Basketball Drill of the Week: American 21
21 is a great game for working on a variety of basketball skills.
Have you listened to the new 21 Savage album, american dream, yet?
It’s pretty rad. “red sky” is fantastic.
But this article isn’t about his album.
I just wanted to bring it up to sound cool and relevant. This article is actually about the basketball game American 21.
American 21 is one of the most popular schoolyard basketball games in the world.
But even though it’s a game played by kids, there are so many benefits of playing it regularly as you work on so many skills.
By playing 21 often, you work on a variety of translatable basketball skills.
For instance, you work on 1-v-1 moves, how to defend and rebound, and you get to work on your free-throw shooting.
Here’s how I play it:
Figure out who gets the ball first via do-or-die or coin flip… however you choose.
First person checks the ball and plays a free-for-all game.
If the first person scores, he gets 1 point and gets to take free-throws.
If the free-throw is made, he gets another 2 points. He will shoot until he misses.
Once he misses, the other players can rebound the ball and will play a free-for-all game.
The person that makes a shot gets to go to the free-throw line and shoot until she misses.
First to 21 points wins the game.
Here are some add-ons or house rules I like to add:
If a player misses a free throw and a rebounder is able to alleyoop or put it back, the free-throw shooter loses points.
If he had less than 11 points, he goes back to 1 point. If he had more than 11 points, his points drop to 11.
If a player scores more than 21 points, she goes back to 1 point.
So, if she has 20 points and is on the free-throw line, she’ll have to miss that shot because free-throw shots are 2 points each and by making it, will give her 22 points.
21 is a great game for overall skill building and you should play it more often.
Like This Drill?
Check out my basketball activity guide for more like it.
The guide lists out daily workouts of various drills and games like this one that are meant to help you master the fundamentals of the game.
In it, you’ll work on:
The fundamentals of shooting with various shooting drills
Your conditioning with various bodyweight exercises
Ball handling and defense with skills and conditioning exercises
…And more
Learn more about the guide here.