Hello
I have recently wanted to start a program for daycare and preschool children that will help battle obesity and help build coordination and teamwork by using the game I love basketball. I have came up with a few drills for kids of that age but would like to know if anyone has any other suggestions for kids that are in the toddler bracket (3-5yrs old)?

Thanks for reading my post and I hope to talk and share ideas with you guys soon

Just a couple ideas (as you see most of it revolves around developing athleticism and coordination because they are too young to play basketball)...

- Right and left hand toss and catch (use a variety of different size balls)
- Balance on one leg
- Tag
- Freeze tag
- Dribble tag
- Dribble relay races
- Jump stops
- hop on one foot
- Crawling (no knees on the floor)
- Mirror drill:
http://www.trainforhoops.com/defensive-footwork-mirror-defense-drill/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvEXN4ifaU0
- Skip while chinning the ball (forward and backward)
- Overhead passing challenge (line them up and see who can throw an overhead pass the farthest or past a certain point)
- Carioca
- Plank
- Races from different positions (start on belly, back, side, from knees, etc)
- What Time is it Mr Rabbit (soccer drill - except instead of dribbling a soccer ball you can have the kids hop or run or dribble a basketball)
- Pirate dribbling... assign a couple pirates. everyone else has a ball. 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).
- Coin Drop Relays. The teams line up at the start line. At "Go," one player from each team races to the turn-back line, picks up one penny from her team's bowl, and runs to her team's egg carton. There, she gets one chance to drop the penny into one cup of the carton -- without lowering her arm below waist height. She 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.

All kinds of great resources here:
http://www.canadiansportforlife.ca/learn-about-canadian-sport-life/ltad-stages

Good ideas here:
http://www.drkwamebrown.com/function/

You can use some of the ideas and dribbling games from here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/fun-youth-drills.html

They don't need to shoot but if they do use a nerf ball and a mini hoop.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youth-basketball-sizes.html

Thanks Jeff those are both great ideas and references. I had the toss along with trying to get them to do ball wraps and dribbles counting to 5 then lay ups on a small hoop. So your ideas kind of expanded my mind on how i can expand the program. then hopefully when they get to the Kindergarten 1st grade age I can really get in to the fun details of the game.
Once again thanks for the ideas suggestions and resources and if you have any more feel free to send them


Brian