Open Gym Variations to Use With Your Team
At most places I’ve coached, the standard “open gym” has consisted of playing 5v5 in the full-court to 11 or 21 by 1s and 2s.
As I’ve learned from other coaches and thought about it on my own, I’ve come to realize that adding some spice/variety into how you do open gym and pickup can pay some huge dividends.
Here are a few ideas (please note these are just for 5v5 “pickup” games):
Emphasize a type of scoring to be worth more points. For instance, maybe an offensive rebound and score is worth 3 points…or a backdoor cut for a layup is worth 3…or layups in transition are worth extra.
Play to 100 — I picked this up from West Liberty University. They’ll play games to 100 in sets of 20. We’ve done this all summer/fall and have enjoyed it. Sometimes we will change the way we play defensively in each “set” (one set of zone, one set switching everything, one set no switches allowed, one set only in the half court, etc.). The score stays the same for the next game…so if you won 20–11, next game is still to 40 with THAT score to start.
House Rules — any rules you want; the choices are endless
Golden Basket — everyone has to score for the team to win
Validation — after every game winning bucket, whoever made the shot (or someone of your choosing) has to make a free throw. If they make it, that team wins. If they miss it, the game continues. I’ve seen some incredible comebacks and choke jobs with this!
Shot Clock — have a 12–15 second shot clock to increase the pace during open play; you can have someone on the sidelines barking this out or do it yourself
Chaos — The ball is live after all makes. In theory, an offensive team could score, get the ball out of the net, take it back out to the 3 point line, and then reset and play. No check ups.
Dead Ball Sets — any time there is a dead ball, you have to run a set play. We like to get out and run in open gym, so we don’t set too much stuff up…but if there’s a foul or the ball goes out of bounds, we’ll sometimes start the next possession with a called set. This keeps our guys a little tuned in to what we do offensively.
Specific Time — play games for 10 minutes (or whatever you want); whoever is ahead at the end, wins the game
Captains — change up who picks teams. Sometimes you pick teams, sometimes it’s random, sometimes you line them up shortest to tallest, sometimes let your seniors pick, sometimes let your youngest guys pick, etc. This will bring some variety AND reveal to you what your players think of their teammates.
Carolina Break (from Matt Kramer) — team that scores takes it out & goes the other way.
What other ways do you mix up open gyms with your players?
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