Fun Basketball Drills For A Fast Paced Practice

Kids love to stay active and keep moving, so it's imperative that you structure a practice that is fast paced and fun. Here's how …

Plan Ahead of Time

The # 1 key here is preparation. You must have a well thought out practice plan.

If you do not already use a written practice plan, start now. This will allow you to keep things moving quickly and keep your players on track.

Transition to New Drills Quickly

This goes back to preparation. You need to have a plan and know exactly what drill is next. The last thing you want to do is have to think in between drills and try to figure out what to do. Get everyone running to the next spot and keep things moving.

Choose Drills That Are Fast Paced

Kids enjoy drills that require them to run around and be active. Things like dribbling through cones and using chairs are great ways to keep them moving.

Use Multifaceted Drills

It's more enjoyable to use drills that incorporated a variety of skills. Kids choose fun basketball drills such as dribbling through cones, passing, and shooting a lay up rather than a simple lay up drill. This is also a better use of practice time.

Consider Using Stations

Four-minute stations work great for a large group of young players. Simply set up a station at each basket or in different areas of the gym with a coach or parent at each one. You may have cones set up for dribbling in one area and chairs set up in another area for Musical Slides.

Split the team into small groups and explain how each station works before letting them have at it.

When 4 minutes expires, the whistle goes off and the kids rotate clockwise to the next station. If you have 6 stations, then it takes 24 minutes to complete the entire sequence. You can experiment with the time, but with large summer camps, we have found that 4 minutes is just enough time to demonstrate the drill and let the kids practice for a few minutes.

Kids really love these fun basketball drills because things are constantly changing and moving quickly.

Use Assistant Chairs or Parents to Serve as Passers and Rebounders.

Some drills move faster if you have some capable helpers to keep things moving, so put your assistant coaches and parents to work for you to keep practice flowing as smoothly as possible.

Keep Everyone Busy. No Waiting in Lines.

You'll need to choose drills that complement the number of players, balls, and baskets that you have, but there will be times when you have an activity that does not allow for participation of the entire group.

If you have some drills where you just can not keep everyone occupied, give your players "busy work" drills that can be done on the side with little oversight.

Here are 10 ideas for "busy work" drills and / or activities to keep your players active and learning at all times.

  • Jump rope
  • Two Ball Dribbling
  • Mikan Drill
  • Free Throw Challenge
  • Partner Passing
  • Lay up drills
  • Rebounding drills
  • Spider Dribbling
  • Figure 8 Dribbling
  • One on One

You can almost always come up with the right combination of drills to keep everyone busy.

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