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How to get better at basketball without practicing


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 Practice Basketball Alone [12 Tips for playing alone]

Three similar questions

How to practice basketball at home? And How do I get better at basketball at home? Or when I’m alone?

Although basketball will forever be known as a team sport, you shall realize the importance of practicing basketball alone at some point in time. Because right now, group or team practice may not be doing enough to sharpen your skills as previously you thought it would do.

You will find some individuals who learn best if they are allowed to practice basketball alone. But how to practice basketball alone? I definitely will come back to answer this question later.

Nevertheless, let me tell you one thing first, this is by no means a wrong decision to practice yourself. As an athlete, you need to motivate yourself to reach your goals. Learning self motivation is equally important as other court skills.

So, you can help yourself to climb up the ladder without being dependent on others. You shall get the chance to work on your weakness, rectify mistakes, and finally can concentrate on enhancing your skills. You can even experiment with a few new basketball tricks, techniques, moves that you can call your own.

Yeah, this is true that while playing alone you won’t have the same kind of fun and enjoyment, compared to playing with teammates or friends. Yet doing practice alone is useful.

May be the court is not always free or available for you, but playing alone is possible. There are a handful number of skills available which you can master by playing alone. Passing, shooting, dribbling, vertical dribble on the wall with fingertips, controlled dribbling are some of them.

The primary objective is to push yourself to the limit to get the most out of your workout session and increase your speed and agility than ever before.

Table of Contents

  • 12 Steps For playing basketball alone
    • 1. Feel the need
    • 2. Arrange a schedule
    • 3. Choose a suitable place
    • 4. Do not forget the Equipment
    • 5. Warm up yourself
    • 6. List the skills
    • 7. Ball handling
    • 8. Shoot
    • 9. Passing
    • 10. Conditioning
    • 11. Cherish the opportunity to examine yourself
    • 12. Find the delight in between practice

Let me give you some instructions that may come in handy when you practice basketball alone.

1. Feel the need

As a basketball athlete, you must recognize that you should have a practice session on your own. If you are a varsity player, you also need to spend some time in your reading room. So your grades are taken care of. As a result, often, you may not get the chance to practice.

And if you are a pro, there is always a busy schedule prior to the matches and after that. Even you may require to travel more than doing practice. This is so common. With all those busy schedules in between, you must think of how you can raise the bar by trumping the old you.

If you want your kid to develop affection towards basketball right from a young age, you can gift him/her a toddler basketball set.

So, self study is the best study, and these individual basketball workouts will undoubtedly help you emerge as a better player.

2. Arrange a schedule

May be there are plenty of things you do everyday. Even sometimes, you forget to finish the most important ones. This can happen to anyone. So, how to get rid of this problem?

Organize a daily routine where you are gonna listed all schedules or planned activities. Now that you accept the necessity of practicing by yourself, so make room from your timetable.

It would be best if you did it for your cause, not to show others. By doing this, you won’t be feeling hesitant when or how to make time for self practice.

3. Choose a suitable place

Choose a location that has enough space for you to run around and show off some of your mastered basketball moves. Also, you can experiment with new moves.

You need to make the best use of your practice hours. So, do not just get satisfied after some dribbling and shooting. Change directions, cross over, fake, and do all sorts of things. So, to perform all these little things, you will probably need a location which is good enough spacious.

It can’t be more significant than if you find the vacant area near your living house or in your backyard. That means you will be much more comfortable because none is observing you, and you can relaxedly perform all kinds of drills.

Want to make the sport more interesting? Enjoy your moments in water with these pool basketball hoops.

4. Do not forget the Equipment

While practicing, make sure you have all accessories and equipment close to your hand grabs. To learn new things, techniques, moves do have your equipment ready.

Always remember to put on sports gear. Shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, and ankle brace are the most common of all. To reduce the injury of your leg or muscle, you must wear shoes. Shorts will help you to run more freely.

5. Warm up yourself

Always remember to do some warm-up exercises before practicing. It will help your muscle to get ready for the stretches in the practice session because sudden stretches can lead to severe injury. Blood flow and the cardiovascular system will be accustomed to all these jogging and movements.

We also recommend warm up after you’re done with your practice because your muscles need to relax a bit after heavy physical activity.

6. List the skills

When it comes to building skills, do not just practice blindly; make a list of basketball moves you want to work on. You gotta be smart and practical. Take your time and go after it.

