My 7-8 year olds love to run!  So, while I try to teach them to dribble without looking at the basketball, at the same time that they want to run. We do the following simple drill:

I stand at one end of the court and hold up fingers while they dribble towards me as fast as they can, but still under control.  They have to look up at my hand to see how many fingers I have up and then yell out the number.  I keep changing until they all reach my end of the court.  Then they turn around and go back towards my assistant basketball coach.

Simple but effective — hope this helps others teach the kids to dribble without looking at the ball.

Another great basketball drill for our young kids is a “no dribbling drill.” We play 5 on 5 for about 10 minutes with absolutely no dribbling. It’s amazing to see how they spread out, look for the open man, protect the ball, and make cleaner shots when they’re not concerned with driving. Even our big kids down low have broken bad habits of putting the ball on the floor after an offensive rebound.

What’s great about this basketball drill too, is that it shows immediately in the games. And when they do dribble, there is more patience and control.

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Two things I do to help alleviate confusion with players who are just starting out with the sport and have so much to learn are the following:

1. When substituting, I make them high five the player they are going in for and during the high five, exchange the number of the player that he/she is guarding.  This had alleviated some of the confusion during subs as to “who do I have?”.  If  the other teams subs, I have them call out the new player.  This lets everyone (including the basketball coach) know that they know who they have.

2. Switching hoops at the half has been problematic for my team so now I switch my position on the bench relative to the players at the half as well.  If they get confused, they look up to see where I am and know that they are shooting toward the end of the bench where I am sitting.

They actually ask me at the half to make sure I remember to move my seat!  Simple but they help give structure to your youth basketball players.  Give them a try.

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Set up 8 players around the half court with any additional teammates lined up behind the eight.

The eight players position themselves one under each basket one in each corner of the half court rectangle and the last 2 are across from each other at the half court of the half court.

The two players at the half court positions start with a basketball.  They will pass to the next player at the next position to their right.  Once they have made their pass they sprint across the court to the position directly opposite from where they made their pass from.

Each player who receives the ball then passes to his right and replaces his teammate positioned opposite him.

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Teaching Shooting

Drill #1
In middle of the lane–-
Have your player to bend his knees and get his butt down low. Get the basketball in the shot pocket and come up in one motion and jump and shoot.  Get good extension, and stick the landing with his feet. He should look at his feet prior to
the shot and then look at his feet after he is done shooting.
This is “stick your landing”.  Your feet need to come down in the same position.

Drill #2 same as above except change the position – back is to the sideline and player will pivot on foot closest to the basket, down in that low stance and shoot – again stick his landing

Drill #3 same as drill #2 except – pivot to square and pivot back to the original position and pivot again and shoot. Stick the landing.  This is pivot,pivot,pivot and shoot.

To emphasize – these 3 basketball drills teach someone to shoot a jump shot well!

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I have found that in competition mode, the players are always pushing it and trying to win.  When practicing 5 on 5 concepts, a team will receive points for boxing out, talking on defense, running a play correctly and at game speed, and so on.  Once the basketball drill is over, the punishment begins.

Usually, the winning team will run too, as support for the losers. One-on-one drills are immediately stopped and reinforced with running if they are slacking.  Also, when they are running sprints, I will randomly throw a basketball to a player in transition and have him make a lay-up while tired.

Some days, I will come to practice with a card that has anywhere from 50-100 boxes on it.  Each number stands for 1 sprint.  They are aware of the number on the card.  For each hustle or successful play etc, one sprint is marked off.  Sometimes, depending on the degree of the hustle, 2 sprints will be marked off.  Also any sprints that they run during practice is marked off as well. At the end of basketball practice the remaining sprints are run.

If in a rare case there are like 30 left, they would run segments of 3-2-1’s and suicides to account for multiple sprints.  The players love this because they never know what to expect during practice.

