How to Teach Young Children to Dribble a Basketball

Teaching How-to Dribble a Basketball

Stick with refining the basics with young children before getting too advanced. The basketball rules of traveling and double dribble are not important to young children. Children's psychological readiness for the rules of competition and the cooperativeness of team play is low until they reach the ages of 8-10. The way young children learn best is by doing, not standing around being overcoached.

Teaching Time: 5 Minutes

# of Steps: 3

Level of Instructional Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Ages Appropriate for: 4 years +

Step 1: ASSESS DRIBBLING SKILL

Young children will definitely vary in their skill levels and this is something that needs to be remembered.

1. Before you instruct them on what dribbling is, let them show you. I have had good success starting the assessment process by simply asking children, "What is dribbling?" As they demonstrate it stand back and assess how well they do at static dribbling. Identify a point of reference, for example the baseline, where they should try to keep their feet planted.
2. After, get players to move up and down the court.

   
   

Instructional Beginnings

Step 2: Backwards Dribbling

Teaching young children, I prefer to start in a way that teaches good form, body positioning, and challenges players of all skill levels without a lot of lengthy instruction. I start kids dribbling backwards before anything else. This is a little awkward at first but it is a valuable piece of the puzzle to helping kids dribble better.

Dribbling backwards helps player's:

• find balance

• move their feet out of the way to avoid dribbling the ball off of them

• naturally positions their head over the ball

• be less distracted and more able to concentrate on what they are doing

Step 3: Dribbling

Two types of basic dribbling techniques work for young children--Speed Dribble and the Control Dribble.

Control Dribble (Refer to picture above)

This is a complex skill for young children to learn. They need to learn it on different levels. What I like to do is break complex skills down into their simplest components and allow children to understand better. You can follow how I do it or make up your own way. Just remember a simple request like holding your arm flat out in front of you at a 90 degree angle as you walk can be difficult one for kids who only started walking a few years earlier.

Creating a strong arm out in front

1. Ask them, "Show me your muscles."
2. Ask them, "Can you create a strong arm out in front of you?" Tell them, "I am going to come around and check how strong your arm is." Humor them by saying, "No, noodle arms." Demo an arm that is floppy.

Dribbbling

1. Get them walking up the court with their strong arm up and out in front of them. Off hand should hold the basketball on their pocket.
2. Add dribble. Tell them, "Put the basketball on your pocket and hold up your strong arm." Once they are all in position, tell them, "Two feet on the baseline and dribble keeping your strong arm UP." Do not be afraid to stay with static dribbling until children exhibit confidence in what they are doing.
3. Once they are ready, get them moving up and down the court.  Encourage and praise the strong arm.  Assess less the dribble and more the strong arm component of the drill.  This is something that all kids can do and gives them, especially the weaker dribblers, the confidence to keep going.  

Speed Dribble

This is a less complex dribble that requires that you focus more on how young children control the basketball. Young children's ability to understand control depends a lot on how you explain it. When you discuss control with children you must try to avoid the adult frustrations that come with children getting out-of-control as they dribble. The following is how I discuss control and how I introduce the speed dribble.

Explaining Control

1. Ask, "Do race cars drive fast or slow?" Answer: Fast. "What happens if the race car driver doesn't steer the car?" Answer: He will crash.

Dribble

1. "The next dribble is called our speed dribble." Ask, "Do you think we will go fast or slow?" Answer: Fast. Ask, "What happens if we don't steer our basketball as we are dribbling?" Answer: We will crash.
2. Tell them, "Dribble as fast as you can up the floor but be careful not to do what?" Answer: Crash.
3. Get them dribbling up and down the floor. Control them by integrating stop's using a whistle or red light, green light game. Do not over-instruct the speed dribble skill with young children. They are naturally going to double dribble and travel when they are playing in a group. Just getting young children to learn how to dribble continuously is a big accomplishment.

Instructional Reminders

• Have patience. A few steps at a time. Children learn best by doing. Conversation is one way of "doing" kids can enjoy. Dribbling is not always easy. Work on it in increments and keep instruction light. Children can quickly get frustrated if they are not dribbling well.
• Use a hands off approach to teaching. Use easy phrases children can understand and remember. This way they can be empowered through self-direction and self-correction, and learn more because the instruction requires their focus and concentration.

• Inspire children with praise. Encouragement can allow you control you otherwise wouldn't have. Children live for praise. Positive feedback builds confidence, improves listening capacity, helps develop emotional maturity, and enables a child's ability to find value in self-improvement.

Good luck and enjoyable teaching.