Left Hand Layup-worth the time?

I coach kids from grades 2 to 5. I currently make all of my players use their left hands to shoot left side layups. I have often wondered if this is worth my players' time. I have yet to have a player make a left handed layup in a game- although a third grader on my team almost made one the other day. I tried to celebrate his effort even though it cost us two points! I watched opposing fifth grade teams do layup drills during warmups. The vast majority of opposing players shoot the left side layup with their right hand- even in warmups. The opposing coaches don't seem to correct the error in shooting form. To get kids to shoot left handed layups properly, it takes a considerable amount of practice time. I have also noticed that there are skilled high school, college, and even pro players who do not use their off hand for shooting. Any chance I am wasting time focusing on this skill?
Great website!
Tom

Absolutely! 100% worth the time!! In fact, encourage the kids to work on their weak hands when they practice on their own. Not just lay-ups, but dribbling. Two ball dribbling drills are great for that. I understand you have limited practice time, but I would work on the weak hand at least 5-8 minutes each practice. The players that can use both their hands while shooting around the basket and can dribble equally with either hand are gold.

Obviously, it would depend on the age group how much time you spend. Second and third graders are still working on making a basic lay-up with the proper form and dribbling in general with their strong hand. Fourth and fifth should start working on their weak hands more.

I agree with coach Rob. It's definitely worth the time. We have our players do form shooting with their left hand too. Catch tennis ball with left. Catch a small basketball with one band and pass back.

This is developing strength and coordination in their non dominant hand. Something as simple as spending 2 minutes a day trying to shoot with your let develops strength that pays huge dividends in middle school, high school, and beyond.

The measure of a great youth coach is not how many games they win. That means nothing. It's about the positive impact and the development that coach is able to do. Youth coaches can measure their success by checking up on those kids in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, and beyond.

When working with my 2nd grade daughters team, we did things like balance, catching with our weak hand, dribbling with weak hand, coordination, fundamental movement skills, and all kinds of things that did absolutely ZERO for them in games this year. Some of those things will probably do ZERO for next year and the year after. But as they approach middle school and high school, the skills, coordination, and athletic traits we're developing will be huge dividends.

Studies show that coordination is best developed between ages of 5-12. Don't miss that opportunity.

Kids might not need a left hand now, but when in high school when the defense is really good, I'll tell you our good players use both their left and right hands at different times to finish in the lane. Not having that strong left only holds you back and limits your options.

Also, at the high school and higher levels, we teach players to jump off the incorrect foot and use their left hand on the right side to get to the basket quicker (Steve Nash quick jump with inside hand to get the ball on the backboard before it gets blocked). Sometimes jumping off the incorrect foot allows you to reduce strides needed to get to the basket and makes you quicker.

Nothing to add to Jeff's and Coach Rob's post.... as a high school coach we always taught our players to use their left hand.... dribbling,shooting and passing. Anything that you can come up with to help your players use their non dominant hand will help them in the future.

Forgot where I heard this... and this is for all of us but certainly will help the kids too.... brush your teeth with your non dominant hand... do as many things as use can with that hand.. good for eye hand coordination / brain stimulation?

I see a lof of coaches today teaching a JUMP STOP lay up....... I've seen varsity kids miss this too.

All of my 8th grade players make lay-ups in games with both hands.

Ask my kid who hit on non-dominant hand layup to put his team ahead with 30 seconds to go if it was "worth the time." (Unfortunately he ended up missing the game winning shot, a 15 foot jumper which just rimmed out.) I think he would say yes.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Good luck.

Thanks for the prompt responses! Looks like I will be sticking with the off-hand work. This website is amazing.
Tom

bameath wrote:Looks like I will be sticking with the off-hand work.

Smart choice. Already been said, but you'll have to be the coach that allows kids to try it in games when the opportunity presents itself, make or miss. Praise them anytime they try it in practice or a game.

You will never go wrong when you teach solid fundamentals!

I seem to be out of step with everybody else and although I'm not as qualified as Jeff, Coach Sar, and Coach Rob, having recently coached year 3, 4 and 5 basketballers, I believe that teaching layups with the non preferred hand is an absolute waste of time, except in the case of challengnig your very good ball handlers.

