The 5 Qualities You Need To Master To Become A GREAT Ball Handler (And How To Train Them)

Welcome to the Vision Gym Basel training podcast. I appreciate you guys tuning in. Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Google podcasts, wherever you may be listening from, and of course everybody who's watching on YouTube right now. I appreciate you drop a like subscribe if you are new. And I got a lot of exciting stuff to talk about in this video. I think this is gonna be really, really helpful for you guys. And you know, I've been really spending the last couple months honed in on ball handling specifically, but both in my workouts, in person with the players that I'm around, but also just when it comes to, okay, talking about ball handling, what matters. And I've really been thinking a lot about it and I think there's five qualities that matter a ton for players when it comes to developing ball handling, becoming a great ball handler, but I think most importantly is becoming a great ball handler in the context of a game. Okay. Because there's a big difference between being able to, to do drills well and being able to actually be effective in games, right? When there's defense, when there's pressure, when there's people trying to stop you, when there's all these factors that are against you. Being able to handle the ball at a high level in that sort of environment, I think is a whole different beast. And today I want to tell you exactly how to train that. And I also want to give you guys a free workout that just kind of goes through all five of these qualities, right? So essentially going to take you through each one, give you stuff to do for that. And I want to give that to you guys. I want all you guys to have it. So all you got to do is go to the link in my description below and get that workout. Go ahead and grab that. And again, it's going to take you through the exact things we're going to talk about in this video. And if you want to develop these five qualities to become an elite in game ball handler, then go ahead and check that workout out below. I'll send that right to you. So let's get into it with the first one. And I think this is where it starts. And that's just ball control. Okay? But I think that ball control is a little bit more multifaceted than people want to give it credit, right? I think a lot of times when we think about controlling the basketball, we think about your kind of typical ball handling drills where, okay, we're working on pounding the basketball, right? Doing these taps, okay? You know, ankle high taps, knee high taps, shoulder high waist, like that's I think, where a lot of people go and they think ball handling. Okay, can you pound the ball and control it? Right. I think to an extent that matters. Are you being able to put force into the ball so that you can lessen the amount of time between the ball, ball being between your hand and the ground, Right. That's the time when you lose the ball. When someone could steal it from you is in the time when the ball is in between your hand and the ground. So if you can't dribble the ball very hard, then there's going to be more time that it's not in your hand and not on the ground. Therefore more time for a defender to steal it. So in a sense it does matter, right? But I also, there's a lot of diminishing returns, especially once you get to a certain point. A lot of players spend all their time just working on pounding the basketball and they wonder why they're not getting any better. And it's because there's a lot more to ball control than just that. Okay? So when we talk about pounding the ball, a lot of times that's just what a straight down motion, right hand on top of the ball. But if you watch anybody handle the basketball at a high level, you, you know, go out and just play. Your, your hand is not on top of the ball the whole time, right? You're manipulating the ball here. Your hand is on the side of the ball a lot of times your hands under the ball. And in the game of basketball today, there's a lot of gray area with, okay, what's a carry, what's legal, and there's enough gray area that a lot of times you can get away with what maybe at one point would have considered a carry. Okay? But regardless of that, your hand is on the side of the basketball all the time because you have to be able to not only pound the ball, but do stuff with it. Right? You have to be able to move with it, Meaning I got to be able to change direction, start, stop. I got to be able to go fast, go slow. I got to be able to make passes off the dribble. I've got to be able to pick the ball up and make decisions. I've got to be able to give myself time to change pace so that I can read my defender or read the help defense or just see whatever's going on. And, and this requires your. You to have an ability to manipulate the ball. All of that means is being able to take the ball from one place and pick it up and move it to another place. Right. But legally. So without picking the ball with two hands. Right. Obviously, if you do, that's a double double. So with one hand, am I able to move the ball from being on the right side of me to the left side of me? If I want to go with an in and out, think of an in and out move is a great example. Just manipulating the ball. Your, your hand is on the side of the ball and, and you're moving the basketball. Right. And that's a simple example. But you spent a lot of time just moving the ball from one place to another. And this is one of the hardest aspects of ball control. One of the hardest aspects of ball handling in general to develop is this ability to manipulate the ball. But if you watch, you know, go watch any great ball handler play and if you can watch like the zoomed in clips or the slow mo, like the Phantom cam clips, like I love just going YouTube and looking up Kyrie Irving Phantom cam or Luka Doncic Phantom cam or Steph Curry Phantom Cam, you're going to see when they handle the ball, their hand is on the side of the ball moving at different places, different in and outs, different ways to protect the basketball, change direction. This is a crucial, crucial, crucial skill to have. And I think it's where it starts, really. You have