Youth Rebounding Drill
I do a rebounding  basketball drill where I put the kids in groups of 3.  I begin by throwing the basketball off the backboard and then the kids go for the rebound and attempt to score.  This continues until either one kid scores, a held ball occurs or the ball goes out of bounds.  After one of the stated scenarios occurs, I repeat throwing the ball off the backboard.  First person to score 3 baskets win.

This is a useful basketball drill because teaching rebounding and defense to 9 year olds isn’t easy; they all want to shoot the ball.  Incorporating shooting together with rebounding in a mini game serves the kids well; it teaches them rebounding and how to follow up on missed shots.

Rebounding Drill for All
4 players in the bucket(2 off/2 def). I shoot the ball with off hand from the foul line moving side to side.  5 shots and the players switch from offense to defense.  A point system–2 points for an offensive rebound and you get to shoot at the hoop within 2 seconds from wherever you get the ball.   Defensive players must stand still and can raise their arms straight up.  A hoop counts for another point.  1 point for a defensive rebound.  A pass from me to an offensive player allows them to shoot from that spot for 2 points.

I try to keep the passes to 1 of 5 shots to keep the defensive players honest.

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Rebounding Drill
One player lies on the floor his/her back, with feet toward the basket on the free throw line.

Three people (coaches, assistants or other players) space themselves in an arc around the basket about 10-15 feet out.  These three people begin passing the basketball to each other in a random fashion.  Without warning, one of them shoots the ball toward the basket with the intent of bouncing it off the rim to create a rebound opportunity.

As soon as the reclining player sees that the ball is heading toward the basket, (s)he springs to his/her feet and grabs the rebound as quickly as possible.  The best possible scenario is for the player to get the rebound before the ball hits the floor.  Grabbing the ball after the first bounce is still OK.  Grabbing it after the second bounce is less OK, but acceptable if the ball took a “wild” rebound off the rim.  The ball should never bounce a third time before being snatched.

This basketball drill develops 2 of the 3 rebounding skills I teach:
Anticipation – estimating which direction the ball will bounce off the rim.
Quickness – getting to the ball fast.

The third skill is Positioning (vis a vis an opposing player).  You can incorporate this skill into an “advanced” version of the drill by having two players lie on their backs at the free throw line and compete for the rebound. (With middle-schoolers, I don’t put heavy emphasis on leaping ability as a 4th rebounding skill, as I believe kids who master the other 3 skills will get more rebounds than pure jumpers.)

Key Features of the  rebounding drill:
Reclining players cannot move until the ball is shot, but to be successful they must move the instant they know it has been shot – while it is still on its way to the rim.
Use at least 2 (I use 3) people to pass and shoot the ball so that the reclining players won’t know ahead of time where the ball is coming from – they will have to think and move faster.

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From Papa…
Rebounding Drill
One player lies on the floor his/her back, with feet toward the basket on the free throw line. Three people (basketball coaches, assistants or other players) space themselves in an arc around the basket about 10-15 feet out.  These three people begin passing the basketball to each other in a random fashion.  Without warning, one of them shoots the ball toward the basket with the intent of bouncing it off the rim to create a rebound opportunity. As soon as the reclining player sees that the ball is heading toward the basket, (s)he springs to his/her feet and grabs the rebound as quickly as possible.

The best possible scenario is for the player to get the rebound before the ball hits the floor.  Grabbing the ball after the first bounce is still OK.  Grabbing it after the second bounce is less OK, but acceptable if the ball took a “wild” rebound off the rim.  The ball should never bounce a third time before being snatched.

This basketball drill develops 2 of the 3 rebounding skills I teach;
1. Anticipation – estimating which direction the ball will bounce off the rim.
2. Quickness – getting to the ball fast.
3. Positioning (vis a vis an opposing player).  You can incorporate this skill into an “advanced” version of the drill by having two players lie on their backs at the free throw line and compete for the rebound.  (With my middle-schoolers, I don’t put heavy emphasis on leaping ability as a 4th rebounding skill, as I believe kids who master the other 3 skills will get more rebounds than pure jumpers.)

Key Features of the Drill:
* Reclining players cannot move until the ball is shot, but to be successful they must move the instant they know it has been shot – while it is still on its way to the rim.
* Use at least 2 (I use 3) people to pass and shoot the ball so that the reclining players won’t know ahead of time where the ball is coming from – they will have to think and move faster.

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From Chris…
My fast break basketball drill:
Fast Break — two teams of three, each team wearing different colored shirts, each team (offense and defense) has players numbered 1, 2 and 3. 

The offense is lined up on the base line, one under the basket, one on each side.  The defense is lined up one at the free throw line, one each at each free throw line extended, facing the offense. Basketball coach misses shot, yells “one”, “two”, or “three”.  The offense player whose number is called must get the rebound.  The other two offensive players must run to the outlet position and yell “outlet”.  The outlet player who receives the outlet past must then dribble and advance the basketball in the middle.  The rebounder/passer must fill the lane vacated by the offensive player who has received the outlet pass and dribbled towards the middle lane of the three lane fast break.  The defensive player whose number is called must first run and touch the base line, then join the two other defensive players and attempt to stop the fast break.
 
This is a great basketball transition drill, teaching skeleton fast break, rebounding, outlet passing, and defending against the other team’s fast break.
 

