I want to share a great drill with you...

It's a drill that I used quite a bit when coaching youth basketball because it was great for:

• Developing speed-dribbling skills
• AND keeping practice fun and fresh for young players
• Utilizes a small area if you only have one or two baskets for practice (Note: You can also adapt it if you have more baskets available)

And the best part about the drill is...players develop their speed-dribbling skills without even realizing it!

That's because you're basically "hiding" the skills-development portion of practice inside a fun and competitive game that the kids really enjoy!

It's a speed-dribbling race, where the first player to score wins..

You set it up like this:

• Players make three lines on the baseline...and place 3 cones directly in front of each line at half-court.
• I set up the drill this way because I only had one basket I could use at practice. To maximize repetitions, you could have 2 players per basket. Then you could start all of the players across the gym at the same time.
• The first player in each line dribbles up and around the cone as fast as they can!
• On their way back, the first one to make a basket wins.
• To ensure they're developing their dribbling with both hands, you can select which hand they're using. For example, you can say "You must dribble to the cone with your right hand." After they do this 2 or 3 times, you can switch and say "You must dribble to the cone with your left hand."

You could also set this up as a relay race.

• Set up is the same as above. However, the player has to make a basket before the next person in their line (team) starts.
• Once they score, they hand (not pass) the ball off to the next player in line.
• The relay-race goes on like this until all teams' last player hits a shot.
• The first team to complete the drill wins, and every team must finish the drill so all players have an opportunity to dribble and score.

As you can imagine, there's countless variations to this same basic drill.

For example, you could...

• Time the teams and run the drill multiple times...so not only are they racing against the other teams, but they're also trying to beat their prior time.
• For players to dribble up with their strong hand and back with their weak hand.

And so on...

For me...this drill helped me overcome one of the biggest challenges when coaching youth basketball...

Which was...finding drills that were both effective at improving skills AND fun.

And having fun at these young ages (5-12) is extremely important! They will often quit the sport way too early if it's not enjoyable.

And isn't the goal of youth sports... to give them an activity to maintain physical fitness, happiness, and sharp mental skills throughout adulthood!?!

That's why I really love this speed-dribbling relay-race drill.

I found it to be a great way to develop my players' dribbling skills...all while they were having a blast doing it!

Try it for yourself.

I can almost guarantee you'll catch yourself getting caught up in the competition just like your players...

Even you might forget your team is working on skill development!

What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions...

Comments Most Likes First   Oldest First   Newest First Dan Smith says: 11/25/2023 at 4:35:55 PM Really smart idea Joe, always add a fun element to practices with good spirited competition. Especially when you can do drills like these in teams. The relay add on is fun for the players for sure. And dribbling with both hands is the best concept to get guys to sharpen up their ball handing ability with the right and left. Thanks for these great articles, appreciate it! Like     login   register

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