Developing Hands for Catching the Ball

Q16- I have two player in which I have tried about everything in an attempt to develop their hands for catching the ball. Do you you know of specific drills that can assist me in developing their ability to catch the ball?
 

Dear Coach,

Catching the ball involves several factors some of which can't be taught are basic abilities. Skills can be taught. Abilities you are born with. One of these is hand-eye coordination. I don't have an explanation for why some people are better than others, but some players will simply have more difficulty based on poor hand-eye coordination. You can't control this. You can however work on developing skills which can improve on what ability they do have.

The biggest problem for most players catching the ball is looking at the ball when they are catching it. This sounds like a rather simple answer, but what normally happens is a players "limited" attention will be split toward to many details resulting in poor performance. This is true in the execution of all skills. A player shooting a jump shot, isn't counting backwards from 100 at the same time. This is an example of attention splitting. Your young post player may be thinking;

• a) I must catch the ball,
• b) where is the defense behind me,
• c) I'm confused about what play are we running,
• d) I missed the last shot what was I doing wrong to miss such an easy shot,
• or e) all of the above.

To assist you players in focusing their attention in catching the ball, they must practice repeatedly the plays and position in which they will be catching the ball. The more routine (or automatic) this becomes, the more attention is freed up to focus on, for that 1 second, catching the ball. Then the player may proceed to change their attention to the next critical decision such as where the defender is playing me. A confused player, or one who has not practiced their position and offensive moves and patterns enough will be a poor catcher. The other thing that a split attention does is to create a sense of uncertainty or nervousness in a player. This causes tension in the muscles. The second major reason players are poor catchers is because they are too stiff in the arms. If there is a pass with a lot of force on it, this energy must go somewhere. If the arms don't absorb this energy the ball will simply carry it somewhere else. The arms must be shock absorbers when receiving the ball. Arms strong, but relaxed, and catch the ball with the finger tips. When the ball arrives the player must decelerate the ball into the tuck position under the chin. This tuck position is a players strongest position for protecting the ball against reaching defenders. Here are some basic drills that I have used to help young players learn to catch the ball.

You can also read my article on Catching, pivoting and faking which I recently wrote and is in the clinic archives on the Coaching Box page of The Basketball Highway.

I think most coaches have players catching from a stationary position. The problem with this is when are players ever intentionally stationary in a basketball game? They are constantly moving and have energy in their body to control. I practice all catching from movement. Have your players take two hard steps away from the post area, or if it's catching the ball on the wing (the same). Then have them sprint hard to the ball. This is how they must play in the game. Initially pass the ball to their chin. If they don't catch it they'll know it. Make the speed of these passes fairly consistent. Later you can change the speed and angle of the passes. Players must then learn to adjust their position to catch the ball based on a more poorly thrown pass. When they move, they must move with their hands up.

A player moving to a ball with their hands down will require 0.5-1.0 seconds to react and move their hands into catching position. This is another reason many balls are not caught. The ball arrives before their hands are in a position to catch it. When their hands are always up and in position, their is little or no reaction time necessary. This also helps the offensive player learn to hold the defender away from a position where they can deflect or intercept the ball. This requires energy in their arms as well. If their arms are very stiff this will make catching the ball more difficult and must be practiced.

After having them make 30 or 40 basic cuts to the ball and simple catches I begin throwing them a different pass for 30 or 40 times. Such as a bounce pass, or a short lob entry pass. The timing on receiving these passes is slightly different and the player must be on their toes and able to move and adjust to the final pass destination if it isn't directly on their hands. I normally have them make 10 moves at high speed, and then shoot 5 free throws. This must be an energy demanding drill or you aren't replicating game situations.

After a week or so of catching (of course practice post moves or 1 on 1 from the wing after catching the ball), you can begin to add some defensive pressure. The more you have practiced these moves the more the player will be able to focus their attention to team concept during the game. Have the defense defend one way at a time, for example on the high side shoulder. Over time you can begin having the defender vary their positions. When you player has become pretty efficient at catching the basic passes and successfully executing either a scoring move, or pass back out, you can add bad passes to the drills to force them to adjust quickly.

I will also add various square up moves, inside pivot, or outside pivot after the catch and work a considerable amount of time catching, the pass back out (when the defense collapses) and the return pass. I should mention that it is easier to catch the ball when your player is on the balls of their feet. A flat footed player is stiff and immobile. Not a very effective way to absorb energy of a hard pass, and certainly not one where they can adjust to a poorly thrown pass.

Remember catching and all the accompanying movements are like a computer program. If all of the elements aren't built in properly, one or two elements may be attempted for execution, but the computer is searching for other information or components (processing time). Processing time places a heavy load on attention. As I stressed earlier the more automated a skill the more attention is freed up in short periods of time to handle highly complex information (a defender changing their pressure position, a quick cut to the basket, a quick double team and so on) and successfully catch the ball and make a good decision resulting in a score. After all the time you have no spent on teaching basic catching skills, give your players a chance to utilize this practice by making sure they have full understanding of their position on a given play, such as low post on play 2, or high post on play 3. They should know their first, second, and third options. When they know what to do, they will also be better catchers, and can focus their attention for that split second on catching the ball in strong and relaxed position with confidence that they can handle any situation presented to them.

Thanks for Asking the Coach