15 Attributes ALL Players Can Master

Since we’ve been contributing articles to Hoop Coach, perhaps the most popular was the checklist of player bad body language. Many coaches turned it around for their players to read likely thinking that it’s valuable for players to hear from someone other than themselves what they have been advocating. With that in mind, today’s thoughts are totally directed to players.

As many players and even some coaches get older and more experienced, it’s common for them to get jaded by everything that they’ve heard over the years. It’s actually very much a part of human nature to gradually lose concentration on the most basic fundamentals of any enterprise. Players and coaches alike often search for sophisticated, even magical answers for their games or teams and forget the the proverbial base of the pyramid, the qualities that really drive successful teams and players.

15 Simple Goals for All Players:

1. Be a Good Teammate: Even if you’re the first and only good teammate, eventually it will rub off on others.
2. Be a Student of the Game: Knowing your responsibilities is important; knowing more than that can raise you and your team.
3. Be Coachable: It can be a challenge to be coachable when things aren’t going well for whatever reason. If there’s a problem, being un-coachable will only magnify the issue.
4. Be a Good Practice Player: Good practice players eventually get what they deserve.
5. Carve Out a Role: Even if a role isn’t defined for you, you can carve one out for yourself by consistent good play of any kind.
6. Be Tough: Toughness is physical for sure, but most of the time it’s mental and not giving in.
7. Be Poised: Basketball practice presents many mini-crises; you can practice not being nervous as these situations arise.
8. Run Back Hard on Defense: Doing this every time gets noticed and appreciated and is the foundation for good team defense,.
9. Run Hard on Offense: Running hard on offense in your team’s structure helps other players get open-even if you aren’t.
10. Space the Floor: No matter the offense, players who know where to be are valuable.
11. Hit the Open Man: One of the easiest things to do in the game; every team needs “chemistry” players.
12. Take Good Shots: This is a realistic expectation. A forced shot or bad shot is almost equal to a turnover.
13. Have Good Defensive Stance, Position and Vision: Every player can be good away from the ball and it starts with the proper stance, the right position on the floor relative to the ball and good peripheral vision.
14. Block Out: You may not be able to get certain rebounds but you can prevent your man or assignment from getting the rebound most of the time.
15. Be a 50-50 Ball Demon: Loose balls are created a lot of ways. Be the player who looks for and seizes these opportunities.