Dribbling Secrets
- A great tip to emphasize while teaching dribbling is to encourage your players to open their hands. By relaxing the hands, the upper torso becomes loose and flexible, which lends to better upper body movement for body fakes and dipping the shoulder. Try making a fist and moving your upper body, you will notice how robotic and stiff the upper body becomes. So keep the hands open for greater mobility.
Here's another useful tip when teaching dribbling. Have your players dribble the ball and on the coaches command the player must stop the ball "dead" using the knee. Stopping the ball with the knee automatically achieves two things; (1) gets the knees bent and body low to the ground (spring loaded for acceleration). (2) forces the shoulder
to dip, upper torso turns. Important for body fakes and disguising your intentions. During the practice alternate knees, try double touches, right, left and continue dribbling, vary pace of the exercise.
Incorporate this little tip in your next warm, its' fun and productive.
