In today’s blog post, I am bringing you a couple more fun basketball drills – “Loose Ball Scramble” and “Happy Handful Relay”. Implement these fast-paced, fun basketball drills into your practice plan, and your kids are going to be working hard and loving it!
Fun Basketball Drills: Loose Ball Scramble
This exercise is a fun way to teach players to go for loose balls. Start by dividing the team into as three groups.
The groups will line up with the adult in the middle with the ball. The coach or helper will toss the ball, and the kids race to get it. The adult should use different tosses each time – up in the air, straight ahead, to one side or the other, even rolling on the ground – to prepare players for real game-like situations.
Once a player is able to secure the ball, he dribbles to the closest basket and attempts to score (1 vs 2) against the other players. The other players try to steal the ball or secure a rebound so they can score on their own. The drill is finished when one of the players scores.
Coaches and helpers should remind players that the goal is to go for the ball, not each other. Players should be aggressive, but they need to be careful not to hurt each other.
Fun Basketball Drills: Happy Handful Relay
Kids love this relay game that challenges them to handle as many balls as possible. The game requires as many basketballs as are available, but they do not have to be in great condition. Divide the team into groups of three to five.
Start by lining the groups up on one side of the court and placing all the balls in piles at the opposite end. At the whistle, the first player in each group will run to their pile across the floor, grab a ball, carry it back to their team, hand it to the next player, and go to the back of the line.
The next player will then carry the ball across the floor to the pile, grab another ball, and carry both of those back to his team. This will continue down the line with each player grabbing an additional ball until the coach blows the whistle to signal the end of the game. The team that was able to carry the most basketballs wins.
Coaches can vary the game by having the players attempt to dribble multiple balls instead of carrying them down the court.
For more fun basketball drills, be sure to check out “Basketball Basics for Kids”. And be sure to Become a Fan on Facebook, where I will share more fun basketball drills and ideas!