Your 29, your best balling years are behind you... But honestly just keep playing and you will get your touch back.

When I say "hoping my best balling years aren't behind me", I do say that knowing that the next 15 aren't going to be as good as the last 15 (Yes I plan to be the old guy at 45 still on court if I can). But what I am trying for is to atleast regain most of the skill I had, even if I am not quite as explosive. If I can be 75% or so of what I was, I would be pretty happy.

I'm feeling you. Similar situation - stopped playing in my early 20s now getting back into it in my early 30s.

All I can say is, yeah, I sucked for the first few months back, but it's coming back together...slowly.

Ball handling in traffic driving to the rack takes re-learning. Shooting... had to totally go back to basics and spend a lot of time shooting around by myself to get some confidence and rhythm.

Recommendations:
Youtube the shit out of shooting, finishing and ball handling drills AND spend the time doing them.
Don't be afraid to turn the ball over trying to drive to the rack - just go for it - you need to keep trying and practicing to get better. Make sure your shot is automatic - don't hesitate if you're open, just jack it up - remember, no one's kitten dies if you miss, I promise.

If you're in Brisbane, let me know, I could use a partner for individual skills training.

Keep ballin'!!!

Yeah I came back last year at the age of 35 after 10 years off. Not easy.

I was never that good to begin with, but it took a good few months of playing a couple times a week and shooting around a regularly by myself to get anything approaching my old game back.

And yeah the biggest thing is seeing something happen and noticing that you're not reacting like you used to.

The most important thing I found was the need to stretch properly oh so much.

I'm in the same position - granted i only had 2/3 years off fully. You're spot on - at the start i had that same frustrated mentality..frustrated that i knew i could do it and used to be able to do it.

My advice would be start small. Don't go straight into shooting 3s etc.

Spend the next few weeks only shooting from within the key - one hand, form shooting. Do basic dribbling drills, wraps, figure 8's etc. Do basic footwork stuff like jumpstops, pivoting etc.

I did that and gradually worked up from there. After a while everything came back together - shooting touch, footwork, dribbling touch

It's not so much the shooting as it is reading and reacting to situations on court and a lot of the moves I used to have. If I am open I am still fairly accurate with my shot - not as deadly as I was at the moment, though.

I pulled a few moves to the basket last night which seemed to be slight improvements on what I would have pulled the months prior, so that's a plus. There are small improvements but I want to kind of push this momentum forward a bit quicker.

A player conscious of their own shortcomings will find no critic bigger than their own self review.

Why did you return to the court? If the answer is because you love to be in the game then stop analyzing so much and embrace the fact you have the opportunity to be ballin again.

Yeah, I love the game. It is why I came back. But at some point you want to play well. The euphoria of being on the court again has faded and now I want wins, results and improvement from myself to get the full level of enjoyment out of it.