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What can you see from this basketball pass? Yes, I can see damn well that it's a
no-look pass, but I can see more beyond this picture. I can see countless number of
contorted faces after getting a basketball shoved right in the face by this guy who
wants to look cool. After all, vision is communication. When you don't want to
communicate in game with your vision, you gotta communicate beforehand and tell
your teammates, "look out, I am gonna chuck the ball at you anytime."
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When asked "what makes you a
great basketball player?", many
people will say things like strong
wrist, soft touch, excellent
dribbling skills, long arms, crazy
height and so on and so
forth. To me, however, vision
is the biggest weapon of all. It captures any weak points that you can attack and
advantages that you can exploit. More importantly, it implies certain messages to
all the other players on the court Let's look at how you can communicate with
others on the basketball court with your eyes
"I"I"I"I amamamam goinggoinggoinggoing totototo schoolschoolschoolschool youyouyouyou andandandand ripripriprip youyouyouyou apart."apart."apart."apart."
Look at the painting of Michael on the right. Even through this is merely a drawing,
you can see this pervading gleam of confidence and determination in his eyes. It is
this confidence that will embolden his teammates and make them trust him. It is
this confidence that makes all his opposing defenders fear him and respect him from
head to toe. It is this confidence that sends the following message: "I am going to
blow by you with sheer speed, no petty fakes. Then, I am going to simply shoot
over you with zero moves, just plain jump shot. You are nothing." In response to
this message, the defender bites at each and every move of yours every time, and
every time it ends up to be a fake.
"You"You"You"You can'tcan'tcan'tcan't getgetgetget passpasspasspass me."me."me."me."
Some people likes to stare at the offending players right into the eyes and wear a
crafty smile on his face when playing defense. This aggressive stare makes the
offending player rethink before he attempts to make a move and when he hesitates,
he will lose his ambition and even his opportunity. Then, they will just end up
passing the basketball off to someone else.
"I"I"I"I havehavehavehave givengivengivengiven up.up.up.up. IIII amamamam freakenfreakenfreakenfreaken tired."tired."tired."tired."
When you avoid eye contact with the defender by looking down when you are not
holding the ball. The defender may think that you are exhausted and become
off-guard. That is when you should suddenly burst towards your sweet spot
"Where"Where"Where"Where areareareare you?you?you?you? IIII don'tdon'tdon'tdon't seeseeseesee nobody."nobody."nobody."nobody."
By looking up towards the ceiling of the basketball court, you are taunting your
adversary. It's a total disrespect of your opponent and he will most likely react to
it by trying to make you look bad with extra unnecessary basketball moves. Hence,
try this when you have a hot-headed opposing player.
"I"I"I"I amamamam goinggoinggoinggoing totototo pass/drivepass/drivepass/drivepass/drive thisthisthisthis way...orway...orway...orway...or maybemaybemaybemaybe not."not."not."not."
Okay you can call this an eye fake, the most sophisticated basketball move
ever. When you committed yourself to one lane, your shoulder must move first, your
limbs must also be directed at that way, and your head must also follow your
shoulder for full speed. ONLY YOUR EYES can be directed towards a totally opposite
direction from your intention or action. Hence, this is the most deceptive fake in
the game of basketball. Whether it is a fake or not, however, is hard to say. You
need prior communication, heightened basketball sense, years of experience and
cooperation to make out what one intends to do.
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When we talk about vision on the court, we are talking about the ability to observe
the ever-changing action on the court and spot the movement of both your
teammates and opponents and use them to your advantage. Nash is one of the
basketball players with vision. He can seeseeseesee what the rest of the world can't see and
catch the open teammate that is just loosely defended for a second. He can also
foreseeforeseeforeseeforesee what his teammates and opponents will do by delivering the basketball to
the position his teammates willwillwillwill arrive at in a second. Certainly, he
communicatescommunicatescommunicatescommunicates andandandand drillsdrillsdrillsdrills plays with his teammates well.
Nash is able to show us all three types of basketball vision on the court. Specifically,
they are:
Pre-vision:Pre-vision:Pre-vision:Pre-vision:With ample drills and communication beforehand, Nash knows where
his players will be in his mind because how they run the play is already in his mind
and he just simply needs to follow the drill.
Vision-in-action:Vision-in-action:Vision-in-action:Vision-in-action: This is an innate talent. Nash is gifted with an enigmatic
motional vision as well as peripheral vision (being able to see things clearly without
adjusting the focus towards the stimulus of interest). This gift allows him to make
final adjustments to his passing and deliver passes in unbelievable angles like a
psychic.
Envision:Envision:Envision:Envision: This comes from experience and trust in the teammates. Nash can
anticipate how far will his teammate get before he lets go of his pass. He also
believes that the teammate will be able to get there no matter what. Anticipation
and basketball sense is the key.
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