“Practicing by Yourself”

It’s the best! It’s the best way to get a workout in a short amount of time. And it’s the best way to improve. Get a ball and go out on a court, but please don’t start doing an imitation of a one-person game of “HORSE”. Take a bunch of trips up and down the court doing ball handling moves you are not so good at yet: off-hand, between the legs explosion dribbles, combo moves, head-up the entire time. Then do a 100 Mikans! Next, practice shooting. Start in close, maybe even without the ball, “shadow shoot” to practice form. Then, spin the ball out with your back to the basket and run round it, as if passing to yourself; be consistent with your pivot foot – 10 times left foot, 10 times right foot. Practice shot fake moves: one-dribble left, one-dribble right jumpers. 20 off the glass, 20 straight in. If you’re already pretty good, be a hero and shoot 100 full-court dribble, stop-at-the-arc, three pointers, 50 with the ball coming out of a left hand dribble, 50 out of the right. (When I used to workout Howard Eisley before he was a pro, he’d make 70-75 of these.) Then make a 100 free throws in a row and then go home, get out of the gym.

“The Perfect 10 Minute Practice by Yourself Warm-up, Part V (The 5th, last Two Minutes)”

Okay. You’ve done the wall taps, stationary ball handling, up and down ball handling, and inside shooting, so now you’re ready to drill and perfect your outside shooting and finish your ten-minute solo warm-up workout. This shooting drill requires you to pass the ball to yourself. No, you don’t need to be incredibly speedy, zipping here to there like the Roadrunner, you just need to spin the ball with a backward rotation so that when it hits the floor, it spins back to you – like a pass to yourself. You can do this by starting with your hands on the sides of the ball, thumbs pointing away from you, fingers spread wide. Now lift and toss the ball out away from you and up a little – barely more than head high – and finish with your thumbs pointing back to you. Fun. Nice pass! Now for the shooting. Starting with your back to the basket, spin the ball out and run around it so that you have established a left foot for your pivot foot. Catch and shoot. Retrieve the rebound and do it again. Do that pivot-no-dribble shot ten times. Then do ten more but pivot on your right foot. Then do ten more pivoting on your left foot but shot fake and dribble right for a jumper. Then do ten more but shot fake and dribble left for a jumper. Then repeat but shot fake and do ten layups going right and then ten layups going left. Tired yet? You bet. But then you do ten more or until you make five in a row or twenty in a row or whatever or wherever your imagination and inclination takes you. You’re warmed up, revved up and better, too!

“The Perfect 10 Minute Practice by Yourself Warm-up, Part IV (The 4th Two Minutes)”

After you have finished your two-minute up-and-down-the-court ball handling, it’s time to practice footwork, balance and body positioning on interior shooting. Get a ball, go to a hoop, get in close on the right side, right in tight at 45 degrees. Take ten simple little jumpers off the glass, stepping with your left foot to rebound every time, keeping your right foot as your pivot foot. As you reach for the ball with your left hand and step with your left foot, make sure your right heel is off the floor and that when you step back to shoot again, you land that left foot with both knees bent,on the balls of your feet, ready to shoot right away again. Do the same thing from the left side, stepping to rebound with your right foot this time and your left foot as pivot foot. Ten more. That’s what? Twenty? Now go back to the right side, point your toes toward the baseline, do the same drill as the first ten shots, but protect the ball somewhat by bringing it up the right side of your body. Don’t show the ball to your left hip (where your defender would be). After ten shots, do the same thing but from the left side but with the left hand this time. Fun! Now go back to the right side, still in close, remember, but point your toes to the corner. Do the same drill but hide the ball even more. From the right side, your left shoulder should be pointing toward the hoop. Rick Pitino, when he was the head coach at Providence College, used to call this “putting the defense in jail”. Repeat from the left-side with your left hand. Your two minutes are up! And you’re already better!

“The Perfect 10 Minute, Practice by Yourself, Warm-up, Part III (The 3rd Two Minutes)”

After you have finished your two-minute stationary dribbling, practice your ball handling moves going up and down the court. With eyes up court all the while, do crossovers (once up and back), do crossovers through the legs (up and back) and then behind the backs (up court and back). Then do them in sequence with two dribbles in between: two dribbles, cross in front, two dribbles cross through, two dribbles behind the back. Then do the sequence but with only ONE dribble in between. This last sequence is good, really good for hand quickness and sharp change of direction moves.

Your two minutes are up!

“The Perfect 10 Minute, Practice by Yourself, Warm-up, Part II (The 2nd Two Minutes)”

While trying to formulate ways to help basketball players, young and not quite so young, improve their ball handling skills, I asked myself: Steve, specifically, what about dribbling is important? While bouncing a ball, what does one need to be able to do to be effective? And then, how does one best practice those things? Here are all the answers: 1) spend two minutes when you are on a court doing the following warm-up (and it is not only a warm-up, it is a skills builder, too, like playing scales or Chopin études on the piano); 2) with feet spread wide and eyes up court, eyes always upcourt on every one of these drills, dribble the ball from hand to hand making sure that the hand that releases the ball follows the ball almost all the way to the receiving hand – 20 reps; 3) now use just your right hand, then your left, backandforth, backandforth - 20 reps each; 3) do dribble-cross, dribble cross, the dribble being straight up and down, the cross a crossover dribble low and hard (passing hand following as it did in the hand-to-hand drill) – 20 reps; 4) step back with your right foot and do forward and back dribbles, manipulating the ball, learning to change direction with it, then your left foot back, left hand dribble – 20 reps each; 5) dribble-cross through your legs, make sure you split step, spread or separate your feet – never kick the foot up – what is this, the Rockettes? – 20 reps; 6) dribble the ball back-and-forth behind your back without moving your feet – this has almost no value except that you are practicing dribbling without looking at the ball.

Your two minutes are up!

“The Perfect 10 Minute, Practice by Yourself, Warm-up, Part I” (The 1st Two Minutes)

I was 13 years old when I went to my first basketball camp. It was at Lasallette Seminary outside of Albany, NY. Beside winning the free throw shooting contest and learning the crossover dribble from recent high school grad Billy Kalbaugh (eventually co-captain of the Bob Lanier-led St. Bonaventure team that went to the Final Four), I first saw this drill demonstrated. A guy named Bob Davies (ex NBA star for the Rochester Royals and now in the NBA Hall of Fame) came out and started dribbling the ball against the wall like 3,000 times a minute. I said to myself, “this guy is a nut!” He did it righty, he did it lefty. He did it off his forehead. Well, not actually off his forehead, but I bet he could have. He did it from in close and from slightly farther away. He did it jumping. Yes . . . he . . . did. It is a good and helpful drill. It teaches dexterity. Stand with your toes about eight inches from a wall. Raise your right arm almost as high up and as straight as it goes. Using just your fingertips, hand from the wrist to your fingertips, dribble the ball against the wall. Then do it lefty. Become as good with one hand as the other. Do a hundred with your “strong” hand, a hundred-fifty with your “weak” hand. Then do it while you are jumping, tapping the ball against the wall every jump and tapping the wall with the non-involved hand when the ball is hitting the wall. A hundred with your strong, a hundred-fifty with your weak. Then take the ball with two hands and jumping as high as you can smash the ball into the wall twenty-five times, screaming while you do it. (Some drills can be done while you are in a subway station waiting for the train. We recommend the wall smash not be one of them.) Two minutes and you are better.