4 Reasons Why You Absolutely NEED To Become A Great Ball Handler

Welcome to the Vision Gym Basil training podcast. Appreciate you guys who tuned in today, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcast, or wherever it is that you may be listening from. I appreciate you for listening and of course, everybody right now who is on YouTube, shout out to you guys, like, subscribe if you're new. So, but on this kick with ball handling, because I, I'm going to talk to you today about why it's so important. And let's talk a little bit about elite bot. Only 2.0 that's dropping as I record this in Thursday, Friday, three days, less than three days. So when you're hearing this, it'll be probably dropping in two days. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that. But I want to start off just talking about why it is a must that you become a great ball handler. Because I think that people think of ball hand. A lot of times they think of it in a very traditional sense where it's like, okay, if you're a point guard, you got to be able to handle the ball, and if I'm not a point guard, then, you know, whatever, right? It should be like, critically up towards the front of your mind, like, critically important to you that you can handle the ball at a high level. There's a lot, there's. There's four reasons why. Four reasons I'm going to give you on this. And again, I think that it is one of those things where it can be. It's a lot like, it's not like mentally, right? Everybody knows players who mentally are just on a different level, right? It just seems like nothing phases them. They're always locked in. They always play with this crazy level of confidence. And they might not even be the most skilled players, but because mentally they have it and they're locked in, they are, you know, they probably play better than they actually should because their mind is working for them. And you have players with the exact opposite where, you know, they struggle because mentally they're always overthinking or, you know, they lose confidence really easily or, or it just seems like, you know, even as skilled as they might be, as good as they might be physically, their mind is working against them, right? You, you can have both sides of that. And I'm sure you, you know, players who are one of the two, maybe you are one of the two. Maybe you have been one of the two at times in your, in your life. But ball handling is the same way, right? Ball handling could be something that completely sets you free, which is the first thing we're going to talk about, or it can be something that severely limits you and limits your impact you can have on the court. Okay? And so the first thing, the first reason why it is crucial that you handle the ball at a high level is because it gives you freedom, right? When you cannot handle the basketball, the defense decides what you do. For the most part, if this can be as simple as, okay, if you can't really dribble the ball going left, then you are limited in what you can do. You don't have freedom to do that. You don't have freedom to use that solution, right? Basketball is a game of finding solutions. So there's a problem that's being thrown at me. The best players are the players who have the most solutions, right? And if you want to have the most solutions to a problem, meaning you are basically limited by what you're capable of doing, okay? So if I am not very tall, you know, and I'm not very athletic, then a solution to somebody rotating in to help is probably not going to be to dunk on them. But if you're Giannis, you probably can find find a solution to the problem of help defense by going up and just dunking on somebody, right? But if you're 59 and don't jump that high, you probably won't be able to do that. So based on your abilities, you're going to have different solutions. So if you want to become the best player possible, you need to work on having the most solutions at your disposal, right? If you're limited as ball handle, let's say you can't really handle the ball that well going fast, right? When you're going full speed, you start to lose the ball. You sort of lose your ball control. Well, now a solution to you, maybe, you know, getting somewhere in the court or making a play or getting to the rim might need to be, I, hey, I've got to go as fast as I can. That's the only way I'm going to be able to accomplish my goal. But if you know that, hey, I'm probably going to lose the ball if I try to go as fast as I can, well, all of a sudden now you don't have that solution and now you're limiting yourself. So what being able to handle the ball at a high level, at an elite level does is it gives you access to so much more when it comes to solutions, right? And again, if you want to be a great player, you need to find ways to add tools to your toolbox, AKA add solutions to Your. Your bank of solutions, Right. If you just chase after that, okay, I got to be able to be a really good problem solver, and I got to give myself as much ability to solve problems as I can. Then you're going to. You're going to have a lot more options. You're going to play with a lot more freedom. Because now when you're on the court, you know, you might be able to, you know, it's going to be very hard for the defense to limit you because there's so much you can do. Okay? But if you can't handle the ball, then you kind of lose that. Right? So that's the first thing, is that being able to handle the