
Your first basketball match was a whole different ballgame. You were finding your way around shooting, dribbling and passing. Sooner or later, you need to seek out new ideas. The following article will show you that you still have much to learn.
Learn what a crossover is and how to do it. Moving the ball from hand to hand is a crossover. This must be done quickly to be successful. If you do it right, a crossover dribble will assist you in changing directions and getting down the court in an efficient manner.
Passing the ball is an important part of playing basketball so practice making and receiving passes. During practice you should come up with drills where you perfect catching bad passes along with the good ones. This will help you catch those bad passes during a game. Learning how to catch these errant passes will put you at an advantage.
You should practice against a variety of defense types, not just zone. The majority of the game is in that area, but be careful about a team who changes things up. You might lose your control of the court if the other team use this technique, unless you are ready for this possibility.
Completing passes to your teammates is just as important as dribbling the ball. Playing without any dribbling is very hard, but builds your passing skills. This is very challenging at first, but eventually it will really improve your entire team’s passing game.
Core Muscles
If you have a child who has expressed interest in becoming a basketball player in high school, make sure he trains his core muscles. Core muscles are comprised of the hips, lower back, and abdominal muscles. Without a strong core, a player’s performance may not be as good as it could be. The stronger your core, the higher you will jump.
Keeping your fingers spread wide is important for holding onto the ball. This will help prevent the ball from getting away from you while dribbling. You should avoid having your palm touching the ball. Only your fingers should touch it during a pass or when dribbling.
Passing between the legs is something that helps when you have defense all over you. Go forwards and backwards with the ball to practice bouncing it. Mastering this technique can give you a significant advantage.
Work on making your forearms and hands stronger in order to improve ball handling. Do some wrist curls as much as possible and your dribbling should get better. You can’t just stand and shoot for the whole game. You need to be able to move the basketball to make things happen.
Change your pace up to throw the offense off. When you’re moving towards the net, act like you’re going to straighten up. The guard will assume you are reducing speed and will do the same. After that, push hard in a forward motion and scoot by them.
Strength Training
Strength training can improve your game. You need both strength and endurance if you are going to excel. Even young kids can improve if they exercise the right way and strengthen their core. As they grow and become teenagers, weight-lifting can be beneficial. When you get to be an adult is when you want to concentrate on strength training to help improve durability on the court.
Stay low when you play defense. You will be able to react more quickly and jump higher because of this. Maintain your proper defensive stance no matter what. If you need to leave your feet in order to prevent your opponent from shooting the ball, quickly get back into that good defensive position.
For your weaker hand, to build skills, use it off-court for as much as you can, from brushing teeth to opening jars. You will have more control as you use it to do daily activities that require dexterity. This also can significantly help your basketball game.
Keep your knees bent while dribbling. If you are standing straight, you will have a harder time controlling the ball and your opponent will be able to steal it more easily. You only need to bend your knees slightly to improve your control of the basketball.
Keep the action beneath your knees, if you can. This prevents your opponents from stealing the ball. Practice moving quickly while dribbling below knee level.
Create a barrier between the ball and your opponent with the hand you are not using for dribbling. You don’t want to be pushing any of your opponents (that’s a foul), but you can use that non-dribbling arm as a separator to keep the ball safe. Keep is slightly up as you dribble with your other hand.
Switching up your dribbling rhythm can really throw the defense off. Dribbling somewhat slowly, then suddenly dribbling fast might give you the opening you need to take a shot. Both the change in speed and sound will confound the player who is guarding you.
With all the advice you have now, there is no limit to where you can go. Set reasonable goals and practice regularly to become the best player possible. When you add the tips and use them in your game, you’ll see the results you have always wanted.