How to be a varsity basketball player

Robert Griffee How to Make the Varsity Basketball Team at Your High...

Getting on the varsity basketball team can lead to many opportunities for your young career as a player. You get to compete against other high school teams, work on your game, experience high-level team play, learn from a coach and play in front of a crowd. If you’re really good and stand out by your senior year, you can get recruited by top colleges and receive a scholarship.

But everyone has to start from somewhere. Making the team alone takes a good bit of dedication and tenacity, and that work ethic then carries over to the rest of your life.

Here are eight key tips for becoming good enough to make it to your varsity basketball team.

What are you good at? Are you a good ball-handler, an accurate shooter, a strong rebounder, a tenacious defender, or so on? Your strengths are what make you stand out, so make the most of them and find a good way to use them to help your team win.

What are you not good at? While it may be tempting to just do what you do and ignore what you don’t do, you should put time into working on your weaknesses. That’s what practice and off-season are for. The more well-rounded you are as a player, the more useful you are as a teammate.

Of course, you should maximize your strengths. If those strengths help shore up your weaknesses, that’s a good thing as well. Working on your game is all about making your strengths even stronger and turning weaknesses into strengths.

For instance, your jump shot may not be that good. Improving it will surely make you a better scorer and a more valuable player, so you’ll have to look into what you’re doing wrong that may make your shot wonky. A lot of times, it’s using your guide hand wrong. You can correct it by using the Shoot Natural glove during practice to keep it straight. Your shot will improve and become a strength.

But there’s only so much you can do by yourself. When in doubt, ask yourself what will make you a better teammate. At the end of the day, that’s what separates mediocre players from good players. What matters most is what helps the team win.

While athleticism, skill, and size are major factors for becoming a good basketball player, what sets apart good players from great players is focus. The one quality that the all-time greats share is the ability to be in the moment throughout each game.

Everyone gets nervous, even those who would go on to become hall-of-famers. But those great players are able to set their anxieties aside once the game starts. They’re able to be in the zone and focus entirely on the game, which lets them perform with the best of their abilities.

When you’re in a game, you may be distracted by many things, like the crowd, your personal problems, and so on. But when you’re there, nothing else matters other than helping your team win. Being present isn’t just about being physically there, but also being mentally focused on the game you’re playing in.

This is especially important during your tryouts. Once you’re in the game, focus entirely on the game itself. Don’t worry too much about messing up and just power through. Make the most of every opportunity, make opportunities for your teammates, and play your best. The coaches will notice whether you’re focused or not.

Hustle on both ends of the floor and play at a good pace. When you make a mistake, make a mental note of that mistake right there and do your best not to repeat it. If you ponder on that mistake, you will slow down and get anxious. That will make your performance suffer and result in even more mistakes.

Coaches do their best to instill discipline into their players in various ways. Showing up in practice is the most important thing you can do to show that you have discipline. Every practice is an opportunity to improve your game, so you should relish every chance you have to get better.

Your attendance plays a big part in creating a good impression on your teammates and coaches. You can get there on time every time, which is good. But if you really want to go above and beyond, show up early and get work done before everyone else does. You can also stick around after practice and get more work done while everyone else is gone.

If you’re able to do that while you’re still young, it becomes much easier to do so when you get older. Discipline is a skill, just like everything else in basketball. You can practice being disciplined, and it’s a skill that will take you far both in basketball and in life.

This may sound contradictory, being a good player isn’t just about making amazing plays and seemingly impossible shots. No one likes to play with a ball hog, and it can be detrimental to your prospects if you’re seen as someone who plays for oneself and not for the team.

When you play just to look amazing, coaches catch onto those habits as selfish and grandstanding. You may be a good player, but you may be labeled as a bad team-player, which can get you passed up for the team. When it comes down to it, coaches aren’t just looking for potential talents, but winners as well.

Playing to win means playing for the team, and that means getting everyone involved. Let your teammates have a reason to pass the ball to you, and pass the ball to your teammates if you have a reason to. It may be players that score baskets, but it’s teams that win games.

You’re still growing, so you want to make sure that you eat food that will make you grow. You’re still young, so you find it easy to eat junk and be fine for practice the next day. But if all you’re eating is junk, then the body doesn’t get anything that lets it grow and be strong.

