Basketball Sample Lesson Plan

Warm-Up

Pike Tag= Class spreads out and sits on the gym floor in a pike position; Choose one person to be the tagger and one person to be the person being chased by the tagger; To “escape” or be “saved” from getting tagged, the person getting tagged must leap over someone in a pike position on the floor and sit in a pretzel; The person that was leaped over becomes the tagger and the original tagger becomes the person being chased; You cannot leap over someone in a pretzel; If the tagger tags the person being chased the roles switch mid-run between the two players; The game continues until there is no one else is in the pike position.

Basic Stretches= arms, wrists, ankles, shoulders, legs

 

Starter Exercise

Discuss basic dribbling concepts and teaching cues: keep head up, ball protected by body, dribble no higher than waist, use arms to push ball and wrist flick to give direction and extra force, keep dribble to the side of your body to avoid feet and/or other body parts. When moving (running) with the ball push the ball in front of you as you dribble so as you run you catch up to it (as dribbling in soccer)

 

Stationary Dribbles: (about 30 seconds each)

1.       Get with a partner and have one ball between you. Start with one person dribbling with dominant hand, then proceed to nondominant hand, and then switch and have your partner do the same. Next work on crossover dribbles (using your wrist to guide the ball and watch for carries), and then hand the ball to your partner to do the same.

2.       Pacing your dribble.  Still in partners, dribble with a changing pace. This is one way to protect the ball because a defender can time your dribble and easy steal the ball away from you.  Have the partner do the same.  Next try movement one step back, forth, right, and/or left while attempting different paces and then let your partner do the same.

 

Traveling Dribbles:

1.       Have class stand in a confined area with everyone dribbling a ball with some sort of traveling pace (walking, running, jogging, shuffling) for about 30 seconds. Then add in one defender so the students have to protect the ball as they dribble and move.  The defender is to push the ball out of bounds or steal it completely.  If a player’s ball is stolen from them or pushed out of bounds the must get it and return to the area and start dribbling again. This exercise is working on ball control.

2.       Have class split into equal groups and assign each a spot on the court. The ball starts at person one and that player must dribble to person two (who dribbles to three and so on).  Once it gets to the last person in the group, that player must dribble all the way to the first person’s starting point.  There may be obstacles like cones to go around or poly spots to hit as you dribble.  Next you can make it a relay race if the class is ready (if travelling or carrying occurs that person has to go back to where they started from and start over).  This exercise works on a high level on ball control and speed.