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From Mike…
I coach high school basketball. The hardest basketball drill to master for me is get my kids to box out. 

The basketball rebounding drill I use is to have 3 players facing the end line, one directly under the hoop, at the end line, the other two on either side of him at the blocks, but on the end line.  These three are facing the out of bounds, can’t see the three offensive players on on the foul line, two of them extended. 

When the shot signal goes up by the coach, the idea is to have the three offensive players charge for the rebound, and the three players at the end line to turn and find them to box to box them.  Rebound is not important, finding them and keeping them away from the basket is the drill.  Too many times they want to box out, but box out their man only, and another offensive player gets the rebound. 

They must work together to be successful.  Hope this or a variation of this is useful.

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From Sandra…
I find when coaching youth basketball players, that they tend to stand around after a rebound and wait for the ball.  I am using the following basketball drill to help them get going as soon as their team mate rebounds the ball.

It is the 3 on 2 with an outlet – basically it is a 3 man weave after rebounding the ball with an outlet.  2 players set up at one end of the court in the key, and the other stays outside of the 3 point line – the 2 players are going to play defense once the ball comes across half court.  The other 3 players start at the other end, 2 players rebound the ball, and the one who actually gets the rebound, passes to the 3rd player who is the outlet, the outlet player takes the ball up the middle while the other 2 players come down the sides, after crossing half court you have a 3 on 2 set up going.

They go until a shot is made or the defensive players get the rebound and passes to the outlet and play continues down the court where there will be 2 players waiting to play defense with 1 player being the outlet and so on.

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From Marty…
An inbound play underneath your basket:

This is the first option:
Your 5 player stands one step below the foul line in the paint.
#1 And #2 are on the elbows.
#3 Player is in the box in front of the #4 player who is taking the ball out of bounds.
#4 Calls break and #1 and #2 crisscross past the #5’s shoulder (#1 goes first so there is no collision) on either side for layups.

Second Option:
#3 jab steps to the paint and goes to the corner for the outlet pass and possible jumpshot.

Third Option:
#5 turns around for a quick hit to the rim.

Works great of man to man defense and will also work with zone at times.

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From Phil…
I like to do basketball drills that combine many skills so that my time is used most efficiently.
DIAMOND
I start with four players in a diamond shape.
The offense can not dribble or move other than to catch the pass.
I have 2 players in the middle, one with a ball. The player with the ball passes to one of the diamond players, who must hold the ball until the passer breaks down and gets into his defensive position. The other player in the middle of the diamond, is reading the pass receiver in anticipation of the next pass.

Once the pass is made, the player in the middle follows the pass and breaks down into defensive position, unless he makes a steal. If a steal is made, he takes the place of the passer who threw the interception. Meanwhile the other middle player must recover to the middle of the diamond.

The ball movement is slow in the beginning to get the defensive players accustomed to flashing to the ball, then recovering to the middle. As players become more comfortable with the drill, speed up the passing.

I have found that it helps the players defensively and offensively. Defensively, players learn to anticipate passes and get to the ball faster, as well as conditioning. Offensively, players learn to find the open man under pressure and make good decisions with the ball. This is a half court drill.

A variation is to place 3 defenders in the middle and allow the offense to move side to side only to better passing position.

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From Shane…
Here is my play (idea).
1.  This is a baseline out of bounds play versus man to man
2.  We put a three person stack starting on the ball side block (2 guards and 1 post). We have our best passer take the ball out. Our best post player is in the middle of the foul line or on the opposite elbow.
3.  In the stack one of the guards (usually the first in line closest to ball) will go to ball side corner (outside three point line)
4.  The second person in the stack is a post- they will go to the opposite block
5.  The third person in line in usually my shortest guard, they will go and screen for the post on the foul line.
6.  The post receiving the screen will cut to the ball side block or any open area for a shot. The guard who screened the post at the foul line will roll back to the ball side elbow.

I’ve been running this baseline out of bounds play for years and we score 2-3 times a game on it.

Another point that we do on all out of bounds plays is we don’t slap the ball to start the play. The play starts when the ref hands us the ball. When you slap the ball it tells the defense that you are starting the play.

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From Eduardo…
We had success with this basketball drill as far as competitiveness and constant floor sense.  First, divide your team into two teams with different colored jerseys (we used reversible jerseys).  Line the two teams along their respective sideline out of bounds (line starts approximately at half court).

Take the first two members of team one and put them in the middle of the lane (one at free throw line, one at middle of the blocks).  Do the same thing on the other end with the other team.

The drill begins with three members of either team (white always starts with the ball for us) and move towards the other team’s two defenders.  The three offensive players will try to score early because after making 3 passes or taking 1 shot, the first guy in line for the defensive team will run in to play defense against the three offensive players.

Once the offense scores or turns the ball over, they immediately turn into defense (either man or zone press).  The three defenders now must move the ball up the floor past the three defenders.  If these three offensive players get past half court, they go three on 2 against the two defenders already standing in the front court.  The other three defenders who were pressing simply go to the back of their line.  The drill continues back and forth.

Added intensity we’ve added:  Take away out of bounds and make the kids go after all loose balls.  Make certain skills worth points rather than scoring (such as if you need to work on rebounds, make offensive rebounds with good put back worth one, defensive rebounds with good outlet pass worth two, or whatever) to help work on points of emphasis.

Lots of other additions can be made to this drill…have fun with it!

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