Tuesday, October 7, 2008

How to Train For Basketball and Receive Big-Time Results

Basketball players need immediate results in order to compete at a high level. Since the players in today's game are so athletic, physical training becomes the grand separator. In designing an effective training program, a player needs to understand two major focal points;

* Individual skill practice must take place on a daily basis

* Conditioning/Training does not replace individual skill practice

Once the above two factors are understood, immediate progress has been made. If you are a smart player, you will make your skill work, conditioning because of how hard you work. But, as stated previously, it does not replace conditioning. Think of it as a double benefit. The daily skill work requirement of a big-time player is ball handling, passing, defending, rebounding, and movement training. The fundamental skills of basketball must be mastered and are considered imperative for a players success.

* Ball Handling

A player needs to master handling a basketball in a stationary style first. This is a prerequisite to moving with a basketball. Anyone who does not have absolute mastery over a basketball needs to focus on the Maravich Drills for their stationary movement. Most of my athletes start their individual workouts with five minutes of this nonstop at a very high intensity level.

Once mastery is attained, basic movements are used for traveling ball handling. Moves that are used in the game are emphasized. These game-time moves include change of direction, hesitation, in and out, crossover, in and out into crossover and pull back into crossover. These moves are critical for big-time results and are used in the game.

* Passing

If you have a wall to pass to, you have all you need. Make a mark on a brick wall and hit it one hundred times with your bounce, chest, overhead, one hand underhand, one hand overhand, and lob passes. Concentrate on starting every pass in the triple threat, strong with the ball position. Keep the basketball to yourself and do not give it away.

Once you have mastered the stationary passing, you can progress to moving. You can use that same wall, just take a strong dribble to the left or right and then go through the same series of passes. Once you master once dribble, proceed to two dribbles.

* Rebounding

Rebounding is timing, the ability to read the ball off the rim, and positioning. Like all the other skills, proper repetition will give way to serious results. When you perform your shooting drills, follow all of your shot, and finish them. Take the ball strong to the rim with authority. Shooting drills are the keys to rebounding and this is due to your repetitions of reading the ball off the rim.

* Defense and Movement Training

Since my retirement from professional basketball, I have realized there is a serious void in this area. There are tremendous individual skill coaches out there who do a great job but there is a lack of movement training coaches. To give you another example, why would a player who has not mastered his own bodily movement try to add weight to it? A body is only as efficient as his levers allow him to be. Remember, it is not always the skills or a weightlifting program as much as it is the players ability to move randomly.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Lemanczyk

Basketball Training For Court Dominating Strength

Basketball training needs to be carefully designed based the movement patterns that exist within the game. This understanding allows players to train using dynamic movements that promote function. For example; an exercise that includes a movement application is favored over one that is stationary. In addition, movement training primarily increases a human beings capacity for functional strength and conditioning.

* Are individual basketball skills important in training?

Yes and all individual skills must be mastered or in the progress of mastery for completion as a player. Individual basketball skills include but are not limited to shooting, passing, cutting, rebounding, defending, awareness, and helping.

Daily practice requirement for the pursuit of skill mastery is to the point of execution failure. For example; chest pass to a partner as explosive as you can. Have the partner throw the ball back quickly and then repeat the rapid chest pass. Once you are no longer accurate to your partner, the passing fundamental is over.

It is very important to develop correct habits so that the motor patterns can be remembered properly when you need them the most. At the end of a game when you are exhausted, you will not have to worry about a pass getting to a teammate. You know it will since you practiced diligently in your training.

* Should basketball players concentrate on flexibility before training?

Attaining an optimal level of flexibility is a precursor to lifting with weighted resistance of any kind. This is because dynamic movements greatly reduce the possibilities of injuries and safely increase maximum strength. A fine example of a dynamic stretch is jogging. Within a few minutes of jogging, the soft tissues (muscles) within the body become fuller due to their usage. This is that general feeling of being warm or what most coaches call a warm up. At this point, it is time to divulge into sensible physical training.

Movement stretches or dynamic stretches allow an athlete to develop flexibility without attempting to force flexibility. Improper stretching techniques can lead to sports injury and adequate health is the ticket to achieving true athletic potential and more importantly, reaching it.

* Do basketball players need to lift weights?

No they do not. Basketball players are advanced movers and need to condition themselves as such. The human body is comprised of a unique blend of levers (bones/joints) that have differential properties containing mechanical advantage and disadvantage. The primary goal of a player is to increase his entire bodily leverage to ensure performance during a rapid, high pressure, reactive based environment such as the basketball court. All players have natural weakness and those need to be assessed, and tended to through adequate training. In time and with patience, a player improves. Prior to lifting with weighted resistance a player must master his own bodily movement.

* What should basketball players focus on to get results?

First, layers need to focus on developing their peripheral vision to the highest possible level. This ability greatly enhances awareness and leads to prowess. In the early days of basketball, coaches would put their players in a circle and have them pass balls to each other without looking. Each player would look straight ahead yet still see the ball quickly approaching them with there peripheral vision. This is the type of basketball training that represents similar anxiety to that of an actual game.

