By Joe Haefner

I know what you’re thinking, “Eliminate shooting drills from practice? Joe must have fell off his rocker again.” But please hear me out, because this could help the development of your youth team tremendously.

Do I think you should eliminate ALL shooting drills? Absolutely not.

Should you eliminate most? Yes! As a youth coach working with 5th graders and below (10 & 11 year olds and younger), you should NOT be spending 10 to 30 minutes on shooting every day.

Well, you’re probably thinking now… well why?!?

1. You need to develop ball skills first in order to be successful.If you can’t dribble, beat the press, or take care of the ball long enough to even take a shot, what good does shooting and everything else do you? Nothing is worse than trying to run offense and all you do is turn it over. You are better off shooting a 20 foot runner, that way at least you have a small chance of making a basket or even more likely one of your players getting an offensive rebound near the basket and put it back up for an easy make. If you turn it over, you have zero chance to make a basket and the other team probably gets an easy one in transition.
2. They pick up ball skills faster than they would pick up shooting at this age.If you watch players at games, practices, and camps, very few 3rd graders could shoot the ball as well as a 10th grader. However, if you watch them dribble the basketball, you will see a much higher percentage that can dribble the ball as proficiently as the older kids compared to shooting.

   That’s because younger players can improve their ball handling at a much faster pace than they can improve their shooting.

   As Bob Bigelow says, you should introduce the skills by gravity. Which means the skills that work with gravity would be the easiest and the ones that work against gravity would be the hardest. Since dribbling is completely with gravity and shooting is completely against gravity, it only makes sense that dribbling would be easier for younger kids to learn and progress.

   Now, let’s say you worked on ball skills when the kids were in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. By the time the players reach 6th grade, they’ll be very good ball handlers. Now, you can adjust your practice priorities. You won’t have to spend as much time on ball handling and you could now allocate more time to shooting, because the players are strong enough and coordinated enough to take the instruction needed to be a good shooter. They will also improve their shooting at a much faster pace.

Well, why is shooting harder to teach to younger players and what can you do?

When it comes to younger players 5th grade and below, they usually lack the coordination and strength to consistently shoot the ball properly at a goal.

My advice would be to include some strength and coordination exercises at the beginning of every practice. Great drills for total body strength and upper-to-lower body coordination include:

Crawling is great for strength and creating coordination between your upper and lower body. You can do bear crawls, crab crawls, and inchworms. You can do them forwards, backwards, side to side, and in a circle.

Lunges and squats are great for lower body strength, mobility, and coordination. No barbell is needed.

After you get the basics of lunging and squatting, you can add pushes to improve lower-to-upper body coordination which is required to become a good shooter.

For the pushing aspect, you can simply use a basketball.

Squat with Push – You squat down, have the ball at your chest, stand up and push the ball over your head.

Squat with Out of Sync Push – You squat down and push the ball above your head, stand up and bring the ball to your chest.

Coach, if I cut out most of my shooting drills then how am I going to score points!?

Well, right now your team is probably shooting around 10% to 20%. If you work on shooting with the younger kids every practice for 20 minutes, you might improve their shooting percentage by 2%. To score more points, you’d be much better off spending 2 minutes every practice emphasizing to your players to crash the offensive boards.

So what should youth coaches do for ball handling, passing, and shooting during practice?

• Depending on the length of your practice, spend 10 to 20 minutes on dribbling and ball handling drills and games.
• Incorporate athletic development, footwork, and passing into your practices.
• Spend 5 minutes every day shooting form away from the basket. Do wall shooting or line shooting. That way, they’re only concerned with their form and not whether the ball is going in the hole.Don’t get me wrong, you might spend 15 minutes the first couple of practices to teach some of the shooting basics, but after that your time would be much better spent on ball handling, footwork, and passing.

  Then each week, you can slowly progress them through shooting form where they eventually get to the point that they’re shooting at the basket within close range WITH PROPER FORM. Maybe you can even do some catch and shoot drills.

  Also, I recommend smaller balls and lower hoops so they can shoot consistently with good form and just aren’t chucking the ball at the hoops. In baseball, we progress kids from shorter pitching mounds, shorter base paths, and shorter fences for strength and coordination reasons. But for some reason in basketball, we don’t use that same logic.