ball gives you freedom. And if you want to be the best player you possibly can be, you have to have solutions. And in order for you to do that, you've got to be able to handle the basketball at a high level. Right? So number two is when you can handle the ball at a high level, it increases your value to your team, probably more so than you even think about. Right? Obviously, again, we talked about it. As a point guard, you got to be able to handle the ball. People talk about that. But being able to handle the ball in general is really, really important because not only are you going to be able to create for yourself, I can put the ball on the floor and I can make something happen for myself. But what that's going to do is it's going to affect, obviously, the help defense because you're going to drive, draw somebody in. Now you have kicks going, okay, you might be able to handle a press well, and, and all of a sudden they, you know, they're out of position on a press, and now your teammate's open, right? Or, you know, maybe they can't guard you in a press, and all of a sudden you're getting layups for your team, okay? So what it's going to do is it's going to put pressure on the defense and it's going to relieve pressure for your teammates. So when you have teammates who maybe can't handle the ball as well, you're going to make them better because you can handle the ball. Not only can you create for yourself, but by, you know, based on what we just talked about, where you're drawing in help you, you're occupying other defenders, you are creating opportunities for your teammates to be able to make plays as well. And that's really, really important. And something that you need to understand is that being able to handle the ball makes you basically Twice as valuable to your team. If you can't handle the ball, you're not creating for yourself and you're not creating for anybody else. But if you can handle the ball, all of a sudden you can create for yourself now and you're creating for other people as well. So it makes, it essentially adds two times the value to what you bring to a team if you can do that. And again, it's, it's, it doesn't matter based on, you know, hey, that's only for the point guard. No, it's just in general, if you can do something with the ball, you're going to be twice as valuable to your team. And that's kind of where I want to go with it next is you cannot be a liability, right? And again, this is not like it's not position based because ball handling and basketball in general just isn't. It's, it's becoming more and more positionless. Like for the most part, you've got to be able to do just about everything. That's what teams want. Teams want size. That can do everything, right? If you can have a 6, 8 point guard who can handle the ball and shoot, that's, that's amazing, right? And that's where basketball is these days, is that it doesn't matter how tall you are, how short you are. What matters is what skill set do you have. Okay. It's become very positionless. You obviously again, look at someone, look at someone like Nikola Jokic, who is, you know, two time MVP and you know, averages 10 assists a game, could bring the ball at the floor, can create for other people and he's a center, right? But that's super valuable in today's game of basketball. And everything kind of trickles down from the NBA, right? So that's going to become increasingly more of a, of a thing. And you know, you, when we talk about ball handling, it's important that you're not a liability, right? Really in the game of basketball, it's important that you're not. You don't have to be great at everything to be on the court. You don't have to be great at everything. You don't have to be the best at everything. But you can't be a liability in, you know, a lot of times you can't be a liability in any area, but you definitely can't be a liability in a lot of areas because if you are, you're not going to be able to play, you're not going to be able to get on the court and not Being able to handle the ball is a liability. Again, what we just talked about, if you can't find solutions to problems, you might be a liability, right? You might be limited. The other team might be able to trap you, and you're going to lose the ball. They might be able to pressure you, you're going to lose the ball. They might be able to play physically against you and you can't do anything with it. And now all of a sudden, it's like, it's hard for you to stay on the court because you are a liability, right? And again, this can. This doesn't matter, the position. They can hunt out somebody and be like, okay, that's the liability right there. So you have to find ways to not be that. And if you can't handle the ball, then you're going to be that, right? You get pressed, you can't. You're not confident putting the ball on the floor or making good decisions with the ball or passing the ball well, you are someone who's going to get hunted out. And again, that makes you a liability. So, third reason why you have to be a great ball handler is because you can't afford to be a liability. And not being able to handle the ball makes you that okay. And the fourth thing, and I think the simplest thing, the simplest reason why it's a must that you become a great ball handler is because it makes the game of basketball so much more fun, right? You're able to go out and play with, again, a level of freedom, but a level of confidence that makes it so