The basketball industry is the industry most rampant with misinformation anywhere in the world. There is more myths and misinformed people in the basketball training and coaching market than in any other market I’ve seen.

Today we are going to cut through the myths and misinformation and get to the truth of what it takes to be a great basketball player.

1.) Train 6 hours per day

I did this for years, simply because I heard Kobe Bryant did it. I found out the hard way that your body cannot possibly handle 6 hours of pounding per day on the basketball court. It’s way too much.

I don’t believe that its possible to train at a high quality for more than 1-2 hours per day, at most.

There is a reason that most games are only 30-40 minutes long. It’s because after that, the quality severely drops off.

Train for no longer than one hour on the court and make it count while you’re there. Train hard and efficient and get the most of your time. That approach will beat the “6-6-6” program any day.

2.) Weight lifting hurts your jumper

This is completely and totally false. I can’t believe this actually came to be a myth, because it couldn’t have been started by anyone with half a brain or ANY experience with basketball training.

Of course, if you go lift then immediately play basketball you’ll play like crap. But besides that, there are no long term negative effects of lifting weights. There are only positives.

Your range will improve and you will be able to get your shot off more effectively than ever before. Your entire game will expand. Get in the weight room and get strong. It can only help.

3.) You have to play basketball every day to improve

This is a tough one to swallow because it’s so widely believed. It’s also a crock. There is no reason to train daily, your body cannot handle it and you will be too worn down after a few weeks to get any benefit from your lackluster training.

Take at least two days off each week. I recommend lifting 2-3 days per week, and training on the court 3 days per week as well. Ideally, you should do your on-court training right before your lifting. This way you get a full 3-4 days off every week to recover. Your results will explode with your newfound recovery ability.

San Diego State’s 2010-11 basketball season has deeply memorable. The Aztecs emerged as a surprise national championship contender early in the season. But is the program’s greatest season?

Perhaps not.

Eighty years have past since San Diego State’s last men’s college basketball national title. That team was so exciting it garnered the nickname The Wonder Team by fans of the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament (the oldest college national championship). The Aztecs were arguably the first Cinderella team in college basketball history.

While the NIT and NCAA tournaments were still in the early years of forming eight, and sixteen team tournament fields, the NAIB Tournament, founded by Emil Liston and Dr. James Naismith in 1937, was a 32-team, nonstop week of thrilling college basketball. In 1939 and 1940, San Diego State established a reputation for thrilling upsets and buzzer-beater victories. Each year, the Aztecs advanced to the national championship game, only to finish as runners up.

But the charm finally came in San Diego State’s third national title attempt.

The Kansas City Star’s March 9, 1941, preview of the NAIB Tournament read:

San Diego, the wonder team that pulled out victories in the final seconds of play last year, is making its third visit here, bringing back such favorites as “Milky” Phelps, the 1-handed push shot artist, [Andy] Echle and others. Twice the Californians have reached the finals only to lose on both occasions.

‘It may be our turn to win that title this year,” wired Morris Gross, the San Diego coach. “I’m bringing the greatest team we’ve ever had at San Diego.”

Phelps was All-American boy both on and off the court. He was one of the most nimble guards in the nation. While most basketball players were still shoving the ball at the basket with two hands, Phelps’ leaping one-handed stroke was mesmerizing to basketball fans.

He worked at the campus malt shoppe and trained to become a military pilot.

At the 1941 NAIB Tournament, Phelps led the Aztecs through early rounds of the tournament and an upset of the West Texas “Giants,” the tallest team in college basketball of the day. By the end of the tournament, he was hobbling about on a sprained right knee so swollen it was hard to distinguish it from his thigh. Despite his injury, Phelps gave everything he had to offer as San Diego State triumphantly battled Kentucky State for the national championship.

On March 16, 1941, the Kansas City Star reported:

Climaxing a 3-year drive to the championship, the “miracle men” of San Diego, Calif., State last night captured the National Intercollegiate basketball title with a smashing finish that conquered the Thoroughbreds of Kentucky State College, 36 to 34, before 6,500 persons in the Auditorium.

Twice denied in the finals of this classic of the court, the California Aztecs built up a huge lead in the first half, lost it midway through the closing period and then, just as they have done on several other occasions, turned on a powerful drive to roar to victory.

