I was thinking of ways to really get my team of elementary kids to really  start enjoying themselves in practice and so I came up with some fun basketball drills for kids. I stopped to ask myself, Ok you’re a kid, what do you want out  of life? #1 I want to have a good time. The way they work is by playing. #2 I  want to learn something. I think this is the key to getting good results,  combining the two. Lets face it we aren’t going to get results if we just drive  them into the ground, this goes for all ages, but especially for kids. So here’s  what I did. I came up with a list of things needed to combine fun basketball drills with regular  fundamental drills. I use these at the beginning of the season and then pull  them out in the middle when I need to switch things up a little.

#1 Competition

Divide the teams up and make them compete against each other in the fun basketball drills.  Don’t just scrimmage them, get them working together in team skills  competitions. Make the losing group run two extra conditioning drills at the end  of practice.

#2 Two Step Pass

Have one team on the left side or the court, one team on the right. In groups  of two players per team, have them advance the ball down the court by passing  the ball to each other. The catch is that they can take no more than 2 steps at  a time. Count out loud, advance the ball, take two steps, catch the ball,  repeat. Winner is the team who gets their entire line across the gym first.

#3 The Path

Have the team line up in a winding pattern across the gym, each player with a  ball. The end of the path, will as quickly as possible, works his way through  down the path dribbling the ball low with his head up watching where he is  going. Once the player gets to the end of the path, the new end of the path will  do the same. This continues until you have worked your way through the team.  These are fun basketball drills which allow the kids to get a feel for what its like to maneuver through  traffic.

#4 Pin Ball

This is a great fun basketball drill to teach movement off the ball. Pin 3 wooden clothes  pins on the back of each jersey. Say go and in a confined area, the players must  grab as many other players clothes pins within a minute. The winner is the  player who has grabbed the most pins.

#5 Scramble

On command, everyone drops ball and runs to half court or bleachers, etc. and  returns. While the players are running, coach removes one ball. Player without  ball is out. With fewer players, start to reduce area. Think of this as musical  chairs but on the court.

#6 Get the Players Input

One of the best ways to get kids involved is to let them develop a game out  of a drill you want them to preform. no matter how ridiculous it seems, let them  explain and run the game. This not only promotes team unity and helps work on  fundamentals through the drill, it promotes leadership among the students and  promotes creativity, two things needed to win most basketball games.

#7 Redlight-Greenlight

This is a well known fun basketball drill that everyone mentions, so let me be no exception.  It works! This fun basketball drill improves your reflexes. Put a group of kids  at the baseline but don’t put them too closely together. Maybe 5 or 6 per cycle  will be enough.

Every kid has a ball to dribble. When your say “green light” the kids will  dribble forward. If you say “blue light” they’ll go left. If you say “yellow  light” they go right and red is to stop. This is to develop speed, reflexes and  dribbling. First one across the line wins.

#8 Clap Pass

This one is a blast. First you get all the players circled around you. Then  you pass the ball to random players in the group. The player must clap before  they catch the ball. They sit out if:

.They don’t catch the ball
.They don’t clap
.They clap when you fake a  pass to them

Use these all you want. Claim them as your own, copy them if you want,  whatever. They’re for all to try out. Know this however, you can’t get the kids  to a place of excellence with just these, you need a little more. That’s where  my link takes you. It’s a program that will help you as a coach or parent bring  along these kids to a greater understanding of the game of basketball and how to  be great ball handlers. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed these Fun Kids Drills, and I hope that the program does for you what  it did for us!

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