The Best Basketball Workout Routines to Complete Daily
If you want to become a great basketball player, you will need to put in the time and effort into the game outside of practice. Too often, we hear from players and athletes that they’re not seeing improvements in their shot, or their ability to drive to the basket, or their free-throw percentage.
When pushed further, these same athletes admit that they put little to no additional time outside of practice into their game.
That’s why, below, we’re going to provide you with the best basketball workout routines to complete on a daily basis. These routines will not only help you with your core fundamentals, but they will also help you to improve both your offensive and defensive abilities.
If you’re serious about your basketball skills and improving upon those skills, then this worksheet will help you advance your game further. This workout can, and should, be completed daily and should be done outside of your regularly scheduled practice sessions.
In addition, this workout should be used in tandem with your regular cardiovascular and muscular development workouts. In combination with practice, you will develop your basketball skills faster and prove to be a better, more efficient player.
Quick Tips
When it comes to developing a basketball routine that you can complete daily, we focused mainly on consistency. As a basketball player, the most important aspect of your game, and the game you can develop, is consistency.
Whether that is the consistency with a jump shot, the consistency to play man-to-man defense, or the consistency in your free-throw percentage.
This is doubly true for a basketball workout routine which you should complete on a daily basis. You need to develop the consistency to not only complete the workout routines listed below but to also do so with 100% effort.
In addition, you need to push yourself past and out of your comfort zone. Do not settle for the shots you are comfortable with, nor should you settle for workouts and schemes which you do not find challenging.
If you truly wish to elevate your basketball game, then you need to step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself every day.
Lastly, before jumping into a daily basketball routine or workout, ensure that your fundamentals are sound and fully developed.
A basketball workout routine or drill that utilizes incorrect form and fundamentals will not only harm your in-game performance but can also lead to injury.
What to Focus on Daily for Basketball?
When developing a daily basketball workout routine, it is important that you focus on aspects that are crucial for a live game. This includes dribbling skills, shooting drills, rebounding practices, and passing routines.
These skills and drills are the most fundamental aspects needed in a game of basketball and are the ones that should be focused on during your additional practice.
However, the drills, skills, and workouts we are going to provide you to complete on a daily basis below should only be completed, and are being provided, under the assumption that your fundamentals are sound.
For example, we will not provide rebound fundamentals below as we believe that, by this point in your basketball career, you should have the fundamentals understood.
Beginning Drills
Ideally, you will want to begin your workout with some drills to get your heart rate pumping and to increase your heart rate. This will also help to loosen your muscles and to help you avoid any injuries.
- Light jog around the court three-times
- 30 jumping jacks
- 20 burpees
- 50 shots from the free-throw line
- Wall Toss – the wall toss is a great drill to begin with and will help with both your dribbling and hand-eye coordination. To complete, stand ten feet away from a wall. As you face the wall, dribble the basketball between your legs, left-to-right and then right-to-left. As you transition the ball back to your left-hand, throw it off the wall and catch with your right-hand. Once you’ve caught with your right-hand, repeat the drill, dribbling from your right-to-left, then left-to-right, and again off the wall, catching with your left-hand. Repeat for five minutes.
Mid-Drills
Once you have completed your beginning drills, you will want to move on to more intense drills. These drills should be completed back-to-back, with little time for rest in between. Focus on completing these drills precisely and with sound fundamentals.
Begin by shooting five shots from the right corner three, from the right-hand three, the center three, the left-hand three, and the left corner three.
You should then move to beneath the rim, taking five layups with your left-hand and then five layups with your right-hand. Grabbing the rebound, take ten shots from the free-throw line.
Once completed, we will work on your dribbling skills. To do this exercise, you will need to have small cones which you can place on the ground in front of you. We highly recommend these cones as they are easy to carry with the provided bag and have a grip holder at the top for easy placement.
Simply line up the cones in a square, the size slightly larger than a basketball. Standing in front of the square, dribble the basketball from one hand to the other, bouncing the basketball through the middle of the square.
Similarly, you will then want to setup the cones into the shape of a square on the court. Starting at one corner, dribble forward to the next cone. Once reached, dribble sideways to the next cone, and then backwards to the next. Lastly, dribble sideways again to your starting cone.
You will then want to progress back to the free-throw line. Holding the ball in one-hand, typically your dominant hand, take twenty shots with that hand. You should aim to make 75% of your shot attempts.
After your last shot, while holding the ball in both hands, begin backboard tap drills. Jump and elevate to the point where you can hit the basketball off the backboard. Continue this motion for 90-seconds.
Conclusion
To finish up your workout, you will want to continue going hard and putting in 100% effort. Complete your workout by running 3-sets of suicides. Once completed, pick-up the basketball and take 50 shots from different points on the court. Ideally, you should look to take ten shots from five different spots.