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How to get more aggressive in basketball
Basketball on the Edge - 10 Tips for Playing More Aggressive Basketball
Coaches in every sport say it, “Be aggressive out there!” What does that mean exactly? You know your coach wants you to “be more aggressive” but what specifically can you do to play more aggressively? Here are some suggestions of what you can do right now to play more aggressively and some suggestions that can help over the long term.
Play more aggressively today.
1. Go after loose balls.
Every coach loves a player who will get on the floor for a loose ball. Possessions are valuable, they give your team another opportunity to score. Be the player that gets after (AND GETS) every loose ball.
2. Develop an “Every rebound is mine.” mentality.
What stops you from going after every rebound? Unless it is your responsibility to get back on defense why not go hard after the rebound? I watch players in every game just stand and watch as the shot goes up. If you think “Every rebound is mine. ” You’ll play more aggressively.
3. Don’t hesitate. Make a decision and go.
Catch the ball and make a quick basketball. Are you open? Take a shot. Defender rushing at you? Head fake and drive. Teammate open? Make a quick pass. As your skill level improves (See #1 in the long term section) you’ll get better at eliminating hesitation from your game
4. Set physical screens.
Make contact with defenders when you screen. Too many players set phantom screens with little or no contact. It doesn’t take great talent to set a hard screen. Make setting physical screens part of your identity as a player.
5. Play with high energy.
Run the floor harder than your opponent. Don’t rest while you are playing help-side defense. Make hard cuts to the basket on offense. Think of all the little ways you can bring more energy to the game.
6. Communicate
If you want to play more aggressively become a better communicator. Talk more out on the floor. Remind teammates where to go, what to do, or about specific game situations. Your coach will perceive you as a more aggressive player when you are out there communicating and talking the game.
Ways to improve your aggressiveness for the long term.
7. Develop your basketball skills.
The better your basketball skill set the more likely you are to be aggressive. If you can’t dribble well with your weak hand, you probably won’t be very aggressive driving that direction in a game. As you develop your skills you’ll become more aggressive because you know you can do certain out on the court. You know you’ve put the time to become a better player that can “be more aggressive”.
8. Be confident.
Skill building is confidence building. When you are confident you feel you can do almost anything out on the court. You’ll be more relaxed, knowing you’ve put the time in working on your game. How much more confident and aggressive would you be shooting a game winning jump shot in a tie game with 2 seconds left if you had practiced 100 of those shots every day in the off-season? Confident players are aggressive players.
9. Get your body right.
Work on your strength, agility, cardio, and athleticism. Eat right, Get enough sleep. You can’t be aggressive if you’re worn down, injured, or tired.
10. Don’t fear failure.
When you play scared you often play trying to avoid mistakes. That is a sure way to avoid playing aggressively. Fear often grips players who are bench players. They check in the game feeling that one mistake will have them on the bench. Try to remember that fear really only exists in your mind. Play the way you are capable of playing and good things will happen.
Follow these ten tips and you can start being a more aggressive player today. Show your coach that you know how to “Be more aggressive!”
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7 Basketball Toughness Drills To Develop Aggressiveness, Confidence & Swagger
Skip to content How to Be More Aggressive in Basketball
If your youth basketball coaching sessions have seen your coach imploring you to be more aggressive out there on the court, there are a great number of drills you can do to gain more toughness and therefore more aggressive in your basketball.
Teaching the Aggressive Defensive Basketball Position Drill
Aggressive play starts with defense.
Put your energy into stopping that opposing player from scoring like your life depends on it. Get every rebound and never give up on it. This is a way to play aggressively when playing the fundamentals of basketball.
Your teammates will take notice and consider you a valuable asset on the court – someone who will always have their back.
Your teammates will feed off this energy and you will be considered a huge presence on the court. This, in turn, will give you the confidence you need for aggressive offensive play.