7. Ball handling

Dribble from an as low position as you can. Change hands. Dribble the ball around your legs. Move from right to left and then left to the right hand. You can even set up lines of cones in a pattern known as “zig-zag”.

Let me help you with an example that will make you understand it better.

At the very first cone dribble, then a simple crossover dribble. At the next cone, change direction by dribbling between legs, go behind or do spin dribbling at the last one. Also, be watchful about the speed you are passing the basketball. Try to speed up each time. Handling will help you in shooting, passing, catching, driving, and making layups.

8. Shoot

You can follow the steps described below to achieve a better result. Here are some basketball shooting drills to do alone:

a. Set your feet, bend your arm and line up elbow with the basket.

b. Try to use a proper follow through so, you can get a superb visualization.

c. Take 10 shots in a row without hitting the rim by standing in front of the basket.

d. Compete with yourself everytime. Shoot without dribbling, after one dribble or even you can try a last second shot.

Shooting is something where you always do not require the hoop. You can fix a target or set up a basket just like what people used to do in the early days of inventing basketball. There is a cheap mini basketball hoop that you can purchase without spending a fortune. However, this is not recommended for adults yet perfect for a little 1-on-1 or to practice your three-pointers.

9. Passing

a. On the wall you need to keep marking of passing target by tape.

B. Try two hand passes, one hand passes, use right and left hand.

C. Adjust the distance according to your capability.

D. Work on pivoting. protecting the ball from defenders is really important too. study on that aspect of the game too.

E. Hit the target zone as many times as you can.

10. Conditioning

a. You can use various kinds of basketball related drills to improve your physical condition. For e.g to increase your upper body strength, do push ups.

B. Sprint up and down into the court to improve cardiovascular fitness.

C. Do jumping drills to jump from a standing position.

D. Stand under the basket, jump and try to touch the backboard 10 times in very quick succession.

E. Try to slide your feet quickly so you can change the directions frequently. By doing this, your defensive footwork will be improved a lot.

11. Cherish the opportunity to examine yourself

That’s a personal decision to practice alone. This is the only way to observe yourself by yourself. Try to judge yourself as an athlete from your point of view. Do everything possible you require to become a better player than now. That will give you great satisfaction at the end of the day because you’re putting in extra practice hours to reach your goal. Be your coach.

12. Find the delight in between practice

All your hard work will be valued more if you enjoy the practice sessions from the core of your heart. There is absolutely nothing more satisfying and wonderful than playing the sport you dream of playing.

Yeah, you won’t be taking your practice sessions lightly but also try to enjoy and take fun out of it. Even though you are doing all alone, do not forget to have the jubilation at times.

Spend the time to discover yourself and know about various aspects of your game where you need to grow as a basketball player to achieve your lifelong dream. Furthermore, this may prove to be a catalyst for speeding up your learning and development process of skills and a better understanding of the game.

Article you may find interesting:

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Tips for becoming a basketball Player In 2 Months

How can a basketball player develop without access to the gym?

4 tips to become a better player, athlete and personality

It happens to everyone that you want to train, move forward, progress, but there is no access to the court and the gym. This article contains 4 recommendations for this case. Read and apply.

1. Start monitoring your nutrition and sleep

One of the most important components of progress and development on the site is recovery, and nutrition and sleep are its foundation. Without this, stretching, contrast showers and everything else make little sense.

So you can not sit if you sleep 4 hours a day

2. Work on your body

This does not always require a basketball hall or even a gym. Charging, yoga and stretching, some other recovery procedures (only with a really heavy load), core is the minimum that can be done at home.

In fact, at the initial stage, it is possible to exercise effectively and beneficially for the body at home. Add this and you will already become the best around, because you will train more.

Images from our online school where you can train at home

3. Analyze matches

This will help you better understand the game and increase your basketball IQ. Analyze your game and the game of professionals you want to be like, analyze your opponent. And always pay attention to details.

Kobe Bryant was a crazy basketball player down to the last detail. He watched the matches and noticed the details so much that he knew how his opponent would act in any situation. In his book, he described a moment where, thanks to analysis, Kobe dunked through the center opponent, because he knew how he would put his hand to resist, and was able to remove it.

Curry said that when he watches his games, he pauses and notes what decisions he can make. Then he chooses the best and turns on the tape to test himself in the game. You can do that too.

You can also look at professionals. You turn on the match of a player you are similar in style to and follow his every move.

Kobe does not waste time and watches the game during the flight

4. Learn

Read books, watch educational and useful videos, be interested in something else. You may not become a professional basketball player, but you can always become a good person.

