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How to become really good at basketball


A Complete Guide On How To Get Better At Basketball Fast

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Playing basketball is not a skill that you can master in an instant. Even professional basketball players have to spend a lot of time practicing every day.

However, if you are a novice or young basketball player and want to master the basic steps to improve your skills, Scott Fujita will guide you in the article below.

How to get better at basketball at home? Let’s read on to discover!

Detailed steps to get better at basketball

Contents

How To Get Better At Basketball

To be able to play basketball well, you need to know some basic basketball skills. The first step is always the most important to understand the movements often used in competition.

Related: 

  • Basic skills of basketball
  • How to become a basketball coach
  • How to shoot a basketball

1. Master Your Ball Handling Skills

To become a better player, the first thing you need to do is develop strong basketball dribbling skills. Start with simple dribbling drills and work your way up to mastery.

It would help if you started practicing with a centered athletic position. Keep your nose behind your toes and loaded hips, so you will not lean forward. Balance is the key to effective basketball handling.

Start moving the ball around your body in a static and athletic position. Don’t hesitate to dribble forcefully to the side of your foot when handling the ball.

You should maintain a bounce height between your knees and hips for the best control. Practice a few times in that sweet spot and then start dribbling. It ensures to keep the ball within your range to score better.

To gain more ball control, you need to put more force in after each dribble. We recommend practicing two-handed dribbling every day until your dribbling skills become proficient.

Also, pay attention to the three basic basketball skills: midfoot, back, and crossovers.

You will need to combine or create new dribbles based on these basic moves in a basketball game. It is vital to make sure you understand this step well before moving on to the other steps.

Check out this video to get an ultimate guide on how to get better at basketball dribbling.

2. Identify And Fix Your Weak Spots

Once you’ve played basketball for a while, you’ll have a clear understanding of your abilities. Set aside a certain amount of time each day to self-assess your performance. Usually, it will take you five to ten minutes to think about and list all of your strengths and weaknesses on paper.

Finding out your weaknesses will help you determine which basketball drills you should practice. For example, if you have trouble at the free-throw line, increase your free throws practice next time.

To become an elite basketball court player, you need to identify and eliminate your flaws to perfect every game aspect.

3. Practice At A Game-Time Pace

Most basketball players perform better in solo practice than they do in basketball games. The main reason for this drop in form is that the pressure of time and the game’s fast pace sometimes overwhelms you.

If you tend to shine in practice games but are poor at shooting and dribbling in real matches, chances are you haven’t kept up with game speed. When practicing or playing one on one, imagine defensive players covering you. It will help you a lot in keeping up with the actual game speed.

Opponent defenders won’t wait until you’ve completed a dribble or tried to find the best throw distance to the basketball hoop. If you want to practice shooting, let’s assume there are a lot of opponents around you. Those who hesitate to practice will not be able to perform well in actual conditions. It would be best if you remembered that.

4. Improve Your Physical Fitness

You will not be able to improve your basketball skills if you are not physically fit. Whether you’re a defense or offensive player, fitness is essential to keep a basketball player competitive.

To be able to run across the field, you need to build endurance. Even if you’ve mastered basic skills like dribbling and passing skills, you won’t be able to keep up with your teammates if you’re quickly exhausted after five minutes of running. The best exercises for building endurance include endurance running, sprinting, or weight training to build muscle.

Power dribble before each game to warm up is also an excellent way to get used to the tempo of practice. Do these routines daily to increase your stamina. As muscle mass increases, it will help you become more aggressive to elevate you.

You need to practice shooting basketball frequently

5. Improve Your Shooting Motion

You need to take some shooting drills to build the foundation for your shots. The lower body is the starting point for every shot that can score points. So, you need to focus on training and training your lower body.

Start by pointing your toes in the same direction, first placing them perpendicular to the rim. During practice, try to find the most natural position for your body. If you push the arch of your foot into the floor to load your lower body, it will give you strength and consistency.

Keep your knees behind your toes and focus on letting energy and power flow from your feet to your hips and buttocks. Finally, stroke your toes, knees, hips, and shoulders. Don’t forget to flex your legs after each shot.

You can also use the hand-eye coordination method to make your shooting arm stronger. If you want to practice at home, stand in front of a mirror without a ball in hand.

6. Work On Your Hand Alignment In Playing Time

For a consistent ball feel, optimize your hand positioning. It affects the proper spin, feel connection, and controllability through which you fire. To find the correct hand position is to place the index finger of your dominant hand on the air valve of the ball. You can practice a shooting drill to get used to the feel of the ball in your hand.

When facing a defensive player, choose a high release point to make it harder for them to block. Keep your wrists and elbows in line with the basket. Extend your arms entirely so that your elbows end above the eye at the point of the shot.

