after securing possession. It keeps the rebound tied to the next decision, the outlet pass, and gives teammates a reason to get open. Where space allows, add a breakout dribble.

This only covers the start of transition. Players still need full-court play to advance the ball against a recovering defense, which one basket can't give you. The same goes for Advance the Ball, the large-group game Alex describes for big numbers, which needs two baskets. Its setup is in using small-sided games with large numbers.

If you have a separate area, part of the group can work on passing without the basket. Transcending Basketball suggests replacing chest passes in lines with piggy in the middle, the playground game, because players pass at different angles, speeds, heights and spins.

For a bigger group off the basket, the warm-up chapter of A Constraints-Led Approach to Coaching Basketball uses a tag game that only needs one ball. The book's note for novice teams fits most one-hoop gyms: warm-up time is short, and avoiding traditional layup lines matters.

George Vaz's three-player passing warm-up from the best warm-ups for basketball practices works away from the hoop too: one player dribbles out, jump stops and pivots, a second defends the pass, and the third receives. Our passing drills guide has more.

Knockout is the classic one-hoop game, and also a game where the players who go out stop playing. Our version keeps them in.

For the session around these games, our practice planning guide covers how to write the rotation into the plan, and the small-sided games guide has more formats that fit a half court.