3 Reasons Why You Struggle with Ball Handling — Redefining what it takes
Intro
Ball handling is one of the most celebrated skills in basketball, often highlighted by flashy moves and dramatic plays. However, many players misinterpret its true value, focusing solely on mastering specific moves rather than the broader, more critical factors during games. If you want to improve your ability to navigate the court, it's essential to shift your focus from aesthetics to effectiveness.
While popular culture glamorizes ball handling as an art form for pulling off eye-catching moves, it can mislead players with larger goals. The popularization of this has influenced players to believe that its value is greater than in reality. Mastering a few fancy dribbles may not help you achieve long-term success on the court. Here are five critical elements to remember if you aim to improve, along with insights on the common mistakes players make in their process.
You focus on “moves”
Ball handling is the use of agile movements and deceptions to pursue or create opportunities for an entire offense.
Simplifying the skill to be just about using moves will prevent you from effectively executing the skill in basketball games. Your “AI crossover” or “Shammgod” move will not work in every scenario, especially when it lacks purpose.
Focusing on moves causes players to over-calculate their ball-handling execution in games. Many athletes believe that there are combinations of moves that they have to practice in training and mimic in games to be great ball handlers. Instead of pre-rehearsed moves, focus on reading the game and adapting your ball handling to what's available in each scenario.
2. Your decision-making needs to improve
Great ball handlers aren’t just skilled in technique—they are masters at making decisions as opportunities and threats come and go on the court. They can process multiple variables at once and make calculated decisions. Players with elite physical abilities who fail to make an impact on the court often struggle with decision-making rather than ball handling.
It doesn’t matter how quick your crossover is or how you can perform some of the same moves Kyrie Irving can. What matters is that you make strategic decisions on the court with the ball in your hands. Blindly moving around the court without being attentive to what matters will hinder your ability to make plays with the ball in your hands.
Examples of bad decision-making as a ball handler:
Using purposeless “moves” to attack a blitz or double-team
Recklessly moving towards help defenders
Over-dribbling against an aggressive defender rather than finding better solutions
Not taking advantage of space and angles to perform a move
3. You are easy to read
Most of the moves you see in highlight reels stem from creative problem-solving and awareness — they aren’t preplanned moves drilled into a player’s arsenal.
Skilled defenders rely on anticipation and pattern recognition to guard effectively. If your movements are too predictable — like rehearsed sequences, defenders have seen over and over—they can easily read and counter them.
Being an adaptable ball handler does not require preplanned moves, it requires some unpredictability. Deceptiveness, subtle body language changes, and situational awareness are what separate great ball handlers from average ones.
Explore using common, deliberate movements to make a different decision. For example, using screens to disguise your intentional decisions or using your eyes to throw off defenders can create more opportunities for yourself and your team to create a quality shot.
Remember, this is not about beating an individual defender each time you have the ball in your hands, it’s about navigating and responding to information on the court.
Two problems with your approach and mindset
While these are some of the core weaknesses of players who struggle with handling the basketball, two underlying issues cause players to approach the development of this skill ineffectively.
Many players believe that ball handling is a skill that must be worked on separately, hindering their approach and growth. To truly develop an adaptable skill, your practice must integrate real-game situations. Practicing in isolation, without context, limits your ability to apply the skill in games. So, play more basketball! Create situations where you can explore this skill with a few people.
You won’t impact the game solely because you can dribble the ball creatively, but you can make an impact if you can make creative and purposeful decisions with the ball in your hands. Decision-making is key, despite what the basketball community has been led to believe.
The second issue is a misunderstanding of the purpose of ball handling. Ball handling is often glorified for its aesthetics, but its real value lies in helping you create opportunities for yourself and your teammates. It’s not just about scoring for yourself — ball handling helps players navigate pressure, create dysfunction in defense, and help lead to scoring opportunities.
Ball handling isn’t everything, there are solutions to make an impact for your team without the need to take more than two dribbles in a given scenario. By shifting your focus away from isolated drills and how you look on the court, you will become a much more effective and adaptable player.
