Basketball skills like shooting, ball handling, rebounding, stealing the ball, setting picks and screens, defense, keeping the post or boxing out, passing, blocking shots, moving without the ball, and foot-work are going to be your foundation especially a good jump shot. Now if you want to get to the next level of competition you must perfect your basketball skills and practice drills like you were playing in a game. Here are some great practice tips to make you the best you can be:

1. One-Spot Shooting – Shot continuously from one spot on the court until you hit 90% of your shots, then move to a new spot and repeat. Eventually you will be able to hit shots at incredible accuracy from anywhere on the court. Practice jump shots, lay-ups, hook shots, fad away jumpers, and standing shots with each hand. Practice dribbling before the shot, fake before the shot, basically shot as if you had a defender in your face.

2. One-hand Dribbling – Use one hand to dribble with, go through your legs, around and behind your back, over your shoulder, back and forth, side-to-side, high powerful bounces and low fast bounces. Do this with one hand at a time.

3. Plyometrics – You must be able to jump. You will most likely get a lot of jumping practice while playing, but to really unleash you full potential do some plyometrics. Try repetitive jumping from one spot bend down to your jumping angle and explode back up as high as you can, stay on the ground for only enough time for you to gather enough energy to jump as high as you can.

4. Squats and Leg Presses – You need major strength in your legs if you want to jump higher, hold the post, set better picks and screens. So you will need to be able to lift 2-3 times your body weight for squats and at least double that for your leg press. This will be painful, but you will gain tremendous strength, which will elevate your game quickly.

5. Upper Body Press and Pulls – Don’t forget about your upper-body. Fast hands means better dribbling, more steals and blocked shots, and a quick release shot. To increase your hand speed do push-ups, chin-ups are excellent for hand speed, shoulder presses, handstands, and shadow boxing. Now go out there and grab the rock!

6. Sprints – The best way to Increase HGH (Human Growth Hormone) is by running 5-10 second sprints. Sprints or any intense exercise will increase your HGH by as much as 300% for a few hours. What this means is that you will get faster, stronger, bigger muscles to take your basketball skills to the next level.

In addition to being able to play the game, great players are usually exceptional athletes. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to be the fastest, strongest, highest jumping player on the team. But it does mean that you have to be very mobile, very agile, have good hand-eye coordination, and have good endurance. Being a good all-around athlete allows your basketball skills to flourish and grow.

Therefore, a basketball player should eat healthy not just for the game but for his overall health. But since the sport burns a lot of energy, players should eat more foods that contain the right nutrients that will give him the energy to sustain his fuel requirement – but still balanced to attain optimum use. There are 2 basic food groups that a basketball player should eat: protein and carbohydrates.

Proteins – are the building blocks of the body which is responsible for paving the increase of strength and muscle mass through exercise. Protein is found in fish, eggs, dairy products, milk, and meat. There are also kinds of vegetables that are rich in protein. These are leguminous plants or plants which grow on the vine or climbing pea or bean such as peanuts, soya, and asparagus. Protein should supply 10 percent of our energy needs.

Carbohydrates – are essential for the functioning of our brain. Carbohydrates are stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. They are often found in foods such as rice, bread, potatoes, pasta, fruits, honey, jam, and pulses. Carbohydrates should supply 50 percent of our energy needs however, since a basketball player requires more fuel to keep him in the game, some sports nutritionists require players to have 70 percent carbo diet.

Eat at least 1 hour before the game. This gives the body ample time to digest the food before using it during the game. It is suggested that the player should eat lots of carbohydrates to store energy. Players aren’t often seen eating during the game but most people don’t know about this: eating a bananna during the game helps players to replenish lost energy quickly. Regularly drinking fluid during the game helps the player to bring back the water he has lost from the game.

After the game, the player should eat protein, then carbohydrates. This is because protein helps facilitates carbohydrate to replenish the storage chemical of the cell of the body called glycogen. Glycogen stores glucose, an important component in metabolism. Without these two, the body won’t regain the energy that is lost from the previous game and will contribute to mental and physical fatigue.