4th graders are in a transitionary phase. The kids are about 9 to 10 years old. They are transitioning from a young kid into a pre-teen. Their attention spans are increasing as well as their ability to control their body movement. As far as basketball, the kids are able to move better as well as starting to gain enough strength to be able to shoot using proper form from all over the court. Having these couple things in mind the practice plan for basketball is starting to evolve as well. Fundamentals are still the most important part of practice but the ability to make practices more competitive can begin. Competition should start to increase within the practice to make better skill development among the players.
I am of the belief that “Biddy” basketball or pre-Junior High basketball should be focused on player development. Winning and losing should not matter to anybody at these ages. The work I detail in this practice plan speaks to that mindset. The fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting and defense are covered throughout the practice and only after those fundamentals is team concepts introduced. The running of plays should be very limited at this age. I would recommend one motion offense and maybe 2 quick hitters is all that should be taught. The majority of the time in practice should be focused on the skill development of each player. With that in mind here is a practice plan for 4th grade basketball.
*Note-These plans and drills can be used for younger and older players.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
5-10 Minutes-Dribbling
10-15 Minutes-Change of Direction Dribbling
15-20 Minutes-Outlet Passing to 2 on 0 Offense
20-25 Minutes-Cone Ballhandling
25-30 Minutes-Cone Ballhandling
30-35 Minutes-Closeouts 1 on 1
35-40 Minutes-Closeouts 2 on 2 up to 5 on 5
40-45 Minutes-Offense vs Defense-2 or 3 or 4 players
45-50 Minutes-Offense vs Defense-Focus on 1 defensive skill during this segment
50-55 Minutes-Top Penetration Kickouts
55-60 Minutes-Wing Penetration Kickouts
60-65 Minutes-Shooting off Cuts
65-70 Minutes-Trail-Tight; Over-Under; Under Up; In-Flair
70-75 Minutes-Team Offense-General Motion Offense
75-80 Minutes-Team Offense-General Motion Offense
80-85 Minutes-Scrimmage 5 on 5
85-90 Minutes-Scrimmage 5 on 5
I am going to breakdown each segment a little more and outlined what I would be looking to accomplish as a 4th grade coach. Each segment is designed to cover a primary fundamental and usually 2 or 3 other skills will be worked on as well.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
This first segment is to get the players moving and loosened up for the rest of practice. Full Court Layups or some type of full court dribbling would be best. That would get all the players running up and down with a ball in their hands to start practice.
5-15 Minutes-Dribbling-Change of Direction
After the warmup, then I would have the players start working on dribbling. Start a half court layup line but make each player make a change of direction dribble halfway towards the layup. So start the line on the wing. Have a player dribble into 10 feet then make player do a crossover before finishing the layup. At this age I would work on crossovers, behind the back and between the leg dribbles. The players may not be able to do the dribbles well but they can start to work on them and should continue to get better as the season goes on.
15-20 Minutes-Outlet Passing to 2 on 0
I am going to assume the team has access to the full court. In this start with a simulated rebound and outlet pass. Once the rebounder throws the outlet pass then have them follow the ball handler down to the other end of the court. Once both players get down there then run a 2 man game. This could be pass and shot. A give and go. Pick and Roll. Pick and Pop. Drive and Kick. Basically create a 2 man game to work on playing together. The type of 2 man game should differ with the team personal.
20-30 Minutes-Cone Ballhandling
One of my favorite cone drills is setting up cones in a diamond formation. One cone at the top of the key, start ahead of the basket at the 3 point line. One cone on each elbow. Finally one cone right in the middle of the lane. The players start halfway between the 3 point line and halfcourt. They dribble to the first cone at the 3 point line and do a change of direction dribble. Once they do for instance a crossover dribble then they move towards a cone at the elbow. The player performs another change of direction dribble. Finally they move to the cone in the middle of the lane and perform a final change of direction dribble followed by a layup. This drill takes up little space and practices 3 change of direction dribbles each time the player goes through the drill as well as a layup.
