Most of the skills that we learn in basketball are based around having certain abilities that allow us to develop new movements. These basic abilities are most often related to footwork and our coordination with regards to our feet. Things as simple as a jump stop, a pivot, or a jump shot all require a fundamental ability to have good footwork and good foot position. If the feet are out of position, then the rest of the body will be out of position as well. Then once we move onto more advanced skills of boxing out, setting screens, using cuts, and driving in for ‘euro-step’ lay-ups, the level of footwork and coordination becomes even more essential.

The good news is that we don’t necessarily have to practice each of these individual movements hundreds and hundreds of times in order to have good footwork. But rather, with the right training and coaching, we can develop movement patterns that relate to all of these, so that we can then apply the right footwork when needed in certain situations. This again links back to learning solid fundamentals of basketball movements, but also relates to using a variety of speed and agility drills that will develop our footwork and foot speed.

Much of the foundation for developing foot speed, agility, and quickness, all relate to being in control of your center of gravity and manipulating it so that you can change direction when required. This is a reason why NBA Strength & Conditioning coaches use variations of hop-and-hold drills to develop the players’ ability to land on one foot, stabilize their body, and then accelerate off in different directions. We can then advance this on to using lines, hurdles, and ladders, all of which will challenge our coordination and physical capabilities.

Unfortunately, most coaches do not understand how to properly coach the fundamentals and are even worse when it comes to dealing with plyometrics and speed & agility drills. Many coaches use far too advanced drills for developing players to deal with, and do not understand the concepts of sets, rest and recovery periods. It is essential when working with these types of drills to utilize the right muscles and energy systems in the body, which is why sessions must be structured appropriately. Luckily, the Next Level Training System looks at how to work on all of your individual fundamental skills as well as improving your foot speed, agility and quickness. The drills are structured perfectly to bring about the adaptations you want in your body so that you can become quicker and more agile, with footwork that will be able to shut down opposing attackers, and destroy the oppositions defense.

by

Dave Anthony

www.ingametraining.com/training

When you watch a player like Michael Jordan at the peak of their game, there is something about him, aside from his physical abilities, which makes you know that he was going to be successful. The factor that I am talking about is confidence! When a player has it, their shooting percentage is sky high, they have a certain feel for the game, where their passes are accurate and they seem to be in perfect positions all of the time. The 50-50 calls seem to go their way and they have an added bounce in their step. As basketball players, we have probably all experienced this feeling at some point of our playing career. Whether it is in a pick-up game at the local park; in a 3-on-3 with our friends; or in a competitive game with the crowd going wild, at some point everyone gets the feeling of being super-confident. Sometimes it almost feels like this magical thing that is hard to pin-point, but is something that everyone will agree makes us better players.

Equally, I am sure we have all had times when our confidence just is not there. Our shots aren’t dropping, we are mishandling the ball, and nothing seems to be going our way. Suddenly this begins to spiral out of control and we feel and play terribly. This really has little to do with our actual ability and our technical expertise, but is all due to this ‘magical’ component of confidence.

So, knowing how important this factor is, shouldn’t we try really hard to improve and work on our confidence? If it can really make this much of a difference to our game, then surely this should be one of our priorities in  training and preparation. Well, the problem is that most people don’t understand what confidence really is, or how it works. We tend to think of confidence as this ‘real’ thing that we either have or we don’t have. But in reality, no one is necessarily confident or unconfident about anything in particular. It all depends on the situation and how we view it. People we think of as confident in certain situations will definitely be equally as unconfident in others. There is no specific reality to confidence, it is merely a state of mind and is based on what we say to ourselves and how well prepared we are.

As a test, I want you now to think of a time when you have been really confident (it doesn’t have to be basketball related) and then write down all of the images that come to mind. Write down the feelings, colors, smells, and the viewpoint you have in your mind. Now do the opposite and think of a time you have been very unconfident, and again write down all the factors related to that. Now here is the clever part. Think of the thing that makes you unconfident again, but this time really try to incorporate the factors that you thought of when being confident. So the same viewpoint, colors, smells and sensations. You really can’t help but suddenly feel quite confident about it, and that is the key point. Confidence is not real, it is a mental state, but it is something that is incredibly important to our basketball performance.

Of course, pretending to be confident about being a good three-point shooter when you haven’t practiced very much and only average 1 out of 10 in training, probably isn’t going to help you too much. In fact you will probably just annoy your team and coach because you keep shooting even though you are technically quite poor. It is important to realize that confidence is not a substitute for technical ability, but it is a booster for it. If you have the technical ability already, then confidence will bring out the best in your ability. If two players of similar ability played each other one-on-one, undoubtedly, it would be the confident one who came out victorious. So first of all, work on improving the fundamentals and technical aspects of your game, and then believe in yourself and bring confidence in every aspect of your game. An excellent way to develop yourself as a complete basketball player is by followinga program like the the Next Level Training System. This program will give you all the tools necessary to be an excellent basketball player!.  Then it is just up to you to have the confidence in your skills and show the world what you can do.