Every basketball player wants to improve fast—but the question always comes up: Should I train alone, or should I spend more time with the team?
According to former NBA guard AJ Price, the answer isn’t one or the other. The secret lies in understanding what each style of training gives you, and how to use both to become a complete athlete.

Some players rely only on team practice, assuming games and scrimmages will naturally help them get better. Others spend hours alone in the gym dribbling, shooting, and lifting. Both groups end up plateauing. The players who grow the fastest are the ones who know how to combine skill work with real game experience.

This blog breaks down the strengths of each training approach and how AJ blends both to build basketball players who are sharp, confident, and game-ready.

Individual Training: Where Players Build Their Skillset

Individual basketball training is like going to the workshop—this is where you build your tools. You get more touches, more repetitions, and more correction. No waiting in line. No sharing the ball. No stopping the drill because someone else isn’t paying attention.

AJ Price often tells players, “When you want to get really good at something, you need time alone with it.”
That goes for shooting, ball-handling, finishing, footwork, and balance.

Why Individual Work Helps You Improve Faster

1. More Repetition, Less Distraction
In a 60-minute team practice, a player may only get 10–20 shots in structured sets. In a 60-minute individual session, that same player can get 200–400 quality reps. The difference is huge.

2. Fixing Personal Weaknesses
Team practice can’t stop for 15 minutes to correct your off-hand dribble or your shooting release. Solo training allows for slow, controlled reps that build long-term muscle memory.

3. Better Ball Control & Decision Confidence
Players who train alone often become smoother ball-handlers and more confident shooters because they’ve spent hours refining the fundamentals.

4. Creative Skill Development
Alone with a trainer, players can explore:

• Combo moves
• Footwork variations
• Floaters and finishes
• Pick-and-roll reads
  This freedom helps guards and wings become more unpredictable and polished.

Individual training is the fastest way to sharpen pure basketball skills. But skills alone don’t win games—that’s where team practice comes in.

Team Training: Where Skills Turn Into Real Game Impact

Team practice teaches what individual training cannot—how to play the game with people. Spacing, timing, rotations, screening angles, communication, and tempo are all things that require a group.

AJ Price developed his basketball IQ not just through individual workouts, but through film sessions, scrimmages, team systems, and real-game reps overseas and in the NBA.

Why Team Training Is Essential for Real Improvement

1. Learning Spacing and Movement
Basketball is played in a five-man system. A player may have great handles, but if they don’t understand spacing or when to cut, their ability becomes limited.

2. Developing Chemistry
Passing, screening, communicating, and trusting teammates all come from shared practice time.

3. Situational Awareness
Team sessions teach players how to react when:

• Defenders trap
• Screens are switched
• Help defence collapses
• Transition opportunities appear

You can’t simulate these moments alone.

4. Accountability & Coaching Feedback
Team practices include structured systems. Coaches stop drills, correct mistakes, and guide players through real game decisions. That feedback is crucial for growth.

While individual training builds your tools, team training teaches you how and when to use them.

AJ Price’s Balanced Approach: The Best of Both Worlds

AJ strongly believes that players should never rely on just one type of training. Great athletes combine both to get the best results. His development system blends:

• 3–4 individual skill sessions per week
• 2–3 team practices or scrimmages
• 1 film study day
• 1 conditioning or recovery day

This consistency creates players who are sharp enough to perform individual skills and smart enough to apply them under pressure.

Why the Combination Works

Individual Training improves:

• Mechanics
• Confidence
• Ball-handling
• Shooting consistency
• Footwork & balance

Team Training improves:

• IQ
• Communication
• Defensive instincts
• Game-speed decisions
• System understanding

When both are used together, a player becomes unstoppable.

So… Which One Helps Players Improve Faster?

The honest answer is: both improve players fast—but only in different ways.

If you only train individually, you become a great workout player who might struggle in real games.
If you only train with a team, you become predictable and lack advanced skills.

The fastest improvement comes from individual skill development combined with team-based game learning.

That’s why AJ Price’s players look comfortable on the court—they’ve put in the personal work, and they’ve learned how to integrate those skills into actual game situations.

Final Takeaway for Players at Any Level

If you want to grow as fast as possible:

• Spend time alone mastering your fundamentals.
• Spend time with your team learning spacing, timing, and communication.
• Study film to understand the game deeper.
• Combine everything into a consistent routine.

The players who climb the ladder fastest aren’t the ones who only rely on team practice or only grind alone—they’re the ones who train smart, train consistently, and train with purpose.