A short YouTube conversation (host Ethan Khoza with Sam) giving practical advice for basketball players who train alone. Main recommendations: introduce pressure (self-imposed constraints/goals) and add variability/creativity to drills (change pace, rhythm, and shot selection) so solo practice simulates game-like decision-making and adaptability.
Kind of going with that. What would be your advice for players? Because I know for, for me, like a lot of players listening work out by themselves at least majority of the time. I think that's probably most players, right? Maybe they work out with a trainer, but maybe the other four or five days a week, they're out by themselves. So what do you have in terms of, like, if you're going to be by yourself, what would be the best way to kind of go about getting.
Better when you're by yourself? I'd say try to add some, you know, some pressure. And what I mean by that is, say you're doing a shooting drill. You say you got to go five or seven or you start over. You got to make 10 without missing two in a row, or you got to start over, so you're adding some pressure. Another thing you could do is maybe you are doing a shooting drill and you shoot the ball, but instead of going back to that same spot or doing that same movement, you can't do the same shot two times in a row. So you grab the ball at the net, maybe you just throw it somewhere on the floor. And now you got to get into a different footwork, different situation. Off of that, I would say, you know, you can rep stuff out, you know, put some pressure on yourself, like I said, but then also, you know, add some variability. So when you're maybe doing some ball handling, actually, I learned this one from Mastery Hoops, which is Coleman and Tyler's platform. They have this ball handling drill. Pretty much you give yourself three moves. So you say you. You say cross, cross behind or something. Maybe go to half court and back or something. But when you're doing it, you cannot do the same pace, the same pattern two times, you know, all the way up until half court. So you're trying to add some, you know, variability. You're changing up your pace, you're changing up your rhythm, and that way it's. You're getting. You have to adjust and get creative, you know, and it's getting that creative, a creative state, thinking and being able to adapt and adjust. This is kind of how we were talking about. That's what I would pretty much, you know, say when you, when you're by yourself, add some pressure, you know, add some, you know, variability. And, you know, once you get. Because I know a lot of people like to rep out moves. Once you get comfortable with the move, figure out how you can maybe, maybe you're doing, I don't know, between the legs, cross. Say when you do between the legs crossed, you. You can't do the same shot two times in a row. You give yourself two dribbles of score after you make the move, and it has to be a different shot every time after the two dribbles or whatever the heck it is. You know, just figure ways to get yourself to be creative.
Yeah, man. Creativity, variability. I love it. Like, that's definitely when you're by yourself, just working those two things into what you're doing, that's definitely the best way to go about it, Sam.
