Drill of the Week: De La Salle 2 Chair Series

Coach Dave Thorson from De La Salle high school in Minneapolis is one of the better teachers of the game of basketball that I've seen. This is a drill that is standard in a lot of the development workouts that I do with players. It's a great way to build quick hands and ballhandling skills. I also like the fact that it's game like, it has a finishing element to it, and players seem to like it.

The drill is very simple, all you need is a ball, basket, and two chairs - garbage cans - boxes -etc. You can run this drill from the point or the wings. I would mix it up for fun. I will explain how it works from the top of the key to keep things simple.

Set one chair up at the top of they key, the other one just inside the free throw line. As players get better at the drill move the second chair farther out and closer to the top of the key. The closer the chairs are, the quicker and better your players have to be.

The gist of the drill is that a player dribbles up to the first chair, makes a move, dribbles to the second, makes a second move and finishes at the rim. I like players to come up with their own finished and to mix them up - regular lay ups, reverse lay ups, middle floaters, middle power lay ups, two foot jump stops, etc. After a certain amount of time (1-3 minutes, I like 2 min) you change the drill so they come to the first chair, make a double move, make a single move on the second and finish. After another 1-3 minutes, it's one move on the first chair, two moves on the second. After another 1-3 minutes it's double moves on both chairs. Again, have the players mix up their finishes. It's also important to mix up their moves on the chairs. If they come up and do the same move over and over it doesn't give the same benefit of being spontaneous and coming up with different combinations and moves.