I'm a basketball coach for my son's kindergarten team. I was just wondering if you could please suggest a very basic rebounding drill that would work well for 5 and 6 year olds. Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much.

This is just my opinion - but, there is a lot more important things for kids this age to learn - like passing, catching and dribbling the ball. Your #1 goal for kids this age should be to introduce the game to them and let them have fun.

OK, so can you please give me your top 5 drills for this age group so I can compare with my practice plan?

I coached 1st and 2nd graders last year and early on I tried a few actual rebounding drills. The kids looked decent in the drills, but our rebounding was still terrible in games. We had 2 weeks off during Xmas break and did some "soul searching", if you will.

I figured out that the problem wasn't lack of effort orlack of rebounding fundamentals. The problem was the kids were so fixated on the person they were guarding that they rarely knew when a shot had been taken.

Day one back from break we began to spend time working on proper individual defense, the basic principle of "see man, see ball". We stressed pointing your pistols and this helped us improve our rebounding by huge measures. Not to mention our overall defense. At the end of the season, I gave out a unique award certificate to each kid, including the "Point Your Pistols" Award.

Love the award coach..... we talked about that all the time.

I never worked with kids that young... tough gig to say the least.

I would teach them m2m defense 1- on the ball and 2 help side Offense would be a simple pass and cut offense.

I coached varsity boys for 17 years and then one year of sophomore girls... a real eye opener.

YOU are starting from scratch so to speak....
Teach them how to pass and catch the ball 2 lines 12-15 feet apart - chest pass, bounce pass and MAYBE one hand stepping out to create space... not sure IF this will work for this age group.
Teach them to dribble Hopefully(?) with either hand for simple lay ups
SHOOTING has to be a difficult thing to teach.... small hands - big ball and 15 foot baskets... sure doesn't make it easy for them.... Keep this simple and make sure they have FUN. Most of these kids minds are not ready to deal with a lot of technical things.

Oh yea, and God Bless you for working with kids this age.

Tell me what you are working on right now and lets see if I can make some other suggestions... this is hard for me too.... being that I never worked with kids that young.

Jmazin,

How long are your practices?

I have always liked to spend a lot of time on dribbling and layups. Last year with the 1-2 graders I didn't spend a lot of time on fundamental passing. It was hard enough to get them to give up the ball in a game.

I used normal layup lines, but stressed a good pass to the next person and then triple threat before going in for the layup.

We also did a lot of 4 corner dribbling. Basically start in one corner, right hand dribble along the baseline, left hand dribble up the sideline, right hand dribble across halfcourt, left hand dribble down the sideline. Have them make a jump stop and good pass to the next person in line.

Once they get decent at dribbling, start holding up a few fingers while they go and make them look at you and tell you how many you have up. This will get them working on dribbling with their eyes up.

I also like to do the traditional one on one drill. Player A at top of key, Player B under hoop. B passes to A, then closes out to guard him and they play one on one for a few dribbles and a shot.