The Ultimate Guide to Mastering The Art of Ball Handling [A Complete Science-Backed Dribbling Program]
Thereâs no denying that ball handling is the most fundamental skill set involved in basketball.
Simple.
Yet despite this being widely accepted, many players still lack the fundamental skill sets involved in making them a high-level ball handler. On any given team in any given competition (from the NBA to your local comp), thereâs a good to fair chance that there will be widely varying skill levels when it comes to ball handling.
To put it scientifically, > 95% of players simply donât possess the motor cortex that allows them to handle the ball as well as they could.
And unfortunately, this means that they simply donât reach their potential as a player.
The Problem With Basketball Training Today [Why So Many Players Donât Reach Their Full Skill Potential]
With the above said, it would be simply to say that basketball players should work harder on their ball handling & call it a day. Thatâs how most coaches leave things. They blame it on their players, as opposed to looking critically at their own methods.
And this is in our opinion is the reason why so many players struggle to ever become as skilled as they can be.
Itâs because our methods of training are stuck in the dark ages. So many coaches & programs rely upon the same outdated practice methods that have been used for the last 50 years. Not only this, but they rarely foster engagement & ownership on the part of the athlete.
This causes athletes to think in terms of âgoodâ or âbadâ when it comes to their training. Either a session is âgoodâ (i.e. done indoors on a perfect ring with a perfect net & nice court with a coach running them through everything for 60â90 minutes leaving them drenched in sweat & cooked) or âbadâ (i.e. done outdoors on a netless, rusted hoop for 20â30 minutes, while enjoying being outside. Leave feeling fresh).
This black or white mentality is the thing that stops players skill development from truly flourishing. And when we look at the example of the âgoodâ session above from a scientific lens, we see there is really no scientific basis to this type of session being any more effective than the âbad sessionâ. Each of these sessions will have its own unique individual benefits depending on the level the player is at, what stage of the week their own & what their focus us.
This is just one example where science isnât often taken into account in an athletes training program, causing them to lose out on optimal development as a result.
Frequency is King [Why Consistency Is the Most Important Factor Of All]
For the most part, athletes are working for far too long in each session & not often enough.
Itâs hard to blame them too.
When much of the information that is published has a tone of âgo hard or go homeâ & grind it out, we can see where the mindset comes from.
Science shows us that sessions that are done frequently for shorter durations will usually lead to better results than sessions done all at once.
Part of the problem lies in a lack of understanding of human adaptation. As athletes & basketball coaches, we often forget that players donât get better in the gym, they get better when theyâre recovering from it! Itâs all to easy to simply create the âperfect sessionâ & cram in more work each time we work with an athlete, without actually considering what theyâre doing for the rest of their week. Thatâs why we at the Sydney Supersonics encourage our athletes to be their own best head coach & create their own perfect training week to adjust to what they know theyâll be facing each session in order to allow for full recovery [You can see our complete guide to this here].
When we couple this lack of understanding with the simple fact that much of the information available on the internet is seemingly all over the place & rarely considers the principles of skill progression, we can see why athletes arenât consistent with their training.
Theyâre overwhelmed!
And thatâs why we came up with this guide đ
A Structure For Your Ball Handling Progress [Becoming Kyrie Irving]
For starters, taking a scientific lens on our training can completely change how we structure our training. Re-thinking how we go about developing skills, by determining the most important things for us right now is critical to our long term success. Knowing the fundamentals is absolutely critical to building a solid skill. A guide such as the one in the âFirst 20 hoursâ is incredibly useful here.
Once we know the fundamentals involved & understand the level weâre at we can get to work. (Note to players: how many coaches say âLearn your fundamentalsâ, but rarely give you anything useful to be able to learn them đ)
The guide below represents the âfundamentalsâ of ball-handling mapped out in a progressive fashion with comprehensive tutorials that build on one another in respect to skill acquisition. The key to this guide is that weâre slowly building the complexity & âskill requirementsâ with each level. Check the video above to see this in detail.
Everyone Wants to See Progress
The key to succeeding long term with your skill progression is simply to measure where youâre at & regularly notice progress. Thatâs why weâve put levels & set criteria so you can clearly see progress week in & week out.
A good rule of thumb is that each level should take roughly 6 weeks to master in the first âFundamentalsâ section. When you progress to the âgame specificâ section it should take roughly 3â6 weeks to master a stage as you gradually apply each ball-handling skill in-game.
Now we know what this guide is good for, itâs time to point out some of the key details from the video to make things clear.
The Theory Of Ball Handling [Summary Notes From The Video Above]
Click the Underlined sections below to jump straight to the relevant section in the video.
00:00 â Intro & 3x3 Handle Highlights
00:40 â Welcome Message From Ben & The Supersonics [Why This Guide Is like Nothing Youâve Seen Before]
04:12 â Outlining the Ultimate Framework For Mastering The Art of Ball Handling
- Refer to the table above in this article
06:45 â Where Most Players Struggle With Ball Handling [Lack of Structure]
09:30 â How to Use This Guide & Create Your Dribbling Workouts [Consistent 10+ mins per day]
- Frequency is most important
11:30 â How Ball Handling Changes Your Brain [The Secret to Developing Touch]
- Refer to image above of the Human Homonculus.
15:42 â Why Muscle Memory is a myth [Dynamic Systems Theory]
- Skilled performance is actually about having the most variability in our motor pattern & our ability to account for as many factors as possible
- This is why there is no such thing as a âperfect repâ as each rep will always be different. Itâs instead about focusing on the desired outcome.
19:38 â How To Know Youâre Progressing [Film Study]
23:40 â How to Know Where to Start Depending On Your Age [Focus on Enjoyment + LTAD]
26:50 â How To Use This Guide When Playing [Using the Levels as a Guide for Practice Time]
28:45 â Why You Must Focus on Physical Preparation for Elite Handles [Athleticism, Mobility, Depth & Footwork]
34:00 â Guide to the Bonus Section & Game-Specific Work
36:30 â Why Most Players Donât Get Many Assists & Suck to Play With [They Arenât Skilled Enough]
- They get tunnel vision & canât see the floor.
40:00 â Wrap Up & Thank You + BONUS Offer
To Access the full Blueprint & accompanying material from the video, check out our 30 day free trial of the Elite Athlete Blueprint đ
