Basketball Dribbling Activities

Summary

These are fun activities to reinforce the basketball dribbling cues.

Materials

One basketball per student, beanbags, poly spots, gym, lively music and a CD/tape player.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The students will demonstrate competency in applying dribbling cues while participating in various basketball dribbling activities.

Instructional Procedures

Organization: Review the dribbling cues:

• Finger Pads
• Big Hands
• Yo-yo Wrist
• Waist High
• Eyes Look Up

Activities:

1. "Basketball Frenzy": Scatter the basketballs on the gym floor and have the students stand next to a basketball. On the "go" signal, each student will pick up a basketball and dribble it two times, leave it, move to another ball and dribble it two times. The object is to keep all of the basketballs moving until the stop signal. To add a challenge, the teacher can point to a stationary basketball and start counting out loud. If he/she counts to three before a student dribbles the ball, the teacher gets a point. If the teacher scores three points by the end of the time period, the teacher wins that round. When they have become comfortable with dribbling, add the following:
   • Dribble three times and move to another ball.
   • Dribble with the non-dominant hand.
   • Do cross-over dribbles.
   • Do patterns: one dribble, two dribbles, three dribbles then back to one dribble, then two, then three, etc.
2. "Partner Dribble": Partners hold inside hands or each hold onto the ends of a short strap. On the "go" signal, (when the music starts), partner #1 dribbles the ball with the outside hand while partner #2 tries to touch it. Inside hands must stay connected. After 20 to 30 seconds, stop the music and switch ball handlers. Start the music for the next round of play.
3. "Basketball Pass and Dribble": On the "go" signal, the partners begin passing the ball back and forth. When the music starts, the player with the basketball begins to dribble it in a small space while the partner tries to steal it. If the ball is stolen, the players reverse roles until the music stops. When the music stops, they go back to passing the ball to each other.
4. "Dribble Keep-away": Give each partner a basketball. Both players dribble at the same time while trying to knock the basketball away from their partner. Players must keep dribbling at all times.
5. "Beanbag Toss": Distribute a beanbag to each student. While dribbling the basketball, toss a beanbag from right hand to left hand. Now dribble with the dominant hand while tossing and catching with the non-dominant hand, then switch to dribbling with non-dominant and tossing and catching with the dominant hand. This time partners face each other and toss one beanbag back and forth while continuing to dribble.
6. "Hot Spot Dribbling": Scatter 30 or more poly spots on the gym floor. Make teams of four to six players and line them up in relay style facing the poly spots. On the "go" signal, the first person in line will dribble to any poly spot and while dribbling the basketball, will pick up the spot, bring it back to their team and hand the ball to the next person in line. This continues until all of the poly spots are gone. The team with the most spots collected wins that round.
   
   

   Bibliography

   Adapted from PE Central and "Great Activities Newspaper"