The following year, the Aztecs returned without the graduated Phelps. After an unsuccessful bid to defend their national championship, many fans who had grown to love the San Diego squad came together to create a special award. They were granted permission by tournament organizers to present the Aztecs with a plaque to honor their “fighting spirit, outstanding play and sportsmanship,” according to he March 12, 1942, Kansas City Times.

The story of San Diego State’s Wonder Team is one of many chronicled in “National Title” The Unlikely Tale of the NAIB Tournament.” The book demonstrates how the NAIB (now the NAIA) picked up on Dr. Naismith’s mission to use sports in a way that would benefit mankind. It can be found at naibbook.com or for download on most eBook readers.

Finally after a lot of deliberation, the list of candidates for the USA basketball team for the 2008 Olympics was announced. Hopefully, this basketball team is all set to redeem itself after the poor show at the 2004 Olympics when USA won the bronze medal.

The list includes 21 NBA stars and has the names of some of the finest NBA players. They are Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Shane Battier, Chauncey Billups, Chris Bosh, Bruce Bowen, Elton Brand, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Antawn Jamison, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Lamar Odom, Chris Paul, Paul Pierce, Michael Redd, Luke Ridnour, Amare Stoudemire, and Dwyane Wade.

J J Redick and Adam Morrison have also been invited; taking the roster to a total of 23 players.

The exclusion of Allen Iverson has raised a lot of media attention. However, it is felt that it could be because of Iverson’s age and his style of playing that made the selectors exclude him from the roster. This is despite the important role he played in the 2004 Olympics.

According to national team manager Jerry Colangelo, the USA basketball is looking to form a team not of individual stars but of athletes, shooters, role players and distributors. Colangelo also hopes that Greg Oden, the high school basketball star, would be able to join the team for training this summer.

The selected players attended a training camp at Las Vegas followed by exhibition games in China and South Korea. Thereafter, a 12 man roster was selected for the World Championships in Japan.

2007 will see the team undergoing another training. This could be the regional Olympics qualifying. It will be followed by another training camp and exhibition games in 2008 just before the start of Beijing Olympics.

There are different ways to do a crossover. Different situations call for different variations which is why it’s important to be able to perform more than one variation of the crossover dribble.

Once you can perform these variations of the crossover you will be a force to reckon with whenever you have the basketball in your hands.

1. Simple Crossover- This is the simple crossover dribble but it can be very effective depending on the situation you’re using it in. To perform this move you would simply cross the basketball over from one side to the other. Nothing fancy about this move you just want to get the ball from one hand to the other.

2. Quick Crossover- This is the same as the simple crossover except you want to do this as fast as possible in order to catch your defender off guard. This move is really effective when you’re moving with the basketball and you want to get past a defender that is in front of you.

3. Killer Crossover- This crossover move is used when you want to get to the basket and you’re faced with a tough defender. To perform this move all you need to do is add shoulder, foot, and head shakes when you do a crossover in order to fool your defender into thinking you’re going one way when you’re actually going the other way. So, if you had the basketball in your right hand you would do a shoulder, head and foot fake that leads your defender to think you’re going right and then you would cross the ball over to your left hand and drive left.

4. Between the Legs Crossover- This variation of the crossover brings two moves together to create one great move. To perform this move you would dribble the basketball between your right leg and then cross the basketball in front of you to your left hand. You can also do it by dribbling the basketball between your left leg and then crossing the basketball over to your right hand.

5. Double crossover- This is a move that you can use to really switch things up on your defenders. Instead of performing one crossover dribble you can perform two consecutive crossover dribbles to get past the defense.

These are five variations of the crossover that you can add to your arsenal of offensive moves. Using the simple crossover move by itself is very effective, but just imagine the amount of damage you can do to the defense with five variations of the same move.

Use these moves to take your game to the next level but don’t stop there. There are tons of other moves you can start using as soon as today to crush your competition.

It’s pretty undeniable that there are a lot of decisions to be made when you observe all of the hundreds of basketball hoops for sale. Should you get a portable unit or in ground? Should you get a system with a square pole or round? How big should it be?

But one of the most important decisions is what the basketball backboard material. The four backboard materials offered are molded plastic, acrylic, polycarbonate, and glass. So what is the difference between them, and how do you know which one you should get?