Own the Ball
When the ball is in your hands and you’re on the offense – own it! Cultivate the idea that the ball belongs to you – not the defender!
It is your ball…you are holding it.
It is not theirs…and never will be.
All you have to do is hold on to the ball, keep it from them, and the rest will come to you.
Have a Basketball Match with Unknown Players
If you find your aggression changes based on who you are playing, this can be a guide for taming your passiveness problem. It is common for players to play aggressively with their friends and people they know well as they are comfortable and in their element.
Players know that if they make a mistake with their friends they probably won’t punish them too badly for it. Players also know that if they push aggressively by using their elbows and arms more vigorously, accidentally hurting someone they know will be more quickly forgiven.
When we play against unknown players we are out of our groove and we don’t know exactly how they will react to aggressive play.
This can make us tense, nervous, and timid.
The key to getting out of this psychological rut is to play more with people you do not know – play more games with the people that make you nervous or in settings that push your boundaries. Each time you play with unknown players you are building your mental strength.
You will be gaining the experience and learning the skills needed to deal with any kind of teammate or opponent, as well as proving to yourself that there is nothing to fear.
Develop Your Skills in Basketball
It’s easy to look at the best players on the team that seem to effortlessly scoring basket after basket and think: “Well, I would be confident if I could play that well. ”
The fact is they have practiced those shots hundreds or thousands of times.
If you practice the same way you will feel the same confidence – even when there are three seconds left on the clock and the ball is in your hands.
If you’ve got a weak dribble with the ball in your left hand, for example, work on it every day.
Work on your strength, your athleticism, agility, and playing skills. Eat the right food, and get enough sleep every day so you’re always playing at your best and developing your skills as quickly as possible.
Teaching the “Build the Habit Drill”
Consciously start hand-checking and boxing out more often. Much like any habit: aggressive, confident basketball playing comes from forcing yourself to do it time and again…until it becomes second nature.
This builds your toughness!
If you find yourself standing around the perimeter then it’s time to remind yourself to get in there and work – even it if appears your immediate efforts are unimportant. It’s all about building up those aggressive habits until they become second nature as you become a naturally aggressive player.
Try Cross-Training
One suggestion is to cross-train in a different sport…perhaps football?
Football is a highly aggressive contact youth sport…much more so than basketball.
You will be learning how to play aggressively every day and becoming used to the rough and tumble of competitive sports!
Never Fear to Fail
If you’re often benched, you might build a mental block where you fear that any on-court failure will have you back on the bench. You prefer to play it safe – a dangerous thing to do in basketball. Try to remember that fear is just a state of mind.
You have the power to tell yourself “No, I’m not afraid!”
Taking more risks will make you a better player. Your coach will ultimately not want to bench the player that’s always ready to go in for that loose ball.
Aggressiveness and mental toughness comes from confidence. The less confident we are, the more fearful we are of making mistakes. The more fearful we are of making mistakes, the more we fear failure. The more we fear failure, the more we fear our coaches. Ultimately, this is can result in a loss of passion for the game, which again feeds into a lack of aggression on the court.
Love the game first, and you’ll want to get in there and win it all for your cherished teammates.
The Mental Toughness Academy has a program designed specifically to improve your ability on the court. Our Basketball Mental Toughness program can teach you how to overcome negativity and doubt by instilling confidence and mental fortitude.
A mentally tough athlete is an unstoppable athlete!
Welcome to the Winner’s Circle!
Craig Sigl, The Mental Toughness Trainer and Youth Sports Specialist
Craig Sigl2021-04-14T02:59:37+08:00
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5 tips for effective defense in basketball
Author: Maxim Gordienko
Hello, dear visitors of the website basketball-training. org.ua ! Today I want to continue on the topic of Basketball Defense and talk about the five key elements that will allow you to become a more tenacious, aggressive, consistent defender.
This article will be very short - just 5 tips, try to follow them every time you enter the court, bring them to automatism. It won't be long before you notice progress. Let's not talk too much and get started right away.
