Perfect Basketball Passing
Last Updated: Nov. 7, 2014
In This Article: A Pass for Every Occasion Aiming and Faking
As school begins, your child can use free time to work on fundamental basketball skills ahead of the next season. This not only helps with building consistency and confidence, those small improvements might just get the coach’s attention as new teams are formed. Along with dribbling and shooting, passing the basketball is one of the most important skills for a young player to improve.
A Pass for Every Occasion
There are a variety of passes that young basketball players can learn and perfect. The Overhead Pass allows a player to keep the ball high and out of reach, and to pass the ball much farther. It’s also a common pass that is used for inbound pass. The Bounce Pass is best used to pass the ball past a defender that is blocking with their arms held high. The chest pass is when the ball travels from your chest area directly to your teamate with little arc and no bounce. This is the most direct way to transfer the ball and is the easiest to catch. This is the most used type of pass.
Your child should become equally proficient at passing to the left and to the right, regardless of their natural tendency to go to one side. A one-handed bounce pass, sent from either the right or left hand, is an effective offensive weapon. The one-handed Baseball Pass is best for a long throw down the court when the other team is pressing after a basket.
Aiming and Faking
Most passes should be aimed toward a teammate’s outside hand so the basketball can be caught easily. Teach young players to pass to where their teammate is headed in motion, rather than a fixed spot on the court. When making bounce passes, they should aim for the ball to hit the court just past half-way to the teammate and arrive about waist high.
Coaches also want players to learn to fake at least one pass before they pass to a teammate. Passing the ball right away could lead to an immediate steal and the other team scoring. Ball fakes must be strong and deliberate to be effective. It can be fun to practice being unpredictable, faking passes to keep the other team guessing.