The difference between 2 teams and what they do before a game can be a surprise, but different. If you know basketball, you know the 20 minutes you get for pregame is crucial on the outlook of the next 32 to come. Some teams are entirely focused on the warmup and that’s what they use to get into game mode. Other teams do a warmup just because they have to. It all depends on the team and the culture behind it. It’s not surprising that this is very different for each team. How do both Hamilton basketball programs warm up for the big game? That is what I’m here today to answer.
Girls basketball comes straight out with layup lines, something that is very common in a basketball warmup. The purpose of these layup lines is to get the players moving around and get them into the motion of in-game moves, practicing fundamentals and starting with the easiest shot on the basketball court. However, boy’s basketball comes out with a ton of energy right away with their close-out drill. This is done by swinging the rock around the key and the defenders closing as quickly as they can on the defense. They are very vocal in this drill, making sure communication is clear as day. These 2 teams come out with very different energy, which I find interesting.
Starting with the bulk of the warmup, boy’s basketball then moves into casual layup lines, getting sharp in their fundamentals. They then move into variations of these same lines with jumpers getting mixed in, even some 3-point shots from some players. They go layup, jump, layup, and then jump lines again. Girls basketball does 3-point lines as well, but only once.
Both teams then went into the dribble and passing drill split. They both split the team up evenly and were about 5-minute rotations, some doing simple and fundamental passing, others just simply shooting around like you would in your driveway. Both teams kept intensity low during this drill. One difference between the split was that some of the boys were doing things like praying or meditating, which none of the girls did. I also find this interesting, as the boys valued time by themselves and their minds when the girls did not.
In the middle of this drill (around the 10-minute mark), both team captains and both programs met at center court to meet the refs, while the rest of the team continued. The girls then used this as the switching point for the rotations.
At the 7-minute mark, the girls head back to the locker room for 3 minutes. What surprised me is that the boys never went back to the locker room over the 20 minutes they were out for pregame. I fully expected them to go back at some point and when I watched them consistently do drills for 20 minutes before tip I was shocked. The reason teams might do this is to stay game-ready, and not leave any time leading up to the game not playing basketball.
While the girls were in the locker room, the boys were doing game-like drills. For example, they were doing 1v1s pushing the ball up the court like how a guard would do in-game. They also simulated a 3v3 type drill, like you would do in gym class. There was a passer at the top of the key for this drill that would feed the ball to one of the players. Girls basketball at the 4-minute mark were doing the close-out drill, something the boys did at the very beginning of the warm-up. Girls did this right up to tip-off, then it was game time. However, the boys finished with Justin making a simple layup and breaking it down right before tip-off.
Overall, these 2 different warmups are noticeably different. Something big I’ll point out is how much more energy the boys were playing with during warmup and how many things they were doing in the short 20 minutes they had to do it. I’m not saying the girls were playing with no energy, but if you were there you could tell these 2 teams couldn’t be more different. They were doing different drills in different ways, communicating differently, and playing differently. Having your head in the game in warmups paying attention to what the teams do and thinking about it can be pretty shocking at times.