Dribbling Drills

I sometimes use dribbling drills from my basketball days as novel praxis tasks for my kiddos. Here are some examples. These can improve hand skills, ball manipulation skills, coordination, and ability to adapt to a new task. Using an actual basketball can be too large and difficult for the kids, so a kickball (which also has more bounce) can be beneficial. A tennis ball can be used for some of the initial drills but it is very difficult.

I've tried to list these in a rough order of difficulty, but that's based on my opinion.

circles- Not actually dribbling, but rotating the ball around your waist and switching hands as you go around. As you get good, you can go faster and also start incorporating circles around your head and knees.
basic dribbling- just learning to dribble is a task for many kids. When you can do 5 dribbles in a row, then you can try to advance the difficulty by trying to use only one hand and staying in one area. You can put a tape circle on the floor and try to get the child to keep the ball within that circle, or have them sit on a chair and try to maintain the dribble.
alternating hands- being able to dribble sort of in a "V" in front of you using each hand once. This switching of hands is very difficult for many kids.
dribble around obstacles- by setting up cones, chairs, or even a jumprope on the floor in a pattern, you can have the child negotiate obstacles while dribbling.
kills- start by bouncing the ball up at your waist or a normal height. Then you bring the ball as low as possible while still bouncing the ball. After a few dribbles in the low position, bring it back up to waist height.
push/pull or V-dribble- with one hand only, bring the ball to the left and right in front of you. You have to actually move your hand to the opposite side of the ball to make this work. Once you get this going you can do forward/backward pushes on the side in addition to the left/right in front of you.
between the legs- for teaching this, it's best to have one leg significantly in front of the other, more of a narrow but long base of support. Then you dribble with alternating hands as close to directly underneath you as possible.
figure 8's- dribble around your leg using one hand and use that hand to push the ball from behind you between your legs to the front. Now switch hands and go in the opposite direction. To increase the difficulty, try to do very small dribbles. Then you can do a countdown- only allowed 5 dribbles before going between the legs and progressing down to 1 or 0!
rhythm- this is a complicated pattern and I cannot find a video. (I'd make one myself but I currently look more like I am hiding a basketball under my shirt than a basketball player- also I can't do it very quickly). Start with the ball in front of you in your left hand. Bring it quickly to your right side with a slap. Now using right hand only, bring the ball around your right leg and connect with your left hand underneath your center. Let the ball bounce once and switch your right hand to the front and your left hand to the back to catch the ball. Now take the ball in your left hand around your left leg and start the process over.
spider- with your legs spread horizontally, tap the ball with your fingertips, alternating hands. First you will do left and right hands in front of your body and then reach around to do left and right behind you. Try to keep the ball right under your center.
blindfolded dribble- any kind of dribbling activity blindfolded will be a challenge, even just sitting on a chair while dribbling.
double dribble- use 2 balls and try to dribble both. You can try to alternate having one up while the other is down or try to do push/pulls with both hands.

The wonders of the internet bring you an entire playlist of dribbling drills on youtube. Not all of these are going by the same names as I have listed above but it's still a good resource.

Accomplish all of these and you can be the next Pistol Pete! The kids I have been working with recently are a little too young or lacking in basic ball skills to pull off any of these drills, but hopefully this list will be helpful to you! Remember that you can always work on passing, bouncing off the wall, and passing while on a swing or wobble board for additional challenges.