4 Areas To Practice To Improve Your Game

There are four basic skill areas that every basketball player should master. These four areas should be practiced every practice session to help build up a player’s skill set. It is important that a player not forget to practice a skill or that he over practices another skill. It may sometimes seem that some skills are more important than others, but they are all equally important to building a good all around player. Every player should give equal focus to each skill and put their best effort forward in mastering them.

1. Shooting

When players first start taking up the game of basketball and learning moves they always focus on shooting. It is something that players think is the end all and be all of the game. Of course, it’s essential to rack up those points! However, shooting is only a small part of the game. In fact, shooting is very reliant on all the other aspects of game play. With that said, though, shooting is still important. Players need to be able to make a shot from anywhere on the court with a high percentage rate of success. Players should work hard to learn their best shots and work even harder on those that challenge them

2. Passing

Passing is the fastest way to get the ball down the court. It is the ideal method of moving the ball and every player must be well trained in how to efficiently pass the ball. Being efficient means that all passes are good quality and that the player understands what pass is best in each situation.

Using the same pass over and over is not a good idea. Variety is the key to keep the other team from anticipating your moves. Players should practice a variety of shots, including:

• chest passes,
• bounce passes,
• overhead passes,
• moving passes and
• stationary passes

3. Dribbling

Dribbling is another skill that most beginner players focus on too much. Dribbling is actually over rated. It is not the best way to move the ball and really has the main objective of keeping the player legal while moving since carrying the ball is an automatic violation. A player has to be good at dribbling and be able to control the ball. When dribbling down the court the ball is vulnerable. It can easily be snatched away. A player has to be able to move while dribbling and keep the ball under good control. Players should practice dribbling and agility together to help make them efficient at the skill.

4. Rebounding

Rebounding is an important skill that is needed on both offensive and defensive play. Players must be able to anticipate where the rebound is going so they can get there and get the ball. Players should practice rebounding every practice to ensure they are fresh in their skills. A missed rebound means lost points and losing too many can mean the game.

These four essential skills are very important to being a good basketball player. When a player has these skills mastered, then they can then focus more on working their plays and have a good base set of skills with which to work to make them a force on the court.

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