To be successful in the game, one must not only have good athleticism and skills. Knowledge in psychology will help you better understand the actions of opponents. Communication skills will help build better relationships with teammates. Good time management will allow you to use your time more efficiently. A successful career consists not only of playing on the court, but also of acting outside of it.

We add material and tools to the online school that help not only in basketball, but also in life. Some guys start to study better and do more things in a day, because they become more disciplined and learn a lot of new things. This is important because life does not end with basketball.

LeBron has been using the slogan "More than an athlete" for several years now. Because basketball goes beyond the sport where everything ends in the hall. Now this is life.

Nikita Yamshchikov

Founder Ball in

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Basketball practice hacks: how to score goals for beginners

Even if you are a novice basketball player, we will not give you a training plan, but we will tell you why the ball flies anywhere but into the ring and into your hands. It's all about technique: even with regular training and perseverance, novice adults and children often make simple mistakes. It's a shame, let's fix it. Below are 11 life hacks on how to hone your technique to increase the likelihood of a goal for your team.

Basketball Shot Rules for Beginners

1. Hands up

In pursuit of the attacker, raise your hands, even if you are standing with your back to the pass, and even more so if the ring is in front of you. Your raised hands will increase the chance of intercepting the ball from the opponent by 2 times. Don't overlook this little thing!

2. Make shield rolls

Even Tim Duncan did not neglect them! A square is drawn on the basketball backboard. If you are standing opposite the ring, then aim at the middle of the upper part of the square, if you are standing on the side, then at the corner. If you hit this square, then the ball is at 90% of cases will fall into the ring. The law of physics and no cheating!

3. Look at the ring, not at the ball

Practice driving the ball with your hand, not your eyes, develop tactile control. Your eyes should be on the hoop while dribbling and be aware of the position of your body in relation to the hoop. Then you will be able to take the correct posture, and the throw will be effective.

4. Dribble with the balls of your fingers only

The palm should not touch the ball, only the pads of the fingers. Dribbling should become familiar to you, like an extension of your hand. Then you can change its trajectory at any time and you will have more chances to score goals. Practice with the ball constantly.

5. Throw with one hand

If you throw the ball with two hands, you reduce the chance of hitting the basket. All the efforts of the throw are in one hand (in the right for right-handers, in the left for left-handers). The other hand only holds the ball, the leading one holds it with the fingers, not the palm.

6. Do not jump when protecting the ring

Jumping is the main mistake of rookie defenders. To intercept the ball and block the shot, simply stick out your hands. When you are in a jump, the attacker will easily bypass you.

7. Don't look back

When you dribble, don't look back, but dribble and aim for the ring, focus on shooting (or passing to another player on your team).

8. Bring the throw to automatism

Incorporate the most basic basketball techniques into your training plan and bring the shot to automatism. Throw first from a distance of half a meter from the ring, gradually increasing it. Learn to throw the ball so that it hits the hoop without touching the edge.

Throw the ball with all fives and jump

Throwing Rules:

  • Head in the center of the body - if tilted, accuracy is lost.
  • Look at the ring: mentally build a trajectory. If you are far away, the ball flies in a curved curve with a maximum height of 2 meters above the hoop.
  • A strong hand is in front and throws, a weak hand is on the side and directs, only holding the ball. The elbow of the throwing hand must be in line with the ring.
  • The ball must rest on the fingers without touching the palm. The fingers are as far apart as possible and grab the ball.
  • Throwing arm bent 90 degrees, forearm perpendicular to the floor. If you bend less, then you get not a throw, but a throwing of the ball horizontally.

The main thing in the throw is the position of the body and its balance. Place your feet apart and parallel to each other: it is important to orient them in the middle of the basket. Then the direction of the body during the jump will coincide with the direction of the throw, and the ball will fly straight into the ring. When the feet are uneven, the ball flies in the wrong direction or does not reach (although the throw was normal).

Take a deep breath and release as you exhale.

How to hold the ball and shoot in basketball

How to throw correctly: straighten your arm, point your wrist up, and with your hand set the ball to rotate in the opposite direction from the flight. The ball should seem to "roll" off your fingers.

9. Copy masters and play as a team

Watch professional basketball games and try to copy the movements of your favorite players in training. And be sure to conduct game sparring - this will allow you to develop more techniques.

10. Do not throw in a straight line

The higher the arc of the ball, the greater the chance of a goal and the less chance of blocking by the opponent.


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