7. Learn From Game Tapes And Realistic Matches

For beginners, watching other basketball players play is also an excellent way to learn. Not only with basketball but also other sports. You can see how people play defense as well as set up attack tactics accordingly.

Professional games like the NBA are often thrilling but not suitable for learning. They usually pay attention to individual skills or highlights of the players. In contrast, high school and college tournaments use longer shot clocks. It is more suitable for the way teenagers play.

Observe and save skills that can be useful to bolster your offensive and defensive game. You won’t be able to practice defensive drills without help from other players. So this would be a good way to learn.

Don’t forget to play one on one with a defender

8. Try To Create Space From A Defender

Playing defense is difficult if you practice alone. Most of our exercises will revolve around attacking and scoring. So how can you master the shooting and scoring?

A helpful tip is to observe defensive players’ feet, hands, and noses. They will help you roughly determine their standing position to predict their next move. Make quick judgments and create space with jabs or jumps.

When creating space from a tight defender, you need to achieve three goals. These include breaking balance, keeping the ball close, and creating a lane to the basket.

We recommend that you combine watching the video tutorials below to get the best results.

Final Thoughts

For you to become a better basketball player, talent is not the deciding factor. Famous stars like Michael Jordan or LeBron James also have a hard time practicing to master skills and apply them flexibly during competition. Take time to practice every day, and you will quickly realize your progress.

Thank you for reading!

How to become a better basketball player, according to NBA legends

You play pickup ball with your friends each week, but you can’t seem to keep up.

You’ve been working hard in the gym, hitting the weights to boost your fitness, but nothing seems to be working. The best way to sharpen your skills on the court? By picking up tips, tricks, and training suggestions from some of the best professionals in the sport.

Whether it’s boosting your speed, stamina, shooting, or mental toughness, we have some options for you to help your pickup skills.

Here’s your basketball training guide:

Passing

Jason Kidd – former NBA point guard, Milwaukee Bucks head coach

Back when he was age 34, Jason Kidd had one of his best seasons, joining greats Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson as the only players to average at least 13 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds per game. Kidd shares some tips on how to deliver pinpoint passes and achieve your personal triple-double: strength, speed, and endurance.

Passing Skills

“I always felt passing isn’t so much working on passing as it is anticipation: What does the eye see, and can the mind relay that to my body? What does this guy like to do? Does he like to go right or left? If I see somebody is going backdoor, can I get it to him in stride so that he can catch and finish?”

Hand-Eye Coordination

“How do you work on sight and passing? Try to throw a strikeout in the [batter’s] box. If you are playing strikeout with a buddy, if you see he doesn’t like the ball inside, can you throw on the inside corner on the plate consistently? I think this is good for anybody with a son or daughter—can you throw pitches to an 8-year-old consistently where you know he or she can hit it? Can you throw the ball so it is in their sweet spot? That isn’t a very easy thing to do.”

In the Gym

“I do a lot of leg work—stepups with 30-pound dumbbells, leg press, calves and calfraises—and I do situps in between each set. I’m a big fan of Pilates for maintaining your strength. I can go an hour or 30 minutes to stretch and work on my flexibility and my abs. I don’t run a lot, but I do try to swim five times a week. I also play one-on-one with a good friend not so much to beatng him but more to chase him, stay in front of him, andmove my feet.”

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Stamina

Kobe Bryant – Retired NBA legend, Los Angeles Lakers

When he was at his peak, Bryant was the NBA’s best overall scorer. Over the years Bryant bulked up with a regimen that combined Olympic lifts with track work. He shared his secrets for playing with the same intensity each time you hit the court.

Conditioning

“You want to make sure you go into the upcoming season in tip-top shape. My conditioning comes from running, whether it’s on a track, on a field, or on the court itself just doing suicides or sprints. Whatever your program is, the key is to push yourself to a level where you’re hurting. You can’t gain conditioning without going through it. You’re going to have to feel some pain, you’re going to have to feel like your lungs are burning, that sort of thing.”

Consistency

“If you watch me train, it doesn’t look like I’m overexerting myself. It’s an everyday thing. You have to abide by your program religiously.”

In the Gym

“During the season, I focus a lot on weight training, building up my strength level as the season progresses. Clean pulls, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, back squats, things of that nature. In the off-season, it’s about getting stronger as well as more agile. Then, obviously, you want to get on the court and work on your skills. I shoot between 750 and 1,000 makes a day.”

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Shooting

Cuttino Mobley – Former Houston Rockets, L.

A. Clippers guard

The former Clippers and Rockets guard was one of the best 3-point shooters in the league during his playing days. Here’s how to shore up your own longdistance stroke.

Warm-Up

“Start in at the rim, almost like a layup with jump-shot form, and shoot about 100 shots inside, then start moving farther out. It’ll just become muscle memory from repetition.”

