Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

[bball_1523]

Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills? I am about 5'5" 110-115 lbs. I'm very small and skinny and usually play pickup games. Recently I have started to play for a league and have noticed that with higher competition, my skills get exposed.

Here are things I want to know how to improve:

- running point guard
- attack zone defense
- anticipate and get out of double teams
- playing with confidence

When I run point, I am rarely a playmaker. Sometimes when I get doubled, I lose the ball too easily by making dumb passes. lol

[Brandon 2006]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

When you are playing point guard you need to be smart with the ball. Make some plays with your teamates and use them on the court. Or just use a couple signals to get guys to go where you want. Don't try to dribble to much if you don't have good handles and just try to find open guys.

Against a zone you can get your team to stack one side of it. This will create a bunch of openings. Or you can swing the ball around very quickly to get the defense moving, this will usually get you an open man to move the ball to for a quick shot.

Anticipating a double team just has to do with your awareness. You need to know where everyone is at all times so you can see if an extra man is coming over to guard you. Once double teamed you got to count on your teammates to get open and visible so you can find them.

Cofidence is all in your mind. Try to make a couple shots early on and you will be more confident for the rest of the game. Don't let a missed shot keep you down, you just got to move on and keep playing your game.

[McLite]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

Practice, practice, practice!

One tip I have is work on dribbling and shooting close-in with your off hand. You'll be surprised what it does to your game, especially at the PG position. You can dribble out of traps, dribble drive either direction on zones. As for confidence just becoming a better player will do that for you. Being able to take a shot that you made 50 times in practice gives you the confidence to take the shot.

Nash is probably one of the best play makers in the game right now and my favorite player to watch.

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Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills? I am about 5'5" 110-115 lbs. I'm very small and skinny and usually play pickup games. Recently I have started to play for a league and have noticed that with higher competition, my skills get exposed.

Here are things I want to know how to improve:

- running point guard
- attack zone defense
- anticipate and get out of double teams
- playing with confidence

When I run point, I am rarely a playmaker. Sometimes when I get doubled, I lose the ball too easily by making dumb passes. lol

Buy this!

[jct32]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

If your playing point be aware of the pass all the time. I think if you truly want to be a good point guard you should be able to get the ball passed to you and give it up to a open guy as soon as you get it.

[bball_1523]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

see the problem is I'm extremely inexperienced in playing organized basketball. I had a couple turnovers where I dribbled the ball behind backcourt because I'm so used to playing pickup games where there is no backcourt. haha

Well here's a scenario where I've noticed that I've been terrible at. I will dribble the ball up, and all the sudden my defender plays me hard, and I try to dribble around him, then I get double teamed all of a sudden and sometimes I am trapped near the corner. Being the little guy I am, I have a hard time seeing the court over these guys who may be taller and stronger than I am, so at times I turn the ball over by making dumb passes that go off the defenders hands or are thrown out of being nervous so they go away from my teammates, either out of bounds or to a defender.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

Better look for that Magic Johnson Basketball Infomercial to come on lol

[youvalss]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

I think that a point guard should be aware of where his teammates are. Try look around with your eyes when u play the point, don't just concentrate on protecting the ball. If u know where your teammates are, it would be easier to make a good pass when u're doubled.
And practice everything u think you're not good at. The only way to improve is to practice.

[bball_1523]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

I think that a point guard should be aware of where his teammates are. Try look around with your eyes when u play the point, don't just concentrate on protecting the ball. If u know where your teammates are, it would be easier to make a good pass when u're doubled.
And practice everything u think you're not good at. The only way to improve is to practice.

but how do I practice not getting nervous with the ball and making good passes by myself? I think it may be hard for me to find people to practice with on a regular basis.

[youvalss]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

but how do I practice not getting nervous with the ball and making good passes by myself? I think it may be hard for me to find people to practice with on a regular basis.

Don't u practice with your team? Anyway, try find some people to practice the exact situation - when u're doubled and become nervous. Even try it with your friends - tell them to put pressure on u and try time after time to make a good pass (to the open man if possible) out of the double team. If your opponents realize u can make good passes for 2-3 times they'll be more careful and not automatically double u. I think guys double u because they see u get nervous. The moment u practice this and improve, guys will think twice before doing this.

