Dribble Stick Review

Our Honest Review of a Dribble Stick:

We Purchased a Dribble Stick and Tested it for a Number of Months… Here Are Our Thoughts:

dribble stick review
is a dribble stick worth it

We recently built a home basketball court and decided to arrange for a dribble stick to be made and sent to Australia. Here is our honest review of this product.

Firstly, What is a Dribble Stick and What Benefits Do They Provide?

If you haven’t seen a dribble stick before then we’ll help you out here – a dribble stick is a training tool used in basketball to improve a players dribbling skills. As you can see, it consists of a series of adjustable (and flexible) rods that clip or slide into a central pole and base. These rods can then be positioned in different ways and heights to simulate various in-game situations or obstacles, with a goal to enhance dribbling skills.

The intent for basketball players is to dribble in and around these rods whilst working on various aspects such as speed, control, agility, and manoeuvrability, ultimately developing better hand-eye coordination and skills for real life game play.

Dribble Stick Pros:

After over 6 months of use, we found the pros of the dribble stick include:

  • Heads Up: We found that by using a dribble stick, our teenage children managed to keep their head up more often while dribbling on our home court, which helps to maintain a good posture and balance for gameday.
  • Low Dribbling: Overtime and with practice, the dribbling skills and their overall technique ball handling techniques improved (especially dribbling down low). The sticks are also great for improving control on a weaker hand (in our case the left hand) as our child was able to focus specific drills on their left hand and strengthen their skills on this side of the body.
  • Versatile Rods: A dribble stick comes with 4 adjustable rods, meaning they can be used for a variety of dribbling drills at multiple difficulty levels. Because the rods can be easily moved into different heights, it makes them suitable for players at varying levels, from younger kids practising controlling a higher ball bounce through to older kids who want to get down low and rip that ball from side to side. If the ball hits a rod, this tends to simulate a ball being stolen by a defender.
  • Solo Training Aid: This is obviously a solo player aid, therefore we find it an effective tool for individual practice allowing kids to train for games independently, in small areas and in all types of diverse conditions.
  • Light Weight and Portable: The dribble stick has a light weight aluminium centre and base, making them very easy to transport and store. This means if it’s raining, you can easily move this to a garage or undercover area like a carport so you or your kids can continue practising your dribbling in all types of weather conditions.

Dribble Stick Cons:

  • Low Engagement: Because the dribble stick is a solo aid, it makes it hard to use it in conjunction with other players or drills on a court. We found that this lowered their average use time (which seemed lower to other types of training) as players must be motivated to want to train the one type of drill over and over.
  • A Lack of Game-Like Conditions: Similar to the above, as this is a dribble focussed drill it can be repetitive or become even boring. We found that a basketball player can’t fully replicate the unpredictability and physicality of real opponents trying to steal a ball or mark them on the run, which may lead them to switch off on the drills.
  • Dribble Stick Costs: We have found the most common dribble sticks on the market range from AUD $110 – $135. This is at the higher end cost wise for a solo basketball training aid, and is relatively expensive compared to other basketball training equipment.
  • No 360 Degree Training: A dribble stick is a fixed product, meaning it cannot be a real replacement for on court gameplay or simulations. (360 degree style plays where defenders come from every angle). Because a dribble stick cannot be used on real opponents or as a real game situation, it will always lack full simulation training.
  • Rods Fall / Some Rust if Left in the Rain:  Whilst our rods are a really good quality, they are susceptible to falling out of the holes if they are hit on the wrong angle by the ball. We also left ours out in the rain and the screws at the bottom have shown some signs of rust (this may not occur to all models on the market).

Our Verdict – Are Dribble Sticks Worth It?

Dribble sticks are a solid solo training aid, and with one core focus (dribbling) then they are aimed at a specific type of player (weak dribblers). If you or your child need to improve your hand eye coordination, overall dribbling control and enhance skills on a weaker side, then the dribble stick is a good purchase. If you or your children are already above average dribblers, I honestly doubt that this aid will add value over a long period of time.

Due to the dribble sticks in-ability to simulate defenders coming from different angles or be used whilst dribbling on the run, we find the dribble stick has lower than average engagement times (especially with younger users).

The costs are at the higher end for a solo aid (approx AUD $120) which makes this an expensive investment to only have for one type of skill set. While we agree its good for posture and control, we can only recommend this to younger players or those who have clear dribbling deficiencies.

The Dribble Stick is an OK Yet Expensive Solo Training Aid Suited to Weak Dribblers – We Rate it a 2.5/5

2.5/5
sklz dribble stick review

Interested in buying a Dribble Stick?

Even though we got our dribble stick custom made overseas, we recommend buying a dribble stick locally from a reputable and established company, such as SKLZ.

You can view or even purchase a SKLZ dribble stick online at Amazon right here: