Being the best takes a lot of hard work and dedication. No one is born with the skills of being best, although talent does play a huge part. But like it or not, your basketball skills must be constantly improved to stay on top of your game.

Naturally, you’d find sports tips and tricks on blogs like Athletic Lift, but hard work is the ultimate factor to consider when improving your game. So, with keeping that in mind, here are our 8 simple ways to improve your basketball skills. And remember, nothing pays out without hard work so keep that in mind.

1. Practice Makes Perfect

The first thing you should always do is practice; a lot. Practice makes perfect; there isn’t an easier way to say it. You will never be the best if you don’t put in the work.

And while most of you will disagree that this is a simple way to improve, ask any of the players that have made it in the NBA and they’ll tell you all about it.

Just think of some of the greatest players ever to play the game. Not a single one of them would be where they are if they didn’t put thousands of hours into practice.

It is said that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. So if you have trouble hitting your shots, start practicing more and more.

2. Don’t Be Sloppy

Training is Key when it comes to improving your skills, but it’s worthless if you train sloppy. Quality repetition beats the number of repetitions in a day.

It’s more productive to be quality on the training pitch and train significantly less than to train more but be sloppy all the time.

The only way to be quality on the training pitch is to be solely focused on your game and technique. Instead of needlessly running around like a headless chicken, try to be focused and make your shots. You can also train at home, using basketball yard guards, that you can easily find online, on websites such as LearnToCoachBasketball.

3. The Little Things Matter

Many amateur players tend to ignore the little things when it comes to improving their game. For example, they might take no issue with their poor footwork or form, but these two are some of the most important ones when it comes to improving as a player.

You won’t dribble the way you want if you don’t have the necessary footwork. And you certainly won’t hit your shots if you constantly avoid working on your work.

The little things are what separate the best from the good players. It is what separates LeBron from the rest of his competitors, and what has separated all the greats before him.

4. Discipline is Key

Make no mistake about it, discipline is Key if you want to become a professional basketball player. While this has nothing to do with your basketball skills, it is one of the most important areas that a player should work on.

Without discipline, your career will be over before it even starts. A lack of discipline means you won’t give it your 100% whenever training or during the game.

Lack of discipline means you’ll miss training or won’t work as hard whenever you don’t feel like doing it. Discipline is Key and every great player has had his way of showing it, one way or another.

5. Proper Coaching

As suggested by Jamil Abiad, professional basketball coach, what good is any technique, skill training, shooting, footwork, or any other type of training if you don’t have the right people around you? That’s why the emphasis in the game has been placed on having more quality coaches available for teams to improve their players.

While this is solely down to the coach itself, the rush for quality personnel has never been in more demand. That’s why having a quality coach will be the difference between making it and doing nothing with all your potential.

6. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

One huge mistake every amateur player does is shooting incorrectly. This isn’t anything unusual as proper shooting techniques aren’t common human movements.

That’s why so many academies and teams teach their players the proper techniques. This means that if you want to learn how to shoot the right way, you need to get out of your comfort zone.

Another thing that doesn’t come naturally is the way we play both defense and offense. We might think that the right way is to stand up, but it’s all about playing low.

This way, you can be ready for anything and be ready to make the sprints to chase after an opposing player.

7. Lots of Intensity

Boring and slow drills are some of the most painful to carry out. That’s because no one is up for them. However, even these drills require you to be at your best to succeed and master.

Other drills are highly intense and can sometimes be hard to cope with. These drills are often more complex and provide us with more benefits to our game. But the main difference between both is that we easily get motivated for the harder drills.

Training with lots of intensive is a vital factor when it comes to improving your game at the highest level.

8. Never Say Die

That “never say die” attitude isn’t related to any physical doing but it has a lot to do with your mental side.

No one succeeds at the highest level without having the right attitude for it. And if you want to be the best in the game, you need to have the right mentality.

Nowadays, this is an area of the game that is focused a lot on. Long gone are the days where only the truly talented players would succeed at any level. Having the right mentality is more than enough to land you a good team that can improve you.

Playing basket and getting fit while doing so!

“I’ll eat whatever I want, go as I wish and I’ll be healthy.” – It is nothing but madness to think! We know that if you want to stay healthy, you must eat healthily and exercise properly. But it is tough to maintain because we hardly get some rest in this age of business. Isn’t there any solution to it? Of course, there is. But what if it’s a game, a joy, and a healthy stay? Yes, we are talking about Basketball, a game that will keep you happy as well as healthy. “Playing basket and getting fit while doing so!” is a popular belief undoubtedly. Why not? For burning calories, building endurance, improving balance, and building up muscle; it is the best option.

Never lose motivation and always fight until the end. Some of the greatest basketball games have been won with this attitude.