I am coaching a basketball team of 3-5 year olds. Any advice on what "drills" I can teach them to help understand the rules of the game and basic skills while not boring them?

thoughts & prayers sent

don't talk more than 20 seconds

do games to disguise drills

At this age, it's all about touches so don't bother trying to teach them anything. Have them all bring a ball and just let them get as many dribbles and shots as possible.

there are lots of websites to give you ideas for games for dribblling skills but you'll quickly find out what works and what doesn't

master the art of team defense. i would practice taking charges for at least half of every practice.

i am coaching 6 year olds right now..... all i can say is, may the Lord be with you!

Please keep us updated on this!

Focus on back door cuts and dribble penetration. Also, great weak side defense is a must at that level.

Use blind screens. The little guys seem to never figure that out.

wow, can 3 year olds even talk past momma and dadda?

T&P dude

First practice was friday. It went amazingly well. . . awful!
1. 10 kids showed up
2. About half of them cried at least once during our 40 minute practice.
3. We practiced trying to bounce the ball 3 times in a row. Only one kid could do that.
4. We had 2 shoot-arounds and this caused more injury (see 2) than confidence building.

However, the highlight of the night was when I was approached by a dipstick dad halfway through practice.

Dipstick: "Coach"
Note: It's a team of 3-5 year olds, I am babysitting not coaching. But, whatever.
Me: "Yes, sir."
Dipstick: "Are you going to run lay-up drills?"
Me: "Ha,ha" (uncomfortably while wondering if he was serious)

Dipstick's eye contact confirmed two things. He was serious and he is a dipstick.

Next week, breaking the full court press and seeking emancipation from your *****y parent.

Look, if you aren't teaching these kids how to push the offensive player towards the help defense, you've failed. You need to teach these kids the pick and roll.

But seriously, the biggest travesty that occurs when kids are little is forcing the people who are a few inches taller than everybody else to stand under the basket and never teach them any ball handling...I can't count how many people I know that were taller than everyone else growing up and never learned how to dribble b/c they were big for their age and just got shoved under the basket and nobody bothered to teach them ball handling skills

so can any of them dunk?

Teach them how to fake an injury

when i coached my daughter's 1st and 2nd grade team, we did the 3 man weave and set a pick at the top of the key. Unstoppable

It seems to help if the kids have older siblings where they have picked up some basic knowledge

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But seriously, the biggest travesty that occurs when kids are little is forcing the people who are a few inches taller than everybody else to stand under the basket and never teach them any ball handling...I can't count how many people I know that were taller than everyone else growing up and never learned how to dribble b/c they were big for their age and just got shoved under the basket and nobody bothered to teach them ball handling skills

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I am a 5'6" center, because I grew too soon.

But yea at that age I would just play a bunch of basketball related games. How many times can you bounce the ball? Try to bounce pass this ball through a big hoop.

Can 3 yr olds even walk? I honestly don't know

Three year olds can walk. But some of them still crap in their pants on regular basis.

Coaching has to be a nightmare. I seriously wonder why they even have a league for kids that age. You'd think something unstructured where they play hoops, soccer, dodgeball, etc and mix things up each week would be more apropriate.

I guess I would practice dribbling a little bit. And maybe passing the ball to each other from about six feet. And yes, I would let them practice "layups". But it would be just shooting set shots from two feet away.

I am coaching 1st graders (6-7). We have one kid that cant dribble....cant bounce the ball and catch it.....one that can dribble at close to full speed and do a proper layup coming of of one foot...... and everything in between.

I officiated College Station pee wee league hoops during college. Great times. I mean it. Best stress relief ever.