Pass The Ball: 4 Different Executions Of One Of Basketball's Most Vital Skills

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Basketball is a team sport, but it is also a team where individual greatness is held in very high esteem. For this reason, learning the art of passing is often the greatest challenge for an ambitious young player with great potential. But anyone who has spent some time watching the sport knows how vital it is to a team's effectiveness. Passing keeps the ball in your team's hands and opens up tons of possibilities on the court for sinking those open shots and effortless layups-the easy points that add up to wins.

There are many different types of basketball passes but some are used more often and generally have a greater impact on the game than others.

1. The Bounce Pass

While this is one of the more rare passes you see on a court, especially with more inexperienced players, the bounce pass is a dangerous weapon that has its place. It is very useful when dribbling into a defender.

The best way to do this is make a quick fake to one direction and then pass the ball below a defender's arms, crouching low to keep a solid stance. One of the keys to a bounce pass is the angle of the bounce. By the time the ball meets with the floor, it should only have another 1/3 of the distance to travel. This angle makes the most of momentum and makes it harder to snatch the ball mid-air.

2. Behind the Back

Another rare type of pass that takes a little more skill but comes in handy for players who have it down is the quick behind the back pass-also a great move in the face of tight defense. A player doing this normally either does it suddenly while dribbling forward or comes to a stop for a second as if confused or meaning to pass forward. They then move their hand behind their back and give the ball a quick flick to a predetermined target without even looking in that direction.

3. The Over-Head Pass

A more commonly seen pass-but not without its risks-is the overhead pass. This helps when you can not easily pass between players or under arms, leaving over the head one of the only viable alternatives. To get it right, you want to try to put as much power as possible into it to take the weakness out of the angle-put a lot of wrist and finger-action into the pass to do this.

You can also gain more power by starting your pass with your hands behind your head, as if returning back. It takes practice to do this suddenly without giving the pass away.

4. The Chest Pass

The most common type of pass is common for a reason-it is the least likely to result in an interception. The chest pass. Watch players who do a lot of high passes and you will see many of their passes intercepted. Watch players who do a lot of low passes and you will see their passes are often not caught at all.

A chest pass is a powerful, controlled pass that puts the ball directly in the receiver's hands. Bring the ball directly to your chest, with your hands spread out well, take a solid step, and push it forward toward your receiver, snapping your wrists as you let it go. Always make a good follow-through on chest passes.

Passing is the skill that often separates a team with potential from a team that wins championships-this type of teamwork is essential to the game and allows a team to access all the different abilities on the court with ease rather than having each player wear themselves out to be a hero.

Let's face it, a ball can always be thrown across a distance much faster than an individual could dribble it across the same distance, and while it seems a bit vulnerable zinging through the air, it is much harder to snatch than when in the control of a dribbling hand.

Practice those passages.

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