Like most sports, hours of practice is what is needed to develop essential skills in order to improve your performance and enjoyment in your sport of choice.

However, it takes the proper type of practice and being versed in the proper techniques that is the most important, because in most cases, your muscles have memory and if you teach them the wrong technique, it is very hard to break the bad habits.

Swimming is a perfect example. It you swim hundreds of laps in the pool using an inefficient stroke, in time that stroke will be imprinted on your muscle memory and when you decide to learn the proper technique, you pretty well have to break your stroke down and start all over from the beginning.

There a several keys to increasing your control over a basketball.

First of all, bouncing the ball far to high takes away from your ability to control the direction on the dribble and the direction you intend to travel. Also, by letting the ball bounce too far from the floor back to your hand, is leaving you open to having the ball intercepted by an opponent. It will also slow your progress down the court because of the extra time that elapses for the ball to travel in the course of one bounce. You can't continue down the court without the ball and have to wait for it to return to you.

The key is to have a shorter, more compact dribble. A dribble where the distance from the floor to your hand is much less. This way you will have much better control over the ball and can travel much more quickly down the court and will be able to protect the ball much better from your opponent.

One of the major keys to basketball control is to keep the ball close to your body. That, along with a compact bounce will give you maximum control and speed. If you bounce the ball too far from your body, it's much harder to maintain control and will be much more easy for an opponent to take it away from you.

A third key to increasing your basketball control is learn to dribble without looking at the ball. Keep your head up and look down court so you are aware of what is happening around you and what your next move is going to be.

With practice, a short, compact dribble close to your body will become second nature and you "won't" have to look.

By practicing these few ball control methods you will see a marked improvement in your basketball skills.

Learn more about this author, Ray Fauteux.
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