Depending on the age of the children you're working with, you may need to adjust drills to help the players feel successful. For instance, very young children may not have the strength to throw long passes or make a basket on a regulation-height goal. Use drills as an opportunity to teach children the love of the game and solid, fundamental basketball.
Look Up!
When a child learns to dribble, she might get in the habit of staring down at the ball to maintain control of her dribble. Ultimately, this will backfire because she can't see her defenders or whether a teammate is open. It will take a lot of practice, and a lot of loose balls, but you want to teach young players to look up while dribbling.
Stand your team on one side of the court, allowing them to spread out. Each player should have a ball. While performing this dribbling drill, the players have to do two things: they have to mimic whatever dribbling skill you perform, and they also have to notice if you hold up a number of fingers. Start the drill by simply dribbling the ball with your right hand. All the players should mimic you. Every five or 10 seconds, switch hands, or begin bouncing the ball back and forth between your hands. You can also hold up fingers in the air. The first player to correctly mimic the number of fingers you hold up gets a point. As the players become more skilled, add spider dribbling, figure eights or between the leg dribbling as part of the drill, periodically holding up a number of fingers in the air. The first player to accumulate five points wins the game.
Passing Keep Away
You can help your team learn sharp passing skills by pitting them against a motivated defensive unit. Split your team up into groups of six, eight, or 10 players, depending on the total number of players on your team. Then, split those groups into an offensive and a defensive team. The offensive players spread out in a square, circle or triangle with roughly 10 to 15 feet between each player. The defensive players stand within the formation of offensive players. Each offensive team has a single ball. When you start the drill, the offensive team begins passing the ball back and forth. The player who has the ball can't move except to pivot from an established pivot foot, but the other offensive players can move as much as they want. The defensive players play man defense to prevent a pass from being made. Every successful pass the offensive team makes earns a point, and every steal the defensive team make earns a point. The first team to score five points wins the game. After playing a single game, offensive and defensive teams should switch and continue playing.
Block Shooting
Many children want to practice shooting, but they want to shoot from a distance they're not yet strong enough to make. Frame drills that focus on short shooting and form, rather than long shots. This drill focuses on teaching children to shoot accurately and quickly from a low-post position.
Use every basketball goal for this drill, placing a basketball on both blocks underneath each basket. Have players team up into groups of two, then have the teams spread out to all the baskets. You will time this drill, giving each player a minute to shoot. If you have more teams than you have available baskets, start with one team, and after both players go, play again with the waiting team. When you start the time, the first player chooses one of the basketballs and takes a shot from the block. He rebounds his own ball and places it back on the block, then moves to the other waiting ball and shoots that one, rebounding his shot and replacing the ball. He continues to go back and forth on the blocks until his minute runs out. His teammate counts his made shots out loud. After a minute, the players switch places and the second player goes. Whichever player has more made baskets in a minute, wins the game. You can choose to progress this game, pitting winners against winners, until all players but one are eliminated.
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