How To Drive To The Basket In Basketball?

Drive to the basket is an extremely difficult maneuver, and a lot of people have asked how to drive to the basket in basketball.

If you are among them, then don’t worry, as we are going to discuss this topic in detail in the following article, with tips and tricks included. 

How To Drive To The Basket In Basketball

Basketball offers a variety of shots, but unless you practice them frequently, the bulk of them will be poor percentage attempts.

However, the layup is the one shot that you should always hit, so there are a number of maneuvers you may do to position yourself for a layup or other shot with a high rate of success that is difficult to stop.

Here is the step-by-step method to drive to the basket. 

• Analyze the surroundings and the situation. 
• Find a gap or opening that you can enter. There are several elements to consider here, like whether the hole is on your strong or weak hand if there is a strong or weak side defender, and many more.
• Once you’ve chosen your point of attack, you must choose a move to defeat the person protecting you. Crossover, spin, bull rush, stop and go, pump fake, and more moves are all possible. 
• To defeat your opponent, all you need to do is dribble one way, fake the other way, and quickly cross over to the other hand. Your opponent should be one to two steps behind you.
• When you dribble in one direction and rotate to trap the opponent behind your body, you should have the extra half or full stride you need.
• If you don’t practice the floater, it’s a shot with a poor percentage, but it’s also very tough to block. Your goal is to lay the ball straight in the basket without shooting for the square after you have dribbled past your guy and are 5–10 feet away from the hoop. You will go up on one foot while your other foot is out.
• The bull rush occurs when you are being guarded by either a very weak defender or a very big area that may be penetrated. You choose a side, run at full speed, and attempt to outdo your defender (this fails if your defender is stronger, quicker, or significantly taller than you).
• When you choose one side, dribble as quickly as you can to that side, and then abruptly halt, you are performing a stop-and-go. You can choose the ideal shot to score if your defender is off balance.
• When you use a pump fake, you wait for the defender to leap before attacking him when he is in the air since he cannot change direction in midair.
• If there is no weak side defender present after you have defeated your opponent, you should go straight up for the layup. If a weak side defender scoops you up, however, there are still several ways to defeat him.
• The hop step is one of the well-liked ones. Just pick up the ball and hop with it. You can only move forward until someone physically touches you, in which case it should constitute a foul. When you land, jump up again, and you should have fouled or outmuscled the defender on your weak side. If he has fouled you and you are unable to take the shot, just throw the ball up. The referee will call it, and you could also succeed.
• Even though it isn’t quite as successful, you can attempt spinning once more if you are one of the bigger players on the court. You can attempt the shot one more after you spin.
• Additionally, you may try the reverse layup, which involves going completely around the hoop and making the layup on the opposite side. If the defender leaped before you reached the opposite side, it would succeed.
• You may also attempt the reverse layup, which is going around the hoop entirely and making the layup on the other side. The defense would succeed if it jumped before you got to the other side.

Tips & Skills You Will Need

Being Unreadable

Similar to any other sport, basketball player doesn’t want their opponent to know where they are going to shoot. You may become impossible to read if you have additional weapons in your toolbox and develop into a triple threat. 

Triple threat

A triple-threat player is one who is adept at driving, shooting, and setting up their teammate.

Even if you excel in all three, you should make sure to strengthen your areas of weakness in each.

Your defender will almost always be correct if you always play to your advantage and strong side. Even the top shooters, ball handlers, and players as a whole have their go-to techniques, but it’s crucial to maintain your versatility as you play the game.

The first step should be quick

 You become readable if your first motions are excessively sluggish because you then become incredibly predictable. Let’s say you prepare to drive to the basket, but you pause a bit too long and go more slowly than you should. Every time, the defender beats you to the ball and takes it.

Imagine, though, that you had such a strong first step that you could feint in one direction while still having enough time to go past the opponent on your strong side. It affects things.

Trick steps

It might be challenging to gain space from your opponent so that you can create a route to the basket. Because of this, learning a few trick-shot maneuvers might be useful in convincing your defense to give you that chance.

You can do the euro step, which is now quite popular. The maneuver is a two-step deception in which the first step is a hefty step to the defender’s right or left to lead them to assume the attacker is moving in that direction.

The other foot moves the other way to get around the defender before completely committing to that side.

Flexibility 

Be flexible while playing basketball in terms of planning. You must be able to choose from a variety of possibilities in order to be mentally flexible.

As was already said, having a triple threat is essential for successful driving. But with all of these resources at your disposal, you must be able to switch them out at the last minute by being adaptable in your planning.

Defending 

A tight defense might give you the chance to outrun your opponent. Not only does a point guard slowly approach the middle of the court to survey his teammates and opponents, but he also makes an effort to draw out his individual defensive guard since doing so creates significant opportunities and gaps in the defense.

Passing 

Quick passes amongst your team members are another strategy to encourage your defender to approach. This will probably cause a defender to come out in an effort to intercept the ball. Once they accept the bait, profit from it.

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