30-40 Closeouts
The difference between good defensive teams and bad defensive teams is the ability to guard the basketball 1 on 1. So have the players closeout and play a possession of 1 on 1. Limit the amount of dribbles the offensive player can have. Limit the amount of space the offensive player can use. Handicap the offense to help the defensive player try and get better at guarding their man. Once the players closeout and defend 1 on 1 then increase the drill to 2 on 2 up to 5 on 5. One practice work on 1 on 1 and 3 on 3. Next practice work on 1 on 1 and 4 on 4. Keep switching up the number each practice. But I would always start with 1 on 1 since being able to defend 1 on 1 makes a team really good on defense.
40-50 Minutes-Offense vs Defense
I would go from Closeouts to a certain defensive skill. This could be defending the pick and roll. This could be working on getting through an off ball screen. It could be backside help and recover. I would limit the drill to 2, 3 or 4 offensive and defensive players. Usually only 2 or 3. That way you can really limit the drill and put all the focus on whatever defensive skill you as a coach are wanting to work on. Start the drill with whatever skill you want to work on and then let the players finish the drill by playing out the possession. This creates a competition aspect during the practice.
50-60 Minutes- Shooting from a Kickout Pass
One of the best shots a team can get is from a kickout pass off of a dribble drive. I usually never go more than 2 days without working on this kind of shot. For a team that is trying to use any type of dribble drive motion, these shots are going to come often.
I will practice both wing drives and top of the key drives to ensure the players are comfortable shooting from passes off of either drive. I like to practice these kickout shots because if the offense is working then these are the shots the players are going to get in games.
In a top penetration kickout, the player is going to dribble and attack the elbow. The shooter is going to start on the wing. When the ball gets to the elbow the shooter is going to relocate. Depending on the defense this movement could be towards the corner or up towards the top of the key.
In a wing penetration, the dribble will attack either the elbow or the short corner. On the elbow drive, the shooter on the opposite wing will move either up or down the wing depending on the defense. On the short corner drive, the shooter wing will either go to the top of the key or the all the way down in the corner.
The driver will attack the elbow or short corner, wait for the shooter to start moving and then make a good pass out to the shooter. The shooter will catch the pass and shoot. Very rarely does a player shot from a stationary position so this relocation helps to simulate good game situations.
60-70 Shooting off Cuts
There are four cuts that can be made off of a non-ball screen. I would have two lines. One line would be passing the ball and the other would be shooting. Again I am working on multiple fundamentals here. I am having the players working on passing and shooting in this drill. You can go to this page for a much in depth description of the four cuts.
70-80 Minutes-Team Offense-General Motion Offense
I put very little value in team concepts with players this young. The offense a team runs should morph depending on the type of players the team has. I have seen too many “centers” in 3rd game get plopped down on the block in 3rd grade because they are a head taller than everybody else. Then the tall 3rd grader has to be a guard in high school because they are one of the shortest players. If that kid has been a post player and never developed ball handling then they struggle at the high school level. So I limit the team concepts at this age. I would have a simple motion offense that I would work on here in the last ten minutes. I would start installing the offense without any defense.
80-90 Scrimmage
Finally the last 10 minutes would be to run the offense against some defense. I would run a 5 on 5 scrimmage to finish the practice. You could spend this time working on the offense against a defense. You could also spend this 10 minute segment working on situations. Situational awareness is terrible and going through situations in practice can help basketball iq. I watched two different teams this past weekend down 3 with under 15 seconds left and not get a shot off. So create situations and have the players play it out. For instance down 2 with 10 seconds left. Down 2 with 5 seconds left. This will force the players to think about the game rather than just playing the game.
Conclusion
If you are following this practice plan then keep substituting different drills every practice to keep the players engaged and trying new things. Please remember that basketball is a game and meant to be played to have fun. As a coach you should have a focus on keeping the game of basketball as a fun activity. I am doing this practice plan to hopefully help all of you coaches out there who may not know what to do. I hope this practice plan can help you as a coach and help your players get better at the game of basketball and learn to love the game as much as I do.