Ball Handling!!

[L3B120N J4M35]

I need so much help with my ball handling. what are some things that'll help it especially my left hand? i heard using a tennis ball, but im not sure what to do aha. but yeahh i need help with that and i cannot make left handed layups :banghead: :hammerhead: i know it sounds pathetic but i just cant seem to do it. appreciate any of the help isn

[Burgz V2]

I need so much help with my ball handling. what are some things that'll help it especially my left hand? i heard using a tennis ball, but im not sure what to do aha. but yeahh i need help with that and i cannot make left handed layups :banghead: :hammerhead: i know it sounds pathetic but i just cant seem to do it. appreciate any of the help isn

try and dribble the tennis ball as many times without losing it or dropping it. dont look at the tennis ball. if you cant dont it at first you can look but the point is to train from scratch without having to look at the ball

a lot of people don't make left hand layups because they havent trained their body and footwork to be comfortable in that situation. its really simple. practice your left hand layups at game speed and from different places on the court and off of different moves. again, if you cant do it at first, do it slow and work up to game speed.

i found that carrying around a basketball with me at all times helped improve my touch and feel for the ball. a lot people dont actually have bad handles, they just dont have a good feel for the ball and it forces them to lose the ball or pick up their dribble under pressure.

hope that helped. maybe post a vid of your dribbling and layups, im sure a lot of posters would give you some good feedback

[Jello]

watch kobe.

[01amberfirewv]

try and dribble the tennis ball as many times without losing it or dropping it. dont look at the tennis ball. if you cant dont it at first you can look but the point is to train from scratch without having to look at the ball

a lot of people don't make left hand layups because they havent trained their body and footwork to be comfortable in that situation. its really simple. practice your left hand layups at game speed and from different places on the court and off of different moves. again, if you cant do it at first, do it slow and work up to game speed.

i found that carrying around a basketball with me at all times helped improve my touch and feel for the ball. a lot people dont actually have bad handles, they just dont have a good feel for the ball and it forces them to lose the ball or pick up their dribble under pressure.

hope that helped. maybe post a vid of your dribbling and layups, im sure a lot of posters would give you some good feedback

then put the tennis ball in your right hand and toss it up and catch it while dribbling a basketball with your left hand. Also dribble two balls at once.

As for the layups I also agree, work on your feet and start close to the basket then move back as you become more comfortable.

[L3B120N J4M35]

thanks for the help. also when i have the ball in my right and go around my back but directly to my left i can do it but on the other side i cant. my left hand is pretty much useless :hammerhead:

[2swift4u]

practice, practice and more practice. The most important thing is to actually use and train your weaker hand. A lot of streetballers don't even bother to train their weaker hand. once you start to train your left hand it will get better. Of course it's very difficult to get it to a point where your left hand is just as good as your right hand, but minor improvements actually can be achieved pretty quickly.

and as somebody has mentioned before it also helps if you carry a ball around a lot. I think my handles improved the most when I used to dribble in our house all the time. But now I live in an apartment and can't do it anymore :D

[L3B120N J4M35]

practice, practice and more practice. The most important thing is to actually use and train your weaker hand. A lot of streetballers don't even bother to train their weaker hand. once you start to train your left hand it will get better. Of course it's very difficult to get it to a point where your left hand is just as good as your right hand, but minor improvements actually can be achieved pretty quickly.

and as somebody has mentioned before it also helps if you carry a ball around a lot. I think my handles improved the most when I used to dribble in our house all the time. But now I live in an apartment and can't do it anymore :D

what are some drills/things i could do to get it better? and should i do a daily routine of the same thing to get it better? also, ahaha how bout left hand layups? thanks a ton man

[2swift4u]

what are some drills/things i could do to get it better? and should i do a daily routine of the same thing to get it better? also, ahaha how bout left hand layups? thanks a ton man

well it depends whether you have a court to work out or whether you just practice at home or somewhere. On a court you could use cones or chairs to simulate defenders and dribble around them and then finish at the rim. try to practice sudden changes of direction on as little space as possible, do crossovers etc and then go for a layup. Do each drill to both sides using both hands. And yes you should work a lot on your left handed layups. It's really important that you can finish with both hands because very often defenders will make you go to your weaker hand. If you do layups from the left side with your right hand they're easier to block. so try to always use your left hand (unless you have a uncontested layup)

I'm sure you can find a lot of ball handling exercises on youtube.

