Do you want to be as great as Shaquille O’Neil? You can move closer to making your dreams come true by developing skills and techniques to improve your play. Read on to learn what you can do to excel at basketball.
Make sure you learn how to shoot free throws. There are usually a lot of distractions when you are shooting free throws so you need to concentrate. When practicing your free throw, concentrate on where you want the ball to go when it leaves your hands. Put your weaker hand in front of the ball and center your stronger hand over the air valve in the basketball. Keep looking towards the goal and think about the ball getting into that goal. Then shoot the ball with the trajectory that you visualized.
When dribbling, your head must be up, and you need to look forward. You should never be looking at the basketball while dribbling. You can practice dribbling almost anywhere. Practice in your home and wherever you walk. Don’t look while dribbling, because you won’t be able to see what’s going on.
A good tip is to practice your layups on a daily basis. Layups comprise approximately 80 percent of all shots. It’s critical to practice running towards the basket at full speed and following up with a good jump and smooth shot. Drill the jumping technique regularly so you can do layups very smoothly and always stay in control of where the ball is going.
Practice the skill of pass catching. You want to practice catching perfect passes and bad passes. During the course of a game, you can expect there to be many errant passes. So you should do the team a favor by knowing how to take in any kind of a pass that comes from someone.
Core Muscles
If you have a high school level basketball player for a kid, be sure their core muscles are properly trained. The core muscles include the lower back, hips and abdonimals. The core links both the lower and upper extremities. Without a strong core, they will have limited athletic performance. Strong core muscles help you with many movements associated with basketball.
If you get hurt during a basketball game, don’t try to play while in pain. Basketball is challenging physical sport and you can get injured. By “playing through the pain” you take a huge risk that the injury will become much worse. See a doctor if the injury is serious enough.
Ask your fellow team members which of your skills that they admire. Do you do something really good? It may be that you are quick on your feet or that you are always there to back them up. Improve the skills where you tend to be a bit weaker while maintaining your stronger skills.
Speed is everything in the sport of basketball. You’ll have an advantage if you’re faster than an opponent. You need to really drill to get to the point where you can play fast. Never try though to get too fast that you can’t make any plays. If you play basketball past your own speed ability, then you can lose control of you game with bad passes and needless turnovers.
Ask someone to take a video of you playing and watch it. You’ll likely see ways that you can improve. Don’t be too critical, but do be honest. At times, it can help to see the truth of who you are, not as you imagine yourself.
These tips should give plenty of things to work on to improve your game. You need to practice a lot and believe in yourself. Keep all of the good advice you encounter in mind so that you can make it clear that you are very talented.