That Basketball Life

Another video on correcting shooting form. There are a few more good tips in this video.

Nice video on correcting your shot. Regarding the comment about the head I want to add that many kids jerk their heads back when they shoot in an effort to draw more power to their shot but in reality this has the opposite effect and drains power from the shot in addition to moving the sightlines at a crucial point in the shot.

Nice video created by By Any Means Basketball. A lot of what they say is in sync with what I believe young players should work on even more so than jump shots at a young age.

Nice video from EGT on how to train guards to think quicker while playing.

I have written a couple of blog posts about form shooting and it's importance to developing a good shot (view them here and here ).  I have found another video that adds a few wrinkles to form shooting that can keep things interesting and also help players with balance and recruiting power from you legs when you shoot. Enjoy and remember to keep form shooting.

The current MVP went to LA and showed the Clippers who's boss.

Penny Hardaway is shaking things up in Memphis.  He brought in the top recruiting class in the country this year and James Wiseman is the cream of that elite crop.  See highlights of his collegiate career below!

Freshman phenom Cole Anthony had a great first game to his college career.

Trae Young along with Luka Doncic are the cream of the crop from last year's draft class.  It's good to see him back in action!

Lebron went 3 out of 3 with triple doubles after a solid performance against the Bulls.  The man is still the best even at 35 years old!

Doncic might be the up and comer but the king is still the king! Followed the above performance with the one below!

I will be posting videos on some of my favorite players in the league.  One of them is the yooung gun Luka Doncic who seems to do everything a player can do on the floor really well.  His skill set is probably better than anyone's not named LeBron James. Below is a video of the epic battle between Luka and his idol LeBron. He followed up that performance with the one below.

After our players have mastered the drills in dribbling part 1 , we quickly move them on to a tougher progression. A word of note here.  We always want to push kids outside their comfort zone.  We believe that this is the zone where they get better.  With this in mind, we never wait for the kids to perfect the tail end of part 1 before we move on to part 2.  Once you start seeing them getting the hang of the toughest drills in part 1 it's time to move on. The intermediate part of our dribbling progressions will introduce a lot more movements of the ball in the horizontal plane.  In the beginner phase we spend a lot of time teaching our kids how dribble up and down or in the vertical plane.  Our goal is for them to get the feel of dribbling the basketball.  Once they advance to part 2 we introduce the movement along the horizontal plane.  In addition to this we also introduce varying heights of dribble along the vertical plane which is very important in a dribbling progression.

On the night that Kobe is having his number retired let's honor him with a video that I found on You Tube.  This video shows his skill in breaking down a defender 1 on 1.  

A follow up on the post from last week on beating your players one on one.  This video emphasizes how important it is to attack the front leg of a defender and explains why it is important and the most effective way to beat a player who is covering you.  

In it's simplest form, basketball success on the offensive end is about breaking down the defense.  The basic building block of that strategy is the ability to beat the man who is covering you.  Once you're able to beat that man then you begin the process of determining whether you're ability to read a defenses reactions is faster than the defensive rotation.  As an offensive player you need to stay one or two steps ahead of the defense.  You need to anticipate what the defense is going to do once you set the dominoes falling when you beat your man.  The key to get the whole process started is beating the man that is covering you. There are some qualities that you need to keep in mind when you are trying to beat the man covering you: Be aggressive with your moves.  Do not sit there spending too much time dribbling in front of the man covering you.  He will time your dribble and beat you.  Rather be aggressive.  Make a strong move quickly. Feel comfortable with fakes,

Found this video which shows Kobe Bryant and what his mindset is when he is out on the wing with the ball in his hands. He says that when he has the ball in his hands, he looks past the man who is guarding him. He knows he can beat him. What he is looking at is how the defense is lining up behind the man who is guarding him. This will determine what he does with the ball.

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

Off ball screens are a huge part of the game.  There are many offenses that make screening an integral part of their flow and movement.  This is why it is so important that a good defense knows how to fight thru screens in an attempt to disrupt offensive flow.