Ball Handling Ep. 8 – Weak hand ball handling and finishing in basketball

This is the 8th post in our series in our Definitive Guide to Improving Ball Handling be sure to check out the other episodes in the series … (Intro, Why and When to Dribble, Dribbling Mechanics, Mastering Skills, Measuring/Tracking Improvement, All the drills, the best drills)… If you want to be a great basketball player, your basketball training plan has to include working on your weak hand ball handling.  You can truly separate yourself from other players by being able to dribble, pass, and finish with your weak hand.  Just to be clear, most people naturally are more coordinated with one hand than the other.  We like to call those your strong hand and your weak hand.

If a player can’t effectively use their weak hand other team’s will figure it out and they will change their defense to force that player into situations where they have to use that weak hand and that may end in a turnover.  If you are right handed and struggle to drive to your left or finish with your left, the defense will overplay your right hand and force you that way.  As a basketball player you don’t want to give your opponents that chance.  So, you need to train yourself to be able to operate with either hand.

It is completely normal for dribbling, passing, and shooting to feel awkward with your weak hand.  But just because something doesn’t feel good, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.  So here we are going to help you with how to develop your weak hand for basketball.  Most of these strategies aren’t revolutionary, they are simple, and they work.  It is just up to you.  If you are willing to work hard at it, you will have something in your bag that other players don’t.

Double up on weak hand work vs. strong hand work

When you are doing your normal ball handling and finishing drills, simply do twice as many (or spend twice as much time) on your left hand as you do on your right hand.  Spending this extra time will help even out your progress and develop that weak hand.

Use unorthodox dribbling (against a wall, while laying down, on one leg)

Another good strategy is to dribble in different positions than you normally encounter.  It helps strengthen the dexterity of your hands and enables you to react quicker.

Use the weak hand in pick-up games (especially at full speeds)

One other thing you can do is play in pick-up games or open gym sessions and handle the ball with mainly only your weak hand.  Make sure to do this especially in full court / full speed situations as many players have a tendency to default to their strong hand when moving at full speed.  You can also do some extra full speed drills with your weak hand (left hand if you are right handed).

Do other things while dribbling / finishing

Some coaches and trainers hate the “tennis ball” dribbling drills where a player tosses/catches a tennis ball while dribbling a basketball.  While I don’t think this is the best overall dribbling drill, I do think it does a nice job developing the weekend hand.  You can also do drills where you have to catch a ball with one hand while doing a lay-up.  Get creative with this, there are a lot of ways to do this.

Repetition

When developing my left hand I would some just stand under the hoop and do underhand layups over and over again.  I would try to toss the layups really high (almost off the top of the backboard) and still have them go in.  I would experiment spinning the ball.  I would do it on both sides of the hoop.  Starting out I was really bad at this, but over time it became easier and easier and my ability to finish got better and better.

Two ball drills

Two ball dribbling drills are a good way of developing the weak hand because if you are slow with your weak hand it will slow down your ability to do the drill because the strong hand is going faster… this highlights to you your weakness and helps you work to improve hand sleep

Work on non-basketball things with your weak hand

This is something I did a lot in high school.  I would brush my teeth left handed, practice writing left handed in class (I thought this was an awesome way to work on my “game” while in class).  Do all the things you normally do with your strong hand with your weak hand (pour a drink, eat your food, etc.).  you can also just toss a tennis ball off a wall and practice catching and tossing it with your left hand.

Best drills:

• Pound drill (+ high/low)
• Tennis ball drills
• One ball  / two-ball dribble / pass series
• Dribble against wall
• Off the backboard with weak hand
• Sprint dribbles (w/tennis ball or back and forth)
• Lay-ups with only one hand
• All iterations of lay-ups with one hand (reverses)

This is the 7th post in our series in our Definitive Guide to Improving Ball Handling be sure to check out the other episodes in the series … (Intro, Why and When to Dribble, Dribbling Mechanics, Mastering Skills, Measuring/Tracking Improvement, All the drills, the best drills)

photo credit: Wany Bae