Platteville Passing Drill

The Platteville Passing Drill is a base activity for an initial warm-up or initial skill development focus around passing and receiving. The Platteville Passing Drill focuses on some key instruction points that are at the core of good technique and effort based success when passing in basketball. The drills focus lies in the technique around individual offense such as triple threat stance, leading for the pass, passing and catching technique.

The Platteville Passing Drill can be undertaken in groups of two, three or four depending on the number of players and basketballs available. The smaller the group number, the more repetitions that can be executed by each individual leading to a pass reception. For the purposes of the diagram below a group of three has been utilised.

The Platteville Passing Drill starts with One (1) holding the ball looking to make a pass to either one of the other two players in the activity. One (1) must start in a good Triple Threat Stance with the ball firming held between the two hands and making a third point of contact at the hip with the ball. This technique of three points of contact will assist in controlling the ball and providing as stable a platform as possible for the passing, dribbling or shooting options utilised in general play.

Good passing technique is the basis of the drill so no matter the type of passing being performed, perfect technique is demanded as the minimum standard especially in 3 v 0 situations.

Two (2) and Three (3) create a lead before moving to their intended catching position. The lead should be greater than just one-step in the opposite direction. Players should be encouraged from the start of the Platteville Passing Drill to create good habits and creating good leads is one of those focus points. With a change in direction, there should be an acceleration of pace to enhance the separation between an offensive player and their defensive match-up.

There are two other points to hammer home with the receivers. The first is that target hands are a necessity for any offensive player off the ball. Every player all the time should be providing to the ball handler a good passing target.

Secondly, once the ball is passed the receiver must learn to run through the pass. This means the receiver continues to keep running until they have caught and secure possession of the ball. This will help with spacing and effectiveness of the pass as the defender will not be able to recover to steal the ball.

Upon receiving the ball players should square up to the other players and assume the triple threat position.

Once the ball is passed and caught the procedure starts again with the two players off the ball creating a lead again and moving into new catching positions.

Variations

In the second half of the diagram players Four (4), Five (5) and Six (6) are in a half court formation. In this scenario, players are still using the basic skills discussed earlier for passers and receivers, but now they have to move around a half court with some more specific purpose. This can be useful to also help with player’s space awareness.

The Platteville Passing Drill can be made more challenging by adding defenders into the mix and offensive players now creating leads against a real match-up. Once three passes have been made offense switches to defence.

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