I enjoy reading this type of information as it is based on objective thinking and unbiased evaluation. I think it exposes the difference between what is traditionally accepted as correct when teaching basketball verses what actually occurs when good players play real basketball.
I have to disagree to an extent. In my experience, most of my players do goofy foot layups from their left/weak Hand side. Strong hand is classic left foot/right hand without much (if any) explanation at all. And they struggle with it. Getting them to do a right foot/left hand layup basically immediately skyrockets their ability to put the ball into the basket from their weaker side. What looked stiff as a tree before, looks easy and smoother after that one “simple” change. I’m not against odd foot layups at all, sometimes you simply gotta do them. But as a coach I need to help them opening the door towards jumping off their right foot for a left hand layup. a) so they can score easier and b) have both options.
Your experience is your experience. I just know I worked with hundreds of players every summer for several years when starting out, and we spent an inordinate amount of time correcting goofy foot layups because they were "wrong". I agree players should have multiple options. I just do not see one as right and one as wrong or one as indisputably needing to master first before moving to the next.
I would never call goofy foot layups “wrong” (heck, I haven’t read Crossover, 180 Shooter, 21st Century, Fake Fundamentals 1 & 2, SABA and NADA for nothing…😉), I just think, like I wrote, that I observed 2 things:
- normal, non-professional players seem to score easier and smoother executing a regular foot layup
- I have had many players to whom I never really demonstrated the “proper” layup footwork. I let them figure it out during 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 games for the most part. Result: regular foot layups with the right hand 95% of the time. 10-20% with the left hand. And now that I think about it, and if my memory doesn’t completely betray me, the vast majority of those who in the end were satisfyingly ambidextrous during games, were those who had (also) mastered the non-goofy foot layup with their weak hands…
Greetings from Germany (come to think of it, Franz Wagner is pretty awesome with the goofy foot layup 👌😎)!
Has anybody ever articulated why the “traditional” layup is the first thing we teach or why we have to teach it? Does it have to do maybe with the ability to get more extension towards the hoop if you jump off the opposite foot?
Also, and this is just curiosity, but why isn’t it also a contra-lateral movement to jump off of you left foot and shoot with your right?
Typically, people say it is for balance, which I have a hard time believing, and then for extension, as you say.
If you look at basic throwing, children generally start with a right foot step and right arm throw and eventually move to a left foot step and right arm throw. From that perspective, again the goofy foot layup makes sense as the initial layup, which we tend to see, with a progression to traditional layup, which potentially we rush to accomplish.
I enjoy reading this type of information as it is based on objective thinking and unbiased evaluation. I think it exposes the difference between what is traditionally accepted as correct when teaching basketball verses what actually occurs when good players play real basketball.
Appreciate that.
I have to disagree to an extent. In my experience, most of my players do goofy foot layups from their left/weak Hand side. Strong hand is classic left foot/right hand without much (if any) explanation at all. And they struggle with it. Getting them to do a right foot/left hand layup basically immediately skyrockets their ability to put the ball into the basket from their weaker side. What looked stiff as a tree before, looks easy and smoother after that one “simple” change. I’m not against odd foot layups at all, sometimes you simply gotta do them. But as a coach I need to help them opening the door towards jumping off their right foot for a left hand layup. a) so they can score easier and b) have both options.
Your experience is your experience. I just know I worked with hundreds of players every summer for several years when starting out, and we spent an inordinate amount of time correcting goofy foot layups because they were "wrong". I agree players should have multiple options. I just do not see one as right and one as wrong or one as indisputably needing to master first before moving to the next.
I would never call goofy foot layups “wrong” (heck, I haven’t read Crossover, 180 Shooter, 21st Century, Fake Fundamentals 1 & 2, SABA and NADA for nothing…😉), I just think, like I wrote, that I observed 2 things:
- normal, non-professional players seem to score easier and smoother executing a regular foot layup
- I have had many players to whom I never really demonstrated the “proper” layup footwork. I let them figure it out during 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 games for the most part. Result: regular foot layups with the right hand 95% of the time. 10-20% with the left hand. And now that I think about it, and if my memory doesn’t completely betray me, the vast majority of those who in the end were satisfyingly ambidextrous during games, were those who had (also) mastered the non-goofy foot layup with their weak hands…
Greetings from Germany (come to think of it, Franz Wagner is pretty awesome with the goofy foot layup 👌😎)!
Has anybody ever articulated why the “traditional” layup is the first thing we teach or why we have to teach it? Does it have to do maybe with the ability to get more extension towards the hoop if you jump off the opposite foot?
Also, and this is just curiosity, but why isn’t it also a contra-lateral movement to jump off of you left foot and shoot with your right?
Typically, people say it is for balance, which I have a hard time believing, and then for extension, as you say.
If you look at basic throwing, children generally start with a right foot step and right arm throw and eventually move to a left foot step and right arm throw. From that perspective, again the goofy foot layup makes sense as the initial layup, which we tend to see, with a progression to traditional layup, which potentially we rush to accomplish.