Ethan Khoza breaks down two ways to build court vision: play five-on-five with specific goals like hitting a target number of assists, and watch full games plus highlight reels to learn how elite players read the floor and make decisions.
One of the most important things to have as a basketball player, especially if you handle the ball, is court vision and court awareness. Having not just an understanding of what's going on around you, who's open, who's where and what play needs to be made, but even being able to anticipate what's going to happen so that you can make more plays. So in this video, I'm going to give you two keys to improving your court vision and court awareness so that you become not only a better passer, but a better scorer and playmaker in general. The first step to improving your core vision and court awareness is playing as much five on five as you can. You learn best by doing things. You can do all the drills in the world and some can definitely be helpful, but nothing is going to be as effective as just playing and having to be in those situations yourself. This can be pickup or actual games, but while you're playing, be purposeful. Don't go out there without a goal. If you want to improve your court vision and court awareness so that you're able to pass the ball at a higher level. Maybe you go out there with a goal to have five assists in that game. This will force you to have to recognize more opportunities where you have teammates open, forcing you to improve your core vision and court awareness in order to reach your goal. Maybe your goal is to see the floor better in transition, so you go into a game with that focus, whatever it may be. Make sure that you're going into these games with an idea of what you want to improve on so that you're able to focus on that and see improvement. The second thing you need to do if you want to improve your court vision and court awareness, which will tie into the first point, is that you need to watch as much basketball as possible. I don't mean watching highlight clips on Instagram or Twitter. Those aren't going to help you actually recognize the context of what's going on or allow you to see the full scope of things. The first part of that is watching more full games. So college or NBA or even good high school games. And by watching full games, you really get to see the context behind everything. Why was this specific pass made? When and why did a player decide to drive or shoot? How did a player manipulate the defense to make a play? How does the time and score affect those things? How do matchups change throughout the game? How do they take advantage of mismatches? And as you watch more games, you'll start to get better at recognizing these things. Now you can just do this for a game in general, or you can watch even just for a specific player. And you can even consider writing down some things that you notice that might help you going along with that. Not only is watching full games helpful, but watching highlights of specific players can be helpful as well. Again, I'm not talking about watching House of Highlights videos on Instagram, I mean going on YouTube and watching highlight videos of specific players. And by watching passing highlights of Luka Doncic or Trae Young, you'll start to recognize patterns within the things that they do. So you can try to study what makes these players successful and what they do in different situations. And as you do this more often, you'll start to notice some of those things when you play, you'll notice some of those same situations, the same opportunities, and this is where these two points tie together. Continue to play as much as possible, and as you study the game more, you'll recognize these things more and more as you play. So just to recap, the first thing you want to do if you want to improve your court vision and court awareness is play as much five on five as you can. As you do this, you'll naturally start to get better, especially if you give yourself a goal. Maybe that goal is having a certain number of assists or passing the ball more in transition, but pick a goal that's going to force you to have to challenge your ability to see the court and be aware on the court as well. And then the second key is to watch more basketball, some more five on five, college NBA, good high school games, and also watching highlights of specific players so that you can start to recognize opportunities that you may have in games as well. And the more you do these two things, the more your court vision and court awareness will skyrocket. If you guys enjoyed this video, or if you have other suggestions, drop it in the comments below. Also, be sure to click the top link in my description below to get my free Elite Pitman Score workout. Drop a Like subscribe if you're new. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.
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