How to Improve Free Throw Rebounding

Your opponent misses a free throw--good news for you, right? Not if your team fails to box out properly and your opponent grabs the missed free throw and gets a put-back basket. Here I will focus on a competitive drill that not only improves free-throw rebounding--but will also improve team free-throw shooting and conditioning as well.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Your basketball team
• At least two other players that are not on the team

1. Count the number of players on the team. This is the starting number of sprints that the team needs to do.

2. Have players line up underneath the basket. The first player goes to the free-throw line. The next four players take the four positions for the defending team during a free throw.

3. Have two volunteers take the offensive positions for free throws. These two players should not be members of the team, as they will be competing for rebounds. If they are members of the team, they will not want to grab rebounds because it will cause them to run more sprints.

4. The player shoots one free throw. If the free throw is made, one sprint is deducted from the original number.

5. If the free throw is missed and the team secures the rebound, one sprint is deducted from the original number.

6. If the free throw is missed and one of the volunteers secures the rebound, no sprints are deducted.

7. After the free throw is shot, the team members rotate counter-clockwise and a new player enters in the first position.

8. This process continues until all team members have shot one free throw. The team will have to run the number of sprints that they have earned after deducting one each for a made free throw or rebounding a missed shot.

Tips & Warnings

• The volunteers can be older players, coaches or parents.
• If you do not have volunteers to assist, you can split the team into two groups and have them compete against each other.