Becoming a great basketball player takes a lot of discipline, hard-work, practice, and patience. No one is born a great basketball player. All the pros, from Michael Jordan to Lebron James had to work hard to get to where they're at. And with basketball being more popular than ever before, the competition to play in high-school, to earn a college scholarship, or to play professional is fierce.
Being a successful basketball player requires a mix of skill, speed, strength, quickness, agility, and intelligence. Some good players might have one or two of these, but great players have all of them. The reason these are all important, is because great players are balanced players, they don't have big weaknesses.
Basketball players also need to work on all of their skills: shooting, passing, dribbling, scoring, defense, rebounding. These can all be developed by doing various drills. It is important to have a good training plan that is catered specifically to your strengths and weaknesses as a player. You should work with or hire a trainer to help put together an effective program.
Other than working on their skills, basketball players need to develop the other traits mentioned above. They should stretch to work on flexibility. They should have a weight lifting routine to develop strength. They should also incorporate mobility, agility, plyometrics, and speed work into their training program. As with the skill program, you should work with a trainer to build a good basketball training program (expert trainers will also cater the program for you, this is important especially if you are in grade school or high school and don't have a lot of knowledge with safely lifting weights).
Intelligence is an often underrated aspect of a great basketball player. The great ones know how to react to a defender, to a teammate, or to a coach. You can develop basketball intelligence through reviewing films, talking to older player, discussions with coaches, watching basketball games on TV, and through just playing a lot of basketball.
There are a few other areas that are often forgotten when it comes to being a complete basketball player. You must take care of your body. This means get a lot of sleep, have correct nutrition, and utilize recovery workouts.
Basketball can be a lot of work, but it is also the best game ever invented. Hopefully this lays out some good guidelines for you to get on the right path to being a successful basketball player!
