Beginner Basketball Drills: Basic Footwork & Ball Handling for Young Athletes
Footwork Drill
This is a great drill to introduce your young athletes to the footwork mechanics of basketball.
- Take a piece of chalk and, on the ground, write/draw some footwork that you want them to work on (for example, the reverse pivot, jab step, forward pivot and others).
- Start them off in a line and one at a time, have them go through all the stations.
- Each time they get to a certain spot on the floor, yell out what move they are doing. This will help them to start remembering what they are doing – what move, play, etc, becomes familiar to them and their muscle memory.
- It helps if you have an assistant to do the same moves on other side of court so you can work more quickly and efficiently with the group and hold their attention.
- If you have older athletes in the group (or as this group gets better), have the player start yelling what footwork they are doing.
You might also want to check out this awesome footwork drill!
Start and Stance Drill for Footwork
Dribbling Drill
Many beginning basketball players have a habit of catching the ball and then immediately putting their head down, and then begin to dribble the ball. Here is an quick and excellent drill to break that habit!
- Deflate a basketball in practice and made your athletes do full court drills and scrimmage with a ball that is flat. This will not only teach them to play with their ‘head up’, they also start seeing the floor, their teammates, and ultimately making better decisions.
And check this video, that breaks down the basic principles of ballhandling & dribbling!
Basic Principles of Ballhandling & Dribbling
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