3 Simple and FUN Youth Basketball Drills

1 - Pirate Dribbling

For this drill, you'll need to assign a couple pirates. Everyone else has a basketball.

Everyone with a ball starts dribbling in an area of the court. If the pirate touches the ball, you are now a pirate and you give the ball to the person that touches your ball. You can't go after the person you just touched and get the ball back right away.

Good drill for all ages.

2 - What Time is it Mr. Fox?

This comes from soccer. I have seen a number of youth soccer coaches use this drill. It works for basketball too.

Each player needs a basketball. The coach stands at the foul line. Players line up along the baseline.

When the players are ready, they yell "What time is it Mr. Fox?”

The coach then calls out a time. In this example the coach will say "six o'clock".

So the players take 6 dribbles toward the coach.

Then the players ask again, "What time is it Mr. Fox?” And the coach calls out a time which signifies the number of dribbles that players should take.

Repeat until some of the players get close to you. Then when players ask, "What time is it Mr. Fox?".... you instead yell "It's dinner time!!!"

When players hear "dinner time" they are supposed to dribble back to where they started as fast as they can. You (coach) run after them trying to tag them before they get back to the baseline.

This is a good drill for 3-7 year olds.

Variations

Variation 1 - Let one of the players be Mr. Fox.

Variation 2 - Have the players hop toward you on two feet to work on their jumping and agility (the ball is optional).

3 - Coin Drop Relays

For this drill, you'll need a bunch of pennies (coins) and some egg cartons cut in half.

The teams line up at the start line. Group them into teams for the relay race.

At "Go," one player from each team races to the turn-back line, picks up one penny from her team's bowl (the bowl is optional), and runs to her team's egg carton.

There, the player gets one chance to drop the penny into one cup of the carton -- without lowering their arm below waist height.

The player then runs back to the start line and the next player goes. The game ends when a team has gotten at least one penny in each cup of its egg carton.

Now once they get the hang of it, give each player a basketball and require them to dribble. They have to dribble without looking at the ball and develop coordination.

Good drill for 4-9 year olds.