Pic.1 (Derrick-right with the elbows close his body upon while holding the ball. This doesn't give a firm grip on the ball. And passes are inaccurate in most cases)

Mistakes are everywhere. Mistakes are made by everyone. They happen anytime.


Too bad only a few people realise it and fix it. Today, our boys could not escape It too.

We had Nelly, Elias, Derrick available for the passing drills.

We had to do chest passes, bounce passes and a bit of the overhead passes but a few things in the basics were missing.

First of all, catching and holding the ball right. Players need to open their hands with their palms facing the ball to show readiness to receive the ball. And upon receiving the ball the make sure they have hold the ball firmly by holding sides of the ball, keeping their thumbs behind and in the middle of the ball (for kids, the thumbs write some sort of W behind the ball). When one hold sides of the balls properly, his elbows come up and out. Elbows are don't get close to the body (as in shooting).

Secondly, when giving a chest pass the the elbows move forward and become straight ,after releasing the ball with the thumb, the thumbs come out. Full extension and straightening of the arm is necessary for an accurate chest pass.

Like the chest pass, the bounce pass is also goes the same way but this time the elbows and arm move forward and downwards (inclined towards the floor)with full extension of arm and follow through. The ball then hits the ground/floor at ¾ way towards the receiver.

Common mistakes in the bounce pass is to hold the ball and power dribble towards the receiver. I mean holding the top of the ball and bouncing i toward the receiver which makes the pass slow and could be stole easily by defenders in real game situation.  

Pic.2 also shows a few of the corrections

Not to be wordy, but direct, we always have to step into the pass, make it a habit to take a step and lean slightly toward the step to give more power through the release of the ball. It is also advisable when receiving a ball to go for it by stepping towards the ball. Most players in real games wait for the ball and never get to receive. A good defender will thank you for standing still, waiting on the ball to reach you.

Yea , these are the few things we had to work on. And we were very glad we did.

Pic.2 Derrick and Nelly on right, both have their elbows up an out nicely. With the ball close to the chest ready to be released )

Here is a video of us on the court

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