TIP! Your balance is an important aspect to consider when you are shooting. We have all seen the professional basketball player falling out of bounds and making a basket from 30 feet away, but this is not proper technique.

Basketball is very popular. Basketball is universally enjoyable by people who want to play for fun and those who wish to play semi professionally or professionally. Learn how you can up your game and make a positive difference to your team. These tips will help you become a better player.

Practice your defense more than your offense. Defense can make or break a basketball game. Without good defense, a basketball team will lose the match.

TIP! Learn how to block out movement, noise and other distractions when taking a free throw. You can teach your body to make a free throw properly, but unless you are properly prepared mentally, you may not succeed.

Look forward and hold your head up while you dribble the ball. If you’ve got your eye on the ball while you’re dribbling, you haven’t mastered it yet. One of the best ways to improve your dribbling is to bring your ball along anytime you need to walk somewhere. Keep dribbling the ball even while you’re doing your errands. Don’t look while dribbling, because you won’t be able to see what’s going on.

TIP! A great way to hone your own basketball abilities is to watch the pros. It is important that you see how other people play the game.

You should often work on your layups. A huge percentage of successful shots are layups. Don’t just walk through a layup drill. It is key to go at game tempo to practice the timing needed to maintain accuracy. Practicing the running and jumping method will help you shoot better this way in a game.

TIP! Keep your skills sharp in the off-season by playing different challenging games. It is possible to enjoy this team sport even in the absence of your team.

Watch the pro’s play if you want to improve your game. Go to games, watch them on TV and you can also watch videos. You’ll be able to learn from the moves they make.

TIP! Launch your layup jumps from the foot that is opposite the hand you shoot with. Use your left foot when shooting with the right hand.

Don’t pump a lot of iron if you wish to become a jump shooter. Muscle is good, but you can have too much. Certain pro guards ended up increasing their arm size so much that their shooting started to suffer.

TIP! Be sly on your soles to catch rebounds from free-throws your own team members are making. The person defending the position down-court from you will be coming at you, so you need to find any way you can to slide around him that gets you to the ball.

Play games against yourself in and out of season. Many times you are unable to find people to play with. For concentration purposes, it can be good to practice on your own. Solo games can help you immensely. Practice pivoting or doing free throws. There are always things that can be done.

TIP! You should ensure that you can clearly see. This isn’t just for reading the scoreboard.

Use hand signals to avoid errant passes. Oftentimes frustration occurs when trying you aren’t on the same page with a teammate who cuts to the basketball when you try to pass him the ball. A simple hand gesture can let your teammate know you’re ready for the pass. If you don’t see a signal, try to find someone else to pass to.

TIP! To become a better three-point shooter, make sure you attempt shots from where the NBA three-point line would be. College, as well as high school three-point lines are set at a shorter distance.

If you’re shooting isn’t what you’d like it to be, make sure that your shoulders are in the correct position. Regardless of your skill level, if you don’t have your shoulders positioned correctly, you will miss. Your shoulders should always be square towards the basket. You should also make sure that your dominant shoulder is lined up with the rim.

TIP! Keep dribbling when you’re going to switch the body’s momentum from side to side. Dribbling during game play requires you to adopt a variety of dribbling skills.

If the opposition is hot on your tail, pass between your legs. Take a step back or forward and bounce the ball hard through your legs. This is a tricky move, but it will provide you a good advantage when you play.

TIP! Keep dribbling in a particular rhythm until you think it’s time to trick the opponent. By dribbling consistently and then breaking it up into a different rhythm that’s fast, you can trick an opponent so you have more time to shoot.

Practice dribbling with your weak hand as much as possible. If you’re using both hands to dribble the ball well then you can get by an opponent easily. Make an effort to dribble with your weak hand by keeping your dominant hand away from the front. Soon enough you will develop those weak hand dribbling skills.

TIP! Do not double dribble. This happens when you stop dribbling and then begin again.

You need to constantly disrupt your opponents in order to be a great defensive player. Force them into an uncomfortable zone. Make assertive moves, keeping your opponent unsure of your next move. Keep them from deciding what moves to make. If they do, they’ll dominate you. Rather, move first; attack their rhythm.

TIP! It is important to know what to do when the ball comes to you. Should you shoot it or pass it? You are better off cooperating to make a winning shot instead of hot-dogging and making a bad shot that loses the game.

If you are in a defensive position, keep yourself low. Doing so improves your reaction time with regards to your opponents’ actions. Maintain this low stance with arms raised until a shot or high pass is made. When you block a shot, go back to a defensive form quickly.

TIP! Learning how to pass is critical to the game of basketball. Good passing skills will help you baffle your opponent.

Keep all motion below the knees if possible. Defenders will have a more difficult time stealing the ball. You need to bend your body somewhat to accomplish this. It will, however, increase your overall effectiveness, as you are making the ball much harder to steal.

TIP! When you are facing a zone defense, you must use a penetrating dribble. If you get around a defender and make it to the shooting lane, the defenders will either break their defense or converge on the ball.

Keep a rhythm while dribbling to throw your opponents off. You can surprise the opponent by changing up your dribbling. In addition to the tempo change, the louder sound of your dribbling can catch them off guard as well.

Double Dribbling

TIP! Have a game plan you want to accomplish when beginning a workout routine. A lot of players go to practice with no plan.

Make sure you don’t double dribble. Double dribbling happens when you’ve stopped dribbling once, and then start again a few seconds later. Once you stop dribbling, you choices are to either shoot or pass the ball. You aren’t able to start dribbling again. Double dribbling means your team turns the ball over to the other team.

TIP! Communication is vital during basketball. Build this during team practice.

As you can see, there are many things you can do to improve your skills. Most of them are just basically learning a particular technique, then practicing that technique until you can do it in your sleep. Practice is important to anything worth doing – just do it! You can practice in lots of ways. Play with kids for fun, play with your friends, practice with your teammates; no matter what, it will help.