Top 6 Basketball Drills for Improving Cognitive Skills
Improving cognitive skills like reaction time, decision-making, and attention has become a growing priority in basketball. One method gaining traction is Cognitive-Motor Training (CMT), which combines cognitive challenges with physical movement. CMT trains athletes to distribute attention to information in the environment, make quick decisions, and execute sport-specific actions like dribbling, passing, or changing direction simultaneously.
Even elite players like Steph Curry have embraced this approach by performing dribbling drills while reacting to lights and catching tennis balls, crediting it as a key part of their performance edge.
Benefits of Cognitive-Motor Training for Basketball
Research by Lucia et al. (2022) studied the effects of cognitive-motor training compared to traditional motor training on semi-pro basketball players’ performance and cognitive abilities. They found that the CMT group had:
17% greater improvements in basketball-specific performance
28% greater improvements in decision-making accuracy
5.4% greater improvements in reaction time
Heightened brain activity in areas dealing with anticipation, proactive inhibition, and top-down attention.
Top 6 Solo Cognitive-Motor Training Drills for Basketball Players
While the CMT drills in that study utilized expensive reaction light systems, we've recreated the same drills and programming structure using just your mobile device (via the SwitchedOn app), a tennis ball, and some colored cones—making high-level cognitive training more accessible to every athlete.
Below are 6 of these featured drills, which are systematically programmed in our 6-Week Brain Speed + Ball Handling program. Each drill is designed to target key cognitive skills essential for basketball performance, like attention, reaction time, and decision-making, which you can learn about in this blog.
1) Color Reactions
Benefits: Improves ball handling, reaction time, decision-making, and peripheral vision.
Execution: Place your phone at eye level and react to the color cues (Red = cross-over, Blue = behind the back, Green = between the legs) by performing the corresponding hand change—first with the phone in front, then on your right side using peripheral vision, and finally on your left.
Coaching Tips: Maintain a low athletic position with your eyes up, and perform each set with a game-like focus and intensity.
Sets, Reps, & Rest: 3 sets (1 front, 1 left, 1 right), 1-2 minutes work, 30-60 seconds rest between sets.
2) Color/Number Combo Move
Benefits: Improves ball handling, attention, reaction time, decision-making, and working memory.
Execution: React to the colored number by performing two quick hand changes—the first based on the color and the second based on the number (Red/1 = cross-over, Green/2 = between the legs, Blue/3 = behind the back).
Coaching Tips: Maintain a low athletic position with your eyes up, and perform each set with a game-like focus and intensity.
Sets, Reps, & Rest: 3-4 sets, 1-2 minutes work, 30-60 seconds rest between sets.
3) Tennis Ball Bounce or Toss
Benefits: Improves ball handling, attention, reaction time, decision-making, shifting, and hand-eye coordination.
Execution: React to the colored arrow by bouncing or tossing the tennis ball based on the arrow direction (up or down), then perform a basketball hand change based on the color (Red = cross-over, Green = between the legs, Blue = behind the back).
Coaching Tips: Maintain a low athletic position and perform each set with a game-like focus and intensity.
Sets, Reps, & Rest: 3-4 sets, 1-2 minutes work, 30-60 seconds rest between sets.
4) Impulse Control
Benefits: Improves ball handling, agility, attention, reaction time, decision-making, and impulse control.
Execution: React to the colored arrow by dribbling to the cone in the same direction if it’s green, or to the opposite direction if it’s red, then return to your starting point.
Coaching Tips: Dribble all the way to the cone and back each rep, stay low with eyes up and the ball alive between cues, and build creativity by mixing up your hand changes.
Sets, Reps, & Rest: 3-4 sets, 1-2 minutes work, 30-60 seconds rest between sets.
5) Ignore the Distraction
Benefits: Improves ball handling, agility, attention, reaction time, and decision-making.
Execution: React to the colored number as quickly as possible by dribbling to the cone associated with the number (ignoring the color), and then dribble back to your initial starting position and await the next stimulus.
Coaching Tips: Dribble all the way to the cone and back each rep, stay low with eyes up and the ball alive between cues, and build creativity by mixing up your hand changes.
Sets, Reps, & Rest: 3-4 sets, 1-2 minutes work, 30-60 seconds rest between sets.
6) Dribble to Both
Benefits: Improves ball handling, agility, attention, reaction time, decision-making, and working memory.
Execution: React to the colored number by dribbling to the cone associated with the number and back, then to the cone associated with the color and back before awaiting the next cue.
Coaching Tips: Dribble all the way to the cone and back each rep, stay low with eyes up and the ball alive between cues, and build creativity by mixing up your hand changes.
Sets, Reps, & Rest: 3-4 sets, 1-2 minutes work, 30-60 seconds rest between sets.
If you liked this and are looking for a systematic training program to elevate your ball-handling, quickness, awareness, reaction speed, & decision-making on the court, check out our 6-Week Brain Speed + Ball Handling, now available in the SwitchedOn app! Use the buttons below to download it for free.