Take your nutrition seriously early on. After all, you are what you eat. If you want to be the best, you’ll have to eat the best food possible. This may be difficult if you’re not doing well financially, so you’ll have to find ways to get good food from reliable sources.

But it’s also bad if you tend to gorge and put on too much weight. Many pro careers have been derailed due to weight issues, which then make injuries more likely to occur. If you have contact with a nutritionist, take advantage of it and listen to that expert advice.

If you eat right and live right, you will play right.

Communication is the one skill that elevates all other skills. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, an artist, an engineer, a doctor, or a basketball player, you can do a lot better if you can communicate with other people.

In basketball, you have to talk to your coach and your teammates. Being able to converse with them properly lets you say what you need to say and listen to what they have to say clearly. This lets you make a good impression and be a good team member.

Good communication as a basketball player means maintaining eye contact with whoever you’re talking to, listening to your coaches and teammates, and making yourself understood.

This isn’t just about keeping your grades up to make it and stay on the team. Cultivating a work ethic in your academics develops the discipline necessary for both college and the professional league. Also, doing well in high school can get you a better chance to enroll in a major university.

If you’re not doing well with your studies now, that gives coaches a reason to doubt your availability for the varsity team and your reliability down the line. Don’t give them any reason to doubt by having good grades and being ahead of the curve.

If you don’t love the game, it’s going to affect how you play it. Every game will be a slog and every practice will feel tedious. If you’re into basketball in the first place, then it’s most likely because you love the game.

But it will be hard to keep loving it once it becomes like work. There will be times you won’t find it fun for various reasons, like playing against a vastly superior team, your coach and teammates giving you a hard time, or so on.

It’s up to you to find ways to keep it fun. Understand why you love the game in the first place and what things about it make it fun for you. If you’re having fun, you’ll be more fun to play with, and you’ll be a better player. It’s a feedback loop that’ll make you want to keep playing.

A lot of the things that will get you picked up by the varsity basketball team are also things that will carry you through for the rest of your life. While it’s great to be good at basketball while you’re still young, the qualities that will make you better as you grow are what will truly define you. Now, go out there and show them what you’re made of!

6 Ways to be a Top High School Basketball Player

Basketball Tip

NBC Basketball Camps trains thousands of high school athletes each year. Here are six ways you can become a top high school basketball player.

1. Be willing to work hard. Can you define hard work? For a top level high school and college coach, here is what hard work means. Your attitude and demeanor on the courts needs to be intense, focused, aggressive and no-nonsense. Your play should include taking charges, diving on the floor for loose balls, running the floor, constant "in your face" pressure on the ball when defending, strong attack moves to the hoop which are effective. Effective=ends with a basket.

2. Be powerful. Great players are not pushed around. They dictate the tempo, intensity, rhythm of the game. You decide where you want to go or not go on offense, not your opponent. On defense, you decide where your opponent goes. You disrupt his or her game. Learn to use your body to impose your WILL both offensively and defensively.

3. Be smart and understand the system. Every coach has a system and philosophy to be successful. You need to know what he or she wants. Some teams require a point guard to have no more than 3 turnovers a game. If you take too many risks on that team as a point guard you are going to sit down. Know what the coach values. Does he or she value conservative play? Does he or she want run and gun? See the big picture and learn how to play within this system.

4. Be strong, fast and quick. These are the separators between high school athletes who will go on to the college level. One of our alum campers playing in the NBA is an amazing athlete a premier shooter, but he is getting beat on defense because his foot speed is too slow to stop a player one-on-one and even though he is 6'7" he is not strong enough in the post. We want him to do well and encourage him to work on his strength and speed, to get a program and work it hard.

Be sure to meet with a physical therapist as well as a trainer because you need to know what you must do to prevent injury. Live in the weight room during the off-season.

5. Be humble and lead by example. Care about the team by being selfless and not concerned about your name in the paper. Do the little things well, serve others and you will be blessed.

6. Find the separators. God has given each of us natural abilities. A girl who is 6'3" as a sophomore, really quick, long and strong may not have good skills but she will get letters from Division 1 programs. Coaches recruit body types. If you genetically do not have a Division 1 build, you have a much harder road. You have to rise above the multitude of athletes who all have the same dream. You have to find the separators: speed, strength, wisdom, leadership, shooting, passing, impeccable skills, and the WILL to work harder than your competition.

