Players: You want to bring something to the game – bring something to your team that can immediately affect the outcome of the game, but you don’t time to acquire a new skill like shooting, or point-guard-dribbling-abilities, or ten more pounds of muscle. These things take time – usually off-season time.
What can you bring RIGHT NOW?! What can you bring to today’s practice or today’s game simply by making a focused effort to actually “bring it”?
“Hand down, man down.”
Picture this, you are a point guard dribbling the ball down the floor and you see five opposing players in a stance with their arms extended and hands are up. Isn’t that a lot more intimidating that seeing five guys or girls standing straight up, not in a stance, with their hands down. Now move the ball down the floor and you get “in range” to shoot, but before you can even get into your shot the defender has one (if not both) hands extended in the air taking away your vision and rhythm.
Let’s take a look at several of the advantages of playing with your hands up:
- Prevents easy looks at the rim
- Makes passing angles more difficult
- Increased number of deflections…which inevitably disrupts the offense
- Having your hands up will create more mental engagement
- Intimidation
Raising your arms and getting big hands does not require any drilling to become great, all it takes is mental toughness and a willingness to make winning plays on defense.
