May 24, 2002, Newsletter Issue #59: BALLHANDLING DRILLS FOR BASKETBALL

Tip of the Week

The “Maravich Drills" are great drills when you first walk into the gym. These are drill that legendary Pete Maravich grew up with and used to become on of the greatest ballhandlers ever. Start with "Hard Ball Slaps," Simply slam the ball from hand to hand. "Squeeze the Banana" is a good warm-up that conditions your fingers, wrists, and arms. Squeeze, don`t tap, the ball from hand to hand. In "Up the Ladder," you tap the ball fast with your fingers as you extend your arms out into a locked position; also move your arms up and down as you are tapping the ball. "Around the World" is a good hand speed and coordination drill, also great conditioner for your arms - they will burn after a while go as fast as possible, circling first your head, than your waist, and finally your legs. The "Pretzel" has you weaving the ball in and out of your legs (no dribbling) in a "figure 8" motion. When doing "Ball Drops" you Crouch down and hold the ball between your legs - one arm in front of you, one arm in back; take both hands off the ball, switch arm positions and catch the ball before it hits the ground. You can also do "Ball Drops-front to back" same as above except crouch down, holding ball with both arms behind you. Let go of ball, bringing both arms in front of you and catch ball before it hits the ground.
These are seven strictly Ballhandling drills that involve no dribbling, but will get you comfortable with the basketball. We will cover dribbling drills in the next newsletter.

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