This is one of the [tag]basketball practice drills[/tag] that one of my subscribers sent to me recently. I’ve included it here for you to try out with your team tonight!
From Cormac…
We run a [tag]basketball drill[/tag] for 5/6 & 7/8 graders that we call Indian File. It is basically the chair drill with people.
4 players are placed in a line spread across the length of the [tag]basketball[/tag] court. The first defender is located just inside of the baseline. Then it’s timeline back court, timeline front court and the front court 3-point line. We usually use two lines on opposite sides of the court facing in opposite directions. A dribble feed line is located at the front baseline and depending on the level of skill and age, you may also have a feed line for the defenders out of bounds at the far sideline.
The drill starts with the ball handler at the near baseline who jab-steps and attacks the first defender with a cross-over move and proceeds to weave in and out through the remaining defenders. As the dribbler passes a defender that defender moves up to take the position of the defender in front of him. The first defender would then become the last person in the dribble feed line. The first defender is usually attacked to the inside as it will set up an outside move on the last defender. Upon passing the last defender the ball handler has to make a strong move to the basket which should be with the outside hand.
We generally work on the cross-over, spin dribble, between the legs and behind the back moves to help our players be more comfortable with the ball in traffic. We teach trying to stay on line as much as possible so players are not swaying too far off course when moving up the court beyond a defender. We have used the sideline or other lines on the court to help the players stay on line. We also usually have a coach at the end of each line holding up different numbers of fingers with the players calling out the numbers to keep their focus up court. We vary the players locations to work on different approaches to the basket from the wing lay-up to the baseline power move or the reverse lay-up. We also stress explosion to the basket coming out of the last move and finding the rim early. Depending on the skill level of our players, we also vary the level of defense the defender plays from a stationary position to some lateral movement.
Depending on the number of coaches we have we will also have a [tag]basketball coach[/tag] “walk the line” instructing the dribblers as they move through the line. At times we will also have a coach or a player stand near the basket playing token defense on the lay-up.
After completing the lay-up the dribbler retrieves his own shot and passes the ball across the baseline to the next person in the opposite dribble line and then sprints to the back of the opposite defender feed line. For advanced players you could also have this player “race” the opposite ball handler to the basket to defend the lay-up. We would send our players to the outside of the dribble line to even out the race. Defense can be token or live.
(Note, it is important that defenders maintain proper spacing to allow the ball handler enough space to recover from the move made on the previous defender. Make sure the defenders do not bunch up.)