Faithful Five

Pivoting, passing, dribbling, shooting, and guarding your man. Here are five things you should always be working on to improve as a player. These are skill areas a coach measures a player by in order to develop their game in a well-rounded manner. Also, if one of these is particularly weak, it could keep a player from excelling or finding success in games.

1: Pivoting - Moving your defender with your feet. Managing spacing and ball protection in traffic or vs pressure. Creating space. Footwork.

2: Passing - Being able to make the right read for a pass and being able to physically throw that pass. Taking care of the ball on the pass is key! Weak hand passing is often underdeveloped.

3: Dribbling - Moving/Attacking to create advantage. Taking the ball into areas the defense doesn’t want you to. Moving your defender with deception.

4: Shooting - Knocking down shots consistently. A must for every good player. Takes a lot of work and repetition. Key words here: repetition and consistently.

5: Guarding your man - To contribute on a team and advance as a player, this is a must. Can you stay in front, play without fouling, and contribute on defense without forcing rotations.

If you want to be a great player, or you are about to level up, these are the areas to focus. It’s this simple, but you must work through it, try and fail, and play live. For younger players, this is a great checklist. Rank your strengths and weaknesses, and work to make both better!

​#getbetter