to be able to do this at a high level. So I think we talk about ball control. That is really something that you have to be able to have is the ability to control the basketball, which a lot of times is synonymous with just the ability to manipulate the ball. Okay. And on top of that, we have to be able to handle the ball at speed. Okay, we're going to talk about this more when it comes to movement, but we've got to be able to not only manipulate the ball when we're standstill, like we're doing a stationary drill, but if I'm going as fast as possible, can I still control the ball? Right. So having control of it with speed is another aspect of ball control that a lot of players don't work on enough. And I think that's a something that is really, really important. Are you limited? I think a lot of what we're going to talk about today is getting rid of limiting factors. A limiting factor for you is not being able to control the ball at a high speed. If you can't control the ball and you're going fast, you're going to be limited. You're not going to put yourself in a position to make plays, not Able to move fast enough to make plays because you can't control the ball when you move fast. Right. So developing that as well, I think is really important. And that's two areas, both manipulating the ball and controlling the ball at high speeds, that we touch on in that workout that I mentioned at the beginning of this. So again, make sure you guys go down and click that link in my description. Get that workout. We touch on both those things heavy in that. So that's the first part is ball control. That probably the most important quality to master, because the rest of it doesn't matter if you can't control the ball. Number two is pace. And I think when people say pace, they immediately just think speed change, which obviously is a big part of being able to go from slow to fast. Fast to slow is important. Right. But it's not just. There's not just one version of slow and one version of fast. Okay. I think looking at change of speed, it's much more important to look at it as like a spectrum. So you have obviously 0%, which is stopped, you're not moving, and you have 100%, which is as fast as you can go. But then there's also. It's important to be able to play in between that as well. So. So yeah, you can play at 50%, right. But can you also play at 20%? So you're kind of barely going. Can you play 80%? So a little bit less than your top speed? If you watch guys who are great in transition, like Donovan Mitchell, I love watching him in transition because what he does is he's very deliberate with his pace. He's going to be in transition at less than 100%. A lot of times he's going to be coming down the court, ball in his hand on a fast break at like 80%. And then when he has that defender accustomed to that 80% speed, he's going to hit 100, hit that, that next gear, and he's going to beat that guy. If he were to play without that pace, without that speed change, he just went 100% the whole time. That defender is going to be able to adjust to that. They're going to be able to brace themselves for it. And it's going to become much more difficult for him to create anything and transition. But because he doesn't use that top speed all the time, when he does use it deliberately, when he says, okay, now it's time to hit 100%, he's capable of it. So I think part of training change of speed is, is not just training a hundred percent to zero percent or 100% to 50%, but also, can I go from 100% to 20% to 80%, back to a hundred, back to 20? Like, can I shift myself along this variable and the spectrum of speed that there, there are. So change of speed, I think a huge part of pace, but a big part of it too, is being able to change between percentages of your speed. Again, something that we hit in the workout that I mentioned. So click that link, and I think that's really important. But also going along with that pace is not just change of speed, it's also change of height as well. Okay? So I want to be able to play at a high level where my shoulders are up, right. A lot of times the analogy I use for players when I want to relax with the ball and play upright is to imagine that you're at the doctors and they're measuring you. You're trying to be up as tall as possible. So you measure as tall as possible. We got to be able to handle the ball at that level because what that's going to do is cause whoever's guarding you to relax. It's also going to cause the help defense to relax because you're not in a position to be a threat, right? You're not in a position physically to be a threat in terms of doing anything or moving at all. So it's important to be able to do that. I think it's also important, though, to be able to change to that super low position where now I am a threat, to be explosive, okay? And being able to change not just speeds, but change heights as well, change shoulder levels, that's really, really important too. Okay? So change of pace is not just the speed, but it's also the height. Because what you can do, changing your height is essentially manipulate your defender. When you raise up a lot of times you're going to cause defenders to raise up as well. And if you don't, even if they don't raise up subconsciously, they're relaxing, which allows you to again, catch them off guard when you decide to hit that, that next gear and hit 100% or get to that low position. Okay? So being able to control not just your speed, but the height you play at is a really, really important aspect of being able to play with pace. And that's the second quality you need to master if you want to be an elite ball handler. Number three is start, stop, footwork. So obviously everything starts with your ability to start, right? If you can't Go. Then nothing else happens. Okay. So we have to have the ability to start to move ourselves. We. What does that mean? Basically it means going from zero to anything. And there's a lot of different ways we can do this. We can go off of drop footwork which we touch on again, that workout, you know, being able to get from shoulder width shins kind of straight up to creating a back foot that we can use to push off of. Okay, really important that