University of Wisconsin Men's Basketball Coach;
2x Big Ten Coach of the Year (2020, 2022);
2x Big Ten Regular Season Champions (2020, 2022);
Sweet Sixteen appearances in '16 and '17;
2016 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year;
from 1993 to 2015, coached with legendary coach Bo Ryan;
University of Wisconsin Associate Head Coach from 2008 to 2015;
University of Wisconsin Assistant Coach from 2001 to 2008;
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Assistant Coach from 1999 to 2001;
University of Wisconsin-Platteville Assistant Coach from 1993 to 1999;Limiting turnovers and developing players who can efficiently execute your team's offense in both full-court and half-court settings goes a long way toward helping you become a consistently winning program that's tough to beat.
Wisconsin's Greg Gard has developed a well-earned reputation for producing some of the most fundamentally strong players in all of college basketball. The two-time Big Ten champion head coach is a firm believer in building a coaching process that develops players who are confident, strong with the basketball and are knowledgeable on the offensive end.
In this instructional coaching video with on-the-court demonstrations, Coach Gard unveils a critical portion of the teaching process he has created for utilizing fundamental drills that you can use daily to build strong and confident offensive players who can execute any offense.
Ball-Handling Drills
Stressing the importance of getting to the rim in any offense, Coach Gard begins by showcasing 'attacking the basket' drills he uses, starting with the '2-on-0 Partner-Passing Drill'; this drill emphasizes and teaches players how to get to two feet with a jump stop to deliver a solid, on-target pass. As players pick up their dribble, an emphasis is placed on keeping the elbows out, staying square to the rim and ripping the basketball through to keep a defender from getting their hands in the ball-handler's space.
Coach Gard shows how you can do this drill to work on chest passes, bounce passes and overhead passes. This is also a great drill to teach cutting and spacing, as well as getting players to work on making proper v-cuts to help them get open.
In a drill called the, 'Dribble-At Drill,' Coach Gard shows how players can learn to back-cut and use the move to open up a backdoor play. In this drill, players are taught how to make decisions based on what the defender is giving them, and if they are using either overplay or bump technique to defend a dribble handoff. This is a terrific drill that teaches players how to move without the basketball - a key component to help improve your team's half-court offense and take it to the next level.
Passing-and-Catching Drills
Passing is one of the lost arts in today's game. Coach Gard showcases several simple and effective passing drills that emphasize showing hand targets, utilizing ball fakes and playing off of two feet. These simple, yet critically important offensive techniques, teach your players how to be strong with the basketball and consistently deliver solid, on-target passes.
In the '3-Line, Straight Drill,' which is a variant of the traditional 3-man weave drill, players have to catch a pass in their lane and come to a jump stop while delivering another pass up the court and working toward a layup. Coach Gard stresses that players must maintain 'eyes to the rim' and use different types of passes depending on how many passes they can use to successfully get down court.
Next, Coach Gard shows off his 'Full-Court Passing Drill,' in which players demonstrate all the different types of passes they can use to make it successfully down court in a full-court setting. Once a full-court trip is successfully completed, players must speed dribble the length of the court and restart the drill.
As they perform the 'Full-Court Passing Drill,' players must call out the name of who they are passing to, while getting square to the rim each time and using ball fakes to deliver a strong pass. This excellent, challenging drill teaches players to catch passes while remaining strong with the ball as they deliver confident passes to their teammates.
Gard also showcases one of his favorite passing drills, with the '4-Corner Passing Drill.' In this drill, players must communicate who they are passing to and follow their pass. They must sprint while using a jump stop and execute reverse-pivot to hand the ball off to the next player in line. This is a highly effective drill that you have players perform in a half-court setting and utilizes the lane line to teach passing, pivots and staying strong with the basketball.
Building a fundamental player is what every coach aspires to do. Fundamentally strong players transform any offense - regardless of the offense you run - into a strong and efficient offensive attack that keeps your team's turnovers to a minimum. After running the drills shown by Coach Gard in this video, your players feel confident that they can handle any type of defensive pressure that is thrown their way.
This is a must-watch video for coaches at all levels of competition. Coach Gard's demonstrations and coaching points-of-emphasis remain simple, effective and easy to teach. The drills shown are ideal for everyday use and serve perfectly as quick, significantly purposeful habit-building tools that you can incorporate into your own system for player improvement.
Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 Stars. 'This is a valuable coaching video! It's filled with solid, fundamental drills. Coach Gard does a great job of emphasizing all the little things he does as a coach to help build a more complete and fundamentally sound basketball player.'
50 minutes. 2024.