The Women's Basketball Drill Book - WBCA

The Women's Basketball Drill Book

by Women's Basketball Coaches Association

NEW, 336 pages

Get other Basketball books here

About The Women's Basketball Drill Book

The ultimate drill collection from basketball’s best!

Two of the game’s winningest coaches – Tennessee’s Pat Summitt and Texas’ Jody Conradt – share their favorite drills that have helped produce over 1,800 victories! Fellow NCAA National Championship head coaches Nancy Fahey, Brenda Frese, Wendy Larry, Muffet McGraw, Amy Ruley, and Tara VanDerveer combine with over 40 more of the game’s legendary minds to bring you their game-winning drills and strategies to create The Women’s Basketball Drill Book, the most comprehensive basketball drill book ever published.

Whether you’re a coach or player, aspiring young hopeful or experienced team leader, this resource will provide you with 186 drills covering all aspects of the game:

• Warming up
  
• Conditioning
  
• Footwork
  
• Ballhandling
  
• Passing
  
• Screening
  
• Shooting
  
• Rebounding
  
• Defense
  
• Perimeter play
  
• Post play
  
• Transition play
  

Whether you wish to develop new skills or fine-tune your game, rely on the drills that have produced a combined 21 NCAA National Championships. The Women’s Basketball Drill Book is the one and only drill book you’ll ever need!

About WBCA

Founded in 1981, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) promotes women's basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport of women's basketball and fosters and promotes the development of the game in all of its aspects as a sport for women and girls.

With members throughout the world, it is the largest organization of its kind. The WBCA is involved in a variety of events and clinics throughout the year, including the WBCA High School All-America Game; the Betty F. Jaynes Internship Program; the Nike So You Want To Be A Coach Program and the annual WBCA National Convention, held in conjunction with the NCAA Women's Final Four. Through these events, the WBCA not only highlights exceptionally talented female players but also provides opportunities for coaches at all levels to better themselves.

In addition to the activities that the WBCA puts on and sponsors, the organization has an extensive awards program through which the best, brightest, and most talented athletes, coaches, and contributors to women's basketball are honored. The WBCA also provides coverage on all aspects of women's basketball, from high school to the pros, through their three publications: Coaching Women's Basketball, Net.News, and Compliance Corner.

About Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules. Basketball is one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sport.

A regulation basketball hoop consists of a rim 18 inches (45.7 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.05 m) high mounted to a backboard. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the hoop during regular play. A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or closer to the hoop than the three-point line, and three points (a "3 pointer") if the player is "outside" the three-point line. The team with more points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the game ends with a tie. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or passing it to a teammate. It is a violation (traveling) to walk with the ball, carry it, or to double dribble (to hold the ball and then resume dribbling).

Various violations are generally called "fouls". Disruptive physical contact (a personal foul) is penalized, and a free throw is usually awarded to an offensive player if he is fouled while shooting the ball. A technical foul may also be issued when certain infractions occur, most commonly for unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of a player or coach. A technical foul gives the opposing team a free throw.

Basketball has evolved many commonly used techniques of shooting, passing, and dribbling, as well as specialized player positions and offensive and defensive structures (player positioning) and techniques. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play "center", "small forward", or "power forward" positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed play "point guard" or "shooting guard".

While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport played on carefully marked and maintained basketball courts, but less regulated variations are often played outdoors in both inner city and rural areas.

The strategies also evolve with the game. In the 1990s and early 2000s, teams played with more "isolation". Teams that had one superstar would let one player, usually the point guard or shooting guard, run most of the offense while the other four offensive players get out of his/her way. Nowadays, teams tend to play with more teamwork. The "Center" position has evolved to become more of a taller "Small Forward" position. Since teams play more teamwork, ball movement has evolved with the game, and more jump shots have been taken as a result.

There are two main defensive strategies: zone defense and man-to-man defense. In a zone defense, each player is assigned to guard a specific area of the court. In a man-to-man defense, each defensive player guards a specific opponent. Man-to-man defense is generally preferred at higher levels of competition, as it is intuitively easier to understand and avoids mismatches between players who play different positions. However, zone defenses are sometimes used in particular situations or simply to confuse the offense with an unexpected look.

Offensive plays are more varied, normally involving planned passes and movement by players without the ball. A quick movement by an offensive player without the ball to gain an advantageous position is a cut. A legal attempt by an offensive player to stop an opponent from guarding a teammate, by standing in the defender's way such that the teammate cuts next to him, is a screen or pick. The two plays are combined in the pick and roll, in which a player sets a pick and then "rolls" away from the pick towards the basket. Screens and cuts are very important in offensive plays; these allow the quick passes and teamwork which can lead to a successful basket. Teams almost always have several offensive plays planned to ensure their movement is not predictable. On court, the point guard is usually responsible for indicating which play will occur.

Defensive and offensive structures, and positions, are more emphasized in higher levels in basketball; it is these that a coach normally requests a time-out to discuss.

The Women's Basketball Drill Book