How to draw a basketball drill diagram

A basketball drill diagram has a different job from a play diagram. A play diagram tells five players where to go against a defense. A drill diagram tells a group of players, and often an assistant coach, how to set up, who goes first, what each rep looks like, where everyone goes next, and what you will be watching for. If an assistant cannot run the drill from the diagram while you are at the other basket, the diagram is missing something.

This guide covers what a good drill diagram shows, the notation, how to split a drill into phases, and how to draw one in the SlongeHoops drill designer.

What a drill diagram has to show

Five things, roughly in the order a reader looks for them:

1. The setup. Every cone, marker, chair, ladder and ball rack where it stands in the gym, and every player and coach where they start.
2. The lines. Where the next players wait. A drill with three lines needs three visible lines.
3. One rep. The movement of a single repetition, in the notation players already read.
4. The rotation. Where each player goes when the rep ends. This is the part most hand-drawn drills leave out, and the part that causes the most confusion on the floor.
5. The drill card. What it trains, how long it runs, how many players and balls, the coaching points and the variations.

The first four belong on the court. The fifth belongs next to it. Coaching points written across the diagram make it harder to read.

The notation

Drills use the same symbols as plays, so players do not need a second vocabulary:

• Solid arrow: a cut or a run.
• Dashed arrow: a pass.
• Zig-zag line: a dribble.
• Short bar across the end of a line: a screen.

Drills add two things. Equipment, drawn as what it is: a cone looks like a cone, a ladder like a ladder. And coaches, who often pass, rebound, shoot or hold a pad in a drill, and need to look different from players. A square or a C is common. Our guide on how to draw up a basketball play covers the notation in more detail.

Phases: one rep, then the rotation

Do not draw a whole drill in one picture. Split it into phases, the same way a play is split. A phase is everything that happens at the same time; the next phase starts where the last one ended.

Most drills need two to four phases:

• Phase 1: the first rep, from the setup to the finish.
• Phase 2: the rotation and the next rep, so readers see who goes next and where the last player went.
• Phase 3 and 4, only if the drill changes: the other side, a second station, a progression.

The closeout drill shows this well. Phase 1 is the closeout to the wing. Phase 2 is the recovery to help and the closeout to the corner. The two markers show exactly where each closeout ends.

The ladder to finish uses its third phase for the rotation alone: the finisher rebounds, passes back to the coach and jogs to the end of the line while the next player goes. Without that phase, every group would invent its own rotation.

Labels that save explanations

Put a letter or a number on any piece of equipment the players have to find. “Sprint to marker 2 and back” only works if the diagram shows which marker is 2. The line sprints diagram numbers its four markers for exactly this reason.

Name players by their job, not their position. In a shooting drill the shooter is S and the rebounder is R. In a three-line drill, A, B and C. Point guard and center mean nothing in a drill where everyone rotates through every spot.

Paper or app

Paper works. A whiteboard works. Most drills in history were drawn with a marker on a clipboard. The problems start when the drill has more than one phase, when you want to send it to an assistant, or when the photo of the whiteboard is unreadable by the time it reaches anyone’s phone.

A drill drawn in an app can be animated, so the rotation is something players watch, not something they decode. It can be changed without redrawing. And it stays the same from one season to the next.

Drawing a drill in SlongeHoops

The drill designer is the same editor as the play editor, switched to Drill mode. It is always clear which mode you are in. A new drill starts on a half court with one player and a coach.

1. Put the equipment down. Pick a piece in the tools: cones, flat markers, chairs, agility ladders, hurdles, stand-up dummies or a ball rack. Tap the court to put it down. It stays picked, so a row of cones is a row of taps; Esc stops placing. Drag a piece to move it. Ladders, hurdles and chairs can be turned to the angle they stand at, and any piece can carry a label.

2. Add the players and coaches. A drill takes up to twelve players a side and two coaches. A coach is a square token who passes, rebounds and holds a pad like anyone else.

3. Draw the movement. Drag from a player. The app reads the stroke as a cut, a pass, a dribble, a screen or a shot, and draws it in the notation above. If it guesses wrong, one tap corrects it. One drag is one action.

4. Add a phase for the next step. Each phase starts where the last one ended, so the rotation is just the next phase.

5. Fill in the drill card. What it trains, from twelve categories such as shooting, finishing, ball handling, defense or conditioning; the first one you pick is the main focus. Then the difficulty from beginner to elite, the age groups from U8 to adult, the minutes, the number of players and balls, the coaching points and the variations.

6. Watch it run. From above or in isometric. Scrub through it, slow it to half speed, or loop the phase you are teaching.

You do not have to start from nothing. Open any drill in the drill library, such as the Mikan drill, and it becomes yours to change: move the cones, add a second line, swap the coach for a passer.

What the drill designer does not do yet

A few things you might expect from the drill designer are not there:

• Equipment stands still. A cone cannot move between phases. A drill where the coach rearranges the cones needs a second drill.
• Practice plans are on Coach. Stringing drills into a timed session happens in the practice planner, which is part of the paid plans. Our practice plan template works on paper too.
• The library is not every drill. It covers every category, but if the drill you run is missing, you draw it yourself.
• Plays-only features. The simulated defense and the player quizzes are built around plays, not drills.
• Everything is drawn. There is no typing or dictating a drill into existence. You place the equipment and drag the movement, the same way you draw a play.

The drill editor and the drill library are free, like the play editor.

A checklist before you share a drill diagram

• Can someone set it up from the diagram alone, cones and all?
• Are the lines visible, with the first player clearly marked?
• Does every phase show one thing happening at one time?
• Is the rotation drawn, not just explained?
• Are the coaching points on the drill card, not across the court?
• Would an assistant know what to watch for?

If the answer to all six is yes, the diagram will run the drill while you coach it.