Teaching a chest pass is one of the first basketball drills for kids to be taught from about 5 years old and beyond. From this age, most kids have the strength to at least be able to pass from the chest. Don’t expect the technique to be all there yet. Especially with a full size basketball, it can be cumbersome.
When teaching basketball drills for kids, language is key. The simpler the better and analogies are great. When teaching passing, the analogy is “arms out like a chicken!” You can even get them to flap their arms a bit for hilarity’s sake if you feel so inclined. This gets their elbows out and (usually) their palms facing forwards. From there the word “push!” creates extension at the elbows.
That’s the basics of a pass for a young kid. Fine tuning can be around wrist flicking to get backspin on the ball, and using a step to create more power. The backspin makes a pass easier to catch and ensures it will travel directly.
A common error for little ones struggling to get the power for a pass is to pass from the dominant side’s shoulder to try and get more power behind the pass by biasing the dominant hand. This really affects accuracy and should be discouraged.
There are two great basketball drills for kids to do that make learning passing fun:
1. passing against a target on a wall: see how many they can get in a row, or get them to step out if they hit a target and step in if they miss
2. passing in pairs: see how many they can do in 30 seconds