One problem I have is that when I am open for a cut, or something like that, my teammates will give a quick and hard pass, and sometimes it will even be a no-look pass. I sometimes bobble these passes, and they get mad at me. It just seems too quick for me. How can I avoid this from happening. What drills can I do to help make me have better hands so I can easily catch the difficult pass and go up strong with it?

Mikko -

The first thing I would suggest is that you make sure that you are ALWAYS ready for a pass - keep your eye on the ball. I used to tell my players that IF the ball was a hand grenade you would sure know where its at. :-)

1- You can slap the ball as hard as you can alternating hands - 2- squeeze the ball as hard as you can alternating hands... like you are trying to palm the ball.
3- You can stand next to a wall and overhead pass the ball increasing the speed of your pass.... be a foot or so away from the wall and move back 1-2 feet as you get the hang of doing this.
4- Slam the ball on the floor with both hands in front of you and catch it as it comes back up and anything else that you can think of to strengthen your hands.

Here are a few things I found on the net.

Step 1
Find a partner and roll up a towel or grab a thick length of rope. With each person on an end, begin tugging and pulling on the towel or rope. Repeated games of this form of "tug-of-war" help strengthen the hands.

Step 2
Arrange two thick, padded grips on the pull-up bar. Grip the main portion of the pull-up bar with both hands, suspending the body off the floor. Move one hand at a time on and off the thicker pad on the bar. Aim for 3 sets of 5 minutes each.

Step 3
Attached a 10-lb. weight to the end of the wrist-hanging roller. Using both hands, roll the rope around the metal bar using the wrists and hands. As your hands gain strength, increase the weight attached to the roller. Begin by working the hands for 10 minutes, increasing the amount of time as your hands grow stronger.

Step 4
Squeeze hand grippers for a set period of time. Hand grippers are hinged to allow the user to compress the spring. Close your hand by applying different amounts of pressure to the grips. Strive for 10 minutes of hand gripper exercises each day for each hand.

Step 5
Grab two flat barbell weights (also called plates) and turn them on end. Grip the weights with a pinching motion with the thumb on one side and the remaining fingers on the other side of the weight. Lift the weight off the bench or floor, focusing on the grip of your fingers controlling the weight. Raise and lower the weights. Perform 5 minutes for each side, working up to increased plate weight and time as your hands strengthen.

Good luck and I hope these help.

Coach Sars provided some great tips there.

You may also want to add some hand-eye coordination drills.

Simply, find a brick wall and start firing passes off of it and try to catch it.

Here are some other tennis ball drills you can do as well from Alan Stein:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnD50t9mDeg

Great advice Coach Sar!!

I actually copied, pasted and printed your hand strengthening techniques for future use with my upcoming AAU season.

Thanks!!

Coach A

Hope it helps Coach A!!

One would think with all the "good" advice I come up with that I would have won a few more games. :-) Of course we all know, that if your Jimmies and Joe's are better than my Xs and 0s, you are going to win!!!

Every once in awhile I will watch an old game tape - think - how the heck did we beat them...... GREAT GAME PLAN and bottom line... we shot the 3 ball well and defended. Its amazing how good you can look as a coach when your kids are knocking down shots... regardless of the talent level.