Basketball Conditioning – Free Throws

My college coach would have us do basketball conditioning at the beginning of every practice (and at the end, as well).  The reason he did this was because he wanted us to be tired when we shot our Free Throws.  If you can hit FT’s when you’re tired, you can also hit them when you’re not.

As I coached a 7th grade team, I noticed that FT’s had such individual unimportance to the players!“ “  I now do the same in my practices that my college basketball coach did.  I have early conditioning and they have to hit two in a row to get a drink.

At the end of basketball practice we shoot 10 FT’s a piece and the players have to hit 8 out of 10 because our team goal is 80%.  Those who achieve this sit out the end of practice conditioning.

I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but I saw this team go from an early season 42% FT shooting team to a 74% team and they continued to push towards 80%. We are hitting our FT’s at the end of the game and our opponents are not, because they are tired.

This team now take shooting free throws personally!