Ball Handling Tips
DRIBBLE AT GAME SPEED
Practicing the right way means doing things at game speed, and in game-like situations. Don't go outside and just dribble around at half-speed. That will help you, but not much. Practice at full speed, at game speeds to really make a difference and improve your game.
DEVELOP YOUR WEAK HAND
It is important to work right from the start at developing both hand equally well. When practicing your ball handling, make sure that you practice at least as much with your weak hand as you do your strong hand,
eventually increasing to twice as much with your weak hand. If you have trouble dribbling with your weak hand defenders will pick up on this and give you big trouble!
NO PEEKING
Learn to dribble without needing to look at the ball. This is hard for youth when first learning but required the older you get, so begin this habit young. Keep your head up and stay alert to what's happening on the court, not what's
happening at your feet. Think of it this way the floor is flat and your dribble down where else can the ball go but straight back!
KEEP IT CLOSE AND LOW
Learn to keep your dribble close to you and not out front or out off to the side. Also work on staying low to the ground, keeping the dribble low, and having good control in terms of changing direction if and when necessary. And always keep the ball on your fingertips. You get better control and power on your dribble
when you keep it on your fingertips.
STAY AWAY FROM TRAP AREAS
As a general rule, you should stay away from the corners and sidelines when performing as a dribbler. These are sure defensive trap areas and you will get caught!
DRIBBLE WITH A PURPOSE
Be sure there is a purpose to your dribbling and not just dribbling. Useless and excessive dribbling can hurt the team. Do not pick up your dribble until you know what you are going to do with it. Picking the ball up with no plan creates a deadball for defense then they attack you!
PROTECT THE BALL
When dribbling against a defender, ALWAYS protect the ball with your body. You can do this by dribbling with your left hand when you are going left and your right hand when you are going right. This will force the defender to
reach across your body to attempt a steal.
FOOTWORK WITH THE BALL
Work on your footwork: being a good dribbler means going somewhere with the ball, coming to a good jump-stop, pivoting, and either passing or shooting the ball. Dribbling is a skill that is related to having good footwork
(as almost every part of the game is). So work on good two-foot jump-stops, front and back pivots, and changing pace and direction. With a lot of hard work, you'll improve. Easy? No. But the hard work will pay off for you.
EVERYONE MUST HAVE GOOD DRIBBLING FORM
Good ball handling dribbling skills aren't just important for guards and small forwards. All players should improve their ball handling skills. Even if you're a center or forward that doesn't do as much ball handling as a guard in a game, you still want to be a well rounded player. So even if you dedicate more of your practice time to center or forward-specific drills (offensive post moves, rebounding, etc.), you should still work on developing good dribbling skills. It can only help your game and make you a better all-around player.
USE THE ANGLES
One of the most important techniques to bringing the ball up the floor is to use angles to your advantage. Rather than trying to put on some great move and go by someone, the novice point guard should concentrate on a low dribble, protecting the ball with their body and an arm bar, then advance the ball up the floor using 45 degree angles. When they feel pressure and the defense is in front of them, they should change directions and attack at another 45 degree angle.
DRIBBLE TO AVOID PRESSURE
By dribbling the ball over half court on the sideline, you are giving the defense an advantage. They can set up their help side defense or trap you. Change directions and it helps relieve some pressure. As often as possible, bring the ball up the middle of the court and NEVER pick up your dribble in the corners.
SPEED DRIBBLE
The speed dribble is used to advance the ball quickly up the floor, against little or no defensive pressure. The dribblers hand should be behind the ball pushing it in front, then running to catch up. This prevents a "palming" or
"carrying over" violation. The speed dribble in the open floor can be a littlehigher than other dribbles. Control dribble moves should be around the knee, but a speed dribble can be waist high.
POWER DRIBBLE
This drill actually requires you to leave the basketball court and find a patch of dirt. Do a Power dribble on the dirt for 1 or 2 minutes. You will need to power dribble the ball even harder than usual in order to get the ball to bounce on the dirt. This drill is an extremely good arm workout with power dribbling.
COACHES LIKE
Coaches like a person who: 1) can dribble with both hands 2) doesn’t try to show off for no reason 3) isn’t afraid to make the extra pass to get a teammate more open than you are. And if coaches like you, then they tell other coaches. Word spreads very quickly and just by doing the little things you can have a name for yourself in no time.
Practicing the right way means doing things at game speed, and in game-like situations. Don't go outside and just dribble around at half-speed. That will help you, but not much. Practice at full speed, at game speeds to really make a difference and improve your game.
DEVELOP YOUR WEAK HAND
It is important to work right from the start at developing both hand equally well. When practicing your ball handling, make sure that you practice at least as much with your weak hand as you do your strong hand,
eventually increasing to twice as much with your weak hand. If you have trouble dribbling with your weak hand defenders will pick up on this and give you big trouble!
NO PEEKING
Learn to dribble without needing to look at the ball. This is hard for youth when first learning but required the older you get, so begin this habit young. Keep your head up and stay alert to what's happening on the court, not what's
happening at your feet. Think of it this way the floor is flat and your dribble down where else can the ball go but straight back!
KEEP IT CLOSE AND LOW
Learn to keep your dribble close to you and not out front or out off to the side. Also work on staying low to the ground, keeping the dribble low, and having good control in terms of changing direction if and when necessary. And always keep the ball on your fingertips. You get better control and power on your dribble
when you keep it on your fingertips.
STAY AWAY FROM TRAP AREAS
As a general rule, you should stay away from the corners and sidelines when performing as a dribbler. These are sure defensive trap areas and you will get caught!
