Make Ordinary Basketball Drills Fun
You want your players to practice hard, develop skills, and become better basketball players.
But you also want them to have fun. Unfortunately, skill development can be monotonous and NOT very enjoyable!
So what do you do?
You can make almost any ordinary basketball drill fun. Just use your imagination.
- Turn the drill into a game. Nothing says "FUN" like a game. You can turn a simple lay-up drill into a game by keeping track of missed shots. If you miss, you're out. The last player standing wins.
- Gimmicks. Tricks like offering points will make any drill enjoyable. Allow players to earn redeemable points for paying attention, properly executing a drill, helping out a teammate, or whatever you choose. Points can get players rewards that range from a Gatorade to fewer sprints.
- Take a few tips from your childhood. Remember your favorite childhood games like "Mother, May I", "Red Rover" and "Tag"? They're still being enjoyed by kids today and you can incorporate basic basketball skills into almost all of them to create fun basketball drills for your team.
- Add props. Using simple props like cones, chairs, mats, and other common items found in the gymnasium can take ordinary drills to a whole new level. Have players dribble through cones to improve their ball handling skills.
- Occasionally add competitive twists to your drills. We use the word "occasionally" because you shouldn't use competition too much. In fact, some young kids do not respond to competition and are DEMOTIVATED by it. But as long as you're careful, adding competition to your drills can be a great way to spice things up, make things fun, and keep players working hard.
As an example, you could establish teams for a shooting drill and reward the team or individual player that makes the most shots.
With a little imagination, you can come up with ways to make almost all your drills competitive. Just remember that comparisons between teammates can make some players feel badly about themselves and can spur rivalries between teammates. In short, it can squash a player's motivation. If you need to compare teammates, do so only to model a desired behavior or skill. For example, "Watch how Joe follows through with his free throw shot – try that next time you're at the line and see how it feels."...
Click here to read the rest of the article at HowToDoThings.com
Author: Jeff Haefner