At the 3rd grade level, most kids are able to have a full 90 minute practice. So I have designed a 90 minute practice. If you are having trouble going a full 90 minutes then I would suggest cutting this down to around 75 minutes if that length of time is better. Practice is supposed to be for the improvement of the players and if you find the last 15 or 20 minutes counterproductive then eliminate that time. Overall, 75-90 minutes is a good time frame for 3rd grade.
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 are 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 should be focused on the skill development of each player. With that in mind here is a practice plan for 3rd 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 Runouts and Rebound
20-25 Minutes-Outlet Passing to 2 on 0 Offense
25-30 Minutes-Cone Ballhandling
30-35 Minutes-Cone Ballhandling
35-40 Minutes-Closeouts 1 on 1
40-45 Minutes-Closeouts 2 on 2 or 3 on 3
45-50 Minutes-Closeouts 4 on 4 or 5 on 5
50-55 Minutes-Dribble Pullups at Elbow and Baseline
55-60 Minutes-Change of Direction at Elbow and Baseline to Shot
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 3rd grade coach. The overall practice is about fundamentals but each segment of practice will have a primary focus. Some segments will also have a secondary focus as well. I will describe those in this breakdown.
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 them do a crossover before finishing the layup. At this age I would work on In-Out dribbles and crossovers. You could show them behind the back and between the leg dribbles but they might be too advance for most of the players.
15-25 Minutes-Outlet Passing to 2 on 0
Now on to passing. I am going to assume the team has access to the full court. In this drill 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 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.
25-35 Minutes-Cone Ballhandling
At this age the fundamentals are so key to player development. That is why now 35 minutes into practice everything has been dribbling or passing focused. I have not done anything with a defense yet. The players are running up and down the court with the key focus being dribbling and passing. I have had the players running so they should be ready for a little break.
Now I can put some cones out and have the players work on their ballhandling. Again I would be working on both the strong and the weak hand in dribbling. In-Out dribbles, crossovers, and between the legs are all good dribbles to be practicing right now in a more stationary environment.
35-50 Closeouts-Start 1 on 1 up to 5 on 5
Now at 35 minutes the practice includes defensive work. I would start with simple 1 on 1 closeouts. Have the defender roll the ball to the offensive player or have the coach pass the ball and then the defender would closeout to the offensive player. After checking to make sure it was a good closeout then the offense would have 3 dribbles to try and score. I would limit the dribbles so time is not wasted.
After going through everybody once or twice then I would do 2 on 2 or 3 on 3. You could take the 2 on 0 drill and incorporate some of those movements into this drill here. So if you are working on pick and rolls then you could go 2 on 2. Have the defenders closeout then have the 2 on offense run a pick and roll. I would then increase the number of players up to 4 on 4 or 5 on 5. Limit the number of dribbles or passes for the offense to shoot if need be to keep the practice moving along.
50-60 Minutes-Elbow and Baseline Pullups
I coach my teams to attack either the elbow or the short corner when driving the basketball. So, with this drill I am going to have the players dribble to those two spots and shoot. Start the players on the wing and have them dribble to the elbow and shoot. I would also make them dribble to the short corner and shoot as well. For a minor change I would have the players drive to the elbow then do a crossover before taking the shot. Again, I am focused on shooting as a primary result but adding in the crossover before shooting gives dribbling a secondary focus in this drill. I am working on the fundamentals as much as I can.
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
I have outlined a simple practice plan for 3rd grade basketball. While this is what I have listed, these drills and concepts can be changed if and when needed. Check out the drill tab above for all the different fundamental drills broken down by skill and grade level.
Even if changes are made there should still be a primary focus on the fundamentals of basketball. If the practices are focused more on running plays then learning the game, then changes should be made. The more skilled the players are, the better players they will become. Fundamentals are such a huge part of the game and need to have the vast majority of time devoted in practice to work on those skills.
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