Summer Basketball Skills

This idea for summer basketball skills was sent to me by Steve– Very creative with encouraging results.  Try this basketball drill with your young players!

From Steve…
Here’s my drill that arose from noticing that a harsh reality for our kids (5th and 6th grade boys) was that they had terrible “hands.”“  Despite some pinpoint passes from our point guards, many of our players (and usually our centers and forwards) were continually fumbling or completely missing the ball subsequently affecting the quality of shots we were taking.

I decided that they needed to learn how to “catch” a ball…

I brought a variety of balls to practice (plastic golf balls, tennis balls, a football, etc) and breaking them into small groups (3-4) I took them off to the side and simply played catch having them focus on seeing the ball into their hands.  I would start off small with the golf or tennis balls and progress from their.  The football was particularly effective in that it forced them to position their hands to catch a pass.

We’re early into this but we are seeing some encouraging results…