Finishing is scoring when somebody is touching you. Most juniors can make a layup in an empty line and miss the same shot in a game, because contact arrives and they change the shot in mid air. The answer is expecting the contact, taking off from further out and using the backboard rather than aiming at the ring.
Written by Cameron James, founder and head coach at Liddicoat Basketball. Over a decade coaching junior basketball in Melbourne, including at Big V level, and rep teams from Under 12s through to Under 18s.
Last updated September 2026.
A layup in a training line is a different skill to a layup in a game, and it's worth being clear about why. In the line, the child runs in a straight path at a known speed with nobody near them and nothing to think about. In a game they're running at the ring with a defender on their hip, another one sliding across, and a decision to make about which hand to use.
What usually happens next is that the contact arrives and the child protects themselves rather than finishing the shot. They pull the ball in, they turn their shoulders away, they shorten the arm. The shot that leaves their hand isn't the one they practised, and it misses, and everyone concludes they need more layup practice. They don't. They need practice with someone touching them.
The second thing that goes wrong is where they jump from. Under pressure juniors take an extra step, get right underneath the ring, and then have nowhere to put the ball. A layup from directly under the ring is one of the hardest shots in basketball and it's the one a nervous junior takes most often.
The single most useful correction I give around the ring is to jump from further out. Taking off a stride earlier means the body is travelling toward the ring rather than up into it, the angle to the backboard opens up, and a defender arriving late runs into a player who is already past them rather than one who is stationary underneath.
It feels wrong to a young player because the ring looks further away. So practise it with a marker on the floor. Put a cone or a shoe where you want them to leave the ground and make them take off from behind it every time. Two weeks of that and the habit changes without a single word of explanation needed.
From an angle, the backboard is the most forgiving thing on the court. A shot aimed softly at the top corner of the square goes in from a much wider range of speeds and angles than a shot aimed at the ring itself. Under contact, where the shot is never going to leave the hand perfectly, that margin matters enormously.
Teach the square, not the ring. Right side, top right corner of the square. Left side, top left corner. It's a small instruction and it lifts the finishing percentage of almost every junior I've given it to, because it turns a precise shot into an approximate one.
There are two ways to finish and juniors should own both. A one foot takeoff off the run covers speed, and it's the standard layup. A two foot jump stop covers traffic, because it lets a player stop, absorb contact, stay balanced and go up strong with the ability to pivot or pass if the shot isn't there.
Most juniors only have the running one, which means when the lane is clogged they either charge into somebody or pick the ball up and freeze. Adding the jump stop finish is one of the fastest improvements available to a player who keeps getting stuck under the ring, and it takes about three sessions to become natural.
You don't need a live defender to train this. Stand beside the path to the ring and give them a nudge on the shoulder as they go past, using a pool noodle or a cushion rather than your arm. Their job is to finish the shot exactly as they would have without it. Start gentle and build.
The instruction is to go through the contact rather than around it. Strong two hands on the ball until the last moment, chin up, eyes on the square, finish high. A kid who flinches isn't soft, they're simply unfamiliar, and familiarity is the entire point of the drill.
Do it on both sides and with both hands. Most juniors have a good side and a side they avoid, and defenders at Under 14s and above work that out inside one quarter.
Parents watching their child get bumped off the ball often jump to strength as the answer. Occasionally it's, particularly for a smaller player at Under 16s. Far more often the problem is technique and timing, and the child is losing the contact because they're off balance when it arrives rather than because they're weak.
Fix the takeoff point, fix the two hands on the ball, fix the target on the backboard. If they're still getting knocked off the shot after that, then it's worth a conversation about strength, and that conversation belongs with someone who works with growing bodies for a living rather than with a basketball coach.
Not to go around the contact. Two hands on the ball, take off a stride earlier, aim at the square on the backboard, and finish the shot they were already taking.
Later. Get both hands, both takeoffs and the backboard working under contact first, because a floater is a shot you use when the normal finish is unavailable.
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There are no outside sources on this page. It is written from Cameron's own coaching, from over a decade of junior basketball in Melbourne including rep teams from Under 12s through to Under 18s. Coaching is a matter of judgement, so treat this as one experienced opinion rather than the only way to do it.
This page was last updated September 2026. Think I have this wrong? Tell me.
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