Basically what happens is the team forms a line and are each dribbling a basketball while they are running.  The leader at the  front dictates the hand to use, the direction, and the speed of the running dribble (for more advanced groups, you can vary this basketball drill to include other dribbling techniques).  All of the players must copy and follow the leader.

What happens next is the player who is at the back races to the front of the line (on the outside) and becomes the new leader.  You can go through the whole line but certainly don’t have to. You can also determine the line formation, so it is not a random draw.

My teams have always loved the drill and I see a huge improvement in my players’ dribbling skills (and they soon learn to keep their head up!)

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One thing I have learned as a basketball coach, whether it is watching my own team play, other youth teams play or even at the high school level, the team that has excellent court vision usually wins.

Effectively dribbling the basketball without looking up is something that requires time outside of normal team practice time, at every practice I make sure I incorporate a short basketball dribbling drill. It really doesn’t matter what the drill is (any full court dribble move drill will work), what matters is the ability for the player to focus on what is happening on the court.

In order to emphasize this skill during the dribble drill, I hold a random number of fingers up during the drill and the players must call out the number of fingers being held up. Not only does this encourage them to look up, it encourages them to talk and communicate more effectively. This works even better with basketball coaches stationed at various places along the dribbling route which forces the players to look up on a more consistent basis.

You can vary this basketball drill by having the coach(es) move around while the drill is in progress to further promote on-court awareness.

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The next pair then go, etc. After everyone has gone, change the numbers around, e.g. if the 1’s were dribbling first then they will now defend. This is an effective way to get the defensive technique and footwork right!

TIP:  MAKE SURE that the person dribbling with the ball is using his outside hand to dribble up with! This is important and will help the player to dribble with the ball with the right hand. EG: If the player is dribbling to the right he must use his right hand and vice versa.

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The dribbler tries to get from one end of the court to the other while staying within the boundaries given and the defender’s job is to try and “turn” the dribbler as many times as possible.  By splitting the court in half, it makes the dribbler have to work harder to get to the other end because they don’t have the entire court to just speed dribble by the defense.

This drill is really good at developing basketball dribbling skills while there is real defensive pressure applied and also teaches defenders about defensive spacing, sliding feet, not reaching in, hustling, etc.

You can do it to where the only move the dribbler makes is between the legs dribbles, or crossovers, or behind the back, etc.  You can also have it to where the dribbler tries to get to the basket to score vs. just making it to the opposite baseline.  Players just switch between offense and defense after they have gone down and back.

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Every basketball practice we have a dribbling circle.  We get in a big circle and practice right & left hand high dribble & low dribble.  I do this with them to be sure they are practicing with their heads up.
They love the high dribble because we try to dribble on the same cadence.  It sounds cool.

Then we start to walk & dribble.  Every time I blow my whistle they change hands.  At the end we spread out pretty far between ourselves and depending on which way the circle is running (clockwise or counter clockwise) we finish with left or right handed lay-ups.

The kids love it.  This works on conditioning, dribbling and lay-ups all in the same basketball drill.

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FREE THROW
When you are conditioning and sprinting at the end of basketball practice make the amount of time your team runs determined by a free throw shot by one player.  Run what you feel is an appropriate amount of sprints and then put one player on the line.  If she/he makes it, you are done, if not everyone runs more.  The players all cheer for their teammate because they want to be done!!

It is also good for the player on the line to feel the pressure of being on the line, tired and having everyone wanting him/her to make it. This simulates the end of a tight basketball game.

REBOUNDING:
Organize the players into 3 teams and have a player from each team compete for rebounds.  Each of the three play for 2 putback baskets (coaches are outlet passes), then the one who scores 2 before the others goes to the end of his team line and another player from his team goes.
First team to go thru their line wins! (Loser’s run).

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I coach at the Middle School level so many of our basketball drills are designed to teach fundamentals.  This basketball dribbling drill is designed to teach players the importance of keeping their eyes up when they dribble with the idea that they should see their teammates when they get open.

The drill:
1. Set up a zig-zag pattern of cones on each side of the court and down the length of the court.
2. Have the players dribble around the cones with a low cross at each cone and a change of direction.
3. Send a basketball coach down the middle of the 2 dribble lanes holding up different number of fingers, changing after both players have correctly called out the correct number of fingers.
4. Each player is to call out the number of fingers the coach is holding up.
5. A little twist on this drill is to have them throw the coach the basketball only when all five fingers are held up noting the first player of the two to throw the ball.
6. We run the drill over with a spin move, behind-the-back move, and a between-the-legs move at the cone; doing the same thing with the coach holding up fingers.

We have found that this drill makes the players focus on the floor rather than looking at the ball and allows them to realize that they can dribble without looking at the ball.

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Dribble Train
This basketball drill starts with a line of all your players (6 or More)in the corner (baseline) on the sideline all facing up court.  Each player should be able to touch the person in front of them.  The person at the head of the line has a basketball and the last person in line has a ball.

The group starts running up the sideline– player at the head of the line flips the ball over their head to the next person on to next person until the ball reaches the new last person in line (still continuing to run around the perimeter of the basketball court).

While the players are passing the ball & running around the court, the  current last player in line is dribbling in a zig zag pattern between the players until reaching the front of the line.  When reaching the front of the line the dribbler passes the ball back and the last person becomes the dribbler.

Even though this sounds difficult, I started using this drill with 6th graders and have found success.

The drill promotes teamwork, ballhandling and is a fun way to run without seeming like you are running.
To increase the challenge,  time how long it takes the group to go around the perimeter of the court and have the group try to beat their time the next trip.

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I coach a team of 5th and 6th grade girls and this is something beneficial  I recently came up with and have used in my last few basketball practices.

I spread out 4 defenders across the whole court and then I give the basketball to one of my guards on the baseline.  When I blow the whistle, my guard is basically playing 1 on 4 and has to dribble the length of the floor and try to get off a good shot playing against all 4 defenders.

This basketball drill has been helpful with improving my guards dribbling under pressure, teaches her not to pick up her dribble, to protect the ball, and forces her to improvise her dribbling moves to try to beat her defenders.

You can also vary the number of defenders depending upon the skill level of the dribbler.  Start with 2 or 3 defenders and then add more as they improve.  Obviously, this is not how you teach them to break a press, but this will improve their ball handling skills on the open floor.  I could tell the difference at our last tournament, my guards played well under pressure and with much more confidence.

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Often there are kids on the new JV basketball teams who have never played basketball before and have little or no basic basketball skills.

A great basketball dribbling drill the kids love is “Pac Man” -

Use the lines on the court as the path they must follow (dribbling with their dominant hand and then switching when I call out “change” {groan} ) and one person is the Pac Man and dribbles on the same lines, getting people “out”. They dribble like crazy to get away from that one person! Once they are out they sit on the side lines cheering their team members on.

I almost always ask what we should do to warm up/cool down and this is the game they always want (and no one has ever said “but Coach I don’t want to do more dribbling drills”!)

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