Basketball Tip

Presented by Scott Pisapia, Camp Director

3 Reasons Why You Should Stay Low While Ball Handling

Staying low to the ground in basketball is important for a number of reasons and will benefit you on both offense and defense. Having a low center of gravity will allow you to be more balanced, act quicker, increase the accuracy of your dribbling and protect the basketball. Players who continually stand up straight the entire game only make themselves less efficient and slower players. Here are three tips on why to stay low from Lewis & Clark College Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach Scott Pisapia, commonly taught at the Nike Girls Basketball Camp at Lewis & Clark College.

1. Protection

When you’re closer to the ground, the ball has less distance to travel from your hand to the floor. With that being said, the ball spends more time in your hand and less time out in space. This limits the defender’s ability to steal it from your possession. The longer you can have the ball in your team’s possession, the more opportunities you will have to score and potentially win.

2. Quickness

You should never wait on the ball to be back in your hands to make your next sprint or step. Dribbling low will put you in an athletic stance and this will put you in a better position to react and increase your ability to act quickly.

3. Accuracy

Dribbling tall and trying to make moves can be challenging, you have to pass the ball further and higher around your body while trying to avoid your legs and hips. While playing tall, a simple crossover becomes much more difficult as the target you are passing to is much further away than when playing low. To decrease the amount of errors you make on the court stay low to the ground.

Breaking old habits can take time, but by staying low and remembering these ball handling tips you should see immediate improvement. Check out more basketball tips like these and join Coach Scott this summer at camp!