In addition to visionary development each basketball player needs to improve wrist and ankle strength. Both joints hold an overwhelming responsibility to our movement and manipulative capability. Properly training the wrists and ankles reduces the possibilities of strains, sprains, and pain all together.

Wrist training benefits include but are not limited to longer shooting range, explosive passing, ball control, shock absorption, etc. Ankle training benefits increase speed, movement, acceleration, vertical leaping, bounding, running, stopping, changing direction, shock absorption, etc.

Thirdly, a basketball player needs to concentrate on developing a perfect core balance. Sometimes trainees have abdominal muscles that are much stronger than their back muscles. This is due to basic overwork and neglect and it creates muscular imbalance which may lead to future injury.

Additionally postural strength is paramount and serves as a primary injury preventive attribute. Improved core strength allows a player to move his body quicker, faster, and stronger in unpredictable environments where any movement may occur. This type of conditioning is developed through unique dynamic functional tasks that require concentration and mental toughness.

* What is basketball strength?

Basketball Strength is the power to score, dominate, and defend anyone at anytime on the basketball court. It is a no fear demonstration of skill mastery and ability. Consider this a honed skill set that can not and will not be denied.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Lemanczyk

Improve Your Vertical Jump in Basketball

I'm here to show you how you can improve your vertical jump in basketball greatly by following a few simple exercises that professional athletes haves been using for years. I used to think that all those great basketball players just had these amazing genetics to jump higher. The truth is that they don't. Many have the advantage of just being tall, but most of them had to work daily doing exercises just to add a few inches to their jump. When it comes to this sport and there is money on the line, the best training the methods end up with the athletes and the average Joe misses out. I'm going to expose how the athletes out there train to increase their vertical jump.

The first exercise to help improve your vertical jump in basketball is the squat. It's just an important part of strengthening those muscles required to push you off the ground. Most people think that the squat works the upper area of the legs, which won't help you in your jump, but it does work your entire leg and strengths all the right muscles.

The problem many people have is that they just do strength training and that isn't the only thing. Having strong muscles isn't the only part of jumping higher. It's similar to the idea of someone putting up 50lbs of muscle to run faster. You also need that springy elastic and explosive push off. If you can't achieve that you're not going to get the best of your strength. This is why I suggest that you should walk around on the tips of your toes for 30 minutes a few times a week. It sounds a lot easier than it really is. Try it and you should get some good results.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Nash

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The Real Thing About Fundraising

Fundraising is both challenging as it is rewarding. Raising the needed fund for a worthy cause is indeed spiritually and emotionally satisfying. Every school organization may want to extend a helping hand to those folks who are in dire need. The prospect beneficiary could either be a charitable institution, an orphanage, a community project, and the likes. However, no matter how pure the intention is, school funds can be exceptionally tight. Even the school itself needs aid from people who have a kind heart to give out donations.

When your school organization aims to help out through whatever possible means regardless of who or which is the beneficiary, fundraising is just the most precise thing to do. Is it not much fulfilling on your part to put out the best possible effort you can in order to earn money for a specific cause or if you’re earning money to help others? Of course it is!

Confused of which fundraising strategy to go for? There are a lot of fundraising ideas to opt for which may either be simple or a bit complicated. As a matter of fact, it is usually the simplest plan which works best.

What can fundraising do for you?

Due to the fact that fundraising stirs the best out from you, the feeling of being able to help the needy is particularly spiritually and emotionally gratifying. Fundraising campaigns are as well beneficial for your organization as it heightens the return of good and positive feedbacks that your group may get.

Apart from all other glorifying aspects which fundraising generate, one’s creativity, organizational skills, communication dexterities, and firmness as likewise enhanced. During fundraising ventures, you and your group mates get the chance to interact with people from all walks of life and be able experience for yourselves the real score outside of the world which you are traditionally confined in.

Fundraising Ideas

There are a number of fundraising ideas that your school organization can choose from. The most common fundraising ideas are selling sandwiches, candy and chocolate bars, shakes, beverages, meal coupons, concert tickets, basketball game tickets, discount coupons, personalized shirts, mugs, pens, and other collectible items, and so on. Cooking and then selling the output from the recipes you have collected can also be effective. You can try selling them to the school’s population or to the outside community. Your organization can even team up with the school’s sports games and earn profit from the ticket sales. Or, your organization may stage a concert for a cause. Garage sale and car washing is also among the trendiest fundraising activities these days.

Things to Consider in Fundraising

After finally deciding on which fundraising idea to go for, there are two major things which must be borne in mind. The first thing is to carefully think about the percentage of profit that you will make out of the fundraising activity. When your organization had opted to team up with another organization or some company, the agreement must be put into writing.

Next, it is significant to make sure that the products you put up for sale for the fundraising campaign are worth it. Once the people know for a fact the real cause for the fundraising activity, they tend to be exceptionally generous.

Any fundraising activity needs careful planning. For the campaign to be highly successful, it is important that all members of your organization should concert enough effort for the realization of the specified goals.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Breached Security

Once again our leaders in the Bush administration have shown how little we are protected. If they can’t even protect the private passport records of our presidential candidates how can we expect them to stop the bomb in the shopping mall, the suitcase nuke coming across the southern board or the millions of containers that arrive at our ports everyday – unexamined.

