Youth Basketball Drills - Start with Dribbling

Another very important thing that we need to take a look at is youth basketball drills. Sure dad or mom or maybe coach, you want your child to be able to learn to play this great game but where do you start? Well, in my opinion the best place for young kids to start is learning how to dribble and be comfortable do so. I recall in my experience working with the kids on my son's Biddy Ball or pee wee type of leagues that the children on my team all struggled in being able to dribble the ball well for the most part. Parents, I would suggest to you that you go outside with your child and have them be sure to have a smaller youth size basketball and start dribbling the ball in place with one hand. I remember I did this with my own son. I had him dribble in place with one hand and see how many times he could do it with out messing up. Our goal soon became to get to 100 dribbles without messing up but you may start with a lower number to begin with and work your way up together. Important notes here are to try and have your child to not look down at the ball while they are dribbling if possible. You want the young player you are working with to be able to dribble the ball comfortably and not looking down at the ball during actual game play will be a vital skill to the player as he or she progresses forward. Make sure that the child is not slapping the ball while they dribble. The player should dribble the ball with a smooth motion with their hand curved and not out flat. This is very important. I saw many kids I worked with that would look down at the ball and slap at it while they were dribbling. That is NOT what you want them to do. Show them the right way to begin with and they will not have bad habits that will have to be broken later on. I highly recommend that you and your player or players take the time to watch Pistol Pete's video below on how to dribble the ball properly and then all kinds of awesome drills that go along with it.