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I have a line of girls from the foul line and out.  The first two girls in line are involved.  Both are facing the basket. The girl in front of the line has the basketball and tosses it up against the backboard and goes get the rebound under the hoop.  The second girl follows and is physical with the girl who rebounded.  The rebounder pump fakes and then leans into the defender on her back and goes up hard, making the basket and drawing contact.

Another basketball drill is having one offensive player on the block being closely guarded by a defender.  The basketball coach is out on the wing and feeds the girl under the hoop.  The offensive girl works on recognizing where the defender is playing so as to understand her options.

I give the girls three main options: Drop Step, Up and Under, or kick back out. Have the defender rotate cheating low and then high.  You can then move this drill to the elbow as well.

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When I tried to use a man to man with my relatively inexperienced team I found they wouldn’t stick to their guy, and just chased the basketball. It was a shambles. But this next basketball drill got them defending properly. Here’s how it’s done.

Split your group into two teams as if you were going to play a game. Then match each player on one team with an opposition player of similar ability. Let them play a game. The catch is that they can only play defense against the man they were matched up with. For example they can only try to steal or block that one player. If another player has the basketball they have let him go by if its not their man.

I found this helped my team really commit to their defense and put effort into tracking back down court.

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You can also add push-ups at the end of the time for each layup missed or bad/turnover passes.  This adds incentive to the players to focus on working together.

4 players, 1 ball, 4 transitions (up and back twice)
#1 line up at the free throw line on the left elbow, #’s 2 and 3 line up at the free throw line extended, and #4 at the basket.
#4 lays the ball in the basket, takes out of bounds and outlets to the man on the right side #2.

Outletter #2 takes 1 dribble max (more for younger players) and headmans the basketball to #1 who sprints from the free throw line to the opposite basket for a layup. Depending on the age group, the pass should either be a lead pass with no dribble after being caught, or for younger players, allow 1 dribble for the layup.

#3 sprints to the opposite sideline and grabs the ball as it goes through the hoop from #1’s layup, making sure it doesn’t touch the ground. As this happens, #2 sprints to the far free throw line elbow and turns back up court, while #4 sprints to touch the far baseline and then turns back up court.

The basketball drill continues the back up court with #3 hitting #1 as an outlet, and #1 headmaning the ball to #2 for the layup, while #4 sprints back to make sure the ball doesn’t touch the ground.

The drill continues another trip down and back with players #4 and #3 getting their turns for layups, while #1 and #2 run their sprints to the baselines.

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This basketball drill is to help get the players used to moving without the basketball to the open spot in the paint.

Set up a defense using a zone you can use players or cones.

You will have 2 offensive players on both sides of the paint (2 and 3 positions) and a point guard.

A player (cutter) will start under the goal and flash to the open spots (one side of the paint (first), then to the free throw line (second), and then to the other side of the paint (third).

At each open spot the offensive players will make a pass to the cutter and the cutter will pass the ball back, rotate out and then the next cutter will go.

Once the players get used to this part of the drill you start letting them take the jump shots from the positions.

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This first basketball drill I find useful for helping teach the fundamentals of boxing out:

4-5 offensive players form a circle about 15 feet in diameter, facing center.
The same number of defensive players form a circle facing an offensive player that they are “guarding”, in defensive position.

A basketball is placed on floor in the center of the circle.
The basketball coach blows the whistle and the defensive players turn and box out the offensive player that they are guarding, and try to keep them away from the basketball for 3 seconds, when the coach again blows the whistle to stop.

Offensive players try to get the basketball when the coach blows the first whistle.

Another fun drill encompasses offense/defense/boxing out/rebounding and a lot of fun.
1. Line up players on half court arms length apart, facing the hoop.
2. Assign them each a number…..out of sequence
3. Place a ball on the foul line.
4. Call out 2 random numbers.
5. Players who’s numbers were called race to the ball. Player who gains control takes it to the hoop while other player plays defense, calls for shot, boxes out etc.
6. Play continues until someone scores.

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