Molded Plastic

This is the cheapest basketball backboard, and you typically see it on the least expensive systems. If you are an adult player who is interested in playing a good game of basketball, you should generally stay away from this material. It vibrates a lot and the fairly soft plastic simply absorbs the force of the basketball when you throw bank shots. That means that instead of getting a good rebound, it kind of just drops down. If, however, you are buying for a kid, this material is fine, as they aren’t typically concerned with having high quality rebound anyway.

Acrylic

A step up from molded plastic is the acrylic basketball backboard. It works a little bit better because it can be translucent, like pro systems, and acrylic is a bit more a rigid material. That favors you in two big ways. Firstly, it means that you can do bank shots without worrying about the ball dropping straight down quite so much. And secondly, it makes that it is more durable, which means it can take a whole heck lot more abuse without cracking.

Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate looks like acrylic, feels like acrylic, and plays like acrylic. So what’s the difference? The difference is in the over durability of the material, which is especially important in mid range basketball hoops where the backboards are relatively thin (about two to three eights of an inch). If you expect to be playing particularly roughly on your basketball hoop, or even if you want an extra level of assurance that your hoop is going to last a very long time, polycarbonate is definitely the way to go.

Glass

Glass is the material that they use in NBA, college, and even the large majority of high school courts. The reason why it is still so popular is because it is the most rigid material of all, and therefore offers the most rebound.

Buyers should be aware, however, that systems with this level of quality are usually pricier than acrylic or polycarbonate basketball hoops, usually costing at least eight hundred dollars and often more. However, in terms of play, there is just no comparison for the rigidity and rebound of a real glass basketball hoop.

You’ve all heard the expression, “great touch”, referring to a player who made a basket with several bounces on the rim or some such analogy. It’s really a sarcastic remark, because the insinuation is that the shooter planned it that way, but it was really a lucky shot or a series of lucky bounces etc. I want to elaborate on “shooting touch” and possibly shed some new light on this aspect of shooting. You may know by now that I don’t give much credence to the importance of the feet in shooting other than the 6″ bend at the knees and the feet should be shoulderwidth apart. I also don’t think there is a huge factor in whether the dominant foot is slightly forward of the other or perfectly square or directly under the shoulders.

We have all known that since before the era of the “Peach basket”. Ever since I have been doing shooting clinics, I can’t recall anybody ever telling me that the last thing they think about as the ball is released from their shooting hand, is which part of the hand dominates the touch and feel of the ball. By this I mean, that players are just not cognizant of the importance of the finger correlation to the ball release. Of course, I would say most players are completely unconscious of the hand placement or grip alignment on the ball. I am referring specifically to the free throw here where a player has the time to do so but when you watch players on TV take their bounces or their so called pre-shot repertoire or routine prior to a free throw, you will be amazed how few players even watch the ball and ensure correct hand alignment on the ball before they shoot. Go ahead I challenge you to watch and see if I am right. Anyhow, this is real important. This is when it gets into the nitty gritty.

Since I just don’t believe that you can rely on the natural human makeup to be a great shooter, I feel that our natural makeup is not perfect enough when it comes to shooting a basketball or engineering accuracy.  As a human entity we are created perfect, but when it involves external activities it all becomes subjective.  We need the help of scientific criteria and physics to help the imperfect anatomical structure.  The reason I know this is because I fit into this box myself. No matter how hard I tried to be a great shooter in my early days I never could achieve the efficiency numbers that I do in my later life because I have learned to shoot mentally and physically and not just physically.

The shot begins cerebrally. It is a matter of mind over matter. Process over product. Beginning before the end. Alpha before omega. You get the picture. It is a fact that a high percentage of players think of making the shot rather than concentrating on the ever so important mechanics at the moment of release. Now here is where the rubber meets the road. When we shoot the regular inflated ball ask yourself what you do at the moment of release. Why do you think most other players are any different. They are not. As a whole we have not been trained from the shooter’s perspective. We have been trained from the coach’s perspective. And how many coaches out there were shooters in college, or let me re-phrase that. How many were great shooters in college or the Pro ranks. Not very many. You see the gap we have to contend with.

You will notice how much time I spend on isolating individual fingers and their involvement in the shooting process. Well, I know that when I start teaching my methods and secrets a lot of players have a hard time making this adjustment of transferring their thinking process from the basket to themselves. It’s a total reversal from what they are used to. Some make an easy transition, but with others it takes longer and that’s understandable. One of the key factors, if not the main factor involved in shooting is to shoot the shot straight. And what guarantees the shot to go straight? The index finger does.