Proper Form

“Tuck your elbow and line it up with your knee, and don’t shoot at the rim, shoot up over it. Put some air under the ball so you give it a chance to go in. Pretend you’re picking an apple out of the basket. Reach up, go inside the basket with your release, andfollow through with your index and middle fingers. That’s what your form should be: up, pick the apple out of the basket, then back down. You don’t want to be leaning back when you shoot, either; you just want to go straight up and come down on the same spot.”

In the Gym

“Do as many pushups pullups, and dips as you can. Your jump shot comes from your triceps and your wrist strength. You don’t have to be lifting all those weights to shoot.”

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Speed

Leandro Barbosa – Phoenix Suns guard

Leandro Barbosa, “the Brazilian Blur,” previously won the Sixth Man Award earlier in his career, partly because he’s proven himself to be faster than just about anybody in the NBA. His experience will help improve your speed.

Take Up Soccer

“When I was a kid, I used to play soccer without shoes on the street. I don’t have a lot of ball-handling skills like Steve Nash, but my thing is just to get the ball down the court and score. Soccer really helped me develop my quick feet.”

In the Gym

“I don’t do a lot of upper-body stuff, but I do leg presses, Romanian deadlifts, and some other lower-body work every day. I also try to do exercises while I’m wearing a weighted shirt. People say it can be bad for your knees, but I do a lot of exercises with it on to keep my legs strong. Sometimes, I’ll just walk around the locker room with it on. Then, when I take it off, I can really feel the difference.”

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Mental Toughness

Gilbert Arenas – Former Washington Wizards guard

“Basketball is all mental,” says eccentric guard Gilbert Arenas. “Everyone’s talent is the same, but the mental aspect separates stars from superstars.” Heed his advice and be as tough upstairs as this former clutch shooter.

Redirect Your Energy

“My confidence got hurt coming into the league [Arenas was drafted 31st overall in the second round; he expected to go higher], but after seeing an old highlight tape, I realized that it’s just basketball. I put all my frustration and energy into basketball for two weeks. I did it, and I got to play, and I just decided that [my intensity] is what got me on [the team], and this is what’s going to keep me on it.

Find a Training Partner

“You need someone to challenge you, because it keeps you motivated. He’s going to make you work hard for what you do. You need somebody like that.”

The Psychology of Game Winners

“When we play pickup games, I won’t shoot the ball until it’s the last shot,” says Arenas. “I’m the only one who’s going to take it all the way until we lose or we win. I’ve been doing that for the last three years. You have to have that mind-set: If you don’t make it, you have to live with it. As many shots as Michael Jordan’s made, he’s missed three times as many.”

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Tips from experienced masters: how to become the best basketball player

Basketball is gaining more and more popularity every year. Today you will learn a few simple guidelines that will help beginners build a path to a real professional. The development and improvement of mastery depends on how much a person can master the skills of independent development in this area.

Physical training is the basis of a good basketball player

All professional athletes, including basketball players, have a good and comprehensive physical development. In order to have an advantage over your opponents in this game, you must develop the following qualities: strength, speed, endurance, agility and coordination.

By training in the basketball section, you are most likely mastering general physical fitness. However, if you train only with the ball, then you will not be able to comprehensively develop your fitness. In order to achieve it, you need to take up other sports. For example, athletics - it will help develop endurance and speed. Other qualities can be developed with the help of specialized exercises.

Each sport is unique and has a priority of development of one criterion, others, of course, are also developing, but to a lesser extent.

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7 important rules you should know about every basketball player

  • There is no limit to perfection. Any, even the simplest technique, can be perfected over the years. Which one to focus on? Pay attention to your own body.
  • Athletes must master many techniques with high quality and then try to use them during training games.
  • If a basketball player constantly develops his technical skills, then in time he will become a virtuoso.
  • You must master your strengths and over time work on getting rid of your weaknesses.
  • Do not try to go too far at once, gradually master new movements.
  • Beginners should learn the whole arsenal at once and understand where to focus.
  • The player can choose his specialization after he has already mastered many techniques. And then choose your style of play.

Master yourself

You must remember that every workout allows you to master your movements more clearly. Do not be lazy, and if there are no valid circumstances, then do not skip classes. The main thing is regularity. Over time, you will develop a habit, and you will not be able to imagine your life without basketball. Get rid of your weaknesses and focus on your strengths.

