instructional league for 1st-3rd grade boys and girls mixed

My cyo season is done now we our having a short 4 week instructional league my 1st time doing this what do you think is the best way to approach this. What kind of drills? I am sure there will be kids who never touched a b-ball before and some that have a little talent for that age how do you keep them all intrested? I do have a few ideas but always looking for more and this site never fails. Thanks in advance

From my experience, there can be a huge difference between 1st and 2nd and 2nd and 3rd regarding skill and talent levels. What I would do is try to break everyone into skill based groups. The beginers get the basics, while the more advanced kids get more advanced drills. I guess it would depend upon how many total kids and how much help you have. Good luck.

Keep it fun at all times with this age group.

Because of their age and their attention span don't spend more than
2 minutes lecturing/describing/instructing and no more than 5 to 8 minutes per drill. Move from drill to drill to keep them from fooling around and to keep them focused.

If you have a full court with six hoops and 5 other helper/coaches I would setup drill stations at each hoop. Each station reinforcing a certain skill. Divide the players up into 6 equal groups based on talent/age. You keep track of time, 5 to 8 min. at each station then
then groups rotate.


As golfman said, focus on basics and fundamentals. Reinforce stationary dribbling with ball control first then progress to dribbling with movement. Passing and proper shooting form should be addressed every practice too. Throw in some conditioning, a fun scrimmage and always end with a fun game. The kids will remember this and come back to the next practice.

For games, basically I take a kids game and throw in a basketball or two.
At that age, games that have worked well for me are:

-Dribble Tag
-Dribble Races
-Musical Chairs while dribbling, need a CD player.
-Red Light, Green Light
-Clothes Pin Dribble Tag- attach 2 clothes pins to back of every players shirt, every player has ball and must dribble protecting their back while trying to grab a clothes pin off another player's shirt. Enclose an area off for this drill.
Blindfold dribble Drill- walking, NOT running!!

here's others I have chronicled:
Drill: Spoon and Golf Ball Dribble Control
Type: Motion Dribble Control
Level: Advanced


Use this drill near end of season. It can be quite challenging for some girls. It is hysterical to watch!!! Every girl has a basketball, a plastic spoon and a plastic golf ball. Line up girls on baseline. They are dribbling with strong hand while holding a spoon with their weak hand and balancing the golf ball at the end of the spoon. Start slow…have them slowly walk to half court then back while maintaining ball control and keeping ball on spoon. Again, this drill takes the focus off of dribbling and puts it on something else.
Switch ball to weak hand and repeat. As season progresses have them speed it up. Have dribble races. When they get really good at this, split team into 2 teams, everyone with a
ball and a spoon but just one golf ball per team. First player in each line must race downcourt dribbling and balancing ball on spoon. When they return they must transfer ball from their spoon to their teammate’s spoon waiting in line. The girls go crazy with this race!! They MUST keep dribbling even during transferring ball from one spoon to the next. Some players may have problems transferring so if they drop it 3 times in a row then they can use their fingers to transfer ball.


Drill: Prison Break-Out
Type: Motion Dribble Control
Level: Intermediate

If you have 10 players, ask who wants to be a prisoner. Put that player in the mid-court circle and put cones around the circle….that’s the prison.
Choose 3 players to be guards, the remaining 5 or 6 players will be inmates.
The 3 guards must wear pinnies, they are to guard the prisoner and also tag an inmate so they go to prison. Object: Every player MUST always dribble whether they are in prison, an inmate or a guard. Inmates want to avoid being tagged by guards but also want to free
a prisoner by tagging them in the inner circle prison. Once tagged, a prisoner is then free. Use entire gym to run around. Sometimes all prisoners are free….sometimes guards will tag all prisoners and they will be in prison. Have fun!!


Drill: Dribble X
Type: Stationary Dribble Control
Level: Beginner

Use masking or medical tape to mark an X on the gym floor on the side of each kid.
Each girl must dribble with control on the X. Ensure they control dribble on the side of their body. At this stage, the player is allowed to look down at ball to maintain accuracy of hitting X and establishing “feel” for ball. Go about 30 seconds switching to weak hand, then back to strong hand. Do a number of sets with each hand.

Drill: Dribble Alphabet
Type: Stationary Dribble Control
Level: To be used after above drill

Have players bend over and start dribbling low in front of them. Coach will call out letters of the alphabet. Players will dribble the shape of the letter in front of them. Players should use a very low controlled dribble of maybe 6 to 10 inches above the floor. Switch to weak hand and repeat. Option: Dribble Shapes- have players dribble triangle, square,
circle, rectangle shapes…..throw in a trapezoid just to see their reaction!

Great reply Coach A.... nothing to add to that.

So how important do you think form shooting is at this age because if a kid wants to make a basket its not going to be with perfect form they are not strong enough and unfourtunate we use 10 ft baskets.
Coach A. thank you those are some great tips and will surely be used.

Shooting form is always important but they wont retain it because they are so short... and it will be hard for them to get it up to the basket...... you might teach form against a wall. Just a thought.