Homework Hoops 

Footwork and Ball Handling

This tool’s goal is to introduce some intricacies of basketball footwork that is associated with ball
handling. All players, no matter what position, can benefit from break down and working on skills that
seem small and significant. To be brief, these skills will help you in gaining an edge over the defense
because y​ ou will be better equipped ​with footwork coordination ​along ​with your hand-eye
coordination.​ ​What will be most beneficial is to continue to do it over and over.​ Repetition is key.

As you perform these moves​, it is encouraged to look at your feet when you start learning a
move to truly get your mind in coordination with your feet and build foot placement (body control). As
you progress, you can lift your eyes up to build that skill. ​Click the ​links ​for video demonstrations ​and
study the moves and explanations to perform them yourself. Let’s start.

FOOTWORK START
You will need a ball and a slab of concrete, and this video will show
you how to make a footwork station. Your ​footwork station does not
need a basketball goal. But, if you want to put it near your goal, It’d
be best-utilized somewhere at 15ft-24ft away from the goal (similar to
FT line & 3pt line). With your goal, you can greatly improve your
off-dribble shooting.

POCKETS
Dribbling the ball to your side, and trying to keep your hand on the
side of the ball, not under. This move may feel awkward, some
old-school people may call it a “carry”, yet it will help you to build
skill in manipulating the ball how you want. Once you gain
proficiency, it will help in timing, quickness, and deception in your
dribble moves.
Footwork Fundamentals
DROPS
This move simulates the stance in which you take every time you start
a dribble drive. The faster you rep it, the more explosive you will
become. Keep low and explosive, ​work on varying your split stance
lengths​, as well as going left and right. This is a great method for
improving your hesitation abilities and an explosive first step.

POCKET+DROP
This is an underrated footwork/handle skill used by all good players.
Working on this stance and footwork will increase your
explosiveness. This again simulates how we attack with our dribble in
low and athletic stance. Getting slightly wider than your defender, you
have a better chance of going by your defender, while at a good angle.
Test your speed on how fast you can quickly replace your feet back
into the station, this will increase your footwork proficiency and
explosiveness.
  

Expansion
POCKET+CROSS
This move is a great handling warm-up. Great for post player
improving their hand speed. This is relatively easy, so rep this fast. Feet
are stationary for now.

POCKET+TWEEN
More difficulty added with this move. Guards and posts can improve
hand speed, dribbling speed, and ball manipulation. Start slow, and
increase speed. Varying your speed, ex. ​going from fast to slow, then
back to fast​ will help with rhythm and handling skills.

POCKET+BEHIND
Most difficult variation of the pocket drills. Rhythm is more important
than speed as you begin. A good technique to follow is aiming to
dribble the ball right down behind you, almost under your butt and
repeat.

DROP+POCKET+CROSS
Footwork accountability is focused on here. Stay explosive but also be
able to maintain the correct footwork and being able to control your
feet throughout the move, while going left and right. The
‘Drop+Pocket’ added to the basic cross and other moves most
definitely will improve your deceptive factor in your moves. If you’ve
heard the term “shifty-ness”, the pocket+drop is big to help improve
your shiftiness and deceptive-ness while dribbling.

DROP+POCKET+SNATCH
Still increasing our deception and shiftiness. You are encouraged to
look down at your feet to help with coordination and being accountable
for the limited space given for the footwork, as so in all of these moves.
Here, after you’ve repped a lot, ​you can always incorporate a shot or
shot fake​, and you are encouraged to do that with a lot of these moves.

DROP+POCKET+BEHIND
The same still applies to this move as other drop+pocket moves. After
repping a lot, feel free to incorporate a move after this one, maybe a
shot fake, maybe a hesitation, or maybe attack the same direction with a
hard pound dribble, or in the opposite direction.
  

DROP-POCKET+STEP+TWEEN
This move can be really lethal to quickly change direction while blowing
by your defender. The between keeps the ball protected while also
producing an explosive move. In this demonstration, I did a poor job of
being accountable for my foot placement. You can work on having the
footwork on top of the corners and inside the square.

POUND+DROP+PUNCH
This move introduces footwork movement from approaching the footwork
station, particularly hesitation skill. In turn, this move is becoming more
game-like as you get to cover more space. Focusing on footwork
placement is still important. This will also help develop a more effective
first step.

POUND+DROP+PUNCH+ACCOUNTABILITY
In this video, I am using the same move, although adding an auxiliary
move and try to ​be precise in your footwork placement to expand
your skill. Here I added a shot or shotfake. Then, I added more footwork
accountability by trying to retreat dribble back into the correct footwork
placement, here I used a behind the back dribble.

Variation & Imagination

APPROACH VARIATIONS
Practice approaching the station (or box), which is connected with the
precise footwork required when using a dribble move in an exchange to
beat a defender. The variation here is boundless, and you can build skill in
all different moves listed here or any you can imagine. Although, ​finding
one or two moves to rep heavily will make the quickest translation
into your game. The clips in this video only demonstrate a few moves
that will make your offense more difficult to guard.

--By imagination or visualization of the game and its situations, you can work on any variation of a
ball-handling move you might think can benefit your play. Watching and looking at game-film clips and
snapshots of your favorite top ballplayers’ moves will give you inspiration. Also, watch your own game-film
and film yourself to find skills an intricacies in which to improve upon. (For starters, think about how you
can add a shot fake or foot-fake (jab step) in.)

Methods
Players should ​rep each move here at least 50-100+ times before moving to the next one. Although, to
refine any skill, follow the ​“A Thousand-Time Rule.” :1000x good repetitions = Good
2000x good repetitions = Advanced
3000x good repetitions = Mastery