How to Make A Perfect Layup In Basketball

Learn to make a great layup to improve your basketball game.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Basketball court
• basketball
• you

1. Depending on your height and/or leg span, you will have to find what distance is best for you to start your layup from. For this article, I will give a general distance and explain a right handed layup, so for the lefty layup just do everything with the opposite hand and foot. You should learn to do both sides equally well, as it will help with your game. For straight down the middle layups, use your stronger side or use the side that is furthest from your defender.

2. 

   From the 3 point arc, dribble up to about half way between the foul line and the basket. Dribble up at an angle going towards the basket from the right side of the basket.

3. Your last dribble should go down as your left foot goes down when you are about half way between the basket and the foul line. When your last dribble comes back up to you, pick it up as your right foot now steps down.

4. 

   Now take a step with your left foot (while holding the ball) and jump off of it up towards the basket the point between the front of the basket to the side of the basket (at an angle). When you jump up off the left foot, the right leg should bend upwards towards your body as the right arm (shooting arm) extends the ball up towards the basket. You can roll it in but flipping it up towards the basket at an angle so that it will bounce off of the backboard into the basket. Your hand will be underneath the ball as you flick it up from the bottom of the ball. OR you can hold the ball in shooting position, and use your regular shooting form to toss it up against the backboard at an angle that will bounce it into the basket. Your hand will be slightly in front and under the ball and look more like a regular shot with your hand ending up pointing more towards the target area of the backboard.

5. You must practice the footwork. It takes coordination to get the steps and shooting movements to flow in a smooth rythym for a perfect layup. It should be one continuous, fluid movement. Depending on how fast you are coming towards the basket, you must learn to adjust the strength of the shot. The faster you are moving towards the basket, the softer the shot must be or it will just ricochet right off the backboard. Once you perfect this move, it is pretty unstoppable without the defenders having to foul you. Good Luck.

Tips & Warnings

• PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Once you have this move down really well on both sides of the basket, you can start adding some special touches to create more moves that will be hard to defend. You can throw in some head fakes, some layup fakes that will end in a jump shot when the defender thinks you are going in for a layup, etc. You can see which way works best for you to lay it in (the under the ball roll in or the more regular shot layup.)

Resources

• Set A Pick In Basketball
• Play 21 Or Straight Up In Basketball
• Shoot A Free Throw (Foul Shot) In Basketball