08/10/2026
People mix up SKILL and TECHNIQUE (MOVEMENT SOLUTION) all the time.
Parents do it. ✔️
Coaches do it. ✔️
Players do it. ✔️
A kid does a nice crossover.
“Wow. That kid is skilled.”
Maybe.
But most people stop right there.
They don’t ask what happened the other 9 times he had the 🏀….
Did the player keep going back to that same move?
Did they force it even when it wasn’t there?
Did it work once, but fail over and over?
That matters.
Because sometimes a player has done a move so many times in training that they get really good at doing the move.
But they never ACTUALLY learned when to use it.
So in games, they just keep forcing it.
Same move.
Same idea.
No matter what the defender is doing.
That’s technique.
The player learned the movement.
SKILL is different.
Skill is seeing what the game is giving you. 👀
Is the defender leaning? 💭
Is there space? 💭
Is the move even there? 💭
Should you drive, pass, stop, or change direction? 🤔
A skilled player doesn’t just have moves. ❌
They know when those moves make sense. ✅
That’s a big difference.
We can’t look at one nice highlight and say:
“That kid is skilled.”
We have to look deeper.
Can they read what’s happening?
Can they adjust?
Can they find the right answer instead of forcing the move they practiced 1,000 times?
That’s skill.
But that brings up another question…
How does a player actually know when the move is there?
Most of us have been taught that the brain works like this:
See something.
Think about it.
Make a decision.
Then move.
Like the brain is going through a bunch of little steps before the body does anything.
But basketball is way too fast for that. 🏀🏃💨
Tomorrow, we’re gonna talk about what’s really happening when a player sees something and reacts.
🏀
