There are a hundred different little gadgets for training in basketball, all the way from gloves and shoes to standing cutouts and impact pads. One of the tools that’s been around the longest though are dribbling glasses (or dribbling goggles, people use both names). I even used them when I was kid, even into high school actually. Not because I owned them at home, but because our coach owned a ton of them and enforced using them. That’s why I bought some for my kids, and will go over them in my dribbling glasses review below.
How well do dribbling goggles work?
In general, dribbling goggles do one thing very effectively: They indicate immediately which kids can’t dribble without looking at the ball. As the kids who can do it will have their head straight up, while the ones who can’t will have be looking really far down just to see over glasses. After this indicator, it becomes very clear quickly who needs the most work in order to break their habit, because if you’re looking at the ball you’re not able to keep your head up in order to look for people to pass to. It’s a very common problem in the younger age groups, in fact almost no one can dribble without looking until about the 4th grade.
It takes quite a bit of time, but using this over an extended period of time will eventually break your child’s ball looking habit. Basketball wasn’t practiced nearly as much at early ages as it is now, so hence why we used them in high school (since our skill level wasn’t nearly as high going into high school as it is now).
Cost of dribbling glasses
How much do dribbling glasses cost? Well the good thing is that they’re dirt cheap. Like under $10 most of the time unless you get a really nice pair. A lot of times you can buy a 10 pack for the whole team, which is what most coaches do. Amazon has ton’s of them for sale, the best deal is probably these through my Amazon affiliate link:
Dribbling Glasses from Amazon single pair
Dribbling Glasses from Amazon 12 pack
If you’re team of a younger team that has problems finding open people for passes, I definitely think they’re worth it. That’s the biggest thing you’re trying to improve on, it’s actually not their dribbling ability so much but their passing ability. As when they’re driving and shooting it doesn’t matter as much if they’re looking at the ball, but when they’re passing it’s almost impossible to find open people if you’re looking down when dribbling. In youth basketball especially you’ll see people wide open under the basketball but the kid dribbling the ball can’t see him because he’s watching the ball with his head down. It’s actually a big factor in differentiating different skill levels of players.
