Basketball
Skills & Drills
Below are skills and drills that will help you improve your basketball game. These can be done at home by yourself, indoors, outdoors, some with or without a ball. Remember, if you don’t have a ball at home, you can still improve your game using any kind of ball or completing drills that do not require one at all.
Balance
Basketball Stance
This is a basketball stance, or athletic stance, and it is the foundation of basketball. The best basketball players live in this stance on offense and on defense. We use this stance to give our bodies the chance to be as quick as possible and to stay as balanced as possible. Balance is the number one key in the game of basketball.
Practice:
Once you get the hang of this stance, try to stay in it for as long as possible. Time yourself, then do it again and try to beat your time. This will burn your muscles, but that is a good thing!
Keys:
Feet are a little bit wider than your shoulders
Your weight is in the balls of your feet (the area between your toes and the middle of your feet)
Backside is down, like you are about to sit in a chair
Chest is out and your head is up looking straight
Elbows are close to your body and your hands are out and facing up
Practice:
Once you get the hang of this stance, try to stay in it for as long as possible. Time yourself, then do it again and try to beat your time. This will burn your muscles, but that is a good thing!
Keys:
Feet are a little bit wider than your shoulders
Your weight is in the balls of your feet (the area between your toes and the middle of your feet)
Backside is down, like you are about to sit in a chair
Chest is out and your head is up looking straight
Elbows are close to your body and your hands are out and facing up
Stand to Stance
This is a drill you can do after you practice the basketball stance above. You start with your hands up in the air standing straight up, then quickly get into your basketball stance.
Ball Handling
Ball Wraps
In a basketball stance, move a ball around your waist from one hand to the other. Then progress to moving the ball around your head and then around both legs. Do this as quickly as you can without losing control of the ball. Then around each individual leg. Repeat each variation for 30 seconds, then repeat going in the opposite direction.
*Basketball is not needed here, you can use any ball or any object!
*Basketball is not needed here, you can use any ball or any object!