The Birth of Dribbling Five Basketballs

Three years ago, I set out to break the world record by dribbling five basketballs. For almost six months, I practiced 3 to 6 hours a day. I figured if I bounced three basketballs with one hand and two with the other, I could marry them to dibble five at a time. Logically, this was a great idea, however, it was practically impossible to implement physically. Holding five basketballs and getting the dribbling started was very difficult. After many tries, I abandoned the idea and took time off practice due to frustrations and lack of progress in my quest to dribbling five basketballs simultaneously.

Once night in April (April 8, 2000), I lay in bed thinking about the day’s practice. I remembered one, two, three, and four basketballs dribbling as I prepared for a show later in the week. My thoughts, however, seemed to revolve around a little boy who interrupted my practice that evening. The little boy picked up my basketballs and tossed them all over the court. Surprisingly, his father ignored him and he made not effort to stop the little boy or retrieve my basketballs. To avoid further confrontation with the lad, I decided to move to a new location. I carried two basketballs in each hand and kicked the fifth with my feet. At that time, this action was nothing more than an escape from distraction. I fell asleep while thinking about the next day’s practice.

Somehow in the middle of the night, it all came to me. I finally dreamt of a way to bounce five basketballs simultaneously. I could accomplish this feat by dribbling two basketballs with each hand, and the fifth with my feet. I jumped out of bed and headed straight to the computer to document the idea. That night, I set up a regiment to dribble five basketballs with my hands and feet.

Bright and early the next morning, I was on the court to test the new technique. For the first time, I was able to dribbling all five basketballs with some kind of rhythm although it was only for about two seconds. The minimum requirement to qualify as a world record is one minute. The new technique was idea for dribbling five basketballs. My next step was to set up a practice program that would eventually allow me to sustain the dribbling for one minute. Below is the program I set up to accomplish this feat.

Five Basketballs Dribbling Practice Drills

  1. One basketball feet dribbling (left, right, and alternating feet)
  2. Two basketballs left-hand and feet dribbling (left, right, and alternating feet)
  3. Two basketballs right-hand and feet dribbling (left, right, and alternating feet)
  4. Three basketballs right, left-hand, and feet dribbling (left, right, and alternating feet)

Check Your Skills

  1. Three basketballs left-hand double and feet dribbling (left, right, and alternating feet ) Three basketballs right-hand double and feet dribbling (left, right, and alternating feet)

Check Your Skills

  1. Four basketball hands and feet singles (left, right, and alternating feet x 3)
  2. Four basketballs right-hand double, left-hand and feet singles (left, right, & alt. feet)
  3. Four basketballs left-hand double, right-hand and feet singles (left, right, & alt. feet)

Check Your Skills

  1. Five basketballs left and right-hand double, feet single (left, right, and alt. feet)
I used check your skills part to practice the drill that I was having problem with in each section after each set. If I did not have any problem, I started learning the first drill from the next section.

When I started my ball-handling practice, I kept a journal for each day of practice. I had a good idea of how long it took me to learn new skills like dribbling four basketballs. When I hit a plateau practicing dribbling five basketballs, I took time off to ponder on my lack of success despite the hard work. During the break, I reviewed my journals from dribbling four basketballs and compared my progress at that point. I was surprised to notice similar results. I hit a plateau just about the same time. I also went through the same pains, headaches, and frustrations.

I also noticed that there were 23 sets of 100 repetitions between perfected skills. Perfection means developing good rhythm and coordination, which allowed me to execute the skills the same way each time. These interesting results renewed my commitment to dribbling five basketballs. I set another goal to dribbling five basketballs in six weeks. With lots of hard work, adjustments here and there, I was able to dribbling five basketballs simultaneously for one minute, thus setting a new world record in August of 2000.

I later compiled the tips that helped me dribbling four and five basketballs into a booklet entitled Success Secret through Practice. Using these tips, I was able to dribbling six basketballs in an even shorter time. I now travel around the country sharing these tips in my motivational talks on becoming a better athlete through practice. I use my amazing ball-handling skills with over 500 stunts as a testament to the success secret tips.

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