The Basketball Mikan Drill – How To Paly?

Basketball drills for post players should focus on only a couple of moves since most players only need a couple of solid moves to score threats. They need to know the drop step. They need to know how to sink a 10-15 foot turn-around jumper. And they need to know how to shoot a baby hook from 5-10 feet out.

The average basketball team has a shooting percentage of less than 45%, so rebounding and putting the ball back up immediately is crucial for any team that wants to score. Post players need to be conditioned to tune out all distractions and focus on the job at hand – rebounding the ball and putting it back up to score.

The Mikan drill has been used by every coach at some time in their career to teach post players how to move under the hoop, how to continuously attack the hoop, and stubbornly work to score.

Its repetition develops agility, coordination, and muscle memory, so your players become accustomed to going up for the basket, retrieving the ball, and going up again. And of course, the more they do this, the better it will transfer to the game.

The baby hook is a shot that is often neglected by most teams. It is a difficult shot to master, and the inside game has become much more physical in recent years, with bigger bodies and more contact in the paint. But if you have a big man capable of sinking a baby hook with a decent shooting average, it’s a challenging shot to stop.

This version of the Mikan Drill has the players performing a baby hook instead of a drop step and will help your players find the rhythm they need to make this a smooth move and put points on the board.

mikan drill basketball Instructions

Here’s what players need to focus on in this basketball drill:

• Players must be quick in moving from side to side – they may be slow to start, but once they get the hang of it, they should try to speed up the movement while always maintaining control.
• Players must always protect the ball – hold the ball in two hands, elbows out, until the very last moment before the ball is shot.
• Focus on footwork – 1 step, no travels.
• When taking the shot, players need to rotate their body into the shot so that they release the ball when their shoulders are perpendicular to the net but finish the movement facing the baseline so they are in a good position to rebound.
• When taking the shot, players need to force the shooting side knee high, as this will help them get more height on the jump – players should imagine a string tied to the shooting elbow and shooting knee, pulling them up together.

How this Basketball Mikan Drill Works

• The player sets up on the right-hand block with a ball, his back to the basket.
• On the whistle, the player steps with his right foot into the lane, turning toward the basket, raising his left knee at the same time as he raises the ball in his left hand (the ball is still firmly held in both hands)
• The player executes a baby hook shot from inside the paint, about 5 feet out – the ball is released at the top of the movement with a flick of the wrist.
• Immediately upon the release, the player squares up and steps in to grab the rebound.
• The player immediately steps out to the left-hand block, tossing the ball ahead of him with a backspin so that it bounces back to him, executing a two-foot stop on the block as he catches the ball, his back to the net.

• With his left foot, the player then steps into the lane, rotating his body, raising his right knee at the same time as he raises the ball in his right hand (the ball held firmly still in both hands)
• The player executes a baby hook shot from inside the paint, about 5 feet out – again, the ball is released at the top of the movement with a flick of the wrist.
• Immediately upon landing, the player squares and grabs his rebound, steps out to the right-hand block, tosses the ball ahead of him with a backspin, catches it with a two-foot stop on the block, and prepares to shoot again.

The basketball drill continues in this manner for 30 seconds. The time used can be built up throughout pre-season practices to one minute.

Like the other version of the Mikan Basketball Drill, this is something you can teach in practice and then use regularly, but it is also a drill they can do at home to help improve their performance inside.