During this blog post, I’m going to talk about some kids basketball drills that will enhance your players’ game and make them even more powerful on the court.
Three-Line Straight Drill
For this kids basketball drill, have your players form three lines. All your players are going to do is throw the ball off the glass and hit the wing. The ball the shouldn’t hit the ground.
You want to see the players close to the sideline. They’re going to hit back to the middle. They may need to jump stop or stop, but they’re going to fly in and make a pass for the player with the ball to get a lay-up without dribbling. He’s going to hit the backboard, hit back, get a lay-up.
If you have your kids go down and go back, you’ll have them pass and hit the wing for a lay-up. And whichever wing they hit for a lay-up, they should follow that side.
Now, this is what’s going to make it harder, coaches. He’s got to touch the corner of the baseline and he’s got to sprint.
We’re trying to make sure our guys understand how hard they have to run the floor. So you’re going to follow your pass and touch that baseline.
The player who made the pass back to the middle now has the job of getting the rebound. Since the one player is going to lay it up, this player is getting the rebound. When he gets the rebound, we’re going to do the same thing, except we’re going to come back to the side of the player who has the ball so somebody else gets the lay-up.
You lay the ball up, you have to go out the opposite side, you have to touch. Your job is to hit the guy who made the lay-up. So we’ve got a new guy getting the lay-up.
Here’s what you’ve got to be careful of, coaches. The guys know how hard this drill is to make it. So all of a sudden, what you’re going to see is you’re going to see guys saying, “You know what? I’m going to cheat out here a little bit on this outlet pass.”
When the ball hits the backboard, the next player can go.
What happens naturally with this kids basketball drill is that the guys have to communicate and talk to one another.
Adding in a “Big Guy”
We used to do this drill all the time. But I went to a Pistons practice and I saw Larry Brown do it, and he had the big guy in the drill. And I love it a lot better with the big guy in the drill.
Here’s what changes when you add a big guy in the mix. The big guy now throws the ball of the glass, one ball. He’s going to outlet it to the wing. You’re going to still do the same drill–you’re going to hit it back to the point guard in the middle. The big guy, however, is the guy who gets all the rebounds.
So after a player throws it back to the middle, he’s going to get the lay-up. Then the big guy is going to get the rebound and throw it back to whoever scored. The player who scores is going to throw it back to the point guard. And then we’re going to throw it to the other guy.
So with this drill, we’ve got down and back. We’ve got another down and back. This adds up to four trips.
The two wings get their lay-up first. The third trip, the point guard gets the lay-up. The fourth time, the big guy gets the lay-up.
This is a great chance for our big guys to get used to running the floor, flying down the middle of the court, and getting themselves lay-ups. We have to communicate in this drill.
If a player misses a lay-up, he goes again. They have to make four lay-ups in a row.
Do you think your players will enjoy these two kids basketball drills? If so, be sure you follow me on Twitter for even more drills and tips!