We are quickly becoming a society of people all of whom are at some level of “post traumatic stress syndrome’. Point in fact – when the tornado hit the Golden Dome in Atlanta during the basketball game last week, most people reported that their first thought was “it was a terrorist attack.” How many of you have thought the same thing when something happens in your hometowns. I have and if you are honest – you have also. We jump at noises that use to not bother us; we tense up if a helicopter flies over too low. Some of us sleep with the light on now or CNN on all night.

It has been that way for five years because our leaders have led with fear. They have continued to play the “fear card” every time they need something from Congress and they play it again whenever they need the public to contact their Congressional Representative.

I don’t like this feeling – this feeling of having our guard up all the time. The administration is even running public service announcements about having a family plan, where to meet our family members if there is a terrorist attack and everyone in your family is separated.

Every time there is a breaking news bulletin – is this it? They have started testing the emergency broadcast network on a weekly basis now – instead of monthly – and it is always on different day and time so it catches us off guard. Do they know something that we don’t know, or do they just want us to believe they do?

How long can our leaders keep us in a state of fear? What damage is this fear having on our bodies? Fear is a powerful emotion – people do brutal acts because of fear. Revolutions are started in the name of fear.

And do you realize how many of our Constitutional rights have been taken away. Let’s take a look at this. Let say your best friend lives in France. The two of you email back and forth talking about “terrorists”. This word triggers your email into a government program and puts you on a list of people to watch. If you are suspected, the government can bust into your home and search it without a warrant. You can be arrested with no charges and can be kept in jail for weeks or more. If they believe you have information, they ship you to a “friendly country” and beat you half to death to extract information out of you. After a day or two of this – you tell them anything, and if you have no real information – you make up a story just so the torture will stop. Did you realize this? No, probably not because we are afraid. Fear is very powerful and it can keep people in line. This is exactly what the Nazi party did in its rise to power before WW II.

What can we do about this? Probably nothing. The Democrats are fighting over the nomination and the Republican candidate is just Bush III.

Our government should be reassuring us, making us unafraid. A fearful populist can revolt when they are not happy with the present leaders. A fearful populist will follow false prophets who speak will and who can convince them to follow him – people who really are unable to lead.

This is the most important thing to do about this – when you go to vote in November, don’t vote for a person out of fear. Vote for them out of hope and change and pray that the person you voted for can deliver on the hope and the change.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Ways To Score In A Basketball Game

There are different ways to score in a basketball game. Let us learn each of them:

Jump shot - is the most common shot made at the perimeter (or the place on the court that is relatively far from the basket), also known as set shot. This is done by getting the right height before throwing the ball to the basket. It is also essential to follow through with the ball. This is done by maintaining your form while the ball is still on its way to the basket. The following through is said to increase the chance of scoring. A jump shot is often worth 2 points.

Three-point shot - is a perimeter shot taken beyond the arc (both feet of the player must not step on the three-point line). The player should possess leg and knee power to generate enough height to release the ball 20 feet away from the basket. A three-point shot often gives the team a boost and adds excitement to the game.

Free throw - A free throw is given after the opponent has committed a personal foul or a technical foul. This is an unguarded shot taken in the free-throw lane and is worth 1 point.

Dunk - is one of the most exciting shots that can be made by a player. This is done by jumping high enough to get your hands on the rim while still holding the ball. Once you reach the right height, slam the ball and grab the rim. It adds more to the excitement.

Alley oop - is a pass and shoot sequence that involves great coordination between the passer and the receiver of the ball. The ball is thrown to a player in mid air who will also shoot the ball before he touches the ground.

Lay up - is the most common shot made inside the paint. This is also the easiest shot to make. You drive to the basket, take off to get the right elevation, and lay the ball directly to the rim or off the board with one hand. The non-shooting hand is used to protect the ball from the defender.

Hook shoot - is made popular by Kareem Abdul-Jabar. This shot is done by turning your body on the side while the head is still facing the basket. You will jump off with the non-shooting leg and toss to ball with one hand similar to laying up.

Scoring in a basketball game is important to win a game but don't forget to play defense so that you prevent your opponent from scoring more than you do.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Monday, September 29, 2008

2 Deadly Girls Basketball Shooting Mistakes

I have been involved in girls basketball for quite a while. As I watch girls basketball, it is hard for me to look at a game for pure entertainment. I am always looking at the little things like does a young lady get in triple threat, are the teams running plays, and the attitude of players. I especially look at the way a young lady shoots the basketball. Here are 2 deadly mistakes players make in shooting the basketball.

Wrong Attitude

The first mistake a player makes in shooting a basketball comes before they even shoot the ball. They don't believe in their ability to shoot. They run through their head over and over and over again such thoughts--

"I am not a great shooter.

"I can't shoot 3s."

I worked with a young lady during a training session and she told me that she could not shoot 3s. I had her go through a series of shooting which were only 3s and she knocked down the majority of the shots. But this young lady had just told me and more than once that she could not make 3 pointers.

You are what you think about. If you think you can't do something, you won't even try to do it. Which leads me to the other deadly mistake.