Hesitation Moves on the Basketball Court

If you want to be a great basketball player, you’ve got to have a complete game.  I’ve talked about how to improve your dribbling skills in a previous post.  Today I’m here focusing on changing speeds with the basketball.  In all sports, those who effectively change speeds have a great advantage.  Think of a pitcher with a great fast ball, but does not have a solid off-speed pitch.  He won’t last long in the rotation.  But give him a good change up, and he he can really pile up the wins.   This is also true with a great running back.  He must do more than run as fast as possible in a straight line.  His ability to stop and start and be deceptive is just as important (if not more important) as his top-end speed.  Think Barry Sanders.

Well, when it comes to hoops, it is no different.  If you only have average quickness but change speeds well, just like that you become tough to guard – think Steve Nash.  If you have good quickness and change speeds well, you become very quick – think Deron Williams.  If you have very good quickness and change speeds well, you become unguardable – think Chris Paul and Derrick Rose.  So, when working on your game, keep working on those handles.  But do NOT forget to change speeds.  Here are a few examples of what I am talking about…

Above ^^^ – stop and pop with a hesitation and stop and go to the basket. Next…

In this above video ^^^ – 1 stop and go to the right, 1 to the left, and 1 with a change of direction (between the legs) for a pull up J.

My skills with the video camera/computer are horrible, which is why the last shot got cut off. If Sue (not my mom) is reading this I know she is laughing at me. Sue – shush it! Remember, I’m going to be seeing you at our training session in just a couple hours and if you don’t watch it I will make you do nothing but Bulgarian Splits Squats for 1 hour straight!!!!!! Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway, I hope to really improve my computer skills in the months to come… but I just don’t get it. Next…

And in this last video you have Kobe using a hesitation move to make yet another defender look stupid.

Keep working hard on your game and make sure to change speeds on the court.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July weekend!