[Pushxx]

I got better with my left hand by forcing myself to only use my left hand for shootingarounds.

[L3B120N J4M35]

well it depends whether you have a court to work out or whether you just practice at home or somewhere. On a court you could use cones or chairs to simulate defenders and dribble around them and then finish at the rim. try to practice sudden changes of direction on as little space as possible, do crossovers etc and then go for a layup. Do each drill to both sides using both hands. And yes you should work a lot on your left handed layups. It's really important that you can finish with both hands because very often defenders will make you go to your weaker hand. If you do layups from the left side with your right hand they're easier to block. so try to always use your left hand (unless you have a uncontested layup)

I'm sure you can find a lot of ball handling exercises on youtube.

yeah i go to the y and usually they dont have any body there. id feel like a fool practicing dribbling at the y

[IGotACoolStory]

I got better with my left hand by forcing myself to only use my left hand for shootingarounds.

I try to get out and ball in some type of fashion 4 times a week. Once a week I primarily focus on my left hand for everything. Layups, free throws, jumpers, runners, handling, footwork, and whatnot. Helps some.

I'm a coaches son so I can use my left hand just as well as my right hand in most basketball situations. So I'm below average with both :ohwell:

[scm5]

Buy a weighted basketball and do drills with it.

At first, your handles seem sloppy because you're not used to how hard you're bouncing the ball. Your dribbling becomes a lot quicker after you train with a weighted ball, and eventually, your handles improve drastically just from developing a harder/quicker dribble with the weighted ball.

[miggyme1]

i think im weird......i shoot better going to my left but i drive better going to my right.lol....im right handed....i can take one dribble left and pull up like melo.....when i go right tho i go hard to the basket.is that strange?

[scm5]

i think im weird......i shoot better going to my left but i drive better going to my right.lol....im right handed....i can take one dribble left and pull up like melo.....when i go right tho i go hard to the basket.is that strange?

It's about your balance. When you go right, you're more comfortable so you go hard and have more forward momentum so it's harder for you to pull up going that direction.

Same thing applied to going left. You don't go as hard to the basket going left because you're not as comfortable with it, so you are more upright, making it easier for you to pull up.

[Money 23]

Watch Kyrie / CP3

[Burgz V2]

i think im weird......i shoot better going to my left but i drive better going to my right.lol....im right handed....i can take one dribble left and pull up like melo.....when i go right tho i go hard to the basket.is that strange?

im right handed but drive better going right. a lot of players are like this. if you're always getting forced left might as well make that the way you wanna go lol

[Thorpesaurous]

You know, I coach, and I played for 30 years, and I've always had issues teaching people ball handling stuff. I was a PG, and my handle was extremely tight. You wouldn't mistake me for an and1 guy, but you weren't gonna take it from me in general either.

For me, a lot of ball handling drills are more about testing one's ball handling than they are about getting it better. I know growing up my court was maybe a quarter mile from my house, and I walked there every day. I would try to go through my legs every step, and by the time I got to high school, if I didn't make it, I'd go back and start over.
Things like around the back circles, figure eights, spider dribbles, low taps, even spinning the ball on my finger, always felt more like I was doing them because I could, and it proved I was a good ball handler, not because they were making me better, although I'm sure they were.
I always like to run with the ball. If we ran suicides I dribbled while I was doing it. I just never carried a ball. I also remember as a kid sitting watching tv and hanging my legs off the couch and dribbling in rhythms. Under a leg, under both legs, under the other leg, frontwards, backwards. But that was just stuff I did.
I did have a routine warming up. I'd start at a corner, go up the sideline doing inside outs, a spin at mid court, a half spin at the circle, an up two back two at the other circle, around the back at the other sideline, then charge the elbow, make a hard crossover, and go to the bucket. I'd do it a few times from each corner, sometimes switching up the mix, but always that same format.