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Practical tips to improve your game

  • Remember that every sport favors muscle elasticity. Do your best to be flexible. Eliminate the possibility of injury due to lack of flexibility.
  • Carefully study all the rules of the game. Find out what you can get a foul for, what is dribbling, rebounding, etc. Also, if you have a friend who can pass on some knowledge to you, be sure to chat with him.
  • Practice basic movements. Become your own coach, choose a sports ground that you like and train hard on it. Move at different paces, throw the ball into the air and catch it as you move. Practice throws into the ring from different angles.
  • Practice with other basketball players. Learn all the terms and definitions and start using them regularly. They should fit tightly into your vocabulary.
  • You must be a good friend. Pass often, occupy an open area in order to help another team member who is blocked.
  • Come up with new tricks. Start with simple ones and gradually complicate them. Be patient and keep practicing until you succeed. Don't give up, be determined.
  • Play at least once every two days, preferably every day. If you have the opportunity to go to the basketball court - by all means use it. Develop tolerance and a sense of devotion to basketball, and then you will definitely achieve certain heights.
  • Play with peers. As a player, you need to know how your opponents handle the ball. If you can't beat them, then work harder. After solo workouts that focus on boosting ancillary qualities like speed and stamina, be sure to be the best on the court.
  • Focus on dribbling. The only possible way to achieve great success is to be good at dribbling. You may be the most accurate basketball player on the planet, but you won't be a good player if you can't break through the opposing team's defense.

How to become a good basketball player?

  • The main thing to remember is that hard work is the key to becoming a great basketball player. A cheerful spirit and self-confidence will definitely contribute to this.
  • Remember that clever attacks are key.
  • Eat healthy food. During the game you lose a lot of calories, recover well. Eat more protein and plant foods.
  • When you play defense, always stand face to face with your opponent.
  • Get used to constant interaction with teammates. Develop your signals.
  • Remember that basketball is a team game where the team wins, not just one player. If you want to win, then be as united as possible.
  • Be friendly and never scold other team members. If you think that you are better than them, then know that arrogance is a terrible character trait.
  • You will win favor with the judges if you play fair.
  • Earn the respect of your new teammates with a good game.

Top warnings to help you avoid big mistakes

  • Never be afraid to throw the ball or attack if you think you're not ready. Also, never show off, let your partners know that you have your place and that you are a useful team member.
  • Warm up well before playing. Do a light jog, then joint exercises and stretching. Flexibility while playing is a must. If you get hurt, you will blame yourself for it. So be smart.
  • Get rid of stereotypes. You don't have to be tall to play basketball. Everyone can enjoy exercising.
  • Do not show aggression towards other players, otherwise you will simply be escorted off the field. Treat your opponents with respect. It is clear that the release of adrenaline makes itself felt, but try to control yourself.
  • Do not play basketball in enclosed spaces such as an apartment. The clatter of the ball can annoy your cohabitants. Moreover, you risk breaking something.

Keep your body in good physical shape

Sport involves the development of all physical abilities to one degree or another. To be a good basketball player, you need to keep fit, learn new tricks and learn new things.

Good athletes never miss a workout and constantly develop their skills. For many sports players, the ball is the meaning of life. Are you ready to sacrifice a lot in order to master it professionally?

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What do you need to do to become a good coach?

Coaching basketball is an endeavor that many make, but few actually succeed at.
A career as a good player can be beneficial for a basketball coach. Use your ability to read the game, your individual and team offensive and defensive skills, the experience of your player relationships, etc. It is important to have the desire and ability to constantly learn the game and transfer that knowledge to your players.

Here are some tips to help you on your way to becoming a better coach: knowledge and skills.

Develop a coaching philosophy
The ways to achieve this vary, but it requires using all that you have learned from the game by watching, reading and interacting with others, using this as a basis for your own approach
in order to become a good coach on basketball.

Find the best offensive and defensive plans
Figure out the best way to prepare for each game, and use those tactics in key drills and patterns in practice and transfer them to the game.

Keep your workout fun
Avoid the monotony of your workout. Exercises and game segments should not last longer than 10 - 12 minutes. Players get tired mentally from monotonous and long repetition. When a basketball coach varies training routines, there is a better chance of maintaining the players' interest and attention.

Strive for excellence in teaching the basics
Basketball individual fundamental technique is often the main key to excellent performance during the game, as a coach you must make sure that your players do the elements of technique correctly. Pay attention to technical details. There should be no trifles in basketball.

Make the most of your players
Find out what your players' individual strengths are and use them where they can best serve the team.
Always encourage team efforts
While players should be encouraged to complete game tasks to the best of their ability, a basketball coach should also ensure that each player contributes to the collective effort of the team.

Enforce discipline... but be reasonable.
Tyrants are feared and not respected. A basketball coach must encourage discipline among his players while maintaining the individual needs of each player in the game so that they do not lose their individuality. Praise more often than scold.

Build good relationships with all players
One of the worst things you can do as a coach is to focus all your energy and attention on your strong players. Each player must feel their role in team life and the game, no matter how much time he spends on the court. When a player is underperforming in today's game, a little attention and one-on-one conversation can be all they need to improve their game the next day.


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