A fundamental basketball skill that should be mastered at a young age is to dribble the basketball with their head up. The two ball full court dribble is a simple drill to teach your players to dribble the basketball with their head up.
Two Ball Full Court Dribble Drill
The best drill I have used to teach young player's to dribble with their head up is the two ball full court dribbling drill. The only way a player can dribble the ball up the court and back while dribbling two balls is for them to dribble with their head up and use their finger tips "to feel" and control the ball. If they watch the ball, they will not be able to dribble the ball the full length of the court without loosing it.
Player Positioning
Line up four or five players on the baseline with each player having two balls. To start, have each player dribble two basketballs (one with each hand). It is easier if the player pushes both balls down at the same time and receives the dribble back at the same time. With both balls moving together, it eliminates the "pat the head and rub the tummy challenge." The mind is not trying to keep track of two completely independent events. With both balls moving up and down together, the player's mind is firing their identical motor neurons on both sides of their body simultaneously.
Drill
When the coach says, "go", each player starts walking and dribbling the basketball the full length of the court. When they reach the other baseline, the player turns around while still dribbling, and dribbles the length of the court back to the original position.
Space your coaches around the court with extra basketballs. The first few times players do the two ball full court dribbling drill, the balls will be going everywhere. When a player looses a ball, have the player stop and a coach throw them another ball. Let the player keep dribbling the rest of the length of the court.
Two recommendations for coaches: First, demonstrate the drill to your players. This drill can be challenging, even for adults who have played for years. Depending on the player's age, this drill will take several practices to develop the skill. Second, stay positive and keep encouraging your players to succeed. Complement them regularly on their improvement. Player will look to the coaches to gauge how frustrated they should be. If the coach is positive and encouraging, the player will get back to dribbling without a scene.
The two ball full court drill can be used with players at a very young age through high school to improve their dribbling skills. An assistant coach of mine used this with his second grade daughter's team a few years ago and now three members from that team are extremely proficient ball handlers, great passers, and get a lot of open shots. Why? Because they always have their heads up and know where the other nine players are on the court. This drill is used regularly by high school and AAU competitive teams (with the more advanced options below) to develop ball handling skills for their guards, wings, and inside players.
Key Fundamentals
To be a successful ball handler, a player must be able to dribble a basketball with the feel of their fingertips. If a player watches the ball when they are dribbling, then they are operating without two of their three offensives weapons. When your watching the ball, you cannot shot or pass ... You can only dribble. This makes the defenders job a lot easier.
When dribbling a basketball, the athlete should dribble with their fingertips. The fingertips have more nerve endings than any other part of your hand. A technique I have used to emphasize dribbling with your fingertips was to get cotton mittens with fingers and cut the top 1/2 inch off each finger and thumb (see picture). We would give these to each player at the beginning of the season and tell them to bring the fingertipless mittens to every practice. (I would usually keep an extra four or five pairs for myself to bring to practice for the players who forgot theirs).
In our practices, the first 30 minutes is devoted to all types of full court and half court dribbling, shooting, and passing fundamentals. During this portion of the practice, we have our players wear the mittens to get them use to "feeling" the ball and playing with their fingertips.
Advanced Options
The toughest challenge I have had with this drill is when I start a new season and I have some returning players that were proficient with the two ball full court dribble drill and others who have never attempted it. The players who are just starting to learn will get frustrated with loosing the ball while a few teammates quickly ran up and back. I first paired the new players with the experienced players, but this only led to more frustration. So I decided to raise the bar for the experienced players and implemented the advanced options below:
- After the players master walking and dribbling with two balls, have them increase their speed across the court. First have them slowly jog at 25% speed, then 50% speed, and finally, 75% speed.
- Dribble the lines. The player starts at the baseline and dribbles forward to the free throw line and then takes three dribbles backwards. Next they dribble to the half court line and then take three dribbles backwards. Then the far free throw line and three dribbles backwards. Finally they reach the other baseline, turn around while dribbling, and then dribble back stopping at the free throw line, half court line, and the far free throw line.
- Dribble on the 45 degree angle. Up till now the players have been dribbling in a straight line forward and backward, it is time to change it up a little. Instead of dribbling in a straight line to the other side, have them dribble at a 45 degree angle to the free throw line, then turn 90 degrees and dribble on a 45 degree angle to the half court line. Turn 90 degrees and dribble on a 45 degree angle to the far free throw line and then change direction and dribble to the far baseline.
Try this drill in your practice and leave me a comment on how it turned out.
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