My GREAT Basketball Discovery: The Closed Hand

I was playing at the local rec against some some early 20 year olds, a kid who was headed to AAU at the age of 14. Guess who was the most dominant player on the court. That's right the 14 year old. Now my basketball skills have demonished due to lack of play, but the two skills I can constantly improve on: my shooting and my defense. Shooting is a skill is simply reptitive motion that trains your muscle memory to put the ball in the basket. While defense used to be an ability to control the body, using one's own body, now you must use your mind.

So while guarding the slightly younger players (I'm 25 years old), I reverted to illegal faceguarding. But then it hit me. When you're face guarding or sticking a hand in a shooter's face, it never really works. Why? I discovered this while walking home. Its simple, your fingers are open. Try this out, look at your TV and place your hand about seven inches from your face, with your fingers spread open. You can see right? Now close your fingers, it makes it much more difficult to see. The change occurs because nature gave us two eyes, that can see around tiny objects, like window blinds, but when they are closed you simply can't see around them. Imagine trying to locate a basketball rim from 15 ft from the basket with a closed hand in front of you. It makes the shot much more difficult. If you can't get your full hand in their face, at the very least try to get your palm in there.

In my effort to spread workouts, drills, and in-game techniques, I won't be surprised to see this now adopted in the league.