Being in a basketball team, it will only be a matter of time before you face an opponent on the court. By learning how to prepare for your opponent you will perform better on the court and increase your team’s chances of victory. There is a lot that you can do to get ready and practicing your skills and strategy is an important part of the process. This is because having confidence in your skills and abilities can really give you a mental edge over anyone facing you.
It also means that if you improve your ball handling skills you will be able to move in unexpected and difficult to anticipate ways and directions. If your opponent cannot tell where you will move next, you will be able to fool them and get past their defense in order to close on their basket much more easily. Getting into the zone around their basket and finding ways to keep the game play in that area means that you have more opportunity to score on their basket and prevent the ball from getting close to your own net where it may be able to cause problems for you and your team.
There are two schools of thought about preparing for an opponent. Many people think that watching them play other games will help you get a feel for their playing style and body language. Other people feel that it is important to stay away when opposing teams are playing so that you don’t get psyched out by them. It is important not to think you are beaten before the game begins or you will have a much harder time dealing with the opposing team.
You need to learn how to read body language so that you can tell what direction your opponent will move in as well as when he is moving and when he is simply trying to fake you out. This means that even when you are not on the court you are watching the team, how they move and how they interact. If you watch the opposing team you may be able to learn where the strengths and weaknesses are so that you can break through their defensive line and score.
Of course, you always need to keep in mind that while you are watching the opposing team, they are likely keeping their eye on you as well. This means that you need to learn how to obscure your own body language so that you can fool the players you are up against. It may mean learning how to use your peripheral vision and identify openings in the opposing team’s line that you can move through in order to score more easily. It may also mean being able to look one way and move the other in order to confuse your opponents that much easier.
As you can see, preparing for your opponent effectively means that you have to hone your mental and physical abilities as much as possible. Then, as an effective and well rounded player you can be the asset to your team that you have always wanted to be.
Picture credit: Zach Klein • Creative Commons Attribution
