Sometimes, attending group, or team, practices may not be enough to help you improve your skills in basketball. And also, there are individuals who can learn best when they get to practice alone. It is not, really, bad to take the time to practice by yourself. Well, except for the fact that it may not be as fun compared to playing and socializing with your teammates. However, practicing alone is still very much beneficial. You’ll have the chance to concentrate on enhancing your skills, and to experiment new basketball techniques that you can call your own.
Here are some of the tips which can help you practice basketball alone:
1. Recognize the need to have your own practice sessions
The first thing to do is to recognize your need to have a basketball practice on your own. Sometimes, basketball practices may be in a rush due to scheduled games and practices. If you are a professional basketball player, you get to play games in your opponent’s courts. And so, you get some time to travel than to practice on court. On the other hand, if you are a varsity player, you do not get the chance to practice for more hours due to classes you need to attend. In addition, you also need some time to study your subjects in order to maintain your grades.
With your tight schedules, you have to think about learning and developing your basketball skills on your own. It is like a self-study, and it would definitely help you get better.
2. Make a schedule for your practice
Now that you know and accept the fact of practicing on your own, make it as organized as possible. You may get confused on when you should have that time for self-practice if you have to do lots of things. Get your calendar, or organizer, and indicate your practice schedules. The better thing to do is to sketch down your timetable where all your scheduled, or planned, activities are being recorded. This would serve as your guide in making your activities as organize and clear as possible.
3. Pick a location or set up for your practice
Pick a place where you can have your practice. The location does not need to be extravagant, or something like that. It just has to be spacious enough for you to run and dribble around. Do not settle for just dribbling the ball on small corners. Make the best out of your practice. Have a location that is spacious for you to run around and experiment some basketball moves. You would probably need a good space where you can do those quick change of directions in cross over moves, fakes, pivoting, and many others.
The great part is if you can have that space in your backyard, or any place near your home. Playing in your backyard would make it more comfortable for you, making your practice a little more private. And also, you can think well when there are no, or not that much, people around watching you do your practice.
4. Ensure that you have the necessary equipments
Do not forget to have the necessary equipments for your practice. Make sure that you have the ball and the ring in placed. Optimize everything in your practice. Do not settle for less. If you have to learn and develop new things on your own, have equipments accessible for your practice.
In addition, put on your sports gear. Wear your shirt, shorts, socks, and most importantly, your shoes. You have to be careful not to get unwanted injuries along the way. If you want to practice without wearing your shirt, that would be fine as long as you wear your shorts and shoes. Wearing shoes can protect you from any form of feet, or leg, injuries. On the other hand, playing without shorts would let you look idiot unless you alternatively wear jogging pants. The thing is that you can move better if you utilize shorts.
5. List down necessary skills you want to work on
Be smart enough to prepare yourself for practice. Make a list of basketball skills you want to work on. This will serve as your guide to make your practice more sensible. Try to take things one a time. If you want to start on footwork, settle for drills where you can develop such skills. And then move to other skills when you have done enough for those basketball skills.
6. Always include warm up exercises
Always do warm ups before you begin to engage in practicing your basketball moves. These warm ups are often effective in getting your muscles pumped up for practices. You can avoid sudden stretch of your muscles; causing intense pain that may lead to injury. You can make use of the warm up exercises your team usually do before practices. The warm ups should be before and after practice, especially when you do muscle stretching. Muscle stretching after practices can help your muscles relax after heavy physical activity.
7. Appreciate the chance of getting to practice basketball alone
Be appreciative on having the time to practice on your own. It would, actually, be more about your personal decision to make you enhance your knowledge and skills in your field of sport. A player who does take the time to practice alone value the essence of growing, either professionally or for fun, to have that great satisfaction in achieving a higher standard skills in basketball.
8. Enjoy having basketball practices by yourself
The best part of your practice is when you try to enjoy it. There is nothing more wonderful than having the opportunity to play the sport you love to play. Aside from being serious about your practice, do not forget to enjoy and have fun. Find the joy in practicing even though you are doing it alone by yourself. This would, greatly, encourage you to do more basketball practices alone.
Spend the time to practice on your own. In this way, you can discover many things about yourself in terms of playing basketball. Moreover, this would help you speed up your learning for the development of your skills and knowledge in the sport.
[info_box] Picture credit: humbert15 • Creative Commons Attribution[/info_box]
