I have a 5th grade girl that has speed very quick young lady, when she steals the ball and goes for a fast break and tries to make a lay-up she misses. We work on lay-ups in practice and do several drills she knows how to do lay-ups but when she is on that fast break she's having a hard time controling her speed so she can make a lay-up. Any suggestions on how to help her with this task?

You might try telling her to come to a jump stop and then put it up.... remind her, their are a dozen eggs on the glass, put it up lightly....she has to slow down little bit as she goes into the shot...... and remember, she is in 5th grade, a lot of kids that age have trouble with shooting.

Tell her to remember, that her body is traveling fast and that the ball is traveling as fast as her body.She must slow down on that last step and go up..not forward. Slowing down on your last step allows the ball to slow down creating a softer "kiss" off the backboard.
Some kids go so fast that when the ball (which is traveling as fast as they are) hits the backboard it has too much energy and will bounce hard off backboard and the player will end up way past the baseline because his/her take-off speed pushed him/her forward.

So important that the last step of a full court speed layup is going UP..NOT going forward!!

Also make sure she is taking a good angle on these layups. Optimal angle is 45 degrees using the backboard.

Good Luck!!

Have Fun!!

Coach A

1) Practise with her to shorten her second step, that will help her to go up and not forward.
2) Also you should work on holding the ball and preparation for shot. She should have it prepared always on the same place. Kids have bad habits to make circles with ball before layup, or move it all over their body during layup. (Example: If you go for a right side layup, you should take the ball from dribble to your hip and then to your shoulder before shot, left hand should protect the ball)

In addition to these fine suggestions I would also ensure that the girls are practicing fast. My girls also have a habit of taking it easy during some drills (i.e. layups) and when it comes to a game they find that performing a basic move, such as a layup, is hard when you go full speed.

You can incorporate layup drills which encourage the girls to perform then at a full speed which will help them with their footwork, angles and shot.......in a game like environment. I would suggest incorporating a drill such as the 'Fastbreak Shooting Drill', which in highlighed in the latest newletter, and modify it so the girls are performing layups instead of shooting. Add competition and some time constraints and you will have something close to a game like situation.

Peace,

Alex

Here is a drill that we start every practice with in order to improve our full-speed layups and to warm-up...a passer (on the block) and an outlet player (free throw line extended) begin at each basket on opposite sides with remaining players lined up under one basket. Each passer begins with a ball. The drill begins with each passer simultaneously making a pass to their outlet player. These outlet players dribble full court for a lay-up. After a passer makes the pass, they become the outlet player looking for the next pass. On the end with other players lined up, the next player gets the rebound from the lay-up and becomes the passer throwing a quick outlet. On the side with no extra players the outlet player gets the own rebound following the lay-up and becomes the passer making a quick outlet pass. The speed comes because we time the drill (for us it is 3 minutes) and the team is challenged to make in certain number in the allotted time (for us it is 50).

Hope this helps.

Our teams, 6th-12th grade, all employ a great drill called the "fire drill". The concept is easy enough, but a bit tricky to simply describe. I'll focus on only one side of the floor, and extend it to the second side later. We use 2 balls simultaneously, one on each side of the floor.

To begin, as one other poster mentioned we have a player in a rebound position under the basket with a ball. There are also two lines on the sideline, appoximately the top of the key extended at each end of the court.

The rebounder outlets the ball to the nearer position on the sideline, and begins the sprint to the other end for the layup.

The receiver of the outlet makes the "look ahead" pass to the second line (key extended at the offensive end). The look ahead passer will follow his pass to the next line at the offensive end.

The receiver at the offensive end will feed the sprinting rebounder the ball for the layup, and rebound the shot.

At this point, the rebounder, who was in the second line at the offensive end, outlets the rebound to the other sideline, and the process repeats along the other sideline.

The original rebound / sprint / layup player moves to the passing line on the other side of the court.

All players will pass along one sideline, but sprint the other sideline.

We place 4 or 5 minutes on the clock and have a goal for either made layups, or made layups minus missed layups. Our Jr hi girls, including 6th grade can make 35 or more in 4 minutes, and the HS boys pass 100 makes in 5.

Having a goal forces speed, and repetition breeds accuracy.

We are a small school, and fortunate to have ample time daily for each of our teams, across 2 full sized gyms, so the time allotted is well spent.

This drill has the added positive effect of teaching kids to look to move the ball via the pass before putting it on the floor with the dribble, and teaches passers to hit a moving target.

We ran something similar to this called the Perfection Six.... there are 5 other things that you can add to this drill to simulate game conditions and get other types of shots etc. Great drill