Before you all drown me out with your howls of derission, let me state my case. Teaching kids to dribble and pass using their non preferred hand is an important and worthwhile exercise and I would definitely devote trainnig time to doing that to improve and advance their skills. I don't think it's useful to have them trying to learn to make a layup with their non preferred hand when they would be lucky to make 10-20% of layups with their preferred hand. Looking at it another way - until you can consistently make a layup (perhaps 75-80% of the time) why would you try to make things harder by attempting the exercise with your wrong hand? I'm sure that you wouldn't routinely have kids of this age trying to shoot with their wrong hand, so I don't see why you would practice layups with the wrong hand.

Definitely, practice layups from both sides of the court but, unless the player is an excellent ballhandler, I doubt that it's worth teaching them to use their wrong hand when laying up on the non preferred side. If their approach to the basket is correct, a layup using the preferred hand, even if it's further from the backboard, will still be a far supperior shot than trying to layup with the 'correct' hand if it's their non preferred hand.

As Doug Bigelow says and shows, layups are quite a difficult skill for kids of this age because of their lack of height, strength and fine motor skills so I don't see the point in teaching a non preferred hand layup to all but an exceptional ballhandler. I didn't even practice layups with the preferred hand much because I found that players of this age (both mine and opposing teams) score a much higher % of shots when they make the shot from good position within their 'comfortable shooting range' than when attempting a layup. During games I stressed the importance of 'going with' the player running in for the layup and it was amazing how many times the layup missed but the team mate following picked up the rebound for a score.

Sorry for the desenting view but I WOULDN'T practice non preferred handed layups. Concentrate on strengthening the players passing and dribbling with both hands and learning to shoot from close in to maximise their chances of scoring. KISS principle - work on the simple things and have the kids doing them well then as they grow older, bigger and stronger they can start working on the more difficult skills.

Coach -

First of all, God Bless you for working with this age group, it has to be difficult to say the least....

This takes a lot of patience and a good plan as to how you are going to bring them along. Just like I did when I coached varsity ball and met with my lower level coaches to make sure that we were all on the same page.

While you are certainly entitled to your opinion.... I will have to respectfully disagree. Although I have seen many coaches go to a jump stop for lay ups.. they are still shooting with their non dominant hand.

Will it be difficult? Of course, just like dribbling and passing with the off hand. You don't have to spend a lot of time on this skill but IF I were you I would at least introduce it so that when they get to the next level they will understand the concepts.

Shooting at this age is difficult because they are using the big ball and shooting at 10' baskets.

I used to hold a shooting camp every summer for all age groups, both boys and girls. Some of the things we did -
1- Passing drills - chest pass, bounce pass, step out pass with proper hand both ways, crossover, step out an pass with proper hand both ways, even the over the head pass which I disliked. We introduced shooting form here too... (all these drills, the kids were 15' apart) Shooting straight out to your partner, then shooting with an arc.
2- Dribbling drills straight line, crossover, between the legs, behind the back etc. ( Yes, this was hard for the younger kids, but I was giving them the opportunity to learn the skills ) We could go side to side, jump stop, reverse pivot into a triple threat, shot fake and pass fake.
3- Beef Check
4- Mikan drill.... ( tough for the younger kids but they tried... teaches proper footwork and correct hand )
5- X out drill.... same thing as above, mini lay ups so to speak.
6- Free throws.... ( younger kids were allowed to move up )

This was the basics of every day work outs. We added other things as the days progressed... but I think you are getting the idea. We had some young kids in these camps, yes, some as young as the kids you are working with, they learned the proper footwork and which hand to shoot the ball with. In games, I am sure they will revert back to some bad habits for awhile... but by the end of the camp, I hoped that we had broken some bad habits and taught proper fundamentals.

What was the common goal here? To teach fundamentals and not worry about Ws and Ls As coaches we try to do the best we can with the time allotted to us. Good luck

Scumming, thanks for the adding to the conversation. Those are good points and worth thinking about.

When I was back in my playing days, we had a scrimmage against a local team where the head coach had won like 500+ games at the high school level. Well, in the scrimmage, one his players went up for a lay up on the left side and shot with his left hand. I think he even made it. Well, the coach stopped play and went nuts. He goes.... "Are you telling me that you're going to shoot that shot with your weak hand if you are down by 1 point and the game is on the line?!!?? I guarantee you are not! Use the hand that you can make the most shots with!"

Because I had been taught for such a long time to use left hand on the left side and right hand on the right side, I was pretty confused at the moment.

My philosophy is to practice both hands and do what you're comfortable with in games.

