Basketball

Two important skills in basketball are faking and moving without the ball. Both should be practiced well.
Faking
In order to be an offensive threat you must be able to elude your guard whether you have the ball or not. A fake is an act designed to throw your guard off balance, so you can drive [...]

One must have that “do-or-die” spirit and wholehearted determination to give his best at all times. A basketball player, no matter how good, is a detriment to the team if he does not have a keen desire to play the game.
Desire
Many deficiencies can be overcome by a strong desire to achieve a goal - whether [...]

In playing basketball, each player must be conditioned to change quickly from offense to defense. This mental trick must be learned before any kind of defense can become operative. Defense is a state of mind. It can be passive, active, weak-kneed, indefinite, or masculine and aggressive. To perform offensive skills properly, an athlete must be [...]

Sinking man-for-man defense was made famous by Coach Hank Iba from Oklahoma State. Used properly, it becomes a strenuous, hardworking, multi-purpose defense. Used improperly, as is so often the case, sagging defense practices result in little more than a rest period for four men while one man gives token effort and attention to the ball [...]

A good passing team is a beautiful sight to watch. A team that can handle the ball and pass well is a tough team to beat.
Many coaches will agree that passing is the most important fundamental in basketball. Throwing a ball is not passing! Passing is an art which is controlled by very definite fundamentals.
The [...]

A decent share of the credit for a good defense can be traced to the mental attitude of the team’s players. Their defensive attitude should be aggressive. Too many athletes get the idea that defense is passive. Passivity creates negative actions. Aggressiveness is positive. The top defenders are all aggressive minded and aggressive acting athletes. [...]

Most of us have a tendency to think of tactical situations in terms of offense. The jump ball, out-of-bounds, and free throw line-ups are generally considered to be excellent scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, only one team will have an opportunity to score: the one that gets the ball. One team will be required to take the [...]

Dribbling is a very important fundamental of both offensive and defensive basketball. Offensively it is used to advance the ball in the back court, to make a drive-in to the basket, and to free oneself from close or congested defensive areas. Defensively, the dribble has become very effective in stalling tactics, especially when a press [...]

John was working in Springfield, Massachusetts at a YMCA training to become an administrator of the YMCA’s program. His challenge was to come up with a game for a gym class that would be physically demanding and could be done inside during the harsh winter months. His solution was to have two teams [...]

There is nothing more embarrassing to a basketball coach than to spend an entire game attacking a man-for-man defense - then learn the opponents used a zone. Those coaches who have been in the game for any length of time will probably recall just such an affair. The object of concealing the defense is to [...]