About two weeks ago, I was at an AAU event promoting my new recruiting service for high school student athletes called The Highlight Reel and I was able to catch a few of the basketball games. Although the skill level was high and the games were exciting, I could not help but notice that something was glaringly absent from every player’s game…the back-dribble.
What Ever Happened to the Back-Dribble?
Zig Zag, Closeout, and Contain Drill
The Zig Zag, Closeout, Contain Drill is another great one on one drill that you can use if you have multiple players. This drill is suitable for all age groups including youth, middle school, high school, and beyond. It will work on a player’s ability to handle the basketball against full court pressure as well as the defensive player’s ability to closeout on a player in the full court and defend them.
Build Grip Strength for Better Ball Handling
Having strong hands is not only important for holding on to the basketball, but also for becoming a better ball handler. Simply stated, the stronger your hands are the better you are going to be at handling the basketball because stronger hands will give you a better grip on the ball.
Ball Handling Drills With a Tennis Ball?
A ball handling drill that can be used during your basketball training to help keep your head up is dribbling a ball while tossing a tennis ball to yourself and catching it. This drill requires extreme concentration and focus on the tennis in order to catch it, so there is no way that you can look down at the basketball while you are dribbling it.
Ball-Handling Fundamentals
When it comes to basketball skills training, I always preach about building solid fundamentals. Incorporating the fundamentals into all aspects of your basketball training ensures that you will have a solid base to build upon. No player is too old to work on the basics…
There is always a series of fundamental ball-handling drills that my players start off with in order to improve their base. These drills usually consist of finger tip control, figure eights, circles, pounds, cross overs, dribbling figure eights, push-pulls, etc. and they can be done for either a set amount of time or for a predetermined number of reps.
