If you’re looking to improve your coordination, here are some unconventional drills you can try. They’re called the Pistol Pete Coordination Drills.
Isn’t it funny watching clumsy people play basketball? Like, they keep stepping on their feet. They can’t even run correctly, let alone dribble the ball up the court!
Well, if you agree with this, then you are a meanie. I experienced incoordination before and it’s no laughing matter. Do you know how much I had to go through as a kid? I kept tripping over things and scraping my knee.
And all the balls I took to my face because I couldn’t catch ‘em all (see what I did there).
Ugh, the bad memories…
But the good thing is you can fix incoordination. And one of the best ways is with the Pistol Pete coordination drills.
Never heard of Pistol Pete?
Pete Maravich was an NBA player who played with the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans/Utah Jazz, and the Boston Celtics.
During his career, he was able to rack up five All-Star appearances.
He was also the 1977 scoring champion, where he averaged 31.1 points per game (he achieved this before the 3-point line and shot clock were introduced to the NBA. That’s pretty impressive).
Maravich, one of the best superstars to play, ever, is considered to be the “greatest creative offensive talent in history,” according to legend John Havlicek.
But Maravich wasn’t always “Pistol Pete.”
When he was a teen, he had a massive growth spurt, which, according to himself, would normally affect a lot of kid’s coordination.
However, he was able to catch onto it early on.
And this led to him and his father creating drills to improve his hand-eye coordination and wrist strength.
The drills that Pistol Pete did were pretty unconventional. He would throw a basketball up in the air and watch it while clapping his hands as fast as he could before catching it.
Or he would bounce the ball as hard as he could on the ground between his legs. And then try to grab the ball behind him.
He believed that by doing these exercises, they would improve his reaction time and quickness (they did).
The Pistol Pete Coordination Workout
They’re pretty different, right? But these drills obviously worked for the Hall of Famer.
So, check them out in the following video:
But before grabbing your basketball and trying these drills, you should take note of a couple of things.
When doing these drills, be sure to go at your own pace. There’s no need to ego-trip. Start off slow, learn the mechanics, and increase the speed gradually.
Also, you should go for 2-3 sets of 10 reps per exercise.
By doing these drills, you’ll improve your hand-eye coordination, hand quickness, and wrist strength. This will translate to better ball handling, passing, and defence (because you’ll be able to read where the ball is going quicker).
Final Thoughts
If you’re someone who feels clunky or clumsy when playing basketball, this workout will serve you well.
Additionally, if you combine Pistol Pete’s drills with Steph Curry’s ball-handling workout, you’ll be weaving past defenders in no time. You’ll interrupt passing lanes while doing so, too.
However, the Pistol Pete Coordination Drills aren’t your standard basketball workout.
But it will improve your overall game by training something that many Average Joes neglect.
So, grab a basketball, head to a court near you, and start doing these exercises.
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P.S. If you’re struggling to improve in basketball, you may be training wrong.
This is why you need to check out my Old Man Game Activity Guides. They are convenient training systems that will help you work on your fundamentals and conditioning.
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