Trying To Improve Your Basketball Skills? Check Out These Ideas!

Basketball is incredibly popular. Whether you’re watching it on TV, playing it with friends, or just playing it on your own in the driveway, basketball isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. If you enjoy playing the game, no doubt you want to show your best on the court at all times. Practicing and learning new skills can help you become a star player.

Learn proper dribbling. Finger tips, not palms, are the key to successful dribbling. This provides you with much more ball control. Dribble off to the side waist high. Don’t look at the ground, always keep your eyes focused forward.

Practice shooting free throws. This is one of those shots that seem easy but in real life are difficult. Use this technique to better your game. Hold the ball level to your face. Keep your eyes on the goal and visualize the ball going into the goal. Then shoot! Shoot the ball in the trajectory you imagined.

Learn how a bounce pass is thrown. This means your pass should be aimed towards the receiving player at the level of his waist. One thing you should do is always remember the ball should be bounced three quarters on its way towards the person you’re passing too. There are, however, other factors that influence the pass.

A good way to improve team passing to use a no dribbling drill, that is to play the game without dribbling at all. Playing without any dribbling is very hard, but builds your passing skills. Don’t let it frustrate you, just be patient.

Don’t bulk up if you want to be good as a jump shooter. Muscle is good, but you can have too much. You will notice that most basketball players have well-defined muscles that are not overdeveloped.

Want to make the other team not know what’s going on? Back passes can give your team the opportunity to score while the other team is still wondering what happened. To properly perform this pass you will need to have the ball in your dominant hand. The next step is to draw the ball behind you. Lastly, flick your wrist in the direction that you want the ball to land. This should make it easy to trick the other team.

Try using hand signals to ensure that your passes are received. Often in basketball, a player makes a pass at the exact same time the receiving player heads to another part of the court. All of this confusion can be remedied through the use of hand signals when a player is opened. If the player does not flash the signal, then the player can avoid an errant pass.

Make sure, no matter what else happens, you can see where the ball is. It’s all about court awareness, and always facing the ball will make it so you are less surprised by passes. That means less turnovers. Also, you need to stay aware of areas which might open up and give you an easy basket.

It’s important to know where you have your feet and also what they’re doing. Just touching the baseline is going to get you called out of bounds. If you travel without dribbling, you’re going to get yourself into a turnover situation. In addition, a foul can be called against you if you move either foot while setting a screen, a pick or taking a charge.

Try practicing how to pass while looking in another direction. It can be very confusing to your opponents. You give your teammate a better chance to make the shot because the opposing player is moving the wrong direction when you pass the ball. If this is pulled off, then it usually has good results.

To make your layups count the most, take off from the foot opposite your shooting hand. This will allow you to shoot with your comfortable hand. Doing this lets you maintain balance and movement towards the goal, while keeping your body in between your defender and your shot.

You can use your guards and point guard to trap an opponent with a 2-3 zone defense. They can then trap the point guard. With the forwards blocking outside, you have a good shot at intercepting a bad pass. The point guard will then probably throw an easily interceptable pass.

Bend the knees when you dribble a basketball. If you don’t bend your knees, you are more susceptible to having the ball stolen by the other team. Slightly bending your knees improves ball control significantly.

Stay low and dribble the ball below the level of your knees. This will make your opponent struggle to steal the ball from you. It will be necessary to bend over, but you should be able to get down the court faster.

If you’re serious about your game, you should take your diet seriously. In order to be ready for practice and games, it is vital that you have the proper energy stored in your body. You should eat more lean sources of protein, fruits and vegetables. Sugar gives quick bursts of energy, but you should eat it sparingly.

Your should have good position both before and after a rebound to assure you keep the ball. Improve your balance and power by jumping using both feet. Be sure to use both hands to secure the ball. After rebounding, land with wide feet to keep your balance, and clutch the ball to your chest.

When shooting, try to keep your nerves under control. You have to focus directly on the basket. Focus your stare on the back part of the rim as you are shooting. However, if you’re trying to make a layup, you have to look at where you’re going to shoot the ball on the backboard so it bounces in.

Clearly, lots of ways to bolster your game play exist. Many of them are as simple as learning a technique and then practicing repeatedly. Practice makes perfect, and basketball is no exception. So get a hoop and start practicing whenever you can. Whether it is practice with your team, playing a pickup game with friends or even just playing with younger players for fun, it all adds up to better skills and sharing the love of basketball.