[Sportsforever]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

The #1 thing I can say to improve your skills is spend time playing pickup in the gym...sounds obvious, but I spent way to much time focusing on drills in high school. I got to college and started playing pickup with the team in the offseason and improved by leaps and bounds...ended up going out and walking on. I didn't stick with it (baseball was what I was there for), but I can honestly say that just being in the gym and playing for hours on end is where the game really came to me...not doing drills from a book.

[Rainey]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

Not to be racial, but I'm a short 5'7 white guy in MS. However, I almost always get picked near the top because everyone knows I'm going to give up the ball and never ball hog (my shot would get blocked 90% of the time lol) However, what got me to the point is always doing the opposite of what I wanted to do.

#1 It throws off the guy trying to cover me.

#2 Attention goes elsewhere

#3 the guy that I wanted to pass to in the beginning should now have enough seperation where I don't have to make a Steve Nash pass to get him an easy bucket.

So for example I dribble up court and I want to go right and get the ball to the man on the wing. I make a hard break left and cross over to my right then I start to cut toward the basket and make it appear that I'm going to feed the big guy inside for the pass. Usually the defender from the wing will start cutting inside to cut off the lane and also try to deflect the pass inside. Then I just quickly toss it out to the guy on the wing and just let him take the open jumper. Does it work all the time? Of course not, but just think ahead of what you want to do (especially if the coach has plays lol) and dictate how you want it to happen. Everyone is blessed with different gifts, but if you can think ahead and outplan the other guy... that is an advantage all in itself.

This won't work really when you start playing really good basketball players, but in youth leagues and pickup games.. it should be plenty enough to make you improve from what you are doing now.

[youvalss]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

All this talking makes me wanna play b-ball again! I haven't played for 2 years! All the people I know got married/have children and no1 plays anymore. I wish I lived around u guys so we could go ballin'.

[ZB9]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

practice?

[TMagic]

Re: Anyone have any advice on improving my basketball skills?

One main thing I would suggest is to always keep your head up. Never look down at the ball or just be focused on your dribbling. This will help to see the double coming and you know where your teammates are to get rid of the ball quickly.

Another big thing is, before you even start to make a move, before you even make your way up the court, look at where everybody is on the floor. This coincides with keeping your head up. Make sure you know where your teammates and your opponents are on the floor. That way you can almost predict where the double will come and have a pretty good idea where a teammate is if they come for you with the double. Your pretty much coming up with a "plan" in the event that they come press you.

And a huge rule of thumb is, never get trapped or dribble towards any corners. Try your best to stay towards the middle of the floor. The sidelines/baselines/backcourt lines all act as another defender trapping you. So if you get trapped in any of these areas its really hard to get out of it and you have no where to go. If your in the middle of the floor, you can go left, right, or back depending on where the double is coming from. Your teammates also have more areas that they can go to to receive a pass. Basically you give yourself more room to work with if a double comes.

This last bit of advice I have for you really depends on how comfortable you are dribbling. What kind of handle you possess. If your pretty good with handling the ball you shouldnt even have to pick up your dribble if you see the defense coming. What happens A lot of times, and what sounds like to me in your case, is that the double team comes, and the first thing you want to do is pick up the ball. No. This gives the defense a grand opportunity to zero in on you as you cant go anywhere now that you picked up the ball. Makes for an easy trap. And a lot of times when guys do this, they have no idea where they can go with a pass.

So it would be best to keep your dribble alive in an attempt to try and dribble away from the defenders, even if you see the double come, only to give yourself enough room to make the pass to a teammate. But again, this goes back to knowing where everyone is on the floor and having an idea or "plan" of where you can go in the event of a double.

One last, simple, thing to do that kills any press they throw at you, is fake a pass one way, then go another. It is so simple. But it is very effective at getting the defense out of position because if they are pressing, they are most likely trying to go for the steal which means they are going to be a little more likely to go for any fakes you give.

I would see the press coming and immediately would fake a pass one way, and immediately fire the pass in another direction. The defense would almost always jump at the fake which allowed for an easy pass. It's even better when you haven't dribbled yet, as you can fake and then dribble by the defense if they go for it.

I hope this helped and wasn't too confusing. I wish I could show you in videos...lol