Basketball Tip
Basketball Tip: Changing Pace while Dribbling
Some athletes can naturally sprint faster than their opponents down the court, others have to work harder at this. Adding a ball into the mix takes training and consistent effort to get to a level where you can feel confident. Once you feel you’ve gotten to a point where you are in great shape and have maximized your speed, it’s time to start changing your pace to increase your effectiveness on the court. Changing your speed while dribbling can make a slower offensive player very challenging to defend. Here are a few dribbling tips, that are commonly taught at Nike Basketball Camps, to help step up your game.
Awareness
When defending your opponent, recognize how often they change their speed and try to notice how many different speeds there are. Great ball handlers, like Kyrie Irving, will have 3-5 different speeds that they circle through as they go from one baseline to the other, it’s very important to have more than two speeds. Once you identify this in others and become aware of it, it becomes that much easier to apply it to your game.
Implementing in Practice
First, start without a ball and stand on one baseline. As you progress to the opposite baseline, change your pace 3-4 different times throughout the court. For example, jog at ½ speed between the baseline and the first free throw line then change to ¾ speed from the free-throw line to half court and continue until you reach the other baseline.
After you have run through this a few times, add the basketball in and practice this while dribbling. It will become incredibly more challenging to match the speed of your sprint with the pace of your dribble so don’t get frustrated if it takes a while to get the hang of it.
Hesitations
Once you feel comfortable, mix it up and build up your own personal arsenal of speeds. Stop at different areas on the court and go in different directions. A lot of players add a small hesitation between pace changes to throw a defender off balance. You can create hesitations with your feet or by pump faking the ball, anything to lead the defender to believe you are going in a direction that you aren’t.
Players who can change their pace whilst dribbling have the upper hand and are more likely to win games. Check out more basketball dribbling tips and get better this summer at a Nike Basketball Camp near you.