In my previous segment on the effects of the lack of playground basketball, the focus was on making free throws.  When I was younger, there used to be 30-40 guys on any given night trying to play basketball at the park by me.  In order to get on the court, five guys had to make their free throws, and if they did not, they had to sit out the game and hope that they made them the next time.  Having to make your free throws under that kind of pressure is tough and very game like.  Let’s be realistic, no one wants to sit out a game.  This is  game time pressure that cannot be replicated in every day practice and there needs to be more of it.  Pickup basketball not only forces players to make their free throws, but also to adjust and learn new skills throughout the course of the game.

During the summer months when pickup basketball dominated the playgrounds, I would play almost every night because the level of competition was top notch.  The collegiate players were all back from college and I being a high school player wanted to play against players who were better than me.  In doing so, I learned my weaknesses as a player.  In other words, if my crossover kept getting picked, I learned to adjust.  If I could not get my jumper off, I learned to adjust.  In a way, playing pickup basketball gave me a list of skills to work on the next day during my workout.  That’s how it was all summer, workout in the morning and pickup games at night.  This is a great method to use when training for basketball.  By doing so, players learn what skills work and do not work in real competitive games.  

If you ever get the chance, head over to Rucker Park or The Cage on West 4th Street in Manhattan and take a look at how good some of those players are.  They play day in and day out against great players.  As a result, they  learn how to adjust, they learn how to get better.  This is all a result of playing against great players on a daily basis.  It is a result of playing pick up basketball at the playgrounds and unfortunately it is something that does not happen enough nowadays.

In the next and final installment of The Effects of a Lack of Playground Basketball I will focus on how pickup basketball teaches players how to cope with the pressure of making big shots and big stops in order to get a win.