Basketball Camp Activities

Basketball camp is a time for athletes to work hard, play hard and learn the meaning and feeling behind teamwork. Whether attending a day camp or month-long intensive basketball camp, the athlete will be pushed to the limit both physically and mentally. In addition to physical activities, basketball camp should also include motivational speaking and positive encouragement as well as some fun time to reward the participants. Basketball camps cater to 5-year-old boys and girls and they cater to college and professional basketball players. For all these scenarios there are basketball camp activities for all ages and levels.

  1. Building Block Drills

    • The importance of one-handed ball control can be taught with building block drills. One example of a building block drill is called the “front to back”. While there are many building block drills, “front to back” is a drill that gives the player a solid foundation from which to build their skills, or improves a skill in a seasoned player.

      “Front to back” is an individual drill that could be worked on with many players at the same time, working down the court. Through this drill, the player will have the ball and work the ball with one hand. Coaches make sure the player keeps their body facing forward, head up and eyes looking forward. This drill teaches control of the ball without looking down, and allows the student to learn to look up and around and what’s going on in the game. Basically the player will push and dribble the ball forward while behind the ball, then pull and dribble the ball backward while in front of the ball. Keeping the ball low to the ground, the player’s arm motion should resemble that of a bowler with a bowling ball.

    Pressure Plays

    • Basketball camp activities can be fun while teaching the players to work well under pressure. For this goal, actual pressure play drills teach kids how to dribble and shoot and are great for any basketball camp. The participants should be divided into two groups, with one group placed on each of the baselines. Number the kids off along each baseline, and the kids should be standing across from their corresponding counterpart. For example, if there are a total of 20 kids, place 10 at each baseline and count them off one through 10 from left to right. This means, number four from each side will be standing in front of each other, on the opposite baseline. Two basketballs are set on half court.

      Randomly the coaches will call out a number. The participants will not know which number to expect. The two kids with the corresponding number will race to half court, pick up one of the balls and dribble back toward their baseline. The first one to make a shot, is the “winner”.

      Another more competitive way to run this drill is to place one basketball at half court. The kid who doesn’t get to the ball in time will work defense against the kid who is dribbling and shooting.

    Shooting Drills

    • During basketball camp, incorporate shooting drills. One shooting drill involves lining the kids up around the free throw lane. One at a time, the kids will shoot and if they miss the free throw they will get one point plus a point for every consecutive free throw made ahead of them. The “loser” is the one with the most points at the end of a round. The loser of each round will sit in the “loser’s circle,” wich is the center court circle. They will sit there for the next round of free throw drills.