we're able to do that. And obviously there's options out of it. So I might not just be able to go to my right when I get to that drop, but okay, if that defender overplays that I can cross back over again, I'm forcing them to make a decision because you know, I'm going. But having the control of your feet to be able to do that and be deliberate with that is really important. And then obviously on the other end of that is being able to stop. Players who can't stop are incredibly easy to guard because all you got to do is funnel them right to a help defender because they're not going to be able to change direction. So if you aren't able to go at a, at a very fast speed, right, that's, that's a problem. But if you also can't stop yourself when you go to be able to get, obviously get a shot or change direction or make a pass or just use it as a hesitation, then you're going to be very easy to guard as well. So being able to different snatch options, to different inverted drags, to different punch options, that's really, really important when it comes to developing that footwork, that start, stop, and I think that's another big quality. When we think about ball handling, a lot of times we just think of what our hands are doing. So we're thinking about having that ball control, right? That's usually where the first place that people go. And again, it starts with that. You have to be able to do that. But if you also don't have your, your lower body, if you don't have that, if you're not skilled when it comes to your movement, which we'll talk, we'll touch on again here soon, then it's not going to matter. It doesn't matter how great you can control the ball. If you're not able to move with it as well, and that lower body you don't have good, your footwork isn't good. You are in control of your feet when you're starting, when you're stopping, then you're not going to be effective, okay? So really, really important again that we are able to start in different ways and stop in different ways so that we're able to create and, you know, be able to make decisions and not be again, limited by our inability to control our feet. So that's. That third area is just start, stop, footwork, the fourth area. And I think this is something that a lot of people don't talk about. And really no one, I've only heard a couple people even mention it, and that is breaking rhythm. So when we talk about handling the ball, we talk about anything. There's patterns. There's always patterns. And just think about this example. When you guard somebody, after you guard them for a couple possessions, you have a feel for how they move, you have a feel for how they like. Especially if you've played a lot of basketball, you can pick up on people's tendencies very, very quickly. Okay? They, whenever they get to that float towards their right, they're almost always going to cross back over. You know, they, anytime that they drive to their left, they're going to get to that stop. Or, okay, I know that if they go left, they like to get to a step back, use it to pick up on different patterns that people have just subconsciously, even you might not even realize it, but you have to play people a certain way and this will happen too. If you play somebody a lot, like if you have a friend you always play one on one with, I'm sure that you can kind of predict what they're going to do. You could go through and say, yeah, they like to do this a lot. I can imagine they would do this. Think about that, right? If you, if there's something you play one on one against, the next time you go play them, just try and try and think about, like, try and predict beforehand. Just, just see, try and predict what different things are going to do, right? And just see how accurate you are when you actually play them. You're probably going to be pretty accurate. Every, there are always patterns and subconsciously pick up on it. And the reason for that is because, you know, for our brain, if we are able to shut off and kind of get ourselves into just like a robotic sort of like mode where we understand a pattern, we can create a pattern, we don't have to think about it anymore. We can use that mental energy towards something else, okay? So it's in our best interest to be able to pick up on patterns so that we don't have to think about things, okay? And it's also why we fall into patterns is because you don't have to think about it, you just do it. So there's a huge aspect of just human psychology behind all of that, and that is very apparent in the game of basketball. Again, people do things repeatedly and once you learn how somebody moves, it becomes easier to guard them. So you understanding that as the offensive player, if you're able to break patterns, break rhythm, that you're going to be able to catch defenders off guard and be able to create for yourself. So a way that you do this, just think about like setting somebody up with, you know, let's just say repeated crossovers back and forth at one speed and you quick break it, right? It's almost like that. It's the reason why we change pace. Okay, because if I'm moving a certain way and I slow myself down and then I break that rhythm that slow and okay, I'm throwing a fast in there now. Well, it's going to force a reaction from that defender, right? Either they're just going to get blown by or they're going to recover because maybe they over recover and now I can change direction or I have a shot. There's all of these rhythms, these patterns that have been created. And if you are, if you understand how to create rhythm and then break it, create a pattern and then stray from that on demand, you're going to be able to create opportunities for yourself, advantages for yourself all the time. And so I think this is a really important thing to work on. Again, something that we touch on in the workout. So go ahead and check that out. And it's something that players never work on. Like there's very few players who ever work on this, whoever even understand it. But I think it's a really crucial part of ball handling is understanding the psychology of a defender is they are picking up on patterns. When you do something over and over again, they're going to pick up on