That Basketball Life

In this next installment of our discussion of important points when running a man to man defense we will discuss how to defend dribble penetration.  Dribble penetration is one of the most prevalent parts of many offenses in today's game.  To defend it by playing a tough man to man requires a lot of hard work and teamwork. Before determining how to defend against the dribble drive you need to know your opposition and their tendencies.  You need to ask yourself the following:

In an effort to kick-start our offseason conditioning we are including the first of 3 agility/conditioning programs we encourage players to follow.  Here are the instructions to follow when doing these programs:

Nice article on how Golden Sate uses their stars to set off ball screens to help their awesome offense.

Outside of shooting the basketball, dribbling the basketball may be the most important fundamental skill that a player can learn.   If you can't dribble to spots on the floor you just won't be as effective a basketball player as you can be.  We have all witnessed the great spot up shooters who when they get the open look they will hit the shot.  We have also witnessed these same shooters being easy to stop because their game is one dimensional.  If you add a dribble game to your spot up shot then you are now tougher to guard.  But what makes a good dribbler?  I've seen a lot of kids go thru dribbling drills with flying colors only to be ineffective when they dribble in games.  This is because their dribble is too loose.  In action you can see they are exposing their dribble to easily.  When I say exposing it, I don't mean that they aren't protecting it but rather just by looking at them dribble you can see their dribble is too loose and slow. What makes an eff

The word offseason is a misnomer for people that want to improve their game.  A better phrase for the months of the year when there are no games would be "the window for improvement."  This is the time of year where you get the chance to gain an edge on your competition.  All of the greats use this time of year to fine tune their body and their game.  It is a fine balance between making sure you get enough rest to recharge your batteries for the upcoming season and including enough time in the gym to work on your game and your body while maintaining a good nutritional plan. 

One of my favorite sayings is "Don't fear losing, embrace competition."  I love this saying because in a few words in encompasses everything that an athlete should have in his belief system in order to be successful.  Let's start by saying nobody likes to lose period. 

With summer arriving now is the time for serious ballers to step up the intensity and take the next step in their development.  Summertime is the perfect time for the serious player to step up his workouts in an effort to improve his game for the upcoming year.  After a year of playing ball and going thru the grind it is now important to evaluate your performance and see what you need to improve on to make the upcoming year even better than the last one.  This takes honesty and the guts to look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself which skills lagged during the previous season and how your going to turn a weakness into a strength for next year. A good place to start is your coach.  Most good coaches will talk to their players at the end of the year and discuss with them what they need to work on during the off-season.  This feedback is of vital importance because this is the one person above everyone else that you need to impress.  The feedback that a coach gives is also importa