Back to your point about not being worth the time at the younger levels, I could see why you would say that. My practice of shooting in general has decreased over time with younger levels, because I think I can make more progress with teaching ball handling, passing, defense, and basic offensive concepts. However, I will still spend a little time every practice teaching it. But when they reach about 6th or 7th grade, we spend proportionally more time on shooting and lay ups. And I do teach both hands.

Another thing to think about is improvement to the opposite limb. I was talking to a doctor, he knew I was a coach. He told me that he was recently looking at Multiple Sclerosis study that showed that work on one side of the body actually improved function on the other side of the body. Meaning by working on the left side, it actually improve right side function as well. He told me that if he coached a team that he would have shooters practice with their weak hand because he believed it would improve their overall shooting with their strong hand. However, I've had trouble locating this study personally. I need to ask him again.

Also, have you ever watched Eli Manning or Peyton Manning warm up before a game? If you have, you'll see them throwing a lot of passes with their opposite hand. Why is this? From what I've been told from my athletic development colleagues (PTs, Strength coaches, athletic trainers, etc.) is that helps reduce injuries by keeping muscles balanced. Right side doesn't overpower the left side and cause muscle imbalances which eventually lead to injury. Another thing they mentioned is that they believed it actually improves function in the opposite side as well.

I haven't had the guts to do it yet, but I want to do a study of shooting routines. One routine where every shot is taken with the strong hand. Another routine where the shots are split 50/50 with each hand. Measure the results and see who improves the most with their strong hand.

That is great information Joe! I have never heard of this before and certainly never looked at it that way.

I like it!

The OP mentioned they worked with 2nd - 5th graders. I still stand by my original thought below:

Coach Rob wrote:Obviously, it would depend on the age group how much time you spend. Second and third graders are still working on making a basic lay-up with the proper form and dribbling in general with their strong hand. Fourth and fifth should start working on their weak hands more.

I can see your point though, especially if you're dealing with 2nd/3rd graders. Most of them still shoot everything with both hands, so working on the weak hand lay-ups is kind of a moot point at that age. I worked with a group of 3rd grade girls recently and a regular lay-up was a big challenge.

At the 4th/5th level, I think kids need more exposure to using their weak hand. As far as lay-ups, I'd make them do it, but only for a few minutes in practice. I really don't care if they make it, I just want them to try. You'll have different skill levels, so some may not even be able to attempt it. Same with dribbling with their weak hand. They'll lose the ball and it looks ugly most of the time, again, I just want them to try and be aware of their weak hand. I wouldn't get all serious about this weak hand stuff at the 4th/5th level, but I'd challenge them to dribble with two balls at home and remind them that good players can use either hand.

At the 7th/8th grade competitive level, I see way too many players who can't make a weak hand lay-up. I also see players that aren't comfortable dribbling with their weak hand or still shoot with both hands. You run into more of what Joe described with the W's and L's taking more of a front seat, so kids are less apt to try working on their weak hand at that point.

You never know which rec kids will go down the more competitive path in basketball. Knowing what I know now, I would've challenged my own son to start working on his weak hand a lot earlier.

I wouldn't disagree with what the far more experienced coaches have said here. Coach Rob probably captured what I was thinkng when he said "I'd make them do it, but only for a few minutes in practice. I really don't care if they make it, I just want them to try."

I'm not against havnig the kids try left hand layups but Joe probably said it best - " practice both hands and do what you're comfortable with in games."

I'd devote a lot more time to havnig kids dribble with their non preferred hand, which will make them a much better player, than I would on layups with the 'wrong hand', which makes them a slightly better player. I think that they'll get far more 'bang for their buck' by being able to dribble on both sides than being able to make a left handed layup.

At this level, if I had a player who could make even 40% of their layups but only used the one hand to do it I wouldn't be too fussed and I'm sure that they would be pretty happy scoring that regularly too. Once players start to get 'better', that's when I'd start to push them harder to do the finese things like using the correct hand for layups.

On the other hand, if I had Trick shot Titus the 2 year old wonderboy in my squad I'd have him practicing his layups and shooting blindfolded! Perhaps Titus has shown us the new 'shooting form' that we should be teaching kids.

What we want to do is have them practice things like this.... left handed lay ups for one, but it games, we all know that they are going to do what is comfortable for them. But, we still keep working on their fundamentals in practice.

The younger the kid, the more they will rely on the easy way, but, IF by the end of the season they can do certain things they couldn't do on day one.... we have been successful. This goes for HS kids too.

The game and the season is a Journey.... not a destination. Its up to us as coaches to guide them along this journey.

As coaches, we work on things to the best of our abilities... and the players will do likewise.