Basketball – Offense-dribbling | Ten (10) Youth Ball Handling Drills

If you’re looking for a great set of ball handling drills for beginners or youth basketball players, go no further than the Maravich drills.

The Maravich drills are named after the legendary “Pistol” Pete Maravich. Maravich still holds the NCAA single season scoring record and the career scoring record while only playing three seasons. In addition to being a great scorer, anybody who watched him marveled at his ability to handle the basketball. He was truly a magician with the basketball. 
If you would like to be a great ball handler like Pistol Pete, the Maravich drill series is an essential foundation. 

This is a great stationary ball handling series that improves your feel for the ball while improving…
• Hand-Eye Coordination
• Hand Quickness
• Rhythm
• Hand, Wrist, and Finger Strength
With youth players, we’ll spend about 3 to 5 minutes with this at every practice until we build a solid foundatio 

Here is a list of the progressions mentioned in the video with approximate times: 
0:25 – Ball Slaps
0:43 – Finger Tips
1:00 – Ball Circles
1:26 – Ball Wraps – One Leg
1:42 – Figure 8 – No Dribble
1:57 – Front To Back Toss
2:11 – One Leg Dribble
2:29 – Figure 8 Dribble
2:52 – Figure 8 Dribble – 1 Hand
3:09 – Spider Dribble

Emphasis Tips:
• Use Finger Tips and Finger Pads / Keep Ball Off Your Palm – This helps with control of the basketball. Palming the ball makes it more difficult to control the ball.
• Athletic Stance – Emphasize that your players execute these ball handling drills from a stance that they can play the game from. Watch for excessive leaning over and unbalanced positions.
In addition to this, make sure to spend time dribbling on the move. You’ll also find as the players advance, that you can progress to more advanced drills and spend less time on stationary ball handling.