There is a definitely different feeling from shooting a flat ball and a fully inflated ball. It is hard to explain. You just need to try it. If you are a player that has a hard time connecting a feeling from the brain to the ball through the finger tips then you need to try to shoot with a flat ball. Here is the sensation that you will feel, or you should feel. It is a natural tendency that when one shoots a ball, that the shooting wrist has a tendency to flail or at least to sway sideways. It is the weight of the middle finger and the ring finger combined that generally cause the sway. By shooting a flat ball you will feel the indentation more pronounced than with an inflated ball. The extra time it takes for the indentation to occur will relay to your conscious brain which finger is applying how much pressure to what part of the ball. This has to be understood, felt and corrected. Ideally, the ball needs to have even energy generated from the tip of the index finger down through to the wide base of the pinky finger and the wide thumb. This wide base must remain this way from the beginning to the end of the shot. All the while being cognizant of those 2 dreaded fingers (ring finger and the middle finger), so as not to let them dominate the direction of the ball.

You almost have to see this whole process in your mind and actually get it into the subconscious before you can actually make it work in your favor. This is a case where you really have to get in tune with the super fine muscles. If you can feel your capillaries in the tips of your fingers then you are on the right track. Great shooting really is a case of fine muscle domination and not large muscle control. Not only do you want to feel or control the energy generated to the ball but you have to know how much input to the ball that each finger delivers. The amount of force generated by each finger needs to be accountable and measurable.

Knowing this gives you the real knowledge and feedback you need to repeat or change the next shot. Because that is all there is. THE NEXT SHOT. It is all about how well you get control of your physical faculties through total mental knowledge and understanding. Shooting is not just throwing the ball up in the direction of the basket and hoping for the best. You can control the destiny of each shot as you pull the trigger because you have actually calculated distances and direction because you now have a perfect knowledge of these mechanical and scientific principles.

The percentages you should feel are 90% on the index finger, almost zero on the mid finger and pinky finger and about 5% on the thumb pad and pinky pad. Just to give you an idea about incorrect finger placement, I attended the 2009 NBA All-star weekend and in the Jam Session where everyone gets to have hoop-la fun. There was a booth called “Get-a-grip” and there was a display of a giant basketball with a hand on it. Down below there was about a dozen balls with pro players hands embossed on the balls where people could match their hands with the grip on the balls. Well the bad thing here is that every ball and every grip had the mid finger in the center of the ball. My beef with this is that it promotes irregular follow throughs. The strongest part of the hand is the index finger when it is aligned with the inside of the forearm which forms an imaginary ruler or gun barrel.

The basketball industry is a huge one and like many other sporting industries it is full of myths. Basketball workouts carry most of the myths, having players do the unthinkable and the unrealistic during basketball training. There are so many basketball training myths out there that it can be hard to distinguish what should be followed and what is the truth. Myths can be detrimental to your health and to your basketball training. You can lose valuable learning time and valuable time that your body needs to rest. Here are some tips and ideas that are good to follow and definitely are not myths.

• Practice no more than eight hours a week. Any more and you are over doing it.

• Have a great support system made up of coaches, other players and your family.

• Practice at least 45 minutes in the weight room and an hour on the court.

• Get rest, at least 9 hours of sleep a night.

• Eat a well balanced meal.

• Be sure to stretch and do foam rolls before and after each basketball workout.

Myths in Basketball Workouts

One myth in basketball is to train at least six hours per day. This is so wrong and could wind up hurting you in the long run. Yes have other players such as players in the NBA have trained for six hours a day but those players are hurting themselves. There is no way in the world your body can tolerate that much exercise and games on the court. Train for one hour on the court and no longer than forty five minutes in the weight room. Only do this for eight hours a week and you will reap the benefits from doing it this way.

Another myth in basketball workouts is that weight lifting hurts your abilities. This is not true and weight lifting can help a player do very well. Lifting weights can help your range improve, help you become stronger, and help your came to be the best it can possibly be. Do not ever go lift weights right before the game but lift weights during each basketball workout you have.

Another commonly believed myth is that you have to play basketball and have a basketball workout every day. This is not true and can wind up hurting you. If you have a basketball workout or play basketball every single day you will wind up making your body so tired that it will never benefit from training. It is much better to take a few days off and to alternate your routine during your basketball workout.

