August 4, 2021

In today’s newsletter…

• Layups - 3 Common Drill Errors Causing More Missed Shots!

---

Layups - 3 Common Drill Errors Causing More Missed Shots!

- By Joe Haefner

Audience: Players, Coaches, Parents
Ages: Youth, High School, College, Pros

Missing layups can be one of the most frustrating things in the game of basketball!

But what if I told you that the reason you’re missing layups in your games could be the way that you’re practicing…

We’re going to cover the three of the most common workout mistakes that players & coaches make with their drills when practicing layups.

1 - Only practicing the traditional layup.

Everybody knows the traditional layup. This is where you jump off your left leg and shoot with your right hand or you jump off your right leg and shoot with your left hand.

Well, here is where this creates a problem.

What if you’re sprinting down the court for a wide open layup and you have a trailing defender closing fast....

You’re on the right side of the basket.

Do you take an extra step, so you can jump off the left leg?

Absolutely not! This will give the defense more time to close on you and disrupt your shot.

Or what if you’re getting ready to jump off your right leg and there is a helpside defender closing hard from the left, do you still shoot with your left hand?

No! This gives the defense a better chance to block your shot and eliminate an easy scoring opportunity.

You need to be able to jump quickly off either foot and shoot with either hand at any time!

You should be able to shoot with any combination of:

• Right leg - right hand
• Right leg - left hand
• Left leg - right hand
• Left leg - left hand

This makes you a threat to shoot and score from anywhere when attacking the basket.

And it makes you that much more unpredictable which wreaks havoc on shot-blockers ability to time your shots.

Even if the defense adjusts and keys on you, you’re still super valuable to your team and your coach. When the defense collapses on you, more of your teammates will be open.

2 - Practicing from the perfect angle and same distance

Traditional workout drills approach the basket from the same angle and same distance… whether it’s approaching the basket from the perfect 45 degree angle from half court or the 3-point line.

But how often does that happen during games? How often do you have this perfect situation occur?

Hardly ever!

And this is a big reason that players miss layups during games… They don’t practice shooting from all angles and various distances.

If you want to be able to make more layups during the game, you need to practice shooting from all angles and from various distances when attacking the hoop!

3 - Most drills lack defenders

The game is played against defenders. So if you want to get better at shooting layups against defenders, you need to incorporate drills that include defenders!

It also gives you immediate feedback on what works and what doesn’t. That way, at your next workout, you immediately know what you need to practice.

Imagine working on a specific scoring move all summer without feedback from different defenders.

Then when the season starts, you fail miserably because you don’t know what works and what doesn’t. All of that time wasted because you didn’t practice against live defenders.

And even worse, maybe you even formed some bad habits that will take awhile to fix!

So start incorporating defenders right away in your drills so you know how to score against real defense.

1v1 drills are a great start for this.

Then you can progress to 1v2, 2v2, and even 3v3 drills when you can.

That way, you get used to finishing against help defenders. You also get better on passing when the defense collapses on you and takes away your scoring opportunity.

The Next Level Finishing Moves is a great resource that teaches you how to increase your scoring around the basket.

This can easily increase your scoring by 50% if you weren’t making as many layups as you should.

In addition to teaching you highly effective finishing moves, this video includes 20 of the best 1v1 layup drills that you can use to become an elite level finisher and scorer around the basket.

All the Best,

Joe Haefner
Breakthrough Basketball