6 Tips to Rapidly Improve your Basketball Skills
“How can my child improve faster?”
I was asked the question above by a parent looking for advice to improve his child’s basketball playing ability. I offered six options to consider.
Option #1- Train on non-coaches time
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”-Unknown
If your child is only training during scheduled practice times, that will not be enough to get an edge on the competition. If each recreation or AAU team practices two days per week, you will be doing the same thing as everyone else. You cannot expect to grow faster than others by doing what everyone else is doing.
I offered an idea to bring your child 30 minutes before practice begins to work on ball-handling, footwork, and shooting. Also, stay after practice for thirty minutes to get in extra work. If you do so, that will be an extra hour of work which will add up over time.
“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others can’t”- Jerry Rice.
Option #2- Train just outside your comfort zone
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”- John Assaraf
The sweet spot for development is just outside one’s comfort zone. So now, if you train during your team’s practices but go outside your comfort zone while your teammate or opponents are not, you will get a slight edge.
When you go to the sweet spot on the edge of your abilities and reach beyond it, you form and strengthen new connections in your brain.
I often tell my players who did a drill to force themselves to get uncomfortable. If you do this consistently, you will become comfortable being uncomfortable, and rapid results will follow.
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”- Anonymous
Option #3- Train using random practice drills rather than blocked drills
“Fake fundamentals emphasize technique and order, whereas the game transpires amidst chaos and unpredictability.”- Brian McCormick
Blocked drills are your traditional drills done on air. There is no defender and no decision-making involved. Your brain will go on auto-pilot, which is when plateaus happen.
Autopilot is our enemy because it creates plateaus.
Random training involves no two reps done the same. It consists in making reads and decisions before executing the skill. Random exercise improves your body and brain. Thus, build a better brain through intensive practice.
“If every single repetition is exactly the same don’t do it. If the drill is not game-like don’t do it.”- Chris Oliver
Option #4- Be willing to make mistakes
“The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything.”- Denis Waitley
Mistakes are necessary for growth and learning. Errors show you where you need to improve. Reaching, failing, and reaching again is how your brain grows and forms new connections.
Then, after you make a mistake, strive to learn from your mistake faster than everyone else.
Another tip is to learn from the mistakes of others. When a coach gives feedback to your teammate, pay attention and strive not to make the same mistake your teammate just made.
When a coach is coaching one player, they are coaching everyone.
“When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.”- Paul Bear Bryant
Option #5- Practice daily
“Success is the product of daily habits-not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”- James Clear
It is better to practice each day for a little at a time than once or twice per week binges. Practicing daily also becomes a habit. Every time you perform a rep, your brain adds another layer of myelin to those particular wires. The more you practice, the more layers of myelin you earn, the more quickly and accurately the signal travels, and the more skill you acquire.
Strive to get one percent better each day. If you can improve one percent each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the end of the year. The tiny habit of practicing each day will make a big difference over time.
However, it will take time for one percent better to make a meaningful difference. Therefore one must be patient and persistent.
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it-but all that had gone before.”- Jacob Riis
Option #6- To learn more deeply, teach it
“People learn the most when teaching others.”- Peter Drucker
When you communicate a skill or concept to someone else, you will more deeply understand that skill or concept.
When you are involved in the practice, strive to be a coach on the floor. See the game the way the coach sees it and offer feedback and advice to teammates struggling with a skill or concept.
Even pretending to teach through visualization or preparing to teach will force one to learn the information more deeply.
Teaching has other benefits, such as improved communication and leadership skills.
“When one teaches, two learn.”- Robert Heinlein
