How to Draw Basketball Plays: By Hand and Online Free

How to draw basketball plays comes down to an order. The first frame shows the alignment, where the five players stand and who has the ball. Every frame after that shows one action, drawn from where the last frame ended, with a caption that names who passes, who screens and who cuts. A play drawn that way can be read by a player who was not in the room. This guide covers the court and the symbols, the order frame by frame, the habits that make a sheet readable, and how to draw basketball plays online free with the site's play drawer. The symbols themselves are on how to read a basketball play diagram, and this page only sums them up.

Start With the Right Court

Draw on the court your team plays on. Blank court templates come with college or high school markings, international markings and NBA markings, because the lane shape and the three-point arc differ. Draw a half court for a half-court play and the full court for a press or a fast break. Printable courts are on basketball court diagrams.

For drawing by hand, the everyday tool is a double-sided clipboard, with a full court printed on the front and a half court on the back. Another option is a clear plastic sheet over a printed court and a dry-erase marker, so the same court can be drawn on again and again.

Know the spot words before you draw, because the caption needs them: top of the key, slot, wing, corner, short corner, block, elbow, nail, high post and paint. They are defined on basketball terminology.

The Symbols in Brief

Playbooks share a small set of marks: numbered offensive players, defenders, the ball, and lines for a cut, a pass, a dribble and a screen. On this site a cut is a solid line with an arrowhead, a pass is a dashed line, a dribble or drive is a zigzag line, and a screen is a line that ends in a short bar where the screener stops. Other keys draw defenders as triangles, passes as dotted lines or a dribble as a wavy line, so print your key on the sheet. The full key, with a frame for every symbol, is on how to read a basketball play diagram.

How to Draw Basketball Plays, Frame by Frame

The example below is a simple 5-out sequence: a pass, a cut and a fill, a down screen and a skip pass. It is here only to show the drawing order.

Frame 1, the alignment. Place the five players and put the ball on the one who starts with it. Add defenders only if the play depends on what they do. Nothing moves yet.

Frame 1, the alignment. Five players and the ball, nothing moving: 1 at the top of the key, 2 and 3 on the wings, 4 and 5 in the corners.

Frame 2, the first action. Draw one movement step. Here it is a single pass.

Frame 2, one action. 1 passes to 2 on the right wing. Nothing else moves.

Frame 3, start where frame 2 ended. Move the ball and the players to where the last frame's lines finished, then draw the next step. A cut and the fill behind it happen together, so they share a frame.

Frame 3, drawn from where frame 2 ended. 2 has the ball. 1 cuts to the rim and stops on the left block, and 3 fills to the top of the key.

Frame 4, the screen. Draw the screener's line from where he starts to where he stops, ending in the bar, and draw the cutter's line running past the bar. Every screen the caption names belongs in the frame.

Frame 4, the screen. 3 screens down for 1, and 1 comes up off the screen from the left block to the left wing. The line ends in a bar where 3 stops.

Frame 5, the finish. The last frame shows the pass or the shot the play was built for.

Frame 5, the finish. 2 throws the skip pass from the right wing to 1 on the left wing.

Playbooks lay frames out in a few ways (one step per frame, numbered frames, lettered branches, step-and-read pages, one card per play), and each works if it is used the same way throughout. The layouts are compared on how to read a basketball play diagram.

Habits That Make a Play Sheet Readable

• Caption every frame. Say who passes, who screens and who cuts, in the order it happens. A diagram with no words loses the read, and words with no diagram lose the spacing.
• Say what the numbers mean. Some sheets number players by role (1 is the point guard, 5 the center), some by floor spot, and some let the numbers change from play to play. Write which one at the top.
• Mark the ball. Put it on the player who starts with it. When several passes share one frame, one key numbers them with hash marks on each pass line.
• Use color only to point. Highlight the one action the frame is about.
• Draw the defender who decides the read. If the play branches on what X3 does, X3 is in the frame.
• Put the counter on the same card. The answer to a switch or an overplay belongs beside the play it answers.
• Write each player's job beside the diagram. Attach the drills that teach the play and the practice slot where it gets run.
• Draw it, then run it live. Practice drawing plays on a clipboard, and run every play against a live defense, because plays that only work 5-on-0 tend to fail in games.

Turning a stack of sheets into a team playbook is on creating effective coaching playbooks.

Draw Basketball Plays Online Free

The play drawer is the site's free online tool for drawing basketball plays. It runs in the browser with no login, keeps your work saved in that browser, and exports the play as a PDF. Here is the order from this page, done in the tool.

1. Pick a start. Choose a formation (5-Out, 4-Out with one in, 1-4 High, Horns, Box or Stack) to place five numbered players, or start from a blank court.
2. Set the court. Choose a half or full court and the line standard, high school or NBA.
3. Finish frame 1. Move players with Select, add defenders, and give the ball to the player who starts with it. Title the frame and write the caption.
4. Add a frame for each action. Use Progress or Duplicate to copy the frame, move the players to where the last lines ended, delete the old lines and draw the next action.
5. Export. Press Export PDF.

The Play Drawer's Tools

Select a player to give him the ball, switch the ball to his other hand, remove it, or make it a loose ball. Select a line to change it to solid, dashed or dotted, change the arrow, or bend it into a curve. Delete removes what is selected, L locks it in place, and Cmd or Ctrl plus Z undoes (a right-click on the court also undoes).

Frames, Notes and the PDF

The frame strip under the court holds the play's frames in order, with three buttons.

• Frame adds a new blank frame.
• Duplicate copies the current frame exactly.
• Progress copies the frame as the next step, keeps the lines, and shifts the players slightly so they are ready to be dragged to their new spots.

Each frame has a title, a caption, coaching notes and styled note blocks for a cue, a read, a mistake, a counter and a progression. Those are the same habits as the paper sheet. Caption the frame, and put the read and the counter beside it. The play itself has a title, a description and tags, and a frame or a whole play can be saved as a template to start the next one from.

Export PDF builds the play into a PDF. The first time, the tool asks for an email address and sends the PDF there, and the file also downloads. Giving that email also adds you to the site's email list. After that, exports download straight away. The export court can be a whiteboard look or a wood floor.

Plays to practice drawing are on basketball plays. The horns set, one of the drawer's starting formations, is on horns basketball play, and the 5-out used in the example above is on 5-out motion offense.

Questions Coaches Ask

More Guides From This Batch

• Horns Basketball Play: The Horns Set, Actions and Reads
• How to Become a Basketball Coach: Paths, First Jobs and Steps
• Youth Basketball Dribbling Drills: Cone Drills and Games by Age

Back to Basketball Plays and every Offense page.

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