Also, here is an article that could help you decide what you should work on:http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/teach-youth.html

Long-term planning for youth basketball

As a coach, it would help you tremendously to sit down and plan what skills you are going to focus on each year to help develop well-rounded players. By focusing on just a few things, this helps simplify your practices and helps you make big improvements in a few key areas. If you do this every year, then by the time they reach high school, they will be light years ahead of other players their age.

And of course, remember to include small-sided games and make things fun. That way, they’ll actually want to play when they’re older and won’t become one of the 80% that quit sports before the age of 13.

Youth Basketball Fundamental Movements are the basic tools needed to be a more effective and efficient player. Every aspect of basketball – (offense, defense, dribbling, passing, shooting, etc…) requires certain fundamental movements. I have given you several drills to work on these movements.

By working on these youth basketball fundamental movements…

Players will learn how to move more effectively and efficiently on the basketball court. They will reduce the amount of wasted motion and will improve their balance and quickness.Parents will have a better understanding of the fundamental movements needed by their child to improve their basketball skills. They will be in a better position to help their child succeed at the game.

Coaches will be able to teach their players how to move more quickly and efficiently, while reducing wasted movements and energy. They will show their players how to control their bodies and how to move with a purpose.

If you’re still not convinced how important it is to work on the youth basketball fundamental movements, check out what NBA legend Larry Bird thinks!

“First master the fundamentals.” - Larry Bird

Basketball Fundamental Movement Drills

Drill Pointers:

• Each drill is done to the opposite baseline, and then back.
• The players should always start the drill in a basic position and be ready to move on the coach’s command.
• Players should keep proper floor spacing between the four lines and the players in their group.
• The players should begin either on the coach’s command or when the player in front of them reaches the free throw line.
• Each group performs the drills to the opposite baseline, regroups and waits for the coach’s command.

1. Stance Check

Goal - To practice getting into and maintaining a basic stance.

Equipment - Basketball court, half-court.

Action - Players spread out on the basketball court. They get into and maintain a basic stance. The coach or a partner checks for proper stance.

2. Line Starts, Steps, Stops

Goal - To practice starting, pivoting and stopping.

Equipment - Basketball court, full-court.

Action - Players divide into four groups and form four lines behind one of the baselines. The coach stands at midcourt facing the players. The coach calls out one of the following moves for the players to perform.

Moves:

• Stutter-step – Players start from the baseline and go down court with their hands up, and making their shoes squeak.
• Change of pace – Players will alternate two to three slow and fast moves after making a quick start. Players should use a variety of steps and be quick.
• Pivots – Players will run down the court and perform front and rear pivots at the free throw line, midcourt line and opposite free throw line, simulating a game situation.
• Quick stops – Players will run down the court and perform quick stops at the free throw line, midcourt line and opposite free throw line.
• Stride stops – Players will work on forward and reverse movements. Players will run to the free throw line, stop, reverse and run back to the baseline.This is repeated down the court in the following manner- baseline to half-court line and back to the free throw line, free throw line to opposite free throw line and back to half-court line, half-court line to opposite baseline back to opposite free-throw line and finish up to the opposite baseline.
• Spacing jog – The first four players jog down the court at their own pace. The next player in line starts when the player is 15 feet down court. The players must work on maintaining this spacing. To make this drill more challenging, have the players perform various change of pace and start and stop moves.

More Drills for Youth Basketball Fundamental Movements

3. Line Quick Jumps

Goal - To practice basic jumping skills needed for shooting and rebounding.

Equipment - Basketball court, full court or half court.

Action - Players divide into four groups and form four lines behind one of the baselines. The coach stands at midcourt facing the players. The first player in each line sprints to the free throw line, performs a quick stop and then performs five quick jumps in place. They repeat this process at the half-court line and opposite free throw line.

4. Jump Ball Tipping

Goal - To practice the jumping skills needed for the jump ball situation.

Equipment - A basketball and the jump circles on the court.

Action - Players will practice their basic jumping techniques with a partner at one of the jump circles on the court. The coach or another player will throw the ball up for the jump ball.