NBC Basketball is a program designed to help you become your best on and off the court. Advanced High School Camp training options through NBC Camps: Boys College-Prep Basketball Camp attracting Division 1 prospects from around the world, for Girls NBC Camps has HS Girls Advanced Campin Spokane, WA, and Boys and Girls Total Basketball Camp, intensive college prep training north of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

NBC Basketball Camps is a proud affiliate of the US Sports Nike Camps network. For more information about NBC Basketball Camps visit www.nbccamps.com.

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Go get an education, it's too late for you to become a basketball player - The Jay's - Blogs

NBA players who started playing basketball very late

We all know basketball players like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Michael Jordan. They played basketball all their lives, they were talked about even during their school years and no one was surprised by the fact that sooner or later they would get into the world's major basketball league.

But what about the players who first picked up an orange ball, not at age three, but in high school, or worse, college? What chances do they have to achieve at least some success in the basketball field, and do they exist at all?

Everyone has a chance. This is the beauty of basketball. Today we will talk about athletes who got acquainted with basketball much later than most players.

Joel Embid

When began: 2011 (15 years)

Statistics for career: 22.8 + 9.9 + 2.8 + 2.0 (Glasses \ Transfer \ Blocks) 9000

Achievements: All-Rookie First Team, All-Star, NCAA Defensive Player of the Year.

Process already looks like the top 3 center in the entire league. In today's NBA, if you're a center and you don't have a good and consistent shot, you're in for the fate of Hassan Whiteside. Old-school centers are no longer interesting to anyone, their actions are predictable, there is no threat from them on the arc, therefore this gives more freedom to the defending team. And that's why players like Anthony Davis, Karl Towns, DeMarcus Cousins ​​and Joel Embiid sat down on the "basketball Olympus".

But if in the case of the first three centers, the ascent took 15-20 years, then Embiid needed only 7.

Initially, "The Process" wanted to become a volleyball player and try his hand at the European Championships. But when the young Embiid was 15 years old, he picked up a basketball for the first time and began to copy Hakim Olajuwon's style of play. Joel liked the game so much that in the same year he went to a basketball camp organized by Luc Mba a Mute in Cameroon.

As a result of this camp, Luke was so impressed with Embiid's game and potential that he invites him to try himself in America.

Joel Embiid moves to the USA at the age of 16 and decides to become a professional basketball player.

In the states, the "Process" continued to progress and ended up in one of the best student organizations - Kansas. In his only college season, Embiid scored something like 11+8, entered the top 30 students and entered the draft with a back injury.

At first, Joel did not work out in the NBA, just because of the unfortunate injury, and for the first two years he almost completely lay in the infirmary. But after the recovery and after the last season, we see a top center, who is undoubtedly far from his peak and will continue to progress.

Dennis Rodman

When began: 1983 (21 years old)

Statistics for career: 7.3 + 13.1 + 1.8 + 0.6

Achievements: Member of the Glory Hall, 5-fold champion NBA, 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, 2-time All-Star, 7-time defensive top five.

The best rebounder in basketball history, ready to rip opponents' elbows out with the ball, only got to know basketball in high school. And it is very difficult to call this acquaintance the beginning of his basketball career. Rodman, a model of his school years, did not really know how to dribble, and his shots from under the basket left much to be desired, not to mention the shots from the middle. As a result, throughout his school career, Rodman sat on the bench. Also, young Dennis tried to get into the school football team, but failed there too.

Of course, after such a school "performance", no college offered Rodman an athletic scholarship. As a result, Dennis graduates from high school and goes to work as a janitor at the local airport. And just at that time, the young player has a so-called "growth spurt" and decides to try his hand at basketball again, despite the fact that he did not feel very comfortable in his new two-meter body.

A family friend of the Rodmans, got a position as head coach at a small college in Texas, and offered the young Dennis a scholarship. As a result of his first and only semester (Rodman was expelled for poor progress), the young player scores 17 + 13! Agree, very good numbers for a player who a couple of years ago could not get out from under the ring.

The most interesting thing is that during high school, Dennis was only 170 cm tall. But by the time he went to college at 21, Rodman was already 204 cm tall! It's amazing how he has grown so much in just 4 years.

