Layups, including the side they avoid

Why layups matter more than anything else

A layup is taken from about a metre away with no defender between the ball and the ring. In junior basketball it's comfortably the highest percentage shot available and it's the shot that decides most close games, because both teams get plenty of them and one team misses more.

Despite that, it's the shot juniors practise least, because it's less fun than shooting threes. A player who can finish reliably with both hands at twelve is ahead of most of their age group, and it takes far less work than people assume.

The footwork, which is the whole thing

Going to the right side of the ring, the takeoff is the left foot. Going to the left side, the takeoff is the right foot. Opposite foot to the hand, every time. Almost every bad junior layup traces back to taking off from the wrong foot, which leaves them under the ring with no lift and no angle.

The rhythm to teach is right, left, up when going right, and left, right, up when going left. Say it out loud with them while they do it. Juniors learn the pattern much faster from hearing the rhythm than from being told which foot, because the words carry the timing as well as the order.

The progression

Start with no dribble and no run up at all. They stand one step from the ring, step onto the correct foot, and lay it in. Ten each side. This feels remarkably basic and it's where the footwork actually gets learned, because nothing else is competing for their attention.

Then add one dribble. Then two. Then a short approach from a few metres out. Only once all of that's comfortable do you add any speed, and speed is the last thing you add rather than the first. A junior who is sprinting at the ring isn't learning footwork, they're surviving.

The left side

Every player will resist this and every player needs it. The left side layup with the left hand feels genuinely awful for a right hander at first and looks worse, which is exactly why most juniors quietly go around to their strong side forever.

Do the same progression, but do the left side first in every session while they're fresh and patient. If you leave it until the end they'll be tired, they'll do it badly, and they'll conclude they can't do it. Order matters more than volume here.

Expect the left hand layup to take a full season to look natural in a game. That's normal. The driveway version gets competent in a few weeks, but the willingness to use it when someone is chasing them takes much longer.

If you want one marker to aim at, it's this. By the time they're twelve they should be able to finish a layup on the left side, off the left foot, with the left hand, without having to think about the order. That's a realistic target for almost any kid who practises it, and it puts them ahead of most of their age group.

Using the backboard

Teach them to use the backboard from the sides. There's a corner of the painted square that the ball should hit, and using it turns a shot that has to be perfect into a shot that has a large margin for error. Straight on at the ring is the only place where the board is less useful.

A lot of juniors try to drop the ball softly over the front of the ring instead, usually copying something they've seen. It's a much harder shot and it fails under pressure. The backboard is there to make the game easier and there's no prize for not using it.