Use These Tips To Become A Better Basketball Player

TIP! It’s natural to be drawn towards offense as a novice, but the pros know defense is where the game is won or lost. Defense is essential to winning these games.

Nobody is going to fix their car before they do research to find out how it’s done. You shouldn’t think you can play basketball without learning about the game, either. The following tips have helped pros become the players they are.

TIP! You must become knowledgeable about hitting a free-throw shot. These shots look easy on television, but are actually hard when you are doing the shooting.

Practice shooting free throws. This is one of those shots that seem easy but in real life are difficult. Practice often using the following technique. Start with the ball ahead of your face. Eye the basket and imagine the ball swishing down into it. Then, use the trajectory you just visualized and shoot the ball.

TIP! Free throws are mental as well as physical. You can teach your body to make a free throw properly, but unless you are properly prepared mentally, you may not succeed.

Learn to crossover if you get the ball often. Being able to dribble the ball with both hands and crossover between the two will make you a better player. That action has to be done fast to be successful. Once you’ve learned how to use it, the crossover dribble makes it easy to navigate the court in a more effective way.

TIP! Practice your pass catching often. When practicing, try catching great passes as well as really bad passes.

Always work on your layups. This is the most popular shot in basketball. Practice running while dribbling, jumping and shooting as smoothly as you can. This will assist you in perfecting your ability to jump and then shoot.

Perfect Passes

TIP! You can improve your passing skills by practicing a simple drill where dribbling is forbidden. Passing drills with your team is important for accurate passes during game time, and you can try doing them without dribbling at all.

Passing the ball is an important part of playing basketball so practice making and receiving passes. You need to be able to retrieve perfect passes and not so perfect passes. This will help you catch those bad passes during a game. Help your teammates by learning what you need to haul in those imperfect passes.

TIP! Do you want to fool the other team? How about the behind the back pass? Use the dominant hand to hold onto the basketball when trying this pass. Pull it behind you.

Use hand signals to avoid errant passes. One of basketball’s most frustrating elements is the concept of sending a quick pass onto a teammate who has just moved in a different direction. You can get around that when you use hand signals, if a player can receive a pass. If you don’t receive a signal then realize your teammate is not able to get the pass.

TIP! Your child should work on their core muscles if they want to become a basketball player in high school. This includes their abs, lower back, and hips.

Understanding what works in basketball is key to figuring out how to play the game. The only thing that could make you feel better is to learn all about basketball. That will leave you winning games and impressing your teammates.