MAKE A SUMMER PLAN FOR SPORTS IMPROVEMENT
As the school year ends and summer begins this is a great time to evaluate your game and put a summer plan in place. It can be for any sport but in this article I’ll focus on basketball.
If you really want to improve, the BALL is in your court. As a player, what should you do? Whether your coach has summer plans or not it is up to you to improve. YOUR IMPROVEMENT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!
Here are a few things I thought would help get you started on your summer plans.
SELF EVALUATION
Talk to your coach and evaluate your prior season. Ask him/her to be honest and talk about what you did well and where you need improvement. Make a list of areas you need to improve and discuss how to accomplish them. Your coach will be more than happy to discuss this. Certainly a large portion of the evaluation will be about your fundamentals; shooting, ball handling, etc. but it also may include attitude, focus and intensity. These are just as important as skillsets so they must be worked on during the summer also.
MAKE A LIST OF YOUR GOALS
Once you have talked to your coach, parent or mentor make sure you make a list of your summer goals. What is it you want to accomplish? Write it down and post it where you can see it daily. Tell others what you are going to do to help hold you accountable in following through with it.
STRENGTH/CONDITIONING
Begin some sort of strength/conditioning program. Your objective should be to be a better athlete (stronger, quicker, etc.) by the end of the summer. Make sure your skill work also includes conditioning. By this I mean when doing shooting for instance, push yourself. Game shot at game spot at game speed. You can also do other conditioning training such as biking, swimming, stair climbing, jump rope, etc. You do not need to be in top notch basketball shape in the summer but it will sure help when your season begins. Being very active most days, rather than sitting around, will have great benefits come fall.
SKILL WORK
When considering which skillsets to work on note that shooting and ball handling are the ones most young ball players struggle with. Spend adequate summer time working on making sure your shooting form is right. Just shooting more the same old way is not the answer. Being evaluated and begin proper shooting form is the key. Your old way may be easy but if you have shooting form problems shooting more will only make things worse. Also spend lots of time handling the ball, dribbling it, 2 ball work, change of directions, etc. Repetition is the key when doing skills work and you must learn doing it right over and over again, and over and over again is the answer in getting it right. So do it again. You can find many skill drills on our “Development/Tips” pages at hoopzonebasketball.com
FIND A CAMP
Find a skill development camp to attend where you can learn from other coaches and play against different players. The more diverse your summer experience, the better player you will become. You can find summer camps for all ages at hoopzonebasketball.com.
If you want to become a GREAT shooter, ball handler, rebounder, quicker on your feet, etc., it MUST happen during the off season. There is just NOT ENOUGH TIME during the season to get to the next level. It must be done during the off summer season!
So there is your plan, now get to work! game,
Coach O
Summer Plan Improvement - HANDOUT
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