Chicken Dribbling Drill
The Chicken Dribbling Drill is a great drill for exposing players to the fundamentals of dribbling while also forcing the individual to focus on what is happening ahead of them. When players have progressed past the stage of stationary and isolated dribbling activities, the Chicken Dribbling Drill can be a very useful activity for then exposing players to multiple aspects to focus upon while performing a skill and at pace.
A warning about the Chicken Dribbling Drill. If a player is not concentrating then there can be a tendency for players (by accident or otherwise) to run into one another. It is suggested that when trying to implement the Chicken Dribbling Drill allow for a bigger gap between the players initially when they ate to perform their dribble. For example ask the players to perform their crossover dribble when they reach (or are inline) edge of the jump circle (or middle lane).
The Chicken Dribbling Drill starts by players partnering up. Initially it does not really matter who the players match-up with, but as they become more competent so they can go at pace it is goo to match players of like speed together.
Players face opposite each other on another on the sidelines of the basketball court.
Players start in stance ready to begin on coach’s instructions. Players should be looking to explode across the court as fast as possible. Junior players of course will be using the Chicken Dribbling Drill to practice more heavily on the dribbling technique. However as players achieve competence with a range of dribbling techniques and focus can be shifted towards blending both the fundamental performance of the skill with acceleration and speed.
Players dribble towards each other performing a dribble move on the split-line.
Players should be mindful of performing the desired dribble and then working back up to their full pace as soon as possible.
Because of the players running directly at one another the premise of the Chicken Dribbling Drill is that it will encourage players to create an ample change of direction and not perform the skill and continue to move forward, but also create significant movement from side to side.
Variations
One variation for the Chicken Dribbling Drill is to have players use two ball dribbling activities. This is very effective as a sports specific warm-up activity. Be mindful however that a large number of basketballs will be required so players can work in pairs instead of greater number of players being included into each group. One of the great points of the Chicken Dribbling Drill is that players gain multiple repetitions in a very short period of time.
Another variation that can be incorporated is to simply utilise a combination of moves and dribble sequences. An example of this might be to have players perform a hesitation dribble before linking this to a crossover dribble.
The Chicken Dribbling Drill is useful for introducing the fundamental dribbling techniques. This is best utilised with junior teams and only for the purposes of helping with a players technique before moving onto pressure and competitive dribbling drills to push a players development further.
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Coach Riches has been working within the sport, business and education industries for many years. During this time he has built an extensive number of formal and informal qualifications. A firm believer in training and development designed to help people reach their full potential, relevant o their needs and functional to their industry environment.
Great drill, I especially appreciate the emphasis on lateral movement while still allowing the player to perform a dribble of some sort, making the drill versatile yet constrained to a specific goal.
In the case of using a specific dribbling move, I think it would be best to apply it to all of the players to make the drill equally effective for all players on the same moves. This article https://ballamazingly.com/top-basketball-dribbling-drills/ mentions a few additional drills and goes over different dribbling moves.
Crossover dribbles and their variations (behind the back, through the legs) would likely work well with the chicken dribble drill, and I think this drill could perhaps be adjusted to include pullbacks (keeping the same structure of two players coming towards each other, except only one has a ball and they perform a hesitation at the midpoint, then switch roles by swapping the basketball.)