Whatever your basketball level, you can greatly improve your game. Like everything else in life, being on the look-out for continuous improvement leads to greater results and reflects a commitment to excellence on your part. Below are a few tips that will help you to improve your game:
1. All Great Players Are Great Athletes
The most important thing you can do to improve your game is to become a good athlete. The stronger and faster you are, the better you will play. Achieve this goal through conditioning and weight training.
2. You Can't Shoot Properly Unless You Hold The Ball Correctly
The most difficult skills, including shooting, passing, catching, dribbling, and rebounding, involve holding the ball. There are many signs of faulty ball handling: dropping passes; spraining and jamming fingers; palming the ball; rebounding poorly, shooting poorly. Learn how to properly hold the ball when passing, catching or shooting and work on this skill daily until it becomes the natural way of holding the ball.
3. Use Your Wrists In Shooting, Passing, and Dribbling
The wrist skills, which include shooting, passing, and dribbling, involve the motion of the hand and wrist. Waving good-bye is an example of wrist motion that needs to be practiced. This rarely practiced motion reaps incredible benefits. Not only will you improve, but you will permanently improve.
4. Pivoting Is A Key To Many Other Skills
Many players and coaches underestimate the importance of pivoting. Every movement with the ball initially involves pivoting. Players routinely pivot to shoot or pass. What is not so obvious is that all moves, most fakes, and driving to the basket all depend on the ability to pivot. Poor pivoters do not have moves and cannot drive well to the basket. You must be able to pivot forward and backward using either foot.
5. Defense Is Easy To Learn
Your stance for defense and dribbling is very similar. In both positions you need to be ready to run full speed in any direction.
6. Practice Shooting Within Your Shooting Range
If you do not shoot with the proper technique you are solidifying a bad shooting form. Practicing from great distances distorts your shot. Improper practice makes your shot worse. So, practice from a distance that is within your range and do it with proper shooting fundamentals. If you want to develop your shot from a farther range, make sure that you have the strength to hoist shots from downtown and that you do so in the proper way. Don't develop bad shooting form. Period.
7. Play Full Court Rather Than Half Court
Half-court street basketball is very different from full court ball. Problems associated with half court ball include:
- Half court does not have a transition from one basket to the other. Starting a play half court and starting one full court is very different.
- In half court games you do not need to run full speed for great distances. In full court games, you must perform out of breath after sprinting down court three or four times.
- Players congregate closer to the basket in half court than in full court, yielding more three second violations.
- In half court you are so close to the basket that players readily go one-on-one, rather than play team ball.
- In half court you have a greater chance for injury since players must make many direction changes in a small crowded area.
