Youth Basketball Shooting Drills
The ability for your basketball players to put the ball in the hoop consistently is important since that’s how points are awarded. All kidding aside, if you want your youth basketball team to be successful, they need to know how to shoot the ball. Here are a couple of drills you can run:
- Pick ‘n Flick Drill – To start with, your players need have the proper form to shoot the ball. Many younger kids learn to shoot with two hands simply because they aren’t strong enough to shoot with the correct form – or so everyone claims. I ran a 3rd and 4th grade boys team and a 5th and 6th girls team at the same time one year. Most of the girls were a full head taller than my boys, but my boys were better shooters because I would not let them shoot improperly – while the girls had already become set in their ways the previous year. Proper form starts in an "athletic stance" – which is knees bent, feet at shoulder width apart and holding the ball with both hands with elbows out. The dominate hand then comes under the ball as it is raised, the other hand stays on the outside of the ball simply as a guide. The ball and the dominate hand raise the ball up past the face, over the head and the dominate hand makes a "flicking" motion as the ball is released. I call it "pick & flick" form because it should look like you’ve picked your nose and are trying to flick it into the basket.
- The Wall Drill – I have my team do this before every practice as we are waiting for the previous team to vacate the court. Each player needs a ball and a block or brick wall they can throw the ball off of without damaging it. While practicing the form listed above, they should try to hit the same spot (one that is just over ten feet tall…) over and over. That’s it. The kids usually make it a game between themselves to see how many times they can hit the same spot in a row.
- The 5-Spot Drill – This is a good drill to run if you have multiple baskets to use at practice. Set out five cones in spots around the goal were you designed shots to be attempted from. One player is the shooter and an additional one or two players act as rebounders (if you have two, make them try to box one another out…) that pass the ball back to the shooter each time. Once the shooter has made a basket from each cone, another player becomes the shooter and the shooter becomes a rebounder. Later in the season, I turn this into a team competition that is timed (anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes…) and we determine the winner by the number of baskets made by a team in a set amount of time.
There are many drills out in the world for youth basketball and I hope these few can help out your team.
