Basketball is one of the most popular games in the US. It is a great pickup sport and can be played solo, in pairs, or in 5V5. Many a driveway and cul-de-sac has a basketball hoop just begging players to take a shot. The following drills and mini-games will help your students prepare for basketball.
Drills and Mini-Games for Building Basketball Skills
Basketball requires communication, focus, hustle, sprinting, jumping, ball-handling, and skills in passing, receiving, shooting, rebounding, and defense. The following 8 activities are designed to help your students build those skills, beginning with dribbling in K-2, the give-and-go and shooting in 3-6, applying skills into mini-games in middle school, and finally playing basketball with a focus on specific offensive and defensive strategies in high school.
Building the Nest
In this activity for K-2nd graders, students (birds) practice dribbling a ball with 1 hand and pick up “twigs” (fluffballs) with the other to build their nest. They must keep their focus on the ball and keep their dribbling under control. Challenge them by adding a little defense in the mix for 2nd graders, challenging them to tap others’ balls away while controlling their own.
Count Em’ All
Count Em’ All is an activity for 3rd – 6th graders focusing on dribbling and shooting. Groups of 4 around the perimeter of a basketball court take turns, according to who is called out, dribbling to the basket and shooting for a time limit. The others in the group use another ball to practice proper shooting technique on each other. Cues for shooting are emphasized and reinforced.
Catching 3 Basketballs
This activity, which works from 3rd grade through high school, is a lot of fun and teaches students to move to open space and play tight defense. Teams of 3 play each other in a small grid. The offensive team scores by making 3 catches in a row. Defense tries to stop them. Dribbling is not allowed. It is fast-paced and gives everyone on the team many opportunities to participate and practice passing, receiving, and moving into open space. This same activity can be played with a variety of tossables, not just basketballs. Challenge students by adding an endline goal so passes more in one direction.
Knock Out- Challenge
This activity is a great one to use in middle school as students first come out for class. You could even use it as a high-activity roll-taking strategy. Groups of 6 (at most) head to a basket and shoot one at a time from the free-throw line. If that player’s shot goes in, they rebound it and head back to the end of the line. If it misses, they continue shooting until either it goes in or the player behind them shoots and makes a shot. If the player behind them gets the shot first, they are “knocked out” and simply move to another court with fewer than 6 players. It is a fun and challenging activity and should be used only after students have been taught to shoot and have been given plenty of practice.
Keep Away (3-on-2)
3-on-2 Keep Away is good for middle schoolers to work on passing and moving to open space with only 2 defenders. This allows the offense to always have someone open, making them more successful. Challenge students by prohibiting dribbling, as well as one that requires 3 dribbles. Keep Away is always fun and active, and this activity makes it equitable by changing the defense on a time signal rather than on their success.
3-on-3 Basketball
This middle school activity is a natural progression from the elementary school activity of Catching 3 Basketball. Here, teams of 3 try to score a basket after completing at least 3 passes to teammates. Play is similar to regular basketball. If the defense steals it, they begin offense right away.
D is for Defense
As the name implies, this high school activity provides instruction and practice in defense. Both types of defense (zone and player-to-player) are taught. The object is to prevent your offensive opponent from scoring using good defense. By changing the number of defenders, the game can be made more or less challenging for all.
Give and Go
In Give and Go, the offensive strategy is passing the ball, then moving to open space, preferably open for a shot, and then receiving the ball. In this activity, offense scores only after using the give-and-go, and they practice it for 1 minute before switching roles with the defense.
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