Getting a good basketball training session is important if you want to play to the best of your ability. Remember to avoid all the myths that come with basketball workouts and to follow the tips above. You will learn that practice does make your goals possible and that you do not have to kill yourself at basketball training. Remember that quality is better over quantity and having a great skill set while playing basketball is most important.

Every sports has certain unwritten rules that each player or coach should follow. These rules are to be followed out of respect for the game. Here are a few of the unwritten rules that apply to basketball.

1. Never pad your stats. For example, a player shouldn’t shoot threes late in a game where his team is up big just so he can beat the record for the most threes in a game. A player shouldn’t intentionally miss a shot so he can get the rebound a have a triple-double for the game. A player shouldn’t pass up wide open shots because he trying to break an assists record. These are examples of padding your stats intentionally.

2. Never shoot a last second shot if your team is ahead big. This is just considered unsportsmanlike. Usually at the end of a blowout, if the winning team has the ball for the last possession, the losing team won’t even bother to guard the offensive players. This is a sign that the losing team has conceded the game. At this time, the player with the ball should just dribble the ball and run out the clock.

3. Never press a team that you are beating soundly. Even if you are a team that likes to run the full-court press, you should not do it when the game is out of hand in your favor. Clearly your team was much better than the other team that game, and pressing the losing team will usually just magnify how bad the other team was. It is just not proper to do.

Basketball is a sport that favors people that are tall or can jump higher than the competition.  If you have ever wanted to learn how to jump higher in basketball to dunk this article is for you.

Before you can dunk you have to be able to jump high enough and this is the part of basketball training that you need to focus on.  Vertical jump training emphasizes building up strength in your legs along with speed. 

Jumping is a quick explosive movement and power is a result of strength and speed.  If you train properly, you can increase you jumping ability greatly in a very short period of time.

One exercise that is great for building strength is the squat.  When you squat you want to do it quicker than what you would normally see in the gym.  You are not training your muscles to go through movements slowly, rather you want to train them to develop fast twitch muscle fibers.

The speed training is done by doing exercises that are known as plyometrics.  When doing plyometric exercises you need to focus on the speed of each jump.  When doing reps you want your feet to be in contact with the ground for the shortest time possible in between each rep. 

Training only for speed or strength is what most people do and end up seeing very minimal gains after months of training.  You have to take your jump training seriously if you want to get real gains in your vertical leap ability.

In-ground basketball hoops can be seen in schoolyards and parks the world over. Children and adults alike gather for a lively game of hoops, sometimes as often as every day in such places where all you have to bring is a ball and a drive to win.

With this type of equipment, there is no base to possibly get in the way of that slam dunk landing. Materials used to construct the poles are rigid and sturdy, as well as weather resistant, often times featuring a strong powder coat finish which is rust and scratch resistant. Backboards are available in a variety of sizes, from the standard 72″ down to 54″ for the smaller space. Backboards are also available in an array of construction materials, from new technology Polycarbonate boasting shatter proof properties, to the traditional tempered glass that is still used in professional settings. Materials such as steel, fiberglass and acrylic are also used in making backboards.

Many poles are adjustable, making it easy to play with kids of all ages. Finding a unit with a range of up to 4 feet helps to offer something for everyone. Some come in pieces, and others are single unit, solid style. Solid poles will be more sturdy and hold up incredibly against all the beatings the backboard will take. Flex hoops with springs also help to cushion the impact from the ball and hands that may hang on after a dunk.

Once installed, an in-ground hoop is ready to go for several seasons of use! It just may take a few days to get it completely ready. The first step in setting up an in-ground hoop is to be sure of the location you wish to place it in. Once in, it will be there for good. For this reason, you want to be absolutely sure the location is exactly what you want and what will work best for your space and lifestyle.

When you have chosen the location for your hoop and you have the necessary concrete from your local home improvement store, you will cut a hole into your existing concrete that is 24″ diameter by 36″ deep. Then you will place the plate and J-bolts into the hole and pour cement into the hole. You will want at least 15″ of the pole to be buried in concrete, so it may help to mark the pole 15″ from the bottom. Using a leveler will help you to know your pole is inserted properly, straight up and down. If your pole is in pieces, you will need to wait 72 hours before attaching the remaining pieces of the pole to the piece that is inserted into the concrete.

Aside from a bit more prep work, an in-ground unit offers many of the same options as do other hoops. With the benefit of longevity and sturdiness, it can be the hoop enthusiasts greatest procurement for their home court!