Have you ever seen a basketball player who dribbling the ball as if the ball is part of his/her body? That is the example of a good basketball player who have mastered the fundamental of dribbling.
To master the dribbling technique, many things you need to pay attention. The first thing is that dribbling is not just a physical but mentally as well. You need to make sure that you are not dribble too fast or too hard and try to defend it from your opponent. You also might use a fake move to shift your momentum to other directions to keep your opponent away from you and always anticipate about what to do next.
When you dribble the ball, try to absorb the force from the deflected ball and you will have a better control of it. You might also add some spin to the ball to give you more maneuverability. Keeping the balance between speed and control is also very important. The main thing that distinguish an excellent dribblers from the others is their capability to applying the force with different timings onto the basketball.
Here are some fundamental things about basketball dribbling which is you should keep in your mind:
Use your vision
Try to look at your opponent naturally while you also look for open players. You might also use an eye fake to confuse your opponent.
Use your body
Use every parts of your body to keep your opponent away from the ball. Use your shoulder to fake if the eye fake doesn’t work or to push your opponent which is called post-moves. Use your non-dribbling hand to keep the opponent’s hand from steal your ball without pushing him away.
Adjust the rhythm
Keep the rhythm of your dribbling constant and try to change it when you about to dribble past your opponent, take a jump shoot, or when you are about to pass the ball. The change of rhythm can confused your opponent about what you want to do next.
An excellent dribbler also combine his dribbling ability with his shooting and passing ability which make the opponent more hard to defend him.