go for head coach next year, I could help you come up with some really fun practice plans for third grade boys.
MIcat, this wasn't offered to me, but I would take you up on it if you're willing. I helped with 5-6th grade this year and concluded that I wanted to do 3-4th next year to focus on teaching lay-ups, ball handling, rebounding (at least going after the ball), footwork (pivots and jump stops) and maybe some defensive stance/shuffle.
Are those the things to teach? If not, what should it be? If so, how do you teach those things while keeping their attention?
OK, here you go. With everything, see what works for your team - some will respond to some things but not others. Learn from it and adjust. Don't be afraid to bail on something that doesn't click initially in practice and always have a game or activity in your back pocket to get things back on track. In general, 5-10 minutes is the max you can do one activity/drill before they get bored/tired.
In general, be positive. Let them know turning the ball over or making a bad pass is OK. Just getting a shot up in a game is a win. Give every player freedom to handle the ball and shoot in a game, whether or not they’re successful. Every player should play equally if they have good attitudes. The focus should be on having fun. Expect and embrace chaos. Ask yourself how every activity in practice would translate into a game. If you aren’t sure, don’t bother with it and try to find something that does. So, here's how I'd approach the things you want to work on:
Footwork/pivots/jump stops: I wouldn’t spend much time on this, but probably the first thing I would do at the first practice would be silent red light/green light with a dribble: instead of yelling “red light”, make your back facing them be green light and your front facing them be red light. On red lights, have them do a jump stop and pivot in a circle. This is great way to teach kids who have never played basketball to understand the concept of a pivot foot/travelling and work on jump stops. It forces them to keep their head up while dribbling as well. Once they get it (ideally after 2-3 practices), you probably won’t need to do this again
In general, however, I don’t like a lot of pivoting/triple threat because I want kids to move more quickly. I do this mostly to get the kids to understand the rule.
Lay-ups: I would do my best to split the team into two hoops for most of these, ideally split by ability: any more than 5 at a basket leads to too much standing around. Assuming they’ve never done a layup before, start with a one step, no dribble layup to get used to the initial footwork. If you have a more advanced group, they can start dribbling from the elbow or wing with a dribble. I wouldn’t spend too much time on this
Once they get the initial idea (or even before that) try to incorporate chasing defenders. Here’s one good version:
vary the cone spacing to give the offense more or less of an advantage depending on the ability of group and what you want to emphasize. Kids can do this! They might not score but it will help them get the feel for the game.
Another version is full court chaser layups - have one player start underneath a basket out of bounds and another is at a good outlet position - about free throw line extended or further up the court. P1 throws the ball to P2, then P2 is offense and P1 is defense. Offense goes to score as quickly as possible, P1 tries to catch up and stop them. (this is also a ball handling drill - it forces them to dribble quickly with the threat of pressure). You can half start at each basket and have two groups go at once. Switch sides and force them to use their off hand, but don't worry about whether or not they score with the proper hand
In general, don’t focus on form IMO. Just let them learn how to beat a defender and score. They will figure out ways that work for them, and give them the freedom to try new ways to score. Like what’s wrong with shooting a right-handed layup off the right foot? Coaches obsess over this and it isn’t necessary IMO.
Ball handling/defensive slides: IMO the best thing for both of these is 1v1 full court. Don’t bother with defensive slides. In 1v1 full court, I have the defense start at the back court free throw line and the offense on the base line. As soon as the offense moves, the defense tries to steal the ball, and if they can’t, make the offense change direction as much as possible. They’ll figure out how to play on the ball defense from this, but also learn how to dribble while being defended and eventually learn to score out of it. You can progress to 1v2 (2 defenders) for more of a challenge on offense and to create 2v1 fast breaks if they create turnovers. There are also more competitive versions where the defender must get a stop or they keep defending (but probably better for older kids). Don’t waste your time with “zig zag” drills or traditional defensive slides.
More ball handling:I use a game called “Mad trucker” that is basically freeze tag: keep all the players inside the three point line. Everyone has a ball and has to dribble, except fo a “mad trucker”, who is “it”. Once the mad trucker is loose, he/she can either tag the player or tap the ball away (depending on ability) to give the tagged player a “flat tire” who holds the ball above their head. (I usually do tapping the ball away, but tagging leads to faster movement from dribblers). Tagged players can be freed if another player rolls a ball between their legs. This emphasizes dribbling with your head up, dribbling in random directions (like you need to do during a game, and finding/communicating with teammates. I’ve also added two mad truckers to emphasize trapping or increased or decreased the playing space depending on what I wanted to emphasize and how many players you have. This is great for having every player active and improving skills.
