Full court drills (5th-6th grade girls)

Just looking for more drills where the girls can tune there skills and get good conditioning in. I have notice some of the girls try to save there self for end of practice running so I think if i limit the running at the end and really push the full court drills it will be more benficial in the long run. I run full court lay-ups and I do a full court passing drill pass and chase, and of course full court dribbling. just looking for that variety and any sugestions that you may have or have worked for you. Thanks

there are hundreds of drill on this site for you to choose from. Just noodle around a little and I am sure you will find what you like.

I do think you are on to something though. First, players saving themselves for running at the end of practice is what players do, boys, girls, men, women, young, old, it doesn't matter. It basketball.

Running at the end of practice is useless and can be destructive. If you feel you have to run at the end of practice, I think you have to take a serious look at what you do during practice. If body your practices are not challenging enough, if you are doing things that don't work on team and skill development and conditioning to the extent that you feel that you have to run at the end of practice, too, I feel that you are wasting quite a bit of time.

If they feel they are doing something to make them better, they won't save anything. If the feel that they are doing thing just for the sake of doing the, they won't do anything.

Great reply Don ..........

The longer I coached the less we ran at the end of practice. A well thought out Practice Plan should take care of conditioning, IF they are not getting in to condition... then you need to rethink how you are doing things. Time is way to valuable to waste on just running.

Here is something that I told a group of Youth Coaches ...... The last few things you do at practice should be fun..... make it so they WANT to come back to the next practice. For us, it was running "Situations" - short mini games... 5-60 seconds - different scores, who has the ball and where, and foul situation. Kids love to compete and this is fun AND they are going to learn something along the way.

There are so many drills you can do. The trick is to find drills that fit the # of players, baskets, and assistants you have to work with. Here are some that work with 1-3 players per basket:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/XJumpShot.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/10SpotShooting.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/wing-shooting.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/wing-screen.html

Here are just a few that work with almost any # of players:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/playcreator/view.asp?id=70&type=drill
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/playcreator/view.asp?id=73&type=drill
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/mchalelayups.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/taps-drill.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/pridedrill.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/defensivereaction.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/3on2on1-SteveNash.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/3on2FullCourtDrill.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/PassandReplace.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/OutletTransitionDrill.html
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/playcreator/view.asp?id=50&type=drill

There are so many more in our ebooks and other places. Also use your imagination to create your own drills based on what you want to practice.

I have coached girls for a number of years now. The drill that really stands out as a fun and competitive fullcourt drill is the 11 man fastbreak drill. Everybody uses this drill....boys, girls..all ages!
It incorporates conditioning, communication, running fastbreaks, defending fastbreaks, shooting, passing, dribbling, rebounding, etc. You use the entire full court. You need 11 or more players. If you only have 10 players on your team then a coach can participate.
It may seem a little confusing at first for the 5th graders but after running it a few times they will learn it. I start almost every practice with this drill!!

It's a little difficult to explain on this post so search this website or the internet for "11 man fastbreak drill". You'll come up with explainations and diagrams of this drill.

Good Luck

Have Fun!!!

Coach A