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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
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
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