The 3 Main Focus Areas for Becoming a Big-Time Player

As you fine-tune your game during your personal and off-season workouts, there are there are 3 main areas you should focus your attention.

Conditioning

Remember that being a good basketball player requires that you are a good athlete. If you don't have the strength, stamina, and footspeed to play the game at a high level, you're not going to reach your full potential as a player.

Work on getting into good shape by playing lots of basketball, running, doing interval training, jumping rope, and doing stadium stair exercises. The harder you work leading into pre-season practice, the easier it will be for you to make the team and compete at a high level once the season starts.

Your jump shot

The 2nd area to focus on is making sure your jump shot is fine-tuned and ready to go for the season. Work on various drills to make sure your shot is in top form leading into the season.

Here are some drills to make sure your jumper is dialed in:

• Close-in form shooting drills
• Bank-shots from the wings
• Pump-fake and one-dribble moves
• Quick shot drills
• Distance shooting drills
• Mikan shooting drill
• Shot drills coming off of a screen
• Shot drills after a jump stop

Ball handling

Ball handling ability is the 3rd key area to focus on during the off-season and leading into the season. Regardless of the position you play, you need to be able to handle the basketball to be a well rounded player.

Practice speed dribble drills (getting the ball up the floor with as few dribbles as possible while still under control), weak hand dribbling (dribbling with your off- hand), finger-tip control drills (making sure you dribble the ball with your fingertips only), and change of direction drills (using cross-overs and spin dribbles to change direction).

This list of 3 items is by no means an exhaustive list of what you need to work on to become a better player. Rather, it is a big-picture checklist of 3 key areas that you should, at a minimum, work on during the off-season.

Being in tip-top shape, improving your shot, and being able to handle the ball are really the minimum in terms of what you need to improve upon from one season to the next. But if you do improve in these areas, you'll be well on your way to playing better and having a better season.

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