After his first undergraduate performance failure, Rodman was given a second chance at an Oklahoma college whose team was NAIA. There he spends three fruitful years, gaining 25 + 15, becomes the leader in rebounds and gets into the 19th draft. 86, where he was drafted 3rd overall by the Detroit Pistons in the second round.

Everything that happened next is history. Dennis went from a calm and reserved player who did his job in the Pistons, like other "bad guys", into an outrageous, media player.

But it is worth noting that this did not affect his game in any way. Rodman became the best defensive player of the championship 2 times, got into the top five defensively 7 times and became the best rebounder 7 times in a row. Well, it’s not worth talking about his five championships, everyone already knows about it.

Interesting fact: Father Dennis Rodman has 48 children.

Another interesting fact: Dennis Rodman is the oldest of them.

Moving on.

Khakim Potzhavon

When I started: 1979 (16 years old)

Statistics for career: 21.8 + 11.1 + 2.5 + 3.1

Achievements for Career: Member of the Glory Hall, 2- 2- 2- 2- 2- 1x NBA Champion, 1x NBA MVP, 1x Finals MVP, 12x All-Star, 2x Defensive Player of the Year, one of the top 50 basketball players of all time.

The Dream, until the age of 16 he was exclusively fond of football and handball. And it was a football career that helped Hakim with footwork and body balance in the future.

At the age of 16, the two-meter Olajuwon is invited to take part in a basketball tournament (despite the fact that Hakim has never played it). There, a basketball coach notices him and informs Hakim's parents that their son may have a good career, but in Nigeria he will remain only budding. Hakim begins to train hard with his coach in order to achieve something in professional sports. Here's what he said about basketball:

Basketball is something unique. When I took the ball in my hands, I immediately knew that this is what I want to do all my life, you know? After that moment, any other sports lost their meaning for me.

As a result of all this, the parents of a young basketball player send him to America, where Houston College was waiting for him to watch. Hakim impressed coach Guy Lewis with his game and he accepted the young player into the squad.

Season 1980/1981 Olajuwon missed out because he was still too young to play in the NCAA (17 years old). But over the course of the next three years in college, Hakim screwed up and showed the entire student league who's boss in the paint!

He becomes the Final Four MVP, also earns the NCAA Southwest Conference MVP, and the Rockets begin to fold the 1983/1984 season to take Hakim with the first pick in the upcoming draft.

If you are reading this and think that Hakim was very good, you are right. But do not forget that The Dream achieved all this in 5 years from the moment of his first basketball game!

What happened next - you yourself know everything again. Hakim became one of the best centers in the history of basketball, an innovator and creator of new offensive techniques in the paint. Seriously, show me one player in the history of basketball that has played better than Hakim in the post?

Olajuwon led his hometown of Houston twice to the championship, became the most valuable player in one of the finals, the most valuable player in the league and was twice recognized as the best defensive player. Great career, great player!

Mutombo

When I started: 1984 (17 years old)

Statistics for careers: 9.8 + 10.3 + 2.0 + 2.8

Achievements: member of the glory hall NBA, 8-time All-Star, 4-time Defensive Player of the Year, 2-time rebounding leader, 3-time block shot leader.

Another African who started playing basketball very late.

Until the age of 17, Dikembe "not in my house" Mutombo was fond of football only and did not see himself anywhere except on a wide lawn (or sandy wasteland) with goals along the edges. So his youth passed, if not for his older brother, who invited him to play basketball.

Basketball meets Dikembe in style. In the first game, Mutombo cracks his chin and tells his brother that he will never play this "stupid game" again.

But still, after a couple of weeks, the brother again persuades Dikembe to play. And from that moment began the basketball adventure of one of the best defensive players in the league. Mutombo started playing in the African League and achieved excellent results. A vivid confirmation of this is a sports scholarship from Georgetown.

Mutombo enters the NCAA at the age of 21 and immediately shows great results. In his very first season, Dikembe manages to make 12 blocks in ONE game! And in general, the period 1988-1990 was one of the best in history for Georgetown. Under the ring, along with Dikembe, was another future member of the hall of fame - Alonzo Morning. Their bunch was even nicknamed "Rejection Row".

College career can be called successful. Mutombo was named to the NCAA East Division First Team as well as the All NCAA Third Team, and was selected with the 4th pick in the 19 draft91, aged.. 25 years old.

But even with such a late start, Mutombo had a long and fruitful career, spending as many as 18 seasons in the league!

