The Ultimate Guide to PACE & Changing Speeds

The Ultimate Guide to PACE & Changing Speeds

One of the clearest signs of highle hoopers especially more ball dominant guards is how well they change pace so being able to slow down speed up and everything in between and then doing that in super creative ways as well as playing at a more comfortable composed speed overall this something that every

Hooper should work on and add in their game and the best part is this doesn’t have to be Kyrie level where you’re using a bunch of moves you’re beating stationary defenders in ISO situations but even in very simple situations being able to manipulate your pace is one of basketball’s most effective tools

Especially in today’s modern game so in this video I’ll talk about one all the different ways to use Pace to your advantage and then two what skills you need to develop to actually apply all this let’s get it so first let’s dive into a pretty exhaustive list of ways that you can

Change Pace to your advantage with number one being just a simple float dribble it’s basic but it’s used probably 50 plus times a game by many guards and as you float the ball and slow down here the major advantage you get is a window to read Defender so this

Starts with on ball Defenders Of course as you see all these guys letting that ball hang relaxing a bit and giving themselves a bit of time to process and make the best decision to drive shoot counter whatever and if you do this the right way you’re kind of forcing them to

Make a decision for example how Crawford buys time here the defender must make a decision to either stay up or sit back which ends up being a retreat and leaving the jump open or how Maxi makes his Defender choose to jump the screen or stay there and ends up rejecting the

Screen nicely after this float this read happens super quickly and preferably isn’t something you think about in game but as you get experience with it becomes second nature almost like a reflex and this is something you see all the time also note that this works for off ball Defenders too something we’ll

Talk about in the pick and roll portion and finally as you’re floating the ball it helps you buy some time to find a nice foot position to explode from like how Nash comfortably splits his feet mid hang here to explode out number two is lulling Defenders to sleep this can be

Slowing down to give the defender the feeling that you’re going to relax a bit and causing them to take a quick break mentally and in terms of lifting up out of their stance and then quickly going from there this can take a couple dribbles so really slowing down and

Coming to a full stop but also it doesn’t have to be a super long process like you see with shudder just kind of slowing down mid dribble here to quickly low that Defender to sleep and then exploding out but regardless if you can get Defenders to lack for even half a

Second and then catch them off guard it ends up in some of the best opportunities to blow by Defenders finally this could be lulling a Defender to sleep for a jumper by changing Pace going a bit slower and then quickly pulling from there next one and one we

Rarely talk about is changing speeds off the catch I see a lot of players who when they attack Closeouts like this go one speed fast but slowing down getting into a super composed pump fake and then speeding up from there is usually the best option to one get Defenders to

Actually fall for it and two allow them to close blows out even further to you so you have more of an advantage when you go like here if Jones goes right away this Defender has more space to work with to recover but since he slows down the defender gets closer now it’s an

Easy advantage and it helps avoid those super quick travels off the catch as well as making the jumper following the pump fake way more composed next is picking rooll where I think way too many players come off ball screens like a chicken with their head cut off rather than slowing down and

Letting plays open up so here’s the thing pick and rolls take time to develop when you come off a ball screen slowing down allows time for that big to roll which then makes it a 1 V2 for this Defender rather than a 1 V one so now

It’s much tougher for them and it’s just about making this read and while there are times to hit bigs early in their roll it’s also clutch if you slow down allow them to get deeper into their roll closer to the basket and then hit them for a dunk versus super far away then

Since the big is rolling this tag Defender will eventually have to make a decision to step over and stop them or stay home on their man which again takes a little bit of time to develop but once they make this decision it’s yet another

1v2 to exploit but if you come off at a crazy high speed this never happens plus if you have an advantage in other words your initial Defender is behind you you really have no need to rush it can feel like it because it seems like they’re chasing you but the players who play

With the best Pace are the ones who are super comfortable just keeping them in jail using positioning to stay in front and therefore playing at a pace that keeps him more in control and maintains this 5v4 advantage that they now have the same thing goes for transition too

Which is the next one like you see Lin do here rather than making it a race sometimes it’s best to slow down use positioning to keep that Defender out of it and be much more in control than just racing to the bucket and overall just smarter to take fast breaks at a slower

Pace sometimes especially once you have an advantage with your team just to make sure you’re able to see the entire floor and make composed decisions also notice how valuable changes of pace can be mid drive or in other words as you’re on that Sprint to the basket like here Nash

Is attacking his Defender is kind of with him so he quickly slows down to put his defender on his heels and now he has a much bigger Advantage it can be super subtle like this or exaggerated like this but regardless it’s a great way to throw off Defenders if you don’t have a