that you're just able to go out and just react, anticipate what's happening. You don't have to go out and worry about, hey, what if this happens to me? You know, am I going to be able to deal with it? If you have access to a lot of solutions and you're confident in that ability and you've been able to prove that to yourself. Like, you've been in different situations and you've dealt with it. You're going to have a lot of fun because you're just going to go out and play and you're going to know, hey, I'm ready for whatever happens, whatever comes at me. And the funny thing about that is, it's like the rich get richer, right? If you lack something. So if you lack the ability to handle the basketball, your lack of confidence is going to continue to grow because you're going to be put in situations where you can't be effective, and that's going to make you less confident and therefore it's make you play worse. And then you're going to find yourself in another situation you can't execute in. You're going to feel less confident, you'll play worse, and it's just going to be a huge downward spiral. Meanwhile, the flip side of that is if you can't handle the ball at a high level, all of a sudden, you're going to be successful in a situation. You're going to gain confidence, you're going to play better, and then you're going to be successful in another situation. You're going to gain confidence, you're going to play better. And that is just the, that is, that is the slope you want to be on. You want to be on that upward trend where everything plays into you being a better player because you, you have already, right? The, the rich get richer, right? And those who don't have continue to lack more and more and more. And so when you're able to handle the ball is the game become. The game opens up to you and you don't have to worry about, you know, everything that could go wrong because you are prepared and you know, hey, I have the ability to handle the ball, therefore I have solutions to problems and, and I'll be able to figure out when it comes to me, okay? And that to me is probably the, what should be your biggest motivating factor is like, we all play the game. If you're listening to this, you know, especially if you're listening to this, because you're listening to, you know, this podcast, right? You probably enjoy basketball, you probably like playing it. You probably started playing it because it's fun. And if you can find ways to make it even more fun, right, like that's why you started doing it in the first place, right? And I think that should be probably the biggest motivating factor for you when it comes to what, why you need to be a better ball handler. It makes the game a lot more fun. So those are the four reasons why you absolutely need to become a great ball handler. And again, those four reasons gives you freedom on the court. When you have solutions, you have the freedom to be able to do what you want because you can solve any problem that you may face. Number two, it's, it adds so much value, value to your team because not only can you create for yourself, but you also can create for other people. You're going to make other people better. And number three, you can't afford to be a liability. And not being able to handle the ball means that you are more susceptible to problems that are thrown at you by the defense, which makes you more of a liability. And then number four is that basketball becomes way more fun when you can handle the ball at a high level. Okay? And again, these four reasons are, I think all that you should really need to be like, yeah, I've got to make sure that that's what I do. I want to mention something real quick. I'll mention it again at the end, but if you guys have not grabbed my free just five partly ball handling workout, I want you to do that. That's gonna be the top link in my description below. Whether you're on YouTube or Spotify or Apple podcasts or wherever you're listening to this, go click that link, I'll send it right to you. And it's gonna touch on a lot of what we talked on about in the last podcast. If you haven't seen that podcast, check it out where we talked about the five qualities you have to develop in order to become an elite ball handler. So again, if you didn't see that, go check that out, but go get that workout and we're going to, we touch on a lot of that stuff. And again, a lot of stuff we talk about today, like you're going to be able to move towards that ability to, you know, solve problems and gain freedom and gain confidence just by going through that workout. So go ahead and check out that workout if you have not already. And again, I mentioned this earlier at the beginning of the podcast, but elite ball handling 2.0 is dropping this Saturday. So again, when this comes out, it'll be two days from now. And, and it is, in my opinion, the most comprehensive ball handling system that you can get. Right? It's the most comprehensive program out there in my opinion. And you know, we target a lot and a lot of stuff we talked about in the last podcast where, okay, working ball control, playing with pace, overall movement, start stops, acceleration, deceleration, curved angle drives, all the stuff that, you know, we've been talking about recently with we, we, we hit that stuff hard and there's a lot of stuff that goes with it. And I kind of went through in the last podcast and I had to like stop myself a couple times and just make sure I wasn't