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All posts for the day January 23rd, 2013
Players give all sorts of reasons why they take dribbles when they get the ball close to the basket. They are off-balance, so they need to dribble to keep from walking; their feet aren’t in position to go up strong; they get more power going up in the air when they have to pull the ball off the floor first. Probably you know even more reasons why you do it. And you can recall dozens of players you have seen, even pros, who do it.
Fine. So sometimes you can get away with dribbling inside. Sometimes you can even get away with it against good teams. But most of the time, when you meet a good team, when you need your inside moves the most, you get your inside dribbles stolen by little guards sagging in and helping.
The point is, whether you can get away with it or not, you should
develop a sense of pride in your ability to score inside without having to put the ball on the floor at all. You should learn how to get on balance without need of a dribble, and learn how to go up strong without need of a dribble.
Once you learn these things, then if you get a chance to score where it is obvious that a dribble will make it easier, dribble and score! But if you are an inside man, make sure you learn to score without the dribble first. Too many players have never learned how to get their balance and make a move inside without dribbling; as a result, they are not effective when they meet a team that sags well to help.
It is possible to learn to fake, to score off two feet and off one foot, and to make many many moves without using a dribble inside. Forcing yourself to score this way exclusively in pickup games and in summer practice, will pay dividends during the season and will get you in the habit of using a dribble only when it is necessary.
In nearly every game at every level, two or more should’ve-been- layups are never taken because the ball is batted away when it never should have been dribbled in the first place.
Learn from this statistic and learn to score inside without dribbling.
From Dick’s book Stuff
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