DRIBBLE WITH A PURPOSE
Be sure there is a purpose to your dribbling and not just dribbling. Useless and excessive dribbling can hurt the team. Do not pick up your dribble until you know what you are going to do with it. Picking the ball up with no plan creates a deadball for defense then they attack you!
PROTECT THE BALL
When dribbling against a defender, ALWAYS protect the ball with your body. You can do this by dribbling with your left hand when you are going left and your right hand when you are going right. This will force the defender to
reach across your body to attempt a steal.
FOOTWORK WITH THE BALL
Work on your footwork: being a good dribbler means going somewhere with the ball, coming to a good jump-stop, pivoting, and either passing or shooting the ball. Dribbling is a skill that is related to having good footwork
(as almost every part of the game is). So work on good two-foot jump-stops, front and back pivots, and changing pace and direction. With a lot of hard work, you'll improve. Easy? No. But the hard work will pay off for you.
EVERYONE MUST HAVE GOOD DRIBBLING FORM
Good ball handling dribbling skills aren't just important for guards and small forwards. All players should improve their ball handling skills. Even if you're a center or forward that doesn't do as much ball handling as a guard in a game, you still want to be a well rounded player. So even if you dedicate more of your practice time to center or forward-specific drills (offensive post moves, rebounding, etc.), you should still work on developing good dribbling skills. It can only help your game and make you a better all-around player.
USE THE ANGLES
One of the most important techniques to bringing the ball up the floor is to use angles to your advantage. Rather than trying to put on some great move and go by someone, the novice point guard should concentrate on a low dribble, protecting the ball with their body and an arm bar, then advance the ball up the floor using 45 degree angles. When they feel pressure and the defense is in front of them, they should change directions and attack at another 45 degree angle.
DRIBBLE TO AVOID PRESSURE
By dribbling the ball over half court on the sideline, you are giving the defense an advantage. They can set up their help side defense or trap you. Change directions and it helps relieve some pressure. As often as possible, bring the ball up the middle of the court and NEVER pick up your dribble in the corners.
SPEED DRIBBLE
The speed dribble is used to advance the ball quickly up the floor, against little or no defensive pressure. The dribblers hand should be behind the ball pushing it in front, then running to catch up. This prevents a "palming" or
"carrying over" violation. The speed dribble in the open floor can be a littlehigher than other dribbles. Control dribble moves should be around the knee, but a speed dribble can be waist high.
POWER DRIBBLE
This drill actually requires you to leave the basketball court and find a patch of dirt. Do a Power dribble on the dirt for 1 or 2 minutes. You will need to power dribble the ball even harder than usual in order to get the ball to bounce on the dirt. This drill is an extremely good arm workout with power dribbling.
COACHES LIKE
Coaches like a person who: 1) can dribble with both hands 2) doesn’t try to show off for no reason 3) isn’t afraid to make the extra pass to get a teammate more open than you are. And if coaches like you, then they tell other coaches. Word spreads very quickly and just by doing the little things you can have a name for yourself in no time.
MENTAL TIPS
MENTAL REHEARSAL
Mental Rehearsal: This is almost as important as practicing the action itself. The brain patterns during mental rehearsal of an action are the same as those when preparing for the action before the motor skill is selected, so the
more you mentally rehearse a shot, the quicker and easier it will be to prepare to carry out the shot.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Always believe in yourself. If you think you can`t do it, you aren`t going to . When shooting, believe its going in and it will have a better a chance.
ROLE MODEL
Be the role model your team needs of poise and self control. Players will feed off of you and draw confidence from your mental toughness.
NO EXCUSES
Do not allow anyone to accept or make excuses, encourage all to give it their best..
FOREGET IT AND DRIVE ON
If you make a mistake, recognize it, admit it, learn from it so that it doesn't happen again. After that forget it so that it doesn't affect any more plays.
YOUR KEY WORDS
Use key words to focus on mental toughness and what is happening next in the game. A simple phrase such as "Play through it!" can be your teams signal that everyone needs to get on to the next play.
SEE IT
Always visualize success and performing the skills the correct way. A positive attitude.
NEVER SHOW IT
Bad body language, moping, pouting, displays of disgust with officials, and other negative behaviors are sure things that will lead to failure. Everyone has things that happen to them they don’t like, don’t show it, play through it.
Mental Rehearsal: This is almost as important as practicing the action itself. The brain patterns during mental rehearsal of an action are the same as those when preparing for the action before the motor skill is selected, so the
more you mentally rehearse a shot, the quicker and easier it will be to prepare to carry out the shot.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Always believe in yourself. If you think you can`t do it, you aren`t going to . When shooting, believe its going in and it will have a better a chance.
ROLE MODEL
Be the role model your team needs of poise and self control. Players will feed off of you and draw confidence from your mental toughness.
NO EXCUSES
Do not allow anyone to accept or make excuses, encourage all to give it their best..
FOREGET IT AND DRIVE ON
If you make a mistake, recognize it, admit it, learn from it so that it doesn't happen again. After that forget it so that it doesn't affect any more plays.
YOUR KEY WORDS
Use key words to focus on mental toughness and what is happening next in the game. A simple phrase such as "Play through it!" can be your teams signal that everyone needs to get on to the next play.
SEE IT
Always visualize success and performing the skills the correct way. A positive attitude.
NEVER SHOW IT
Bad body language, moping, pouting, displays of disgust with officials, and other negative behaviors are sure things that will lead to failure. Everyone has things that happen to them they don’t like, don’t show it, play through it.