Imagine this for a moment…
You are playing in a basketball game and become stuck with the ball after dribbling. How can you move? Well, you cannot move by dribbling the ball or shuffling your feet around or else the referee will call a traveling violation on you.
However, players can pivot when holding onto the ball. Players pivot while in possession of the ball to move in any direction while still keeping the pivot foot still on the floor. The only way to move your pivot foot is to keep it on your toes to pivot around.
As you can see in the video, you can perform a front pivot or reverse pivot. To identify which foot is your pivot foot, consider which foot moves first once you hold onto the ball. You will be allowed to move that foot around while your opposite foot will be your pivot foot.
When you pivot, you want to stick your elbows out to gain more resistance against a defensive player trying to steal the ball away from you. When you pivot around, protect the ball and keep it away from your defensive player.
Also, you can rip through while you pivot. Ripping through means to swing your arms from one direction to the other to make it harder on the defensive player to steal the ball away from you.
When you rip through, you must keep the ball down, which will help keep your elbows down also. If you rip through with your elbows at the height around your head, your elbow will most likely knock your opponent down after hitting his or her face, resulting in an offensive foul or even a flagrant foul.
Executing the pivot technique will help result in less traveling violations against you and the rest of your team.
If you would like to master the pivot technique along with other fundamental basketball moves that will make you a better basketball player, please join and sign up for our Weekly Training Basketball Academy.
