In a relentless pursued to become a better player, improving your court vision is vital. Understanding and reading the game allows you to make better decisions for yourself and your team. Futhermore, court vision can allows players to find an open teammate in a high pressure situations. In the end, all of this can be invaluable in winning a game.
Developing your court vision
Basketball IQ does not develop on its own. It requires a certain amount of work, both individual and collective. Not all players have the same basketball IQ, neither the same technical, athletic and mental skills. However, all the players on a team must play together on the floor, with their own strengths and weaknesses. To play offense and defense as a team, players must also be aware of their teammates. Improving court awareness therefore imperatively requires teamwork in order to implement systems that have been learned collectively. But not only that, most of the work has to be done by yourself.
Individually, there are different ways to improve your court vision.
– Watching and studying many basketball games: watching many plays and situations will allow you to learn a lot about how to play well. When a similar situation happens in a game, you will know what to do. You will have figured out what is the best decision for you and your team. This will be automatic, although many game situations are different, and the environment, particularly concerning the placement of players in offense and defense, is always to be taken into account.
– Playing: to assimilate everything you have learned theoretically, there is nothing better than experimented it in a real game. The practice and repetition of the moves will allow you to memorize the opportunities to be seized at a time T. The more experience you accumulate, the more you will be good at what you do. Whether in training or in games, applying the game systems as well as the advice received from your coach and teammates will allow you to improve. However, basketball is not an exact science. You can “feel” the game, it also works by feeling. Sometimes, you have to listen yourself and try new things.
– Eye surgery: even if it can be done with a laser, it is an extreme method and is not recommended for everyone. Eyes are a very sensitive organ in the human body. A number of NBA players have nevertheless adopted this operation to improve their eyesight, without the need to wear glasses or lenses. LeBron James is one of them. Same as his now retired friend Dwyane Wade, as well as Chris Paul and sniper Danny Green, his Lakers teammate.
Like any area of life, everything is perfectible or a source of progress in terms of court vision. Certainly, you will not become John Stockton (best passer in NBA history) or Steve Nash (double MVP of the NBA season regular in 2005 and 2006) overnight. Even if in this area, starting from scratch, you will certainly make a lot of progress at the beginning, it seems logical that you will certainly also make a certain number of mistakes… Before regularly learning new subtleties and integrating them to your arsenal. This is how we progress.
