The Ins And Outs Of Getting Into Basketball
Basketball is unlike any other sport. You learned to get the ball around from player to basket. You might feel like you’re a basketball master today. The following article will show you that you still have much to learn.
It is easy to be focused on offense when you are learning how to play basketball, but you really should focus your practice on defense. Basketball games are often won by great defensive play. The offense gets lots of attention, but if the defense is lacking no basketball team will ever win a game.
You need to learn the correct way to dribble the ball. Don’t use your palm to dribble. Instead, use your fingertips. Doing so will allow you a greater degree of ball control. Bounce the ball no higher than your waist and keep the ball at your side rather than in front. Don’t look at the ground, always keep your eyes focused forward.
Free Throw
Free throw practice is vitally important. The free throw shot might seem simple, but it can actually be pretty difficult. Practice a lot with the following method. Hold the ball level to your face. Maintain focus on the basket and try to visualize your basketball falling through the hoop. Then shoot the ball with the trajectory that you visualized.
Make sure you are looking forward and looking up as you’re dribbling. Looking directly at the ball means you aren’t good at the game yet. Take the ball with you wherever you go. Practice in your home and wherever you walk. If you are staring at the ball, there is no way you can know what else is happening on the court.
Balance is vital to good shooting. While some NBA players are able to launch a ball to the net mid-fall, this is not appropriate for most people. They are improvising. If you have correct balance when you are making a shot, you will make more consistent baskets over time.
A bounce pass is an important technique to learn. The bounce pass needs to reach the player at waist level. A good estimation is to target the ball to bounce at about 3/4 of the distance that the receiving player is. There can be other factors in play to keep in mind, as well.
Hitting free throws is a mental challenge as well as a physical one. Without a strong mindset, your body simply goes through the motions to take the shot. Take a deep breathe, relax and block out all outside distractions before taking the shot.
Frequently train yourself on your pass catching moves. You want to practice catching perfect passes and bad passes. During a game, not all of your passes will hit the mark. Learn how to catch any sort of throw.
You need to practice more than defeating a zone defense. While a great portion of a game will be concentrated in the zone, your rivals could opt to go to man-to-man covering to keep you guessing. When you don’t know how to defeat it, you will lose.
Don’t pump too much iron if you plan on being a jump shooter. Though muscle strength is great to have with any sport, it is very possible to be too buff for serious game play. Some professional shooting guards made their arms so big that it started decreasing their field goal percentage.
With all of these awesome basketball tips, you’ve got a lot of opportunity to grow. Make sure you practice hard to reach your goals. When you add in these tips and start using them within your strategy, your game will start to show the improvements you always wanted to see.