Ball Handling – Ep. 4 Basketball Skills Acquisition – How to Practice and Master Skills

Practicing is not the simple answer for mastering basketball skills. There are a million different ways to practice and some of them are much better than others. One player could be doing drills that are very easy for them and they are just going through the motions. Another player might be trying to do drills that are way too difficult for them to complete successful. Neither of these players are maximizing their practice time. There is a concept called deliberate practice (or deep practice) that is very valuable in mastering skills. Deliberate practice is a systematic way of practicing that focuses on the skills needed to be an expert and breaks those down into steps to be able to master that skill. This involves practicing at a level that is slightly more difficult than you are comfortable with and continually making the practices harder and harder such that the practice is always challenging but never so difficult that no progress is made. Deliberate practice is not, however, the only important pieces of basketball training. It is also important to get some repetitions in which will build muscle memory. Mental training and reflection are important parts of basketball training as well.

To optimize your progress and improve faster than others you need to have an intelligent plan of attack for how to get there. Don’t get me wrong, it is better to do any type of practice than to do no practice… but if you are serious about getting to the next level, it is critical to have a smart plan.

The learning process…developing basketball skills

• Let’s talk about how that happens when you are learning something new.
• Watch it
• Listen to it / Read the explanation and process steps / or say it in your own words
• Visualize it in your mind
• Do it slowly
• Correct / Refine (w/video)
• Do it faster
• Correct / refine as needed

Watch it – It is best to first watch someone do it. Find a video of the skill you are trying to master.  Watch it in real time, watch it in slow motion, talk out loud through each step you see the person doing.
Listen – For our sites we typically have a video or a written description of how to do each move or drill… read through that to yourself and out loud
Visualize it – Close your eyes and actually picture yourself going through the drill / skill / move. This might sound silly, but even Kobe Bryant said this was a key part of how he learned new moves.
Do it – Do the move very slowly without the ball. As you do it think about when you watched the move, think about the description as you read it and talk yourself through it, and remember when you visualized yourself doing the skill
Correct / Refine – If you are working with a coach, they will help you at this point. However, many of us practice on our own. Luckily, most of us can use a phone or a video camera to film ourselves. Film yourself doing the skill then go back and watch it and compare it to videos of experts doing the skill. Notice the similarities and differences and work toward copying the move as closely as you can.
Do it faster – Once you correct anything you need to ramp up the intensity. First do the drill at medium speed, then quicken to game speed.
Correct / Refine – Nobody is perfect, be sure you are continually correcting and refining especially using video.

Here is a good example of a young player who used this process to show great improvement

Skills & Keys to ball handling

There are basic ball handling skills that every player MUST develop (7^th grade through 12^th grade) and then there are additional advanced skills that a competitive high school and all college basketball players must develop.  The basic skills are the foundation of your ball handling ability and just like a building, if you don’t have a strong foundation, it is hard to build on top.

Here are the basic dribbling skills every player must develop:

• Go full speed with right and left hand (with pressure)
• Start, stop (jump stop or 2-step), and change speeds with both right and left hand
• Establish a pivot foot, forward pivot, and reverse pivot while staying balanced
• Two sets of non-dribble moves: jab step & crossover step + sweep & rip
• Two change of direction moves: between the legs & behind the back (crossover is riskier)
• Two same direction moves: inside out & hesitation

Every player needs to get to the point where everything on this list is EASY.  These skills need to be automatic for you and you should be able to execute all of these easily both when you are not guarded and when you are being guarded.  I want to stop here just to tell you (or remind you) of a few keys to ball handling that go along with the basic skills

Keys to ball handling:

• Always catch the ball with two hands
• Don’t waste your dribble (don’t dribble for no reason)
• Don’t dribble when you can pass (like advancing the ball up the floor)
• Develop different gears (i.e. be able to change speeds)
• Always have your eyes up
• Practice should be more difficult than games
• Once you are dribbling, don’t pick up your dribble for no reason (back dribble out or keep dribble alive unless you are forced to pick it up)
• Don’t leave your feet
• Maximize hand contact with ball (surface area & time)
• Stay calm and use your pivot if you pick up the ball

On any journey to improve it is important to track your progress and understand if you are getting better and to focus on what you most need to work on.  Part of doing this requires you to set goals and measure various aspects of your ball-handling.  We talk more about that in another episode.  We will also take you through some ball handling drills as well as tell you some of the do’s and don’ts of drills.

photo credit: slgckgc