that. So when you can play on that and be able to break those patterns, it's going to be really hard to guard you. Okay, so that's the fourth part of ball handling is really important, is being able to break rhythm. And. And then the fifth part is overall movement. I've touched on this a little bit here, but movement is a skill, right? We think about the weight room or stuff we do off the court as just kind of like, you know, separate from basketball. But being able to move effectively is a skill. Just like shooting is a skill, just like dribbling is a skill. You can be a Great dribbler in place, stationary. If you can't move at a great level, you're not going to be good. So it's important that we work on movement as well. And, and you can look at it and you can, you can say it's really as simple as. If you want to be a skilled ball handler, you also must be a skilled mover. There's no separating the two. They are one in the same. And this includes the ability to decelerate, accelerate. It includes the ability to play along curved angles. Because a lot of times on drives, you're not just driving straight lines, right? Basketball is not really a straight line game when you're driving. Sometimes it is, but usually the only time it's going to be a straight line is when you're in layup lines. And the majority of the game, if you're driving, there's going to be a little bit of a curve on your angle when you're driving. Think about it, you almost always have a defender who's somewhat in front of you, so you can't really ever drive just straight. You're usually going to be driving on a little bit of an angle every single time. But that's a part of movement, and it's a specific type of movement that we need to work on. So do we work on the ability to play along those curves and, and then your ability to be shifty as well? And this is what is really, really important, is being able to, to move well. And all those aspects play into your ability to be hard to guard. Right? You know, you might be able to control the ball, and maybe that means you're not going to turn it over. But if you can't move well, then, you know, you're, you're still going to be pretty easy to guard. Like, you're not going to be a threat to do a lot with the ball. But if I can move at a high level as well, all of a sudden I'm somebody that is not easy to guard because I can control the ball. I'm not limited by the ball, but I'm also not limited by my inability to move. Okay? So that's the fifth area, the fifth quality that you need to master if you want to become an elite ball handler is just overall movement. Okay? So going through that ball control, that first quality pace, that next quality height change, speed change. Number three is your starts, your stops, that footwork involved with all of that. Number four is breaking rhythm. So understanding that defenders pick up on patterns, they pick up on rhythm. How can I use that. How can I break that so that I can create advantages for myself? Be unpredictable. Unpredictable players are hard to guard, and that's what you want to be. And then number five is overall movement. So deceleration, acceleration, playing along curves, being able to be shifty, and just being a good mover overall. And if you master these five qualities, you're going to be a great ball handler, right? And I think when we have that understanding, okay, like, these are. This is what I need to focus on. Maybe, you know, maybe you can think, hey, I lack in this, this area or these couple areas, or maybe, hey, I have this. I have this area down, but I'm not really great at these areas here. Well, now you can focus on building yourself in that area, right? So those are the five things again. I want you guys to go down and click that link in my description, grab that workout, and it's going to help you to master all of these. I'm also super excited to announce that elite ball handling 2.0 is coming out next week. So if you're listening to this as it drops, it's coming out in a couple of days. If you're listening to this, like a week after it's come out, it's already out. And this is the culmination of, like, last three years. So a lot of you guys who are OGs, who have been around forever, you guys have probably been through Elite Ball handling, the original version, right? And that helped players get really great results. And I was actually going through as I was building 2.0 and just looking at some of the feedback that I got, it was awesome. It was really, really cool. And so I've learned so much, though, since that came out three years ago. In these three years, I've learned so much about not just ball handling, but just learning in general, right? And how to actually get results, how to get better at something. How to go from, you know, not having a great foundation in this area to being great at it. How to go from being good in an area to becoming great at it and the actual science behind that. And that's what a lot of times is missing when it comes to basketball training, is that there's not really an understanding of how do we actually learn stuff, how do we get better at stuff. And so this program is really, really geared into that. But obviously, you know, we're big on the stuff that we just talked about, so ball control, playing with pace, overall movement, footwork, we're, you know, big on. On that rhythm and just, you know, creating and being unpredictable. Creativity is a big part that we talked about. I talked about that a little bit on, you know, my YouTube channel this past week and on Instagram as well. But all of those things, all those things that go into being a great ball handler, and honestly, I could throw that in as like a sixth quality is creativity. That's really, really important. But we're big on that inside the program as well. And so I'm super excited to get that out to you guys. And. And, you know, along with that, it's not just going to be that stuff. Right? That's obviously the part that, you know, most people are going to be there for, but there's so much more that goes with it. It's not just the ball handling program as well. So I have what's called the ball handling masterclass, where we are breaking down film in terms