Most people know sharks and minnows as a soccer drill but it also works great as a basketball drill.
I’ve still had sixth graders request this drill and I honestly think it would be useful up to high school. Again, you can either have them tag the player to become a shark or have them tap the ball away, depending on ability and the spacing on the court.
I like 1v1 moves and encouraging them to try new things: you’d be amazed at how quickly third graders can learn to dribble behind the back or between their legs. Just have them try and let them know if it’s OK if they aren’t successful initially (and encourage them to attempt them in games). A good way to start with one on one moves is to scatter a ton of cones randomly around the court and have them all make the move you’re introducing from cone to cone for a minute or two. Finish the sequence with a competition to see who can pick up the most cones while dribbling.
Ideally in the same practice, you could do a full-court layup drill with a coach providing token defense at each wing - have them make that move on the coach before going to the basket and scoring. With the full court and kids running down each half of the court, there shouldn't be much standing around.
Follow the leader would also be good for this age - have the coach start randomly changing direction and doing different moves, high dribbles, low dribbles, spins, etc. get silly with it, then let the kids lead. Have the leader finish with a layup on a random goal and go to the next player in line.
Rebounding/getting the ball: This is really something that I wasn’t prepared for: going after the ball is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced. So many kids just stare at loose balls and missed shots. It’s good you’re thinking of it.
My favorite way to work on this is a “numbers game”, (something like this:
), where you divide the players into two teams and give every player a unique number. Yell two numbers, roll out or bounce the ball, and have the numbers you call go fight for the ball and score. Play until defense gets the ball back. Make it fast, vary the matchups and numbers - you can create 2v1 or 2v2 situations with this as well.
Another way is to use a 3v3 scrimmage where a basket counts as two points but offensive rebounds count as two. You probably need pretty competitive kids to make this version work, but it works great if they do.
Other must-dos:
Small scrimmages: You should do some of this in every single practice. This video does a good job illustrating why:
tweak the rules depending on what you want to work on; no-dribble scrimmages emphasize moving away from the wall and passing, you can force them to start on a pick and roll, make it a turnover if they aren’t attacking the basket, etc. It’s also a great way to teach man-to-man defense, particularly remembering who you’re guarding, which is a problem for kids this age.
Transition/fast breaks: My favorite is Army Transition: one team of 2 or 3 (offense) is on the backcourt baseline and one team (defense) is on the backcourt free throw line with each player facing the player on offense they are guarding. Coach throws the ball to a player on offense who starts the fast break. The defensive player facing them has to sprint to the baseline before going to play defense - the rest of the defense starts defending immediately.This creates a realistic 2v1 (or 3v2) because an extra defender is coming like they would in a game.
Another I’ve come across to change it up is “skip the middle” (I’m not entirely sure why it’s called this, but whatevs). Start with three players under the backcourt basket. Ball with middle player. He passes it to one of the wings as they start running, wing passes it back to the center, who passes it to the other wing. The wings are now on offense and the center player is on defense in a full court 2v1. Limit the offense to one or two passes and encourage them to score without passing.
So here is a theoretical 1 hour practice, assuming you have 8-10 players
0:00-0:05 - shoot around/hang out
0:05-0:10 - silent red light green light with jump stop and pivot
0:10-0:15 - split into two baskets, basic layups (more advanced players could do it chaser style w/o the chaser)
0:15-0:20 - chaser layups (at two baskets there should be zero standing around)
0:20-0:23 - drink
0:23-0:30 - 1v1 full court (make sure you keep them moving, you can have 2 or 3 pairs going at once)
0:30-0:45 - 3v3 or 2v2 (depending on numbers, you can also do something like 3v3 with 3 teams and having a new team come on at each possession change); split into two courts if the numbers work
0:45-0:52 - Army Transition (this is an opportunity for them to stand around so be careful/keep them moving but generally you can get 2 groups and there's not much standing around)
0:52-1:00 - normal full court scrimmage
At later practices, you can work in things like numbers game, sharks and minnows, mad trucker, etc. Most of these can be tweaked to emphasize weak spots you discover in games. Have fun!