forgetting anything major. But we have audio cue reactionary drills, so we're adding a reactionary element to a lot of these drills in these workouts so that you have, you know, you're not just able to be robotic through the whole way. And we'll Touch on that in a second. Why? That's really, really important that you have stuff like that in your training. But, but you know, we have those mixed in there. So you're going to target different skills again, those different qualities, but you're doing it in a reactionary way, in a way that's, that's, that's fun, that's difficult, it's challenging. But again, I really think you're going to enjoy it and so I'm excited for you guys to be able to experience that. And then we have a lot of small sided games as well, which we'll talk about even more, even more in depth in, in the next podcast. But another way for us to be able to transfer what we're practicing to games and build that confidence at just a super, super rapid rate. Those two things, the audio cue reactionary drills as well as small sided games like that sub, is going to be huge. And I think part of what makes it such a special program and something that I think is going to be so effective and transformational for players. And on top of that we have shooting drills where we're, you know, having our handling flow into not just okay, handling the ball in a vacuum, but also being able to apply it to making shots. Right? Because that's ultimately what the game battle is about. It's about making shots. So we got to make sure that our ball handling helps us to do that at a higher level. So, you know, this isn't just something where you're only working your ball handling, but you're working your ability to actually score as well. I think that's something that is really, really important and we have that mixed in there as well. And kind of what I mentioned with the audio reactionary drills, it's important that your training involves reaction. It involves you having to make decisions, which again, we touch on the small side of games. But it's important that you're able to do that. And it's because when we look at the science behind getting better, so skill acquisition, right, it's, you can't just like be in a robot mode the whole time, right? There has to be a certain level of challenge mixed in. There has to be a certain level of unpredictability mixed in because look at the game, right? What does the game require of you? What are the game demands? The game requires that you're able to react to what happens. You're able to anticipate what's happening, you're able to solve problems on the fly, you're able to see something new and adjust to it. So if you never had that involved in your training, what are you going to do when you get to a game? You have to do that at a high level. And that's why we added in the audio cue drills and the small side of games because when we look at the science behind improvement, that's what matters. Okay. And if you have a program that doesn't involve that, well then you're missing a huge part of what matters. So, so that's really important. That's really what this whole program is based on. So it's that building that ability to be creative as well throughout really all the drills that we do so that again, you have the most amount of freedom possible and you're able to find solutions no matter what comes up. And then going along with that, we have the mental toughness mini course where we're talking about meditation, visualization, self talk, building great habits, stuff that's going to make you elite. I went through the that example already in this podcast talking about, you know, you players who, who their mind works for them and their mind works against them. Well, how can you get yourself to a point where your mind is working for you? And that's what we touch on heavy in that we're building habits that are going to take you to that point. So super excited for that because whatever your results are on the court, that's only going to multiply it when you know, you also have, you know you're working on your, your mental as well. And there's a lot more that comes with it. Film breakdowns, confidence mindset videos, stuff that you know again you'll get more of a glimpse at in the coming days as everything's released. But I truly think this is going to help players absolutely transform their ball handling, their confidence. And then like I said, like the fourth point was just your overall enjoyment of the game. Being able to go out and play with freedom, play with confidence, because you know that you're going to be able to handle the problems that the game is going to throw at you. That's when it becomes fun and then you become one of the people who, you know, the rich get richer. Right. It just becomes way more fun when you have the capability to handle the ball and solve problems. So again, coming out on Saturday and you know, if you're obviously listening to this more than two days after the, you know, this podcast has come out, then it's already out, go check it out. But like I said, if you have not checked out my free 5 part workout that I just released. Make sure you guys click that. Get that Is gonna be a lot of what we just talked about included in that as well. So I want you guys to have that. And I appreciate you guys for listening. And if you guys have any questions for make sure you drop it below as well. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.