Questions From Subscribers...

Topic:  Basketball Drills that are Fun for Kids

Question:
I will be using a few of the things in your eBook this evening for our first practice. I am most interested in drills that teach and are also fun for the kids. Fifth graders are easily distracted if they are not having fun while they are learning. I do appreciate the info in the book very much.


Answer:
It can certainly be a challenge to keep the attention of young kids during basketball practice. Especially when they have an attention span of about 5 seconds! :)

Fortunately there are lots of tricks and techniques to keep their attention.

First of all, I would suggest reading this article about keeping players focused. It was written for coaches that work with older players but several of the tips (like adding competition) apply to youth coaches.

Next, I picked out a couple drills from the ebook that young kids usually enjoy:

  • Knock out - Page 13
  • Half Moon Shooting - Page 15
  • King of the Court (dribbling) - Page 81
  • Dribble Relays - Page 83
  • Machine Gun Passing - Page 101
  • Four Corners Passing - Page 103
  • Musical Slide (defense) - Page 110
We also released a new eBook with 60 Fun Basketball Drills and Games for Kids. I'm sure you'll find this extremely helpful.

And you can check out these fun basketball drills too.

Other tips...

It helps to break things up through out practice to break up the monotony. Players generally lose focus after working on the same thing.

The more variety the better.

For example, you could do 5 minutes of defensive drills and then change things up to a competitive shooting drill that they enjoy.

Or even better, I have found that 4 minute stations work great for young players. You simply have a station set up at each basket or area in the gym. You might have cones set up for dribbling in one area and chairs set up in another area for Musical Slides.

Split up the kids into small groups and then have a coach at each station. To get started, the coaches show the players how to execute the drill and then let them have at it.

When 4 minutes expires, the whistle goes off and the kids run to the next station (I generally rotate clockwise). If you have 6 stations, then it takes 24 minutes to complete the entire sequence. You can experiment with the time but with big summer camps, I have found that 4 minutes is just enough time to demonstrate the drill and let the kids practice for a few minutes.

Kids really love it because things are constantly changing and moving quickly. This is also a great way to handle a large group of kids or a big team camp.

Hope this helps!

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions then please leave your comments below.

Jeff Haefner




Answers and Comments

Most Likes First   Oldest First   Newest First

charlie says:
5/3/2009 at 7:46:52 PM

what is the less amount of players you have to have on the court to finish the game without a forfeit

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Don Gann says:
1/6/2009 at 9:47:44 PM

Send me my tips!!!

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greg says:
12/20/2008 at 12:25:09 PM

send me the ebook please...thank you

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Darryl Marek says:
9/24/2008 at 12:48:10 PM

I run a Youth Basketball League. We have kids in K-6th grade. I do the training of the coaches and would like to copy and distribute some of the elementary drills to my volunteer coaches. Would that be possible?

Darryl Marek

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Michelle says:
2/19/2008 at 7:48:51 PM

Please send me the new ebook.
Thank You.

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lindsay kauffman says:
1/8/2008 at 6:09:09 PM

i would love the ebook.
thank you!

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coach says:
12/10/2007 at 7:14:39 AM

thanks

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alireza says:
11/19/2007 at 1:02:45 AM

please send me the new ebook on basketball

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mary Sholds says:
7/24/2007 at 9:19:20 AM

please send me the ebook on basketball

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