How To Actually Improve Your Game

Have you ever been frustrated with your progress of improvement?  Have you ever questioned if what you are doing is working?  Have you ever wondered why you seem to not be getting better, when your playing games every weekend?  Have you bounced around teams looking for the right fit or opportunity to showcase and improve your skills?  Guess what, you are not alone.  This has always been somewhat of a problem, but more and more it seems to be a bigger and bigger question for both parents and players.

So, what is the answer?  How do I actually get better?

Well, we have to look at the realities of what most players do to work on their skills – they play games.  Sometimes lot’s and lot’s of games.

Let’s take the average youth basketball game – 20 minute running clock half.  If you have 10 players per team and everyone plays approximately half the game, then all players are playing about 20 minutes per game.  There are roughly about 3-4 minutes wasted per half, based on the ball going out of bounds, substitutions, fouls called, free throws shot, etc.  So, in a running clock half, at best you are playing about 17 minutes per game.  If both teams have the ball approximately the same amount of time, then you are on offense roughly 8 1/2 minutes per game.  If your team shares the ball effectively, then every player has the ball in their hands about 1 minute and 42 seconds per game.

1 minute and 42 seconds?

Imagine if you went to the gym to work on your game and dedicated a hard 1 minute and 42 seconds to your game – even if you did this 3 times in a day this would be a total of 5 minutes and 6 seconds.

5 minutes and 6 seconds?

If all you dedicated to your skill development was 5 minutes and 6 seconds per day – how much would you get better?  I think we all know the answer – you wouldn’t.

This is the problem with skill development today.  Even when you go to most team practices – they run some team drills and then what do they do a lot – scrimmage?  In other words – playing a game.

So, what do you need to do as a player to get better?

Well, we have  always believed in the following formula to truly develop your skills:  30-35%% of your time in skill development, 30-35% of your time in a practice (team skill development), 20% of your time in games, and 10-20% of your time in driveway or free play time.  This formula provides the best framework for a players development.  Why?  Because you need the ball in your hand to develop your basketball skills.

Players need part of their development time to be unstructured – to work on things and develop creativity and to just have fun.  Players need games to showcase their skills in live team settings and to implement the skills they are working on as their game grows.  Players need good, well-structured team practice time to develop and to incorporate their individual skills into the team game.  Finally, players need time to work on specific skill development to improve their individual skills.  This time can be either individual or it can be with a great skill trainer.

How do you Actually Improve Your Game?

1. Make the commitment to your game – find time to work on your own – be creative and have fun.
2. Find the right program that helps you develop individually and as a teammate with great practices.
3. Find the right skill trainer & develop the right habits to dedicate individual personal time to your game.