I use that same warm up routine as a drill in practices now. In fact I just started this year coaching 7 year olds, and I'm tempted to use it with them. Mostly I coach middle schoolers.
I also do some timed ball handling stuff. A minute of up two back twos (a wildly undertaught move in my opinion), kill the grass (which is a free ball handling in the FT circle where you try to hit as much of the area as possible), and things like running with the through the legs moves. And warmups with around the backs and finger taps and stuff.

[Money 23]

I dribbled everywhere I went in order to actually hone the skill. Worked on my left constantly. Dribbled tennis balls in the house. Watched players with great ball handling and attempted to emulate their style: Zeke, KJ, Iverson, Marbury, Francis, White Chocolate

[KungFuJoe]

I think it's normal to feel more at ease dribbling the opposite way then pulling up for a jumper. In other words, if you're right handed, it will feel "smoother" dribbling to your left, then pulling up.

At least that's the way it is for me.

[01amberfirewv]

I also do some timed ball handling stuff. A minute of up two back twos (a wildly undertaught move in my opinion), .


What are these?

I agree that most drills build more confidence than anything. It is important to make sure you apply them to game situations and of course spend as much time dribbling as possible.

[Thorpesaurous]

What are these?

I agree that most drills build more confidence than anything. It is important to make sure you apply them to game situations and of course spend as much time dribbling as possible.


Up Two Back Twos are sometimes called drag dribbles, or pull dribbles I've heard too, but my HS coach called the U2B2s.

Frankly it's more the back that matters. The drill is a simple V shape. You go up two dribbles with the ball in you're right hand, then slide backwards, ball in the same hand, sort of on your back hip, keeping space between the defender and the ball. Then you dropstep that left foot, snap a crossover (sometimes I'd go behind the back, or through the legs), and attack again two dribbles left handed, and again drag the ball back. We'd do 30 second sets with two groups for a 5 minute session.

This move I didn't learn until I was a junior in HS, and honestly it had an impact on me. It's very applicable. Most young players go forward. Go forward at all cost. That's how I played. Attack, and if that fails, attack again. Sometimes moving laterally to get around someone, but the idea of going backward almost never occurred to me. Once I learned this technique, I found it incredibly usefull. Head into a trap, along the baseline, drag it back, and watch the defenders come toward you, creating space behind them for cutters. And every shooter knows there's no one easier to beat off the bounce than a defender coming at you, so by pulling back quickly, you can kind of create that effect. Defenders are now coming at you, and you're acceleration forward will seem more dramatic. Attacking the seam of a zone and it gets pinched off, drag that dribble back and create space behind it. Coming up court into a 1-3-1 trap? Put that foot on the half court line (which is not over and back mind you) let the trap come, drag it back to the backcourt, and all that space opens behind the trap, plus you can snap that cross over and get under the trap back to the middle of the court.

It's just a very practical move that doesn't look all that flashy.

[01amberfirewv]

IC, we call them retreat dribbles where you pull the ball back and go. I need to spend more time on that with my jr. high team, they can't handle pressure.

[Thorpesaurous]

IC, we call them retreat dribbles where you pull the ball back and go. I need to spend more time on that with my jr. high team, they can't handle pressure.


I coach middle school too and this is a staple for us. I get two two hour practices a week, and we do individual skill stuff at least an hour of our 4, and this is a go.

[01amberfirewv]

I coach middle school too and this is a staple for us. I get two two hour practices a week, and we do individual skill stuff at least an hour of our 4, and this is a go.


We get to share the gym 5x a week for 1.5 hours and its still not enough

[LT Ice Cream]

I know this sounds kind of silly but like a lot of guys have said, watch your favorite pros. A lot of ball handling is confidence. I like to watch guys like Jennings and CP3 cuz of how confident they are when they make moves.
When I play ball, I just envision making moves like I saw them do it on YouTube. It's when you start second guessing your handling skills you start fumbling.

Of course, you have to actually practice as much as possible as well.