Huge Advantage another underrated way to use change of pace is on finishes which not only gives you better control on your touch and with contact when you slow down and attack a bit slower around the paint but is also an amazing tool to deceive Defenders we’re starting to see

A ton of usage with these slow steps recently and for good reason when you’re attacking the basket with speed and slam on the brakes it’s hard for Defenders to stop in time to contest that optimally and similar to The Hang dribble here when you slow down it also buys you time

To make the best decision and find Space lastly here is slowing down in the short zone so probably about 5 to 15 ft from the bucket once you get in this area the defense obviously tends to collapse pretty aggressively so it gives you time and control to make a pass but

Also to work out out of a pivot and scor basketball and honestly of course every player has a different style but I believe most players average speed should be lower than it is obviously going at higher speeds is valuable at time I also believe that many younger

Players especially tend to be in a rush and probably go too fast on average whereas playing at an overall slower Pace allows you to be more in control to shoot pass finish make a move whatever you’re able to see the floor better and not get tunnel vision and then actually

Have higher gears to get into when you do take off and go faster and I think we overestimate how fast we have to play to get to the bucket for some players that’s their biggest Advantage so playing a bit faster may be the way to go for the vast majority though it’s not

And it’ll be more about finding situations where you can get an advantage without making it a race and if anything using speeds creatively to beat Defenders like none of these guys are rushing or racing and they’re doing just fine getting to the tent this is

What we want to get to okay so now we have an understanding of how to use Pace to our advantage now we’ll talk about the library of skill skills you got to develop to actually put all this to use first is the ability to relax and slow

Down from a high speed which is honestly tougher than expected yes it takes being able to decelerate from high speeds raise up your level or Center of mass quickly but also almost tougher than anything it takes being able to go from a really explosive nervous system State

Into a more relaxed calm one like turning on and off a switch in your nervous system and this has to be trained and then of course the ability to get back into a higher speed from a relaxed one kind of with your first step this takes creativity with your footwork

So being able to get into these nice Shin angles from an upward stance quality of change of speed is being able to explode from like upright positions because most times if you’re slow you’re upright so being able to explode from somewhere like this is tough but it’s something to work on so

Let’s say you’re literally you’re here you’re going like split stance split stance whenever I step you’re exploding past me even if you’re in the middle of switching in a weird place you’re figuring out with your feet and go let that ball float not bad and a lot more that we could really

Dive into when we talk first step then it’s about being able to cover the whole spectrum of speeds if you’re only able to go from 0 to 100 it’s a good start but being able to go from maybe 20% speed to 70% speed to 40% speed then up

To 100% is where that next level value lies 10 80 100 80 50 10 30 then is being able to explode out of weird positions I briefly mention this footwork side of things for example here if you’re rotated if your feet aren’t set if they’re in an awkward position whatever this is super

Important to be able to capitalize on opportunities we get from leveling Defenders to sleep or going at a slower Pace Rodriguez now this is important the limiting factor in a lot of this is being able to come comfortably float the ball of course without carrying cuz you

Can be relaxed as possible but if the dribble still looks like this you won’t really be able to change Pace in the truest sense if you can’t float the ball in your hand like this cuz every dribble is like this you inherently cannot change Pace very well that that’s your

Limiting factor I’ve worked with some players who literally like every dribble move is kind of the same speed and that limits them from being able to do certain things right and this what I think although so many ball handling drills are focused on speed and that’s valuable too working on being being able

To float The Rock and slow down the dribble is just as important and then of course going between speeds and going from one to the other another control component is being able to use different hand positionings or motions to push the ball out of a float dribble so being

Able to manipulate the ball in any position is big time and it makes it possible to explode with any timing then and this is a topic for another time is making reads out of this a lot of this just comes with playing a lot and working on change of pace while you do

This with live Defenders second to last is creativity so being able to change Pace in a multitude of ways different timings positionings moves whatever this makes you crazy unpredictable and tough to pick up on defensively and last is composure which may be the most important one not getting sped up by

Aggressive Defenders or by the speed of the game and just playing at your pace a ton of players have all these tools but when it comes game time they just can’t apply it because they get sped up so working against aggressive Defenders consistently is a Surefire way to to

Develop the experience and the feel necessary for this so hopefully you have a better feel of not only how to change Pace but also a road map as to what to train so you can get to the point where you are doing this in a game consistently if you actually want a

Specific blueprint for this we have an entire library of Virtual Academy programs small guard Essentials two ball handling programs and more they’re going to help you build these tools as always thank you guys for the support see you next time your

The ability to play with pace, change speeds, and remain composed is one of the telltale signs of a high-level hooper. This is everything you need to know to get started with it!

Virtual Academy program to work on this: www.byanymeansbball.com/ubp

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