subject: How to Practice Team proficient passing ? [print this page] How to Practice Team proficient passing ?
When young kids watch basketball, they love to focus on the scoring, the slam dunks, and the blocked shots. Passing often seems boring and lost in the shuffle. You must impress upon your young team the importance of passing. The following drills help improve your team's passing skills.
Target chest passes
The target chest passes drill focuses on enhancing kids' accuracy with their chest passes, which is important because the chest pass is the most common type of pass basketball players use.
What you need: One basketball for each two-person team
How it works: Divide the team into two-person groups and have each twosome stand about 15 feet apart. You can adjust the length based on your players' needs. A player in each pair begins with a ball.
1. The partner with the ball delivers a chest pass to her partner.
2. After several repetitions, evaluate whether the players are making accurate passes; if they are, have them take a step backward to increase the difficulty. Another fun option is to turn the drill into a competitive game. After the first round of passes, you can eliminate a pair if they made any off-target passes. Continue moving the kids farther away until only one pair is left.
Coaching pointers: Stress the importance of stepping toward the target when executing the chest pass, as well as following through toward the recipient's chest with the hands. Have the receiver show her hands to give a target where she would like to receive the ball.
Partner bounce
The partner bounce drill allows kids to practice delivering accurate bounce passes. A bounce pass can be more advantageous to use during certain game situations, such as when executing fast breaks or passing inside to a post player.
What you need: One basketball for each two-person team
How it works: Break up the team into pairs and scatter the pairs around the court. Have each pair begin with 10 feet between the partners and one ball.
1. On your whistle, the player with the ball steps forward and delivers a bounce pass to his partner.
2. Gradually, as the kids become comfortable delivering bounce passes from a short distance, move them back a couple steps.As with the previous chest passes drill, you can turn this into a challenging game by seeing which pair can move back the farthest while maintaining accuracy with their passes.
Coaching pointers: Make sure the bounce passes arrive at a good height (waist-level) for the young players to handle. Have the partners give the passers a target by showing their hands. If the passes come in too high or too low, you need to adjust the spot the youngsters are aiming at on the bounce.
