There are many concrete steps which a young basketball player can take in order to improve their skills.
From working on ball control to building endurance, improving your skills will elevate your game and put you in the utter best position to win the game.
Practice Makes Perfect
There is no magic formula to getting better at basketball — it takes time as well as repetitions. The “10,000-Hour Rule,” which was made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his seminal work Outliers: The Secret to Success, says that it takes no less than 10 000 hours of practice in order to master a skill.
Genetics and complexity may accelerate or impair the process. For instance, not everyone can dunk, however jumping rope doesn’t take 10 000 hours to master.
Prioritise Ball Control
Developing stronger dribbling skills is by far the simplest way to become a better and more well-rounded basketball player. To work on this skill, start in a centred athletic position: keep your nose behind your toes and your hips loaded without leaning your body forward.
The key to ball handling is balance: keep your body static and in an athletic position and move the ball around your body.
When you’re handling the ball, dribble aggressively and then to the side of your foot, keeping a bounce height which reaches between your knee as well as your hip.
Dribbling at that sweet spot makes sure that the ball is kept near your shot pocket, helping you become a more efficient shooter. The more power you put behind each dribble, the more control you’ll have over the ball.
Practice dribbling with both hands during your daily practice. You should also work on mastering three basic ball-handling moves: the crossover, between the legs, and behind the back.
Once you build a solid foundation with these moves, create combination dribbles that you can utilize during games. You can use your new dribbling skills to beat defenders and create open jump shots for yourself.
Quality Repetitions
The quality of your work is more crucial as opposed to the quantity. This doesn’t mean that you should put in less amounts time. It means that you will gain more from a few high-quality repetitions as opposed to from a lot of sloppy ones.
High quality means that you perform at game speed, focus on technique as well as sustain a high level of energy, as opposed to going through the motions or trying to finish quickly.
For instance, perform a shooting drill rather than shooting around. Low-quality reps could actually hurt your game by reinforcing poor form. They are simply a waste of time.
Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Shooting correctly is not a genuinely comfortable movement. Playing as low as you should defensively as well as offensively is not comfortable.
However, as you push yourself, and then improve at these things, they will get easier and you will get better at your game of basketball.