Youth Basketball Drills - 5 Great Drills You Can Use Every Practice Practice can be a daunting time for any new basketball coach particularly if you are a volunteer or first-time coach. The children are considering you as if you have the understanding of Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Lebron James, and Larry Bird (Well, maybe not Larry Bird; his time was before your team was probably born!) rolled into one. As a coach, you need to use your time as best as possible and not only just possess some clue how to proceed but win the sport. I will provide you with five great youth basketball drills which you can use for your forthcoming practice and any practice because they drills are designed to put your kids into game shape as well as enable them to progress to the next level.
1. Defense Slide Drill - In defense, you would like your players to possess both of your hands out, knees bent (not slouching of the backs!), and head up. This is actually the correct posture, and you should be militant about making sure the defense always has this posture. Also, players have to slide over the floor keeping the ball and player in front of them instead of chasing the man using the ball.
basketball drillsWithin this drill, use cones to mark off a 8-12 feet wide area and a minimum of 30 feet long. One player within this drill will have the ball and the other will practice his defensive slide. The player using the ball will dribble left until he hits the sideline, then dribble right, until he hits another boundary. The defensive player's goal would be to force the offense to visit all the way to the sideline without fouling or losing position. This will create a kind of zig-zag pattern and will help with defensive posture and sliding.
2. Line Sprints - All players line up around the base line somewhere of the court. Within this drill, players will be running continuously from the base line then towards the free throw line, to the base line, towards the half court line, to the base line, towards the opposite free throw line, to the bottom line, then up to opposite end of the court and back. So, the players won't stop sprinting until they have finished going to each line then returning. At the sound from the whistle players will start going from line to line. The catch is they need to touch the floor with their hand each and every line. So, once they start and run to the free throw line, they touch the floor. When they run back to the base line, they touch the ground again. This process continues until they are finished.
3. Basic Lay-up Drill - If you can teach your team how to make basic lay-ups using their left and right hands, you'll do what many youth basketball coaches do not do. Therefore, this ought to be one of the youth basketball drills that you run every practice.
In this drill, you will divide your players into two lines in the half court mark around the right and left sides from the circle. The left side would be the rebounding line, and also the right side would be the lay-up line. The very first kid will have the ball and it is to dribble as fast as possible (without the ball going flying!) towards the hoop, jump off his left leg and shoot the lay-up together with his right hand. The rebounder within the left lane will rebound the ball and pass it to another kid in line (it may quicken things to use two or three balls). Following this is performed, then, you switch the process using the left lane being the lay-up line and also the right will be the rebounding line.
4. Fast Break Lay-up Drill - Again, most of your points is going to be from lay-ups, if you can optimize this drill, you will lead a highly effective season. Like the previous drill, you will begin with the best hand after which change to the left-hand. To save time, you are able to split up into two groups that'll be on opposite sides of the court.
basketball drillsIn this drill, each player starts in the opposite side from the court and dribbles the ball as fast as possible until they make it to the opposite goal and shoot a right handed lay-up. Although this is going on, players from the other side will be dribbling down attempting to shoot lay-ups on the goal.
5. Full-Court Dribble - Again, if you notice, all of these youth basketball drills are helping your players learn to control the ball and make shots that they ought to be taking in the game (ones closest to the basket!) Have you ever looked at NBA stats and seen who usually has the greatest area of made shots? It's often the forwards since they're next to the basket.
Within this drill, players will be dribbling down the court one way right-handed and come back dribbling only left-handed. This helps improve ball-handling, speed, and conditioning. You may also mix things up by placing cones for obstacles and other methods.