of, like, okay, this is what we're working on, and here is how it's being applied in games. So we're looking at different NBA players applying the stuff that we're talking about. So you kind of see for yourself, okay, here's the context of, like, when I would do this or how I can apply this thing that we're working on, why it's important. I think that's a really big thing. And then also we have some stuff on just mindset confidence in general, like, building elite confidence is the ball. And like, how do I do that? Right. I think that's a crucial thing to have. Everyone wants to be confident, but what's the actual key to doing that? So we go deep into that. We talk about recovery and being able to get yourself back into, like, a recovery state after workouts, after gaining, so that you can be at your best when you need to be, and you can be recovering when you don't need to be in go mode. And so much more that comes with just the masterclass, how to get the most out of everything. I really am big on helping you get to a point where you start to take a lot of ownership of your development, right? Where you don't need to just follow what I say or follow this program. But you can say, hey, you know what, I can make this adjustment to this, and. And that would probably help me here. Or, hey, you know, I'm doing this, but maybe what if I add this? Like, I want you to start thinking that way, because if you can do that, you're going to not only get a lot better, but you're going to put yourself so far ahead of other players who have to be told what to do. Right. I want you to be a problem solver. Like as a ball handler, I want you to be a problem solver. But also just as a basketball player, as somebody who's trying to get better, I want you to be able to help yourself and not need somebody to, you know, walk you through every single little thing. And so we touch on that inside the math class as well. Like how can you develop that ability so that this program isn't just X amount of weeks, but you can take these things and you can continue to work on it forever and continue to get better at it forever because you can constantly make these little adjustments. You can challenge yourself, do this and that. That to me is one of the most valuable aspects of this program as well, is just how it's going to change the way that you actually approach your own development. And I'm really excited to get that to you guys. We have, there's so much that goes with it. We also are going to have a whole mini course just on the mental side of things. And it's like I call it the mental training mini course. So we talk about just, you know, building up your confidence, building up your self belief through meditation and being able to get yourself to a place where you can focus on what matters and using, using visualization to be able to do that as well. And just two super powerful techniques that can completely change not just your life as a basketball player, but your life in general. And so we talk through like okay, what it is, why does it matter? And then how do you actually do it? How can you turn this into a habit that you can do that's going to help you get results and what that's going to do is it's going to make everything else better. So the work that you're putting in on the court and is you're going to get more results from it because mentally you're locked in and that's going to help you do that. Talk about self talk and you know, positive self talk, but not just positive self talk, but productive self talk. Like how do you use that to your advantage as well? That stuff alone is going to completely change your game. And again, aside from the on court workouts, when it comes to the actual program, we have some small sided games as well that are going to help you to really see that game transfer and put you in different situations. They're going to help you to apply what you're working on. We have some audio reactionary drills which I'm really excited about. Where it's almost like I'm in the gym with you, you know, you're just kind of listening to different cues. And now we have a reactionary element to our drills and okay, now that is going to help you to also be able to transfer what you're working on to games at a, at a really, really fast rate as well. So I'm excited for you guys to be able to experience that. We have not just ball handling, but we also have shooting drills as well. So that we're able to apply what we're doing ball handling wise to actually scoring the basketball. Okay, so we have stuff working on shots off the dribble and all this different stuff. So not only are you working ball handling, but you also have opportunities to work on your scoring as well. And I think that's really, really good and that's really important too. And there's even more with it soon as out you guys will be able to see and I'll be able to list all that out. I literally had to stop this like three times just to go through and like make sure I wasn't missing a ton of stuff because there's so much that's going to be involved with this and, and I really think it's going to be the most comprehensive ball handling development system that you can be a part of. So if your goal is to become a great ball handler, this is going to be for you. And I'm excited again to get this to you guys soon. But for now, like I said, make sure you guys go down to the link in my description below. Get that free workout that alone is going to help you a ton. Okay? So just go through that and just see how you feel hitting those five qualities. And again, that's what's going to take you from, you know, being able to be, you know, either non, non existent in a game to okay, now I actually feel like I can do something or from being, you know, good, being solid, being okay in a couple of these areas to now you're able to be great in these areas and now you're much more effective in games and you're much more confident and the game, basketball becomes a lot more fun. So go ahead and check that out below. I really appreciate you guys for tuning in, for watching. Make sure that if you are on a podcast, leave a review for me, YouTube, subscribe, all that sort of stuff. I'll talk to you guys soon. Peace.