He achieved everything, almost everything. Dikembe never received the coveted ring, but few would say that his career was not a success.

Throughout his career, the Congolese basketball player has demonstrated high professionalism, quality defense and incredible block shots. Mutombo was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year four times, was elected to the league's All-Stars three times, and took part in the All-Star game eight times.

Tim Dancan

When I started: 1991 (15 years)

Statistics for careers: 19.0 + 10.8 + 2.2

Tim Duncan is the best basketball player of the 2000s and possibly the greatest basketball player of the 21st century. Try to convince me of this as much as you like, but such a stable, unselfish and simply excellent player is very difficult to find. Duncan is a hard worker who does an enormous amount of work from game to game, from season to season, without requiring any attention and encouragement from the basketball community.

But it all started in the Virgin Islands, when young Tim, looking at his sister Trisha, who was a swimmer, wanted to follow in her footsteps. Duncan trained hard every day and dreamed of taking part in the Olympic Games - 1992.

But his dream was not destined to come true. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo swept through the Caribbean and caused damage to many countries, including Tim Duncan's native Virgin Islands. And everything would be fine, but the same hurricane destroyed the only pool on the islands and Duncan now had nowhere to train.

You say - hey, if he lives on an island, then the ocean is around! Why shouldn't he train there? It's very simple - Duncan is terrified of sharks. That is why his swimming career ended so early.

At the age of 15, Duncan picks up a basketball for the first time and starts playing for the school team. And here is what his first coach said about Timmy:

Duncan was huge. He was big and tall, I haven't trained players like that for a long time. But despite all his dimensions - he was just terribly clumsy!

Gradually Tim began to improve, averaging 25 points in his senior year at school. His game has attracted a large number of universities and colleges from all over America. And Wake Forest offered the young player an athletic scholarship.

In college, Duncan begins to develop his usual playing style. Simple but effective. Duncan combined many aspects of the game, such as high-quality post play, open mid-range shots, and tough defense. It was this style that helped not only him, but also his team, to show good results in the NCAA.

Duncan, one of the few superstars (if not the only one) who spent all four years of college! All because he promised his mother, who died the day before Tim's 14th birthday, that he would graduate from college and get an education.

In the end, over 4 years in college, Tim was 97-31, scored over 2,000 points, 1,500 rebounds and 400 blocks and was automatically selected for the 1998 draft, where he was selected with the first pick of the San Antonio Spurs.

With the Spurs, Duncan first became assistant to David Robinson, then became the team leader himself for many years. San Antonio is a 15-year dynasty, just like the New England Patriots (as a fan of all Boston teams, I just had to compare the two franchises). And all this time, the main face of the team was Tim Duncan, the man who achieved everything in the NBA.

9000 All-Star Team Member, 2nd NBA Team.

Giannis was born in Grezzi, in a family of Nigerian immigrants and until the age of 13 he played only football, having absolutely no idea what basketball is and who needs it at all.

Yannis and his family had a hard time, to put it mildly. There was a catastrophic lack of money, so he and his brother sold all sorts of trinkets, watches, bags on the streets, trying to somehow help their parents with finances. Well, after a hard day, Giannis and his brother went to the football field and chased the ball until late.

That was until 2007, when basketball appeared in the life of the young Antetokounmpo.

The young player fell in love with the game and began to devote all his free time to developing his basketball skills. And it paid off! Two years later, in 2009, Giannis starts playing for Fylatlitikos youth team.

In 2012, The Greek Freak made the main roster, spent a middle season in the Greek League Two and entered the 2013 draft, where the Milwaukee Bucks nonetheless were selected.

Giannis' NBA career developed over three seasons. The coaching staff worked very competently here, which, as Antetokounmpo performed in the league, gradually loaded him with new baggage of knowledge and skills. Giannis soaked it all up like a sponge and as time went by, his minutes played and his role in the team increased.

Now Giannis is the future of basketball, the second LeBron, the man who can make the Eurostep from the three-point line. I'm afraid to imagine what will happen to this player in the future, because Giannis is only 23 years old! And he is already a franchise player and will progress in each next season.

Mark Eaton

Started: 1977 (21 years old)

Career stats: 6.0 + 7.9 + 1.02 9.02 + 1.020005

Achievements: 2x Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star, 4x Block Shot Leader, 3x Defensive Five.