A great way to understand the game of basketball is to read about tips that the pros use in order to make them great. Maybe you’re here because you would like to incorporate those tips into your own game? If so, you’re in luck because the following article has great tips from the professionals.
Practice passing drills as a team. Basketball is a team sport first and foremost. You’ve got five people on the court with the same common goal. Teams that are great at passing can really break up a defense making it much easier to get into good scoring positions. You’ll definitely win much more than you lose when you work as a team.
When you dribble, make sure that you use fingertips instead of palms. This gives you much more control over the ball. Using your palms can cause the ball to go all over the place on the court, whereas using your fingertips keeps it under your control when you have to run.
When you play basketball, be sure that you remain properly hydrated. Drink plenty of water before, during, and after playing. Becoming dehydrated can negatively affect your game and your health. It is possible to lose up to 2% of your body weight through dehydration. That can also cause between a 10% and 20% decrease in your athletic performance.
Never throw the basketball at another player. Even if you are angry or aggravated, it’s never smart to take your anger out with the ball. Not only will you draw a foul, you can also do some serious damage to the person you are throwing at. Take a breathe before you do anything stupid.
To rebound a free throw attempt by the other team, you get the advantage of having four people on the lane, as opposed to three for the other team. Take advantage by boxing out, putting your body on the person next to you and moving him away from the basket. This gives you the best chance at grabbing a board.
Add stretching to your warm up, cool down, and work out routines. Stretching helps give you a wider range of motion with your arms and legs. That’s critical to basketball. It’ll allow you to do things with the basketball that others will find impossible, including between the leg dribbling and behind the back passing.
To play the best defense, you have to beat your man to the place he wants to go and force him to go somewhere else. This means that your feet have to move quickly, so practice shuffling from side to side without crossing your feet. This is the quickest way to move laterally on the floor and will frustrate your man.
Lateral quickness is a very important part of becoming a good basketball player. You have to be able to move to your left and right quickly on both offense and defense. You can practice and improve your lateral quickness by moving left to right and back as quickly as possible with training exercises.
To increase the strength of your weaker hand, utilize it for doing everything, including brushing your teeth and opening jars. You will have more control as you use it to do daily activities that require dexterity. This will have a positive impact on your basketball game, too.
Pay attention to who has the hot hand. If a player on either team makes more than two or three consecutive baskets they are “on fire” as the saying goes. If they’re on your team, do what you can to make sure their streak keeps going to help your team. If it’s an opponent, put a little more defensive pressure on him.
Learn how to make the offensive or defensive player go where you want them to go as opposed to forcing you to go where they want you to go. This means that you need to pay attention to your surroundings and watch out for traps and screens. You can avoid them if you encourage your opponent to go where you want them instead of falling into a trap.
Bounce passes cause the defender to bend over to try to get the ball from you, often leaving them off balance. This is a great way to pass the ball to a teammate, allowing you to spin around your defender while they have no balance, leaving you open to take a shot.
Get your hands up when playing defense. Get your hands in their face and obstruct their vision. They might be taller or faster than you, but if you get your hands up in their face and obstruct their field of view, you have a better chance of disrupting what they are intending on doing.
Balance is key to taking a shot. When you jump, you should find that you land with both feet at the same time on the ground. You should also feel as if you are heading towards the net slightly when you are in the air. As you take a shot, close your eyes so you can feel what your body is doing.
A slightly off-center shot often ends up catching the rim of the basket, which causes it to just fall off the side. If you see this happening, you will know exactly where to be when the shot is missed so that you can get the rebound and turn it into a basket.
Always take a two handed approach to possession of the basketball. Catch passes with both hands. Rebound the ball with both of your hands. Pick up loose balls with both of your hands. Always secure full and safe possession of the basketball before making a pass or starting your dribble.
Learning new tips about how to better your basketball playing skills is easy when you’ve got great information to follow. Luckily the article you just read offered simple ideas to help improve up your own playing skills. The only way to get better is through practice, and now that you just learned from the best, go out and hit the courts!