5 tips for playing defense against a ball carrier
Tip #1. Never lose your balance.
The purpose of each offensive move ( Better 1 on 1 Offense ) is to throw the opponent off balance. Once you lose your balance, even if it takes less than a second, it will not be difficult to beat you. Based on this, for good protection you need the following:
Get into a good defensive stance and ignore all kinds of feints, in particular flashing shots.
Do not chase the ball in an attempt to knock it out. Strange advice, but I'll explain. It is foolish to rush after the ball, which is securely covered by the body and the auxiliary hand. At best, you simply won't reach it. But at worst, and this happens more often, you will lose your balance and immediately lose the position.
Stand in a wide stance. If the legs are too close to each other, then any crossover will easily unbalance you.
Sit down! If the legs are almost not bent, then you will easily lose balance and precious seconds when moving.
Move with small steps: if the legs are too close when moving, again the balance will be lost.
Tip #2. If the ball is above the waist, then keep one hand above the ball.
If the hand is above the ball, then the usual throw will be difficult.
Tip #3. If the ball rises to forehead level, place your hand on the ball.
Such a simple movement will allow you to interrupt the throwing process even when approaching the final stage: you will have to start all over again. And do not forget about the legs: they are bent and ready for a timely reaction to the opponent's feints.
Tip #4. If the ball has risen above your head, knock it out from the bottom up, accelerating the rise of the ball.
Such a movement is almost never whistled as a foul (but if you press the ball from above, the whistle will sound in 7-8 cases out of 10). Another option is not to knock out, but simply stick your hand under the ball: it will no longer be possible to lower it down (in any case, it will be difficult) and it will also not work well to throw.
Tip #5. Let your head be lower than the head of the attacking player.
Low landing will allow you to concentrate on the opponent's torso. The chest (namely, its middle) cannot make deceptive movements - which means it will be very difficult to stagger you. And one more thing: a low stance will allow you to move quickly and, in which case, provoke fouls in the attack.
This article is a translation (with minor corrections by the author) of material from breakthroughbasketball.com. As for me, this is a good addition to this article: tips for playing defense.
Apply the acquired knowledge and destroy your rivals! I wish you successful training and I look forward to seeing you on the pages of this site. Agree - here you can find a lot of interesting tips!
And, yes, join our large community in VKontakte, read all the interesting announcements on Twitter or enter your e-mail in a special form (top right) - so you will know about all the news of our site.
Well, when you have absolutely free time, you can play interesting computer games. Personally, I like the 2K Sport series of computer games much more than NBA Live.
Dwight Howard: "I Know How to Defend Against Big Players" - Basketball
Orlando center Dwight Howard thinks he's found a way to defend against tall players with good shots like New Jersey center Brook Lopez.
“All you have to do is get him to move around the court, be more aggressive with him, both offensively and defensively. Usually guys this size get tired much faster than other people, so you need to use it, Howard was quoted by The Orlando Sentinel.
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Remind teammates where to go, what to do, or about specific game situations. Your coach will perceive you as a more aggressive player when you are out there communicating and talking the game.
”
It’s all about building up those aggressive habits until they become second nature as you become a naturally aggressive player.
The less confident we are, the more fearful we are of making mistakes. The more fearful we are of making mistakes, the more we fear failure. The more we fear failure, the more we fear our coaches. Ultimately, this is can result in a loss of passion for the game, which again feeds into a lack of aggression on the court.
org.ua ! Today I want to continue on the topic of Basketball Defense and talk about the five key elements that will allow you to become a more tenacious, aggressive, consistent defender. 
Strange advice, but I'll explain. It is foolish to rush after the ball, which is securely covered by the body and the auxiliary hand. At best, you simply won't reach it. But at worst, and this happens more often, you will lose your balance and immediately lose the position. 
And do not forget about the legs: they are bent and ready for a timely reaction to the opponent's feints. 
