What do you do when you catch the ball with no advantage over your defender? How do you create an opening?

Only a couple players in the world (Luka, James Harden, Jalen Brunson) have the green light to dribble the ball as many times as they want to find an advantage. Chances are, you don’t have that freedom.

What you need is a dribble move that you can use quickly to produce a scoring opportunity.

Enter the skate dribble. It's a subtle yet incredibly effective move that allows you to control tempo, freeze defenders, and attack with precision.

In this post, you’ll see video of Breakthrough Basketball Camps Instructor Kenton Tennal breaking down:

• What the skate dribble is

• How toexecute it with proper footwork and timing

• How toread the defender's reaction

• How to use it in 1-on-1 situations to score more efficiently

Whether you're a guard or a coach helping players improve their isolation skills, this guide will elevate your understanding and use of the skate dribble.

What Does Skating In Basketball Mean?

Skating is something you do on ice, right? Well, yes, but not just there.

In basketball, skating is a lateral dribble accompanied by lateral movement. The dribble can take the form of a lateral dribble, a crossover, a between the legs dribble, or a behind the back.

The goal of the skate dribble is to make your defender shift. From there you make a read.

The beauty of the skate dribble is how simple the reads are.

When you shift laterally, 1 of 3 things happens:

• Straight Line Attack - Your defender doesn’t react quickly enough and is no longer in front of you. In that case, you push out and attack the rim.

• Counter Dribble - Your defender does fully react and gets back in front or even moves too far in the direction you skated. In that case, you use a counter dribble and go back the direction you came from.

• Shoot - Your defender slides over but gives space. In that case, you shoot the ball.

How To Practice The Skate Dribble

If your initial skate dribble doesn’t produce an advantage, you can skate back the way you came from or make a 2nd skate in the same direction. Often, consecutive skate dribbles results in a defensive miscue.

When you practice this, try different combinations of moves.

• Skate, skate, shot - 2 skate dribbles in the same direction followed by getting into your shooting position.

• Skate, skate, cross, shot ready - the same as above but add a crossover back the original direction after the 2nd skate dribble.

• Skate, between, 1 dribble pullup - this simulates a defender who overreacts to the skate. As a result, you go between the legs and attack towards the side you started on.

  You can first practice this without a hoop to master the dribbling and footwork aspects of the move.

  You can then add the hoop and go up into a pullup jumper after a skate plus a change of direction move.

• Skates to shot - make 2 skate dribbles (1 each direction), then go right up into your shot.

An Important Shoulder Tip To Improve Shooting

One common mistake players make is turning their shoulder when skating. That makes it difficult to shoot off the skate. It also makes it hard to counter back towards the original starting point.

You want to keep your shoulders square to the hoop when skating.

Skate 1v1: Put Your Defender On “Skates,” Too!

To master the skate dribble and its reads, you need to use it against defense.

Skate 1v1 is a great way to do that.

• Start from any location, 3 point line or in.

• Play 1v1.

• The only constraint is the offense has to start with 2 skate dribbles.

This is a great way to get game reps reading the defense and making the appropriate response!

Skate, Read, Score With Breakthrough Basketball Camps!

The skate dribble works because it’s a simple move with simple reads.

And the truth is, it’s the simple moves that produce the best results.

Use the progression above and watch your 1v1 game improve!

To develop more moves, skills, and other great ways to score, check out our Breakthrough Basketball Camps!

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