Basketball Practice for 7 and 8 year-olds

I've noticed that several of you have reached this site by Googling things such as "basketball practice for first graders," so I figured I'd share the wisdom of what I've learned and tell you about the one-hour practices that we run.


1. Team Meeting. We talk about what we need to do, what we've accomplished, protecting the basketball and going after rebounds (some of the kids stand flat-footed after a shot). This takes all of a minute.


2. Defensive Slides. We used to do some jumping drills to warm up, but we go straight into about 3 minutes of defensive slides. I take the kids sideways, back and forth, stopping and starting. It's a good way to get their footwork going and to get them warmed up. Our league requires man-to-man defense, so this is a good way to remind them not to cross their feet.


3. Dribbling Drills. Only half the kids can dribble the ball well repetitively. The rest lose the ball pretty quickly, and some double dribble, either by stopping and then starting again or by using two hands. They just don't get the playground experience kids did 30 years ago, and they're so scheduled they don't play much pickup. As a result, we try three drills:


a. The "Fingers" Drill. I have them stand in place, look at me and shout out the number of fingers that I put up. The goal here is to get them to dribble the ball and not look at it. That's important, of course, because if they can dribble without looking at the ball they'll find the open man quickly and make a good pass, and, also, of course, because they can see where the defenders are and better protect the basketball. We ask them to switch hands, too.


b. The "Dribble to Half Court and Back" Drill. We have them stand at the baseline and dribble the ball to half court and then back. Remember, we're playing on "sideways" courts that are typically found in elementary school gyms in our parts, and not the "full length" court (there are two "sideways" courts for every full length court). The goal here is to get them to dribble quickly but under control, and every now and then my assistant and I pop into the lines to make the kids shift hands or protect the ball better.


c. The "Protect the Basketball" Drill. This is a great drill. We have two kids dribbling the ball while, at the same time, trying to take the ball away from one another. This drill compels the kids to angle in toward the defender and dribble the ball slightly behind them, near their hips. The kids love this drill, have fun "going at it," and some have become better dribblers because of it.


We do these drills for a total of 10-15 minutes, depending on how they are going. So right now we've used up about 15 minutes total.



3. Passing Drills. Put simply, we have kids work on their chest passes, bounce passes and overhead passes. My assistant and I jump in and out of the passing lanes, compelling the kids to make decisions, such as throwing an overhead pass or a bounce pass (yes, given that the kids are considerably shorter than we are, we duck down to make the situation look more real). We stress to them the importance of throwing a crisp pass, one that hits the teammate at the letters so that they can make a strong move or take a shot without diving for the ball, without the ball hitting their feet, etc. Most kids aren't crisp enough passers yet. We usually take 5-10 minutes with these drills.


4. Situational Drills. We do the following drills:


a. Layup Lines. To make things more interesting, we have the player in the rebounding lane throw a bounce pass to the player in the shooting line.


b. Follow Your Shot Drill. A coach throws a pass to a kid a few feet inside the foul line, and the kids are to catch the ball and shoot it without putting it on the floor. The reason for this is that if the kids are in this close and open, there is no need to put the ball on the floor (most kids will lose possession, and it's a good habit to teach at this age -- avoid wasted energy). The kids then are encouraged to follow their shots twice, so that they learn the importance of staying at it and fighting for a rebound (you'd be surprised how many kids forget that they can pursue the ball after they've shot it). This drill proved very productive, as the kids showed a lot of energy following their shots in our last game.


c. The "Dribble Hand-off" Drill. We didn't necessarily want to teach this drill, but the requirement of man-to-man defense compelled us to do so. Why? Because the kids cover each other like gloves, and there really isn't a lot of room for good chest or bounce passes. These kids are too young (read: too inexperienced) to learn a high-post offense or a 1-4 stack, so what we do is have one kid dribble and then stop, and have a teammate trail him, take a handoff and then either shoot the ball or dribble toward the hoop (all the while, we ask the player doing the handoff to slide toward the basket, a poor person's version of a pick and roll, as the handoff can serve as a pick). The handoff ends up freeing up someone for a drive or a shot. Our kids play tough defense in practice, but, again, this drill paid dividends in our last game, as we were able to get the ball inside pretty effectively.


Now we've been at it for about 35 minutes or so, and we take a water break for a minute.


5. Scrimmaging. The kids love this, of course, and I bought some mail-order pinnies so that we can distinguish the "teams" from one another. We have an odd number of kids, so we shuffle them in and out, and I keep the game to 3-on-3. The reason: first, we avoid clutter in the half court (we don't scrimmage full court at this age) and can teach better and, two, we let the odd kid take a breather. I try to create evenly matched teams, make sure every kid gets to handle the ball, switch the defensive matchups and stop play to teach. For example, if a kid double dribbles, I try to correct the mistake. If a kid loses the ball because she dribbles in front of her instead of protecting it, I'll stop play and teach. I try to be encouraging and not single anyone out. The scrimmages prove to be great exercise and get the kids in better shape for the games. On my particular team, the defense is better than the offense, but I assure the kids that no one will defend them as tough as they defend themselves (this has proven true so far -- they really go after the ball). Where we have trouble is on offense -- we really don't have a super-talented kid who can score at will (but few teams do).


6. Wrap-up. I call the kids together, take 30 seconds to review things to work on, congratulate them on improvements, have everyone put their hands in and say "Team" and then say goodnight.


As I blogged before, I wished we had a zone defense requirement so we could emphasize ball movement through passing more, but we don't. As a result, we've improvised on offense and make the best of it. Kids today don't necessarily have the hoops savvy we did way back when. The game isn't instinctive to them, so only a few know about setting screens, going for rebounds, etc. We're working on their games, and it's been fun.


A great book to get is Dave Faucher's book "Coaching Youth Basketball." Faucher once coached at Dartmouth, and his book is excellent. Some of my practice plans derive from his book, and I confess that I would have been somewhat lost at the season's outset without it.


By no means am I an expert, and I welcome your suggestions too. That's the great thing about coaching. Coaches are willing to share, and coaches learn from one another. I picked up a few things at my daughter's practice, one at the water cooler, and a few by watching TV.


Please take a moment to provide comments as